I Wanted a Relaxing Getaway, God Wants Me to be a Better Driver

This weekend I decided to wing a trip to the mountains with my sister for some camping and tubing on the river.

So Saturday morning Tweedledee and Tweedledum went off to the mountains. And once we hit mountain a batrillion hours later, we got super lost. We ended up driving through this little tubing company, and all the employees were lined up on the side of the road waving and smiling giant big smiles like they were begging me to be part of their cult or something. And this was all very confusing for me, so I kind of slowed and rolled down my window and then they stopped smiling and gave me strange looks.

We drove onward and wound up at the wrong campground because there are apparently two campgrounds with the exact same name [what kind of sense does that make??]. But the new campground had better rates anyways, so we opted to stay there.

Our cozy tent. And by cozy I mean we spent the night spooning.

Once we set up our tent [in five minutes flat, may I add...], we went and got our tubes.
In theory, tubing is a calming activity during which one can experience nature and enjoy the scenery without actually exerting any effort. Except we forgot that we weren't tubing on a lazy river, but rather in class a bajillion rapids. Little sis actually hurt her shoulder flipping over into a rock. These rapids were LEGIT.

don't ever ever ever eat mac & cheese from a can. 

Our post-whitewater dinner...cold and from a can. Because I was too lazy to bring the camp stove. I also didn't plan enough to remember dishes.

Homegirl spent 87% of her time texting

On our way back home, I decided we hadn't gotten our adventure completely on, so I stopped at another national park for a hike. Only we got super lost [again] for three hours. My poor little CR-V was ill-equipped for the mountainous terrain.

pulling over because other cars apparently like to go faster than 22 miles per hour on windy roads

We went on a five-minute hike before we got bored.

If you can't wear a fanny pack camping, when can you wear a fanny pack?

a thing i saw on my hike

sis says hi

bRob + nature = zen

But then things got all twisted and scary. And I had to be an adult. I've never been "the" adult in a situation. It's terrifying, when you're the one who's supposed to know what to do.

The GPS took us up this winding road...and it kept winding and getting narrower and narrower until we were on a 2/3 lane gravel road with steep curves going higher and higher up the mountain. It was impossible to see around the crazy switchbacks and watch for oncoming traffic. So there I was, in my little cherry-red car, bebopping along, trying to honk my way around these curves while climbing a perilous mountain and trying not to glance over the side of the cliff on my side. It is, to date, the scariest driving situation I've ever been in.

on the left is a cliff. do not let the greenery fool you.

And I forgot that I was the one who was supposed to know what to do, so in between hyperventilating and muttering prayers, I frantically asked my sister what to do. When she didn't know, I just prayed and prayed.

There was nowhere to turn around, so we kept going up and up. Praise the LORD we made it out.

Evenutally we found civilization and ate a post-almost-death-experience/victory meal.

On the last leg of our voyage, it started pouring rain...well, monsooning, really. All I could see was a curtain of gray in front of me. And InterWebs, I am entirely useless when I've hit panic mode.

My sister, being the mega-chill girl that she is, reminded me to turn on my flashers and pull over, where I tried not to freak out about the fact that we couldn't see anything outside of the sheet of rain. And also the car that hydroplaned one hundred feet behind us.

And I prayed some more.

And we made it back home safely. Where I'm sitting all nice and snug-like in my jammies. I regaled my family with the details of our journey. They did not seem nearly as impressed as I had hoped.

She can beat me up.
Also we look very greasy here.
It's because we were

You're a little impressed, right, InterWebs?

-camper bRob

PS - I took all the photos with my new camera.  That's why I may have gone a little photo crazy in this post.

I was a bit surprised my camera it is so little...I always feel like the more something costs, the bigger it should be. That's why cars are so expensive, and thumbtacks are not, ja?