Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2014
Edit Blog Post
Tin foil dinner, smore's and hot dogs on the campfire. That's what I call a true summer in Minnesota weekend. I spent this past weekend near St. Cloud Minnesota on a tubing and camping adventure with my cousin, Heather. This adventurous weekend was proof that you can have a "vacation" yet still be so close to home. Less than a 2 hour drive away from the Twin Cities, we went tubing at Two Rivers. It was fairly cheap as well--just 10$ to rent the tube for a ride down the river. Let me tell you however--this is no relaxing ride. There was no waiver to sign, they simply drop you off on the side of the road and off you go into the River, which some people think will be a relaxing lazy ride. With the water being to shallow, and our butts dragging on the bottom of the river on rocks/sand, we had to get up and walk our tubes nearly 5 or 6 times while on the river. There are some rough rapids as well. This river is NOT recommended for people with weak, legs, knees or young children. Besides that, it's a wonderful time!
After our tubing
adventures, we headed to our campsite, El Rancho. By the names of this campground I had an image in my head of horses and cowboys roaming the campsites. Just using my context clues...! When we got there, to my surprise...I was correct. There was horses, not roaming the campsite, but in fences waiting for campers to go on horseback tours/rides. The cowboys we saw were kids dressed up for Halloween weekend. El Rancho Manana campsite does themed weekends and this past weekend was Halloween weekend. Families and kids were dressed up trick or treating from campsite to campsite. Sadly, we were unaware of the themed weekend so did not come prepared with treats for hand outs. We set up camp as soon as we arrived. The tent was a breeze to set up, and within 15 minutes we were good to go with our campsite. We also came prepared with a car full of camping gear thanks to our Grandma and Grandpa, fire starter, grilling rack, gloves, and chairs. The night was danced away on the dance floor in the main lodge for the "Halloween" celebration. We were grilling our vegetable dinner over the fire in between all of our
dancing. Dinner was potatoes, onions, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, and broccoli....all with a whole stick of butter to top it off. Delicious campfire delights followed by mandatory camping food...smore's!
Moral of the story is: camping is full of beautiful simplicity! And really, when camping, keep it simple. You can be prepared but keep it simple at the same time. Also remember--if at a campsite you can always run up to the camp's general store if need be. This was necessary for us and the foil dinners (we forgot butter.) Remember you CAN have a "vacation" close to home. We went camping for one night and it was truly refreshing to be away from a busy city life that's always on the go. Immersed in nature without technology by your side... it's a reminder that life is full of beauty and you need to take time to see it.
Here's some photos from the weekend.
Have a good week, and happy trails 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.191s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 10; qc: 43; dbt: 0.0655s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb