1. Virgin America Airlines seriously rocks - kudos for legroom, nice staff, traveling entertainment, cleanliness, and style
2. Travel with friends is more fun.
3. Squeezing in a nap here and there during your travel adventures is a smart thing to do and you will so enjoy yourself more.
4. You need more than 12 hours in between travel adventures - getting off a plane from San Francisco to head to a 4th of July party and fireworks and then getting up to head to a week of Girls' Camp is insane. Trust me. I know.
5. A 7-8 man tent is really a 3 man tent or less once you throw a couple air mattresses and cots and other camp crap up in there. Thankfully, I had a stroke of genius to bring my own tent.
6. You should never take flush toilets for granted. Pooping or peeing in a hole does not crack up to be an enjoyable experience. Especially when you have to hike to said hole through dark woods in the rain.
7. If you have a prompting that something is wrong, pay attention to it. Heed it. I felt I needed to check my tires before heading back to camp from hiking in Red Canyon. Thank goodness I did. One tire was puckered and cracked bad and needed to be replaced. Ended up 2 tires were in pretty bad shape. Spent some serious $$$ to replace tires, however, you can't put a price on safety.
8. Pain is usually a good indicator that something is wrong with you. I was feeling some pretty bad pain in my leg before hiking on Thursday. I ignored it, thinking some Benadryl and some Motrin would help alleviate the problem. I hiked up a mountain and down a mountain and stood for 2 hours straight on a bad leg taking pictures of girls coming down the zip line. Can you say STUPID? By the time I hobbled back to camp, my leg had swollen to twice the size of the other one. When I finally sat down, I began to cry, the pain in my leg was so intense. I ended up having to leave Girls' Camp for a middle of the night trip to the ER. Turns out my leg was infected from a bug bite. I got shot up with some drugs and was told to stay off my leg and that I would miss the rest of Girls' Camp. So the point? If something really hurts, seek medical attention. Do not wait. Do not pretend the pain is not there. And definitely do not hike up a mountain on it.
9. Camera phone pics should be saved to an SD card. My phone whigged out with the rain an what-not and ended up resetting itself. I lost all my camera phone pics.
10. It is good to have family that has got your back. First off, I've got a wonderful husband who took time off to make sure my son had a fun week while his sisters were at camp. Who also took the time to order a cake and get ice cream and drive up to camp on my twins' birthday to surprise them. And who also drove me to the ER in the middle of the night from camp to make sure I got the medical care I needed and then drove back up to camp the next night in the rain to pack up all my stuff and pick up my girls from camp. I've got great parent-inlaws, who put me up in the middle of the night as I was not permitted to go back to camp by the doctor, who drove my husband up to camp so he could pick up my vehicle as I could not drive down the mountain, and took my son and husband fishing and hiking. And I've got a great SIL and BIL who have graciously let my family crash up at their house while we are on vacation and who have fed us.
See ya when I get back!
