Family Camping Trip: Day Three

On day three we woke up to a cloudless morning. It was going to be a nice day!

For breakfast we had bacon, eggs and toast and of course coffee. Nothing beats bacon and eggs when you're camping!

After breakfast I got to work on my morning project. Airing out the tent and sleeping bags. I took the fly off the tent and laid it out on the ground. Then I opened up the sleeping bags and left them to air out on top of the fly. This set up also gave Jules a perfect place to lay out and soak up some sun.

Broad and The Teach strolled by in the morning and handed their dogs over to the kids who promptly took them for a walk.

We then discussed the idea of going to the Super Slides. We figured we would head out just after lunch so we could enjoy the water park during the hottest part of the day. It was going to be expensive. There was no question about that. The admission is $22 for anyone over 7 and $11 for any kids under. They also had a family package for $55 which covers 3 people. We were able to reduce our cost a little by having Broad and The Teach take one of our kids in under the family package, leaving us with another family package plus an under 7 kid. We would only end up paying $77 instead of $99. It's not a good price but it is a better price.

The kids returned with the dogs and we told them that we were going to the waterslides after lunch. Excitement ensued. We'd been downplaying the waterslides because we weren't 100% sure that we wanted to blow $100 so they were happy to see us commit to the plan! We grabbed a quick lunch and away we went.

The water slides were only about a five minute drive from the campgrounds. We drove past Lake Kenosee and through the town of Kenosee itself. The lake was exceptionally stinky as we were driving by it.

The Super Slides were Super Busy! At $22 a head, they must have raked in a pretty good haul and it was still only around 1:00!

There was a slide called the Free Fall which is basically a 8 storey drop at the minimum incline required to keep you from just falling to the ground. It only runs for a couple of hours throughout the day, one of which ended just as we were in line to get in.

Next to the Free Fall is the Double Banzai. This is a pair of identical straight runs with two humps in the middle. I guess you are supposed to race each other on these ones. Next there are 2 tube slides and then 2 regular slides with a kiddie section at the end. At the base of the hill there is a giant hot tub and a huge circular moat that you can float around in a tube.

The first thing we did was grab a couple of tubes and jump into the moat. We were in the moat for no more than 2 seconds when we were told that we had the wrong type of tubes. To ride in the moat you have to use one of the two-person tubes which are available to rent for $5 each. Apparently the $22 admission isn't enough to cover the moat! Forget that!

We headed for the slides. Jules took "Devil or Angel" and I took "Let's Go Crazy". I asked "Let's Go Crazy" which slide she wanted to try out first. She didn't want to go on any of them! She was too scared! So we stood at the bottom of the slides and watched some people come down. I pointed out all the kids who were smaller than "Let's Go Crazy" hoping that she would see how much fun they were having and decide to give it a shot. Nope. Even after she saw Jules and "Angel or Devil" come flying out of the slide she refused to give it a try. I endedup taking her over to the kiddie section just to give her a taste. She went down the kiddie slides without any problems and eventually I had her convinced into trying out one of the tube slides.

We grabbed our tubes and started on the long walk to the top. We got to the top and were standing in the water at the top of the slide. I had just placed "Let's Go Crazy" on her tube when she went crazy. She started bawling and freaking out, basically putting on a good side-show for the people waiting behind us in line. Obviously this was not going to work. We picked up our tubes and did the walk of shame back to the bottom of the slides.

At the bottom I met up with Jules and "Angel or Devil". She decided to take "Let's Go Crazy" to the hot tub and let me take "Angel or Devil" on some slides.

First we went on one of the standard slides where I had to struggle to keep myself from flipping over onto "Angel and Devil" and riding her down the slide like a sled every time we hit a tight turn. Then we tried out one of the tube runs and that was the end of my water sliding adventure as "Angel or Devil" decided that she too wanted to go in the hot tub. I couldn't believe it $22 for two slides! They were fun and all but I wouldn't say they were $11 each fun!!

When we got to the hot tub I realized that everyone in our party was there! Apparently they'd already gotten their fill of waterslides and we'd only been there for an hour. "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong" wanted to float in the moat and "Let's Go Crazy" was content to stay as far away from the slides as possible. Jules coughed up another $10 for tube rentals for the moat and the kids occupied themselves with that for a little while.

Later on I took "Angel or Devil" over to the kiddies area where she had a blast riding down the short slides. What wasn't a blast was watching all the ignorant children jumping to the front of the line and the even more ignorant parents who were picking up their kids and dropping them down into the middle of a slide.

I think my favorite part of the slides was watching this biker looking dad carrying his scared and crying son over to the top of a slide. As he got closer to the slide his childs crying and struggling increased. Then the dad did what other dad's only THINK about doing. He tossed him screaming down the slide like a sack of potatoes. Now that's good parenting! Tough Love! Maybe that's what I should have done to "Let's Go Crazy" when she was wigging out at the tube slide!!

We stuck it out for a couple of hours and then packed it in. Looking back on it I'd have to say that the Super Slides were a colossal waste of money, however they did eat up an afternoon for us and if we didn't go the kids would have bitched and moaned for weeks afterwards.

On the way back to the campground we stopped and picked up some ice cream.

By the time we arrived back at the camp site everyone was feeling pretty tired. We were all sitting around the picnic table doing nothing in particular when we were startled by a huge blast. It sounded like a shotgun and it came from the direction of our firepit. We never did find out what caused it or if it came from our firepit or the next campsite but it sure scared the shit out of us.

We got started on making supper and the kids returned to the playground. Just before it was time to eat "Angel or Devil" wandered back to our site all alone. I asked her what she was doing and she told me that she threw up at the playground and near the playground. Apparently she'd had a little too much spinning on the tire swing. I asked here where her sisters were and she said they were still at the playground. Nice! Their five year old little sister gets sick and they make her walk back to the campsite alone. She still wasn't feeling very well so she went in to the tent to lie down for a while. She didn't get up until the next morning!

The kids returned from the park and we made them feel bad for their shoddy treatment of "Angel or Devil". We then ate our dinner which was burgers, pasta salad and chips. After dinner the kids bolted to the park again and Jules went and laid down in the tent with "Angel or Devil" to take a nap.

I spent the next couple of hours trying to keep myself occupied. I cleaned the dinner dishes. I read my book for a while. I played with the fire for a bit. Then I sat in a chair and stared off into space for a while and eavesdropped on the conversations of our neighbors.

Just as I was about to lose it from the boredom Jules got up. Right after that Broad and The Teach arrived. I asked them if they'd seen our kids and of course they had. They'd already taken off with their dogs! So Broad and The Teach sat down and we chilled out around the fire pit. They had some rye and gin and were mixing drinks. I didn't drink at all. I was so tired from hanging out in the sun and going to the water slides that any liquor would have put me to sleep instantly.

As darkness fell the kids returned with the dogs. Again the dogs were worn right out and spent the rest of their time sleeping on laps. The kids joined us around the fire for an hour or so before heading off to bed. They had some sparklers to light up which kept them somewhat occupied for a while but with no dogs to play with they became easily bored and ended up calling it a night.

Us grown ups only stayed up for another hour max. I was looking forward to listening in on the neighbors while I went to sleep because they were enjoying some beverages themselves. Once I got in the tent the sound of their voices was entirely obscured by the snoring of "Little Miss Can't Be Wrong".