Moving Out

April 11, 1992

Jasper is on his way to Madison again. This should be the last trip. Everything that is left in the apartment now will be going with us.
We bought a new tent for $89.99. It's a dome tent that is 11 feet by 9 feet and stands 6 feet tall in the center. We also purchased some rope and a canvas laundry bag, all from the army surplus store.

April 13, 1992

I'm laying in the tent, sandwiched between Ula and Nika, who are asleep. I tried to get up once, but it woke them up and they both fussed until I laid down again.
Who ever came up with the idea of going to the country for peace and quiet was not talking about this campground. I have never heard such a racket of bird chatter, and about once every half hour a train goes by. The barges going down the Mississippi make a lot of noise too.
It's getting near sunset and the birds are starting to calm down. For awhile there it really was just like the sound track from the movie "The Birds". That is actually why I tried to get out of the sleeping bags before. I wanted to look outside to see why they were causing such a commotion. They were sitting in the top branches of all the trees, but that was all.
Jasper is at work.
Before he left, he built a fire and we had our first campfire cooked meal, pancakes.
Another train is rumbling past, but the children haven't even flinched.
We've set up Jasper's pup-tent next to this one and it's all full of supplies, which Jasper says is a good sign that we brought too much stuff with us. He wants to thin things out a bit more and make another trip to the storage locker in Madison.
Camping here turned out not to be free. It's costing $6 a night. I've met the old woman who collects the money. She lives in a trailer behind the entrance booth. She was driving around the campground and stopped to talk while I was taking Ula to the outhouse. She said she thought we were brave to try camping this time of year.
Ula loves using the outhouse. The whole time she was awake, she was asking to go potty about every 15 or 20 minutes. The novelty of this experience may be are best tool yet for potty training.