View from the tentThis past weekend we packed up and headed out camping. We went to Shenandoah River State Park, which is about 70 miles from here. It only has a few campsites, and no room for trailers, so it has a kind of more rustic than normal feel to it. There aren’t any trash cans, for instance, but there are showers. It is along the banks of the Shenandoah River and is a very nice place to stay.

We got there on Friday and no sooner had gotten the tent set up than it started to rain. And it rained hard. We were all in the tent, trying to not touch the roof or sides which would let the water in. Luckily, the tent repelled most of the water and we only had a few leaks around the corners of the tent, which we soaked up with towels.

The next day more than made up for it, however, because it was a really nice day. The weather was perfect and the sun was shining. We took our rubber boat down the river and had a lot of fun. There were a couple copperhead snakes that I found so I made a “snake stick” to try to catch one. I threaded some duct tape down through a tent pole, thinking I would lasso the snake and pull the loop tight. I only got one chance, and couldn’t quite get the loop around the snake’s neck, so after a 30 second struggle or so he got out of the loop and never came back.
snake stick
We cooked some good food, but left the stuff for s’mores out one night so the critters ate all the chocolate, so we made “s’Whitneys” instead. S’Whitneys were invented on a camping trip long ago when we either forgot the chocolate to make s’mores or ate it all. But we did have Chunky Chips Ahoy and marshmallows, so we toasted them and squished them between two cookies and called the s’Whitneys, since Whitney was the one who wanted s’mores. Mason made his own version, but with different cookies.