We survived our first Camping Trip with the Dog!

We finally gathered all the stuff we needed to go tent camping, and this past weekend hit the road. Everyone was excited, (and a little stressed) it was Sophia and the Dog's first camping trip.

We left everything till the last minute, (not like us) we called the campground the morning of. The plan was to go to Naples, we had already checked out the campground and the area for what we could do with the dog in the way of hikes, and even found a dog friendly beach a short boat trip away. It sounded perfect, until Jorge called to reserve and the guy told us "not to deter you from coming but the mosquitos are really bad at the moment". That was when we decided to change directions.

We didn't want to go too far because of the car, (even though all the oils were topped up) but we wanted to avoid the west coast and the east coast of Florida. Jorge found a state park in Sebring, FL about 2 1/2 hours north on US27.

So on Saturday May 5th 2012 we drove up to Highlands Hammock State Park in Sebring, FL for 3 nights.

We ended up leaving late afternoon, since we had to make a few stops for last minute things and didn't get on the road till about 3.30pm. But we made good time and the drive was quite relaxing. Very rural & scenic up US27. The kids were quiet watching a movie and the dog was happy as long as she got to sit next to the window in Emily's seat! Emily sat in the middle. The car was quite full and it became apparent that we really need a bigger car. We have a roof box which fits quite a bit of stuff but we try not to put too much weight in it. Most of the stuff was tent stuff and food!

The day before leaving we made all the food we could (muffins, bread, hummus, black bean salad, sweet potato salad, chickpea spread, almond milk, pancake mix). We had a menu of what we would have for dinner each night, I wanted to make it as easy as possible so I wouldn't have to do too much food prep and cooking. I should mention that we don't eat meat, very little dairy, and very little processed food and we NEVER grill at home, so trying to keep it simple. I picked what I thought were easy meals but we ended up making a few changes!

Once we arrived, we all worked together to set up camp. It was quite a big park 143 sites in all but the park was pretty empty. We had a nice quiet spot under the trees. Everything went up pretty easy, but by the time we were settled it was 7.30pm so we had to cook and eat in the dark. We did have a light and citronella candle but we decided we really needed to eat earlier to make it easier!

 Dinner was easy enough, we had chili bean dip with tortilla chips. I somehow didn't pack a can opener so had to use a swiss army knife! Jorge cleaned the dishes while I took the kids to get ready for bed. We all got  mini flashlights and headlamps for Christmas which we put to good use.

The poor dog wasn't feeling good all day, she knew something was happening, I think she was afraid we weren't taking her with us at first and she didn't eat any food in the morning. She behaved pretty well at the campground and in the tent but she was throwing up all night!!

The kids were all excited going to bed and took a while to settle down plus there was a lot of music still playing. The girls found a cat that seemed to have no owner, and lingered in the bushes near our site and meowed till the wee hours right outside the window! It was still warm so everyone slept with no covers. Between the heat, the cat, the dog throwing up, the armadillo rustling around outside the window and the loud music till 2.30am Jorge & I didn't get much sleep the first night! It finally got cooler during the night and we actually needed the covers. We didn't sleep with the rain fly on, since there was no rain forecast so we could look at the stars. They were hard to see because the moon was so bright but it was pretty.

Sunday we were up early (not normal for us!) fruit, cereal & muffins for breakfast. We explored the campground, the kids played at the playground, and we went on a nice hike with the dog. It got rather hot and at one point we were so hot we didn't know what to do with ourselves so we sat in the car for some cold A/C and laughed at how pathetic we were!

We had an early dinner so we didn't have to eat in the dark. The plan was to have baked potatoes with baked beans and poached eggs with cheese. BUT we ended up having scrambled cheesy eggs with baked beans & diced potatoes because I didn't have foil for the potatoes or know how to bake them! and I was too hot to think clearly (Did I mention that I don't do well in the heat- even after living in Florida for 17 years!) The potatoes were a bit hard but everyone ate them except Jorge. It takes some getting used to cooking on a propane stove that only has 2 settings, blow torch or off! It was even more fun trying to cook pancakes the next morning. After dinner we roasted marshmallows and made smores over the fire. Seems so silly to light fire when it is so hot, but when camping one MUST have smores according to the kids

The temperature was perfect at night, we did have a little fan but I switched it off before falling asleep. We all went to bed fairly early after playing a few games in the tent and had a much better night's sleep. The dog was feeling better, our noisy friends that played loud music the night before were asked to leave due to the disturbance the night before. We were on a mission to catch the cat for the ranger since the girls had bonded with it, (they made it a collar and leash) the ranger left us a crate to put it in and they would take it to the humane society.

Monday we made pancakes, it took a while since we could only make one at a time since I forgot the griddle. Very hard to make them on propane blow torch setting and cook them throughly before they burn! But we prevailed and had a few decent ones towards the end.
Today we went on a hike, visited the museum in the park had a picnic in the park and the kids played on the playground.

Later we drove into Sebring around the lake,we were going to stop by the beach to swim but no dogs allowed and the water was unsafe for swimming! So we stopped for Ice-cream to cool off. When we drove back into the park it was starting to rain and lightening so we decided to continue driving around. the countryside is really pretty around Sebring lots of cows. I've always wondered where all the cows are since cattle is so big in Florida. We ended up getting pizza for dinner from Hungry Howie's, since it was still raining and we were able to sit outside (covered of course) with the dog. The girl who worked there, Shelby, was really sweet.

When we got back to the campsite the girls insisted on smores again, since the rain had stopped. The temperature went from 91F to 70F after the rain, so it made for a pleasant evening.

The next day we took our time eating and packing everything up. We even got brave and let the kids all go to the playground for 30 mins by themselves. There was no-one around and we could see it from our site. Everything made it back into the car and we checked out around 1pm and headed over to the museum park for lunch. Then we drove into downtown Sebring, it was sad to see so many stores gone out of business, it used to be a very pretty little town square.

So that concludes our First camping experience with 5 Chicks a Dude and A Dog. We had fun, and overall it was a good experience. We were pleasantly surprised how well the dog did. But we learned the dog is happy if she can sit next to the window when driving, when hiking she needs to be the leader and she is happy as long as we all stay together! Tenting is fun as long as it's not too hot, and not raining.