Camping & More

We had a great time camping, but since it gets so very cold at night and we didn't bring quite enough extra blankets, we decided to drive to Pullman about a day early, so here we are! You know, I should probably start at the beginning instead of the end.

We drove to right by Pony, Montana to the Potosi campgrounds and found two great campsites right next to each other. We set up our two tents: a little tiny one for Grandpa and Grandma, and a huge one for all the rest of us. (I'll post some pictures when I find my camera; I believe it's in the car somewhere. I had it last night, so I know I didn't leave it at the campground.) We girls and the little ones ate a lunch of sandwiches and hardboiled eggs as the tents were being pitched by the men (Thor, Knut, Papa, and Grandpa) and started setting up the 'kitchen' and 'washroom'. When the tents were pitched and we had furnished them with cots, blanket beds, and sleeping bags, I followed Thor down a little path he had found and was crazy to explore. As I suspected, it led to the outhouses. Beyond that, another path led to an empty campsite. I followed Thor up some steps someone had built with stones in the side of the hill, and at the top, I tripped over some wire and fell. I didn't make much of it at the time, but when we got back to the campsite I noticed some strange little swelling bumps and red spots on my arm, and I remembered falling on some kind of ivy. Oh, great. Poison ivy! I thought. I immediately showed my arm to Papa, who immediately came to the same conclusion. I showed him where I had fallen, and he told me to wash my arm and my hands thoroughly with soap. Trust me, I did! The rash started to ease on my arm, and no itching started, so I began to wonder if it really had been poison ivy. After I had washed for about twenty minutes, I showed Mom where I had fallen, and she positively identified the plant as... 'not poison ivy'. Whew! It didn't take long for the rest of the rash to disappear. Whatever that plant was, it didn't give me much trouble.

There was a large, fast, rocky stream running through the campground just across the road from our campsites. Last year, when we camped near Red Lodge, there was a similar stream, and someone had dammed up a little part of it to make a beach of calm water. Knut, Cecily, and I decided to do the same thing. It didn't take very long with the three of us working, but by the time we were finished we could hardly feel our feet and hands. After thawing up at the campsite, Cecily and I went back to put the finishing touches on it, and a little later we told Thor and Bjorn (during the work, Bjorn kept popping over to see if he could play in the water yet) that they could play in the enclosed area, but not outside of it. We explained that the current was so strong that they would be swept away and dragged over the rocks if they got into the deep, fast-moving part of the stream. Bjorn was so excited to play in the water!

After dinner, everyone except for Grandpa, Grandma, and I went to check out the hot spring near the campground. The three of us played Pinochle until they got back with the report that it was a very hot, mucky cow pond with a fence around it to keep the bears out. We all went there the next day right after a rainstorm cooled it off a little, and it felt great, especially after the freezing cold night.

Cecily had an especially difficult time; she was sick in the middle of the night. Knut was the only one who slept well.

The second day of camping, we drove to Pony and past to look for a ghost town which was supposed to be there. After finding out that Pony was the ghost town, or at least, parts of it were, we went back to Pony and drove slowly through the ghost part. Papa tried to take us through a cemetery, saying that it was a ghost town. After that, we went to the Lewis and Clark caverns and took the tour.

We've been spelunking in Illinois Caverns before, so it wasn't quite as much fun as exploring on our own would be, but it was still pretty neat. The hike to and from the caves was difficult, but with a beautiful view. By the time we got back to the car, we were all starving, but there were some ominous black clouds and we heard thunder in the distance. No one except Knut wanted to camp out in a storm that night, so we drove back to the campground trying to beat the storm so we could quickly break camp. Poor Knut really didn't want to leave yet, but he was a good sport, and the last pack of chocolate pudding did cheer him up a little bit. The rest of us were only too glad to have an excuse to get out of another long, cold night, so we packed everything up and hit the road. Grandpa and Grandma drove back to Billings with their car loaded with tents, cots, and sleeping bags, and we got to Pullman at approximately 2:30 AM. Grandma Davis had some beds made up for us in the two little guest bedrooms and on the floor in her exercise room, so we just crashed and did laundry, organizing, etc. today. We also brought down boxes of Mom's old stuff from the attic and sorted through them. It was a treasure trove! Quite a bit of it was old, broken doll furniture she had made, which had been really amazing, but the glue was finished and a lot of the wood was cracked and broken. Mom did find furniture for a bathroom, bedroom, and library that was still in good condition, as well as the dolls to go to it, and she gave it to Gloria. She was so excited!
This evening, right after supper, we got to play miniature golf at a really nice course not too far from Grandpa's and Grandma's house. When we got home, we had some ice cream, and then it was bedtime for the little ones. What a busy couple of days!