6 Days Left

In 6 days I will be on a flight to take me out of the US. And I still only have that planned. I finally went and got new shoes today, the backpack I plan on using for the trip is currently in UPS' possession, and there are no accommodations reserved. But still, I think it will work out just fine.

Instead of putting much effort into planning my 3 month Euro-trip, I've been going camping. Two weekends ago I went with my sister to a place called Icicle Creek. As kids our parents took us there a few times, and we got lucky and ended up at the same campground we remembered so well. We stayed for two nights, and had a great time. Had I not needed to return for a doctor's appointment, we would have stayed longer, since I had no real plans and she didn't have to work again until the next weekend. Even though we didn't stay near the sites we had remembered using in the past, we still got a great site with its own beach. Pretty lucky, considering we got to the campground at 7pm on Sunday night, Labor Day weekend. We thought for sure all the sites would be full, but we kept our fingers crossed and it worked. Just finding a site was nice, since all the campgrounds we had passed en-route to our destination had full signs. But in terms of sites in the campground, we had scored.

Last weekend I went camping with my Dad. We went to a place called Kalaloch, also a place I had been taken as a kid. I think the last time I had been to that campground was when I was 16, right before I left for my first adventure in Europe. Though I went there several summers as a kid, and my Dad had done the same, neither of us had ever stayed in one of the most sought after campsites: one on the bluff, over-looking the Pacific. Our first night as we pulled through the campground, we were not surprised to find that all the bluff sites were occupied, as they always are. But before going and paying for our second night's camping, we decided to give the bluff one last walk through, to see if anyone was leaving. And we got lucky. Moving camp was fun to watch, especially for other people, I'm sure. Anything heavy was thrown hastily into my car, and then me and my Dad went back for the tent. Instead of taking the time and effort to take the tent down, we picked it up, mattresses and all, and carried it put together to our new site. One camper in a nearby site called it the Sunday Shuffle. Apparently, that kind of thing happens on a regular basis. I wonder how many other campgrounds are like that? And I wonder how long our site was empty before it had new owners? People had come by in the evening to see if we would be leaving in the morning, but we had no visitors the morning we left.

I suppose now I should get to work on figuring out what exactly I will be doing once I arrive in London. Stay in the city for a night or two, or head up to Scotland to the places I've decided I would like to see on the trip? Whatever I decide, I think I'll try to go for one more camping trip before I leave though. It has been loads of fun.