Natural Bridge camping weekend

Memorial Day weekend, we headed with five other families to enjoy the great outdoors down in Natural Bridge, VA about 3 1/2 hours south of here.  Its a little further than we like to drive for camping trips, just due to all the work it takes to get packed up and set up once you arrive.  Anything more than a 2 hour drive it just turns into almost an all day affair with 3 hours to pack the car, 3 or 4 hours of driving, and then another 3 hours to set up.  Exhausting, especially with kids.  No sooner do you set up camp then its time to make dinner and that's after you've been sweating your bung off all day and just want to sit down and drink a cold one.

Anyway, we headed down to enjoy some waterfront camping and time with friends, and my brother and Jess.  We strapped our canoe to the top of the family truckster, hoping to enjoy some time on the James River fishing, boating and swimming.

The weekend had moments of fun, but not exactly as we had hoped.   There had been a lot of rain, and the river was running too fast to put our canoe in.  Kind of disappointing, especially after trekking it down there all that way for it to just sit dry at our campground.   The weather was pretty hot, and most of the campground peeps seemed to all be in the small pool, instead of the river where they would have normally been if the water hadn't been too rapid to indulge.   Plus, one of our air mattresses (new) had a big leak we couldn't find, and deflated both nights.  We also suffered a couple of tick bites, and it was quite a trek up to get to the bath house.  The campsite had lots of great activities for the kids, but none of them were visible from our campsite and I wasn't comfortable letting the kids roam.

All of this made for a pretty challenging weekend.  We were tired, and hot, and that's not a good combination, especially for Logan who just was very hard to manage and keep happy.   We called it a day early and headed home Sunday morning, happy to unload, shower and spend a more relaxing day at our way less crowded neighborhood pool.  Oh well, live and learn. 

On the up side, we got to spend time with great friends, zoom down one of the fastest waterslides ever, enjoy campfire time and some good meals, and the kids got to meet Yogi bear (who didn't even try to steal our pic-a-nic basket!)

On the way home, the entire trip redeemed itself as we made a stop at the Virginia Safari Park, what a total riot!  My friend Dianna recommended it, and said it was not to be missed.  We laughed hysterically as the animals literally stuck their big heads into the car to get to the feed buckets, spilling pellets all over the place and letting us pet their noses.  I didn't like the ostriches, they totally creeped me out.  But the Watusi were so beautiful and gentle with their giant horns. 

I think we will definitely stick with campsites that are closer within driving range from now on.  There are so many good ones we haven't checked out yet.  At some point we may rent a pop up camper or something similar, so there is less set up time. I do enjoy the 'unplugged' time with the kids and some of the more simple pleasures you can tap into while camping.  But in my old age, this girl requires less work and more comfort!  And now we're keeping an eye on these tick bites.   We know four families in our area who have already had lyme disease this spring, its rampant!