Camping with the Girls - Take Two!

As I mentioned in the set of blogs about our camping trip a few months ago to Rose Canyon Lake, down near Tucson, living in the heat of the Phoenix summer can get old after awhile.  It's annoying but you can deal with it through June, July, and August.  However, once September rolls around, and your friends on Facebook in other parts of the country are suddenly wearing jeans and sweaters while it remains 105 in your backyard, you're ready to head somewhere else - - and fast.

For our part, this meant booking a mid-September camping weekend in the Northern Arizona high country, at Ten-X Campground in the Kaibab National Forest, close to the south rim of the Grand Canyon.  We visited Ten-X around this time last year, on our second-ever trip with Arlene, and we loved it; the campsites are huge and nicely spread out, and it was so, so quiet.  We'd test out that theory a bit on this trip, as we decided it was time to bring the girls with us!

The only picture of the four of us from this trip.

This will likely not be the family photo on the holiday card.

Frequent readers of the blog will remember that we've taken the girls camping just once before, last October to Alamo Lake with our friends Jen and Bryan, and their two fur-kids, Bogey and Bronx.  If you read those blogs or heard the stories, you'll know that it did not go particularly well.  Although we didn't know it at the time, Zoe had just broken one of her teeth, so she had an exposed root that was causing her all kinds of problems; adding that pain to her normal, "doesn't ever settle down" personality made her completely exhausting to handle, and I don't think anyone had a very good time.

When we previously camped at Ten-X, we thought that the quiet nature of the campground and the large spaces would make this a good place to bring the girls in the future; there were tons of mature trees to use as anchors for dog guide ropes, and not having neighbors super close by would allow the girls to relax, as they couldn't see too many people on a regular basis (and if they did, their barking wouldn't likely annoy too many folks).  On our last visit, we even walked all the loops of the campground, scoping out which sites might be best for carrying out our "teach the dogs to camp" plan, and we were able to reserve site #66 for this visit, which seemed perfectly situated for this purpose (didn't back up to any other sites, on the outer loop of the campground toward the woods, etc).

As is our norm, Chris went to Mesa to claim Arlene the night before our departure, and I stayed home with the girls, getting everything ready to pack.  While he was out there, I noticed that Zoe, who had been pretty quiet for most of the afternoon, was now actively limping around the house; it looked like she'd overextended something in one of her back legs, and she wasn't too happy, overall (as I've said previously, she doesn't do anything at less than 120% - can't imagine who she gets that from...).  We have doggie anti-inflammatories we keep around for reasons just like this, so I gave her the right dose and we figured we'd watch her for the next 12 hours to see if our camping trip was still going to happen.

Upon waking up the next morning, Zoe was still favoring the leg a bit, but she looked good, overall, so we decided the trip was a go!  We finished packing up the rig, including converting the back seat of the truck to a comfy, doggie-road-trip zone, and we headed out around 11am or so.

Happy girls!

August in her bed in the back seat of the truck.

Also, so much dog hair.

We've previously learned that the girls get barfy if they go on long trips and can't see out the windows (learned that lesson very much the hard way).  Augs is tall enough to look out without assistance, but Zoe is too short.  Last year, before our trip to the lake, Chris made the girls a platform that goes into the back seat and allows them another 7-8" of height.  As you can tell, Zoe very much enjoys this.  The girls had a good time looking around as we exited Phoenix, but by the time we hit the Sunset Pointe Rest Area, they figured we'd be in the truck for awhile, and they settled down to nap.

She's resting, but that eye tells me she's still ready to go,

if needed.

Tons of wildflowers in bloom up here right now

We made it to Ten-X without issue and found site 66 pretty quickly (I mean, we did already know where it was).  The last day of September is the close of the season at Ten-X (it routinely snows up here during the winter), so when we arrived, the off season construction projects were already underway.  To us, it looked like the campground might be starting to move to offering some power/sewer/water hookups for RVs in the future; several giant trenches were dug into the property, and the water pumps had been ripped out.  For us, the water pumps in particular were a bummer, as that's where we had our most memorable camping experience here - watching an elk drink from one near our former site on our last trip.  An actual improvement we noticed was a change in the way the loops were structured; instead of having some campsites be on the "wrong" side of a loop, so you'd have to reverse your RV down a loop to put your awning and door on the side with your firepit (we had to do this the last time we visited), all of the RV campsites now were accessed on the same side of a loop.  This will be really helpful for future RV campers.

Here's the original map, followed by the revised one - it's a subtle difference, but this will make things better:

Previous map, above

New map, below

After a quick stop for fuel between Flagstaff and Williams, it was on toward Ten-X, and we arrived without issue around 3pm.  Chris easily parked the rig - hooray, pull-through locations - and we got the dogs secured between a few trees, so we could set things up without their erstwhile assistance.

The cute pillow Mom picked up for us in Asheville

Augs keeping an eye on the camper from her cot

Before too long, we were all unpacked and settled in, and we chilled out in our camp chairs near the firepit, while the girls chased bugs (August) and asked for scritches (Zoe).

"Dad, rub my belly!"

Zoe's off the tether here;

she's pretty good at staying near us and coming when called.

This one, however, is a full-blown flight risk.

Here, she's taking a break from chasing flies.

We were relaxing by the fire, spending time with the girls, and enjoying our peace and quiet (since it was the end of the season, only about half of the sites were occupied), when we started to feel a few raindrops.  Figuring the clouds would pass soon, the four of us retreated indoors, leaving most of our campsite setup as is.  Not the greatest idea.  As the rain grew heavier and more consistent, Chris ran out, scrambling to pull in chairs, tables, and anything that wouldn't dry quickly, while I chilled out in the camper with the kiddos.

Waiting out the rain

Dinnertime drew near, and although it was still raining, it had lightened up quite a bit.  Chris set up our camping grill on the picnic table and took care of the steak for steak tacos, while I prepped all the fixin's inside (with dog help, of course).

Grilled skirt steak - 

it kind of looks like backwards California.

Ooh, let me fix it:

Much better!

Slicing up the steak for the tacos

After dinner, the rain pretty much cleared up, but it was unfortunately too wet for us to sit outside.  Although the fire was mostly extinguished, there were some nice coals left, which were perfect for - want to guess? - S'mores!  Chris stayed in the camper with the girls while I roasted up some marshmallows and brought them back inside.

We hit the hay pretty soon after that - we were all sacked from the drive, being in a new spot, and that cool evening air, so it was off to bed!

Augs is ready for bed!

(Don't worry, we took her harness off once potty breaks were done)

Someone's already asleep!

I'll admit that none of us slept super well that night; in addition to the strangeness of being in a different place and all that, we didn't situate the girls' beds in the right spots.  They both attempted to cram themselves into the little holes seen above, and that worked for awhile, but the minute they wanted to stretch out, it was nothing but "thump, thump, crash!" against the side of our bed.  We figured it out eventually, but everyone was pretty tired as a result.

After we had our morning coffee/chai, we took a look at the weather report, and it wasn't particularly encouraging.  Instead of the clear skies we expected, the forecast showed that rain was still in the area; starting around noon, it was supposed to rain the entire rest of the day, letting up only around 8pm or so.  We've spent lengthy afternoons in the camper due to weather before, and while it's not the worst thing in the world, that's when you really start to realize Arlene's lack of square footage.  Zoe was also starting to feel way better, and while that was great, that meant that an afternoon stuck in the camper with her and Augs was likely going to test all of our patience (we went from having three very old dogs to two very young dogs in the span of a year or so - while these girls are starting to move past their puppy stages, they still have so.much.energy).  We'd had a great trip so far, and we made the decision to opt out of staying our second night at Ten-X, so we could all continue remembering the place fondly.

We had a few hours before the rain would start, so we made some breakfast sammies on the campstove, and I started gradually packing up while Chris went for a short jog around the campground.  By about 10am, we were ready to get back on the road.

Chris making breakfast while the girls get all tangled up.

How did we end up here?

"Mom, are we helping?"

Ha, ha!  I escaped!

Our setup at site 66 -

this really is an amazing spot.

If you click this shot to make it bigger,

you can see Chris gesturing to Auggie,

as she's barking at him.

She's such an idiot.

Once we got the girls in the truck and hit the freeway, they fell asleep pretty quickly; it was way quieter on the trip home than our journey northward, and I'll admit to taking a short nap, too, once we were on the 17 again.

Sleepy Zoe

"Are you taking pictures of me?"

We made a quick gas stop at the same location we'd visited before (the Pilot off the 40, for those of you keeping track), and then took another short break - this time for lunch - on a dead end road outside the Flagstaff Airport (pro tip: the "scenic overlook" mentioned on Google Maps in this area is just a spot on an overpass from which to take pictures of Mt Humphreys - you can't park there, hence our lunch location outside the airport).

Zoe: "Mom, where's Dad?"

August: "Mom, the man is gone, let's hit it!"

They are both barking at me here,

as they are both turds sometimes.

The rig on the side of the road.

Man, I wish we could have stayed in this weather longer.

C'est la vie!

Once we were on the 17, it was an easy drive home, and we made it back to Casa de Olsen around 2pm; we had just enough time to unload the items in the back of the pickup truck, us, and the girls before the skies opened up over our neighborhood.  The rain passed in about an hour, and we were able to finish our full, normal unload at that time.

Although we were bummed we didn't get to stay one more night in the cool, mountain air, it was nice to sleep in our own bed and to have all of Sunday free to clean out Arlene and take her back to east Mesa (without having to fit that into a workday).  While we were there, we stopped for lunch at Worth Takeaway and wandered Main Street, which has really come a long way since we lived in the area.

One of the murals along Main Street

Even though the trip didn't go exactly to plan, we all had a great time - we got out of the heat for a bit, the girls gained some valuable, enjoyable camping experience - and we can't wait to try it again!

Later!

Amy