Memorial Day Weekend

This time last year me and Chris were on our way back home from our trip out to Front Royal Virginia. I would've loved to have done a similar adventure with a different destination this year, but with money being scarce and the price of gas being damn near off the richter scale ($3.60) these days, we only got as far away as our campsite at Whiskey Creek for the long weekend.

The weekend started a bit earlier when my boss told me I could take off about 2:00pm. So I was home and loading up the truck when Wanda got home. We were finished packing and heading out the driveway right about 4:00pm. We got there a bit after 5 and by 5:30 I was busy mowing the "front yard" while Wanda made supper. After eating I went back to mowing until the light started to give up on me and then it was time to start a fire and kick back for the rest of the day. I managed to stay up almost till midnight.

Saturday morning, after taking the dogs for a walk and eating breakfast when we got back, the first project for the weekend was to get the "deck" fully stabilized and installed. That ended up taking longer than I anticipated and it was after 3:00pm by the time I had the supports buried and leveled and the deck sections back in place and bolted down. I also cut up some of the extra boards to finish off the front of the deck and give it an enclosed look. I even cobbled together a interim step until I can get some more lumber. I must say it turned out nicer than I figured it would and it'll be even nicer when we have a rainy day (or night) and we're up out of the dirt and mud.

After the deck project was finished it was time to take a little trip into Custer to hit the grocery store for dinner fixin's. We were having Tacos for supper so we grabbed some lettuce, tomatoes and some other stuff that just looked good and headed back for camp to make the meal. By the time we finished the meal it'd started to spit rain and continued on for several hours. Nothing too bad....just enough to be annoying. By Campfire time it'd stopped so it really didn't effect the ambiance of the evening. I managed to stay awake almost till midnight before I gave it up and headed for my side of the mattress pad.

Sunday morning started out cloudy but by the time I got back from my walk with the dogs the wind had picked up and blew most of the clouds away. I made breakfast for everyone again and the decided that with the major project behind me, the deck, I would to tackle the next thing on my list, the back half of our little opening in the woods. I raked, pulled up ferns (damn ferns....) and mowed the grass. By the time that Wanda, Chris and two of the 4 dogs headed for home at 1:30 I had it looking much better. I continued on after they left for awhile and then decided to take a break and hike up to the clubhouse to watch and see how their auction to raise funds would go. There wasn't a whole lot of anything to bid on, except for a nice lawnmower I couldn't afford to bid so after about a half hour of watching the procedings I headed back for camp and decided to make an early supper. On the menu, leftovers from saturday night. I made myself a big ole taco salad, warmed up some cheese in a jar and feasted with my 2 four legged buddies.

After dinner I hooked the dogs up to their leashes and we took an extended walk, further than we normally go, around the outside perimeter of Whiskey Creek which led us eventually back to the lodge where I placed an order for a chocolate shake before heading back for the campsite. Neither Mercury or Bailey were too happy with me for not sharing my ice cream but I just didn't have a spoon handy, sorry guys. Once we got back to camp that was about it for the evening. I got a fire going and kicked back to rest up from 2+ days of campsite maintenance.

Monday morning found me up about quarter to 7 so I grabbed the leashes and we all went for a walk around the grounds. An hour or so later I was cooking breakfast for us.....sausage and pancakes all around. After the meal was completed I grabbed the rake and continued on working on the backside of the lot. I also spent a while cleaning and reorganizing the shed so that everything was in it's place. It was just about 1:30 when I decided I'd had enough of the work thing for one weekend and that I was just plain wore out so I locked up everything, shut off the water, fired up the truck and headed out of the compound for home. I was back on pavement before I realized that I never shot any pics before I left of the improvements made over the weekend. Guess you'll have to wait a week or two to see how the finished deck looks.

We got home about 3:30, took a shower and a nap and felt much better. And that's about all I have to say about Memorial Day weekend 2007. Time to call it a day now. night.

TC