Patoka Lake!

We went camping this weekend! Crazy you say? Too cold you say? HA! We laugh in the face of cold, we dance on the grave of rainy. Maybe we are a little crazy. BUT we went anyway. We packed up and headed down to Patoka Lake on Thursday. On the way Jason surprised me and we stopped at Oliver Winery. It was beautiful! I got to sample much and my favorite by far was the mulled hard cider. It was so good, I got Jason to try some and even he liked it. I also likes a white wine that started with a T , and sounded French. No matter what I type as my guess of the name, I’ll be wrong, and I know it. So, yeah. We ended up getting a bottle of the hard cider, some mulling spices, and a bottle of blackberry wine that would make a great sauce. Mmmmmm. Then we drove on and on and on until we realized that AAA had no idea where we were really going and relied on maps. We should have just skipped the AAA. No offense AAA, but you have been out-done with google maps, easily.

This is our actual campsite:

Finally, we arrived at the right place, and found that we had the entire campsite to ourselves. We promptly picked the best site, it was on the lake and beautiful, and set everything up. I’d say, before bed, it was the nicest night weather wise we had there. It was warm enough, we had a little fire with the wood we could find nearby and we were so full from lunch we didn’t eat any dinner. We didn’t have to pay to get into the park, there was no-one at the gate. We probably didn’t even really have to pay for camping, but we put in our little envelope. When we went to deposit that envelope, we saw two deer. One was at the gatehouse to the campgrounds. The other was a little farther down the road, and when it saw us, it froze. Like, well, a deer in the headlights. Jason Turned the lights off, and it took off, but the front feet ran in place for a few paces before the back feet figured out that it was time to go too. They were both pretty.

We were glad we had put the rain fly on the night before because in the middle of Thursday night, it started to pour. A lot. I had fixed the tent where it had ripped before, but that didn’t stop a seam with a pocket from dripping on our heads, and water getting in a gap in the door zipper. We survived however, and after it stopped pouring in the morning, we made a trip to the “camp store” to get wood. They were closed for the season. Blech. So we went to the visitor’s center, and they told us to go to the gas station just outside the park. Well, we have a ton of wood at home and hadn’t brought any because of the emerald ash borer. If we’d known that this was going to be the way it turned out we would have just brought wood with us.

The visitor’s center was interesting. I don’t usually like taxidermy. It’s just creepy in general. But all of the stuff there had been very carefully and seemingly tenderly done. It all looked extremely lifelike. It was interesting, plus from 8-4 every day there was a modern restroom contrary to the pit toilets at the campground. We got wood, got back to the campsite, and almost instantly after I got the fire going again, the skies opened up and soaked us again. We gave up, went back into the tent and went to sleep. We woke up because something was burning our faces. Wait, it was the sun!!!!! YAY

The rest of the day was beautiful. Jason and I each caught a large mouth bass. That night we had hot dogs and marshmallows, which was very different from the way we usually cook when we’re camping, but still good.

It sprinkled just a little that night and was amazingly clear the next morning. Jason went out on the Tube and had a good time. I fixed us some delicious breakfast and I started a book, which I’ll review when I’m done. For lunch we made pita pizzas on the propane grill, and they were great too! A downy woodpecker came and hung out with us for a while, and made us think that it must really hurt to be a woodpecker. Once again, we weren’t hungry for dinner, so we had some roasted nuts and marshmallows. Mmmmmm. The first batch got a little too done, but the second turned out just right. They were spicy, and tasted like chex mix without the chex.

The STARS! They were amazing. There were so many that I couldn’t really see constellations. It was really nice to look at them and the lake even reflected some. It was really amazing.

The next morning we got up and packed up and headed home. We booked a hotel for first anniversary too, I’ll tell more about that soon too. The par was HUGE and we saw some cool stuff. Lots of reason to go back!!!

Mid-Ohio Anniversary

Last year, as you all know, when Jason and I went to Mid Ohio, this happened.

So when we made our return trip this year, I knew not to expect quite as many fireworks, even though a week earlier we’d be recognized. We were at the Kentucky Headhunters concert and a guy walked up to us, and for a minute we thought there was going to be a fight, but then he said “Didn’t you guys get married at Mid-Ohio?” It was close enough, so we said yeah, and he said cool or something like that and went on his way.

ANYWAY.

We didn’t take Friday off, so we started our drive at around 6pm. That should have put us there around 10, and we’ve set up the tent in the dark plenty of times, so we weren’t really worried about that. What we were worried about was the fact that we had seen the new batman the night before and were really tired. The drive was pretty uneventful, I saw another deer (a strange aside, I’d never seen a wild deer until I met Jason, now I see them, and all kinds of other neat things) and we had to stop for dinner and groceries.

We really arrived at around 11 pm, and were shocked. The campground was PACKED. We usually camp up in the “family” area. It’s near the showers, and the restrooms. It’s supposed to be quiet. We get there and not only is the family area full; it’s full all the way back to the back of the second area! They gave us a pass, and we’d reserved a campsite, but we weren’t sure there were any left. We found one, just a few sites down from a bar (I know) and set up the tent.

It was the fit’s first time camping, so there were some kinks to work out. For some reason, the power inverter in the fit will not inflate the mattress, while it would in the sonata. So, the first night, we slept on sleeping bags on the floor of the tent. Refreshing. Oh wait, not. The next morning, Jason found someone else with an outlet, and he filled the bed there. We were satisfied with camp, made some bagels and headed toward the track. We caught a tram, which I was very glad for. It was a good day, but very, very hot. Vitor didn’t wreck right in front of me, which was a great big plus.

Back to camp for a second, Jason hadn’t seen the place this full since the cart era, late 90’s I’m told. There were so many people! I’m used to kind of having the run of the place, except for on race day, but that just wasn’t the case this year. It was nice that there were so many more fans, but we definitely need to get there earlier for camping next year.

We visited some autograph sessions, and I’m proud to say, that my favorite ALMS team was the nicest. The Ferrari guys and the Porsche guys were just kind of handing stuff off, while my Aston Martin guys asked every single person’s name and were really nice. I smirked at Jason. After autographs, we found a place to sit for a while and watched Indycar qualification. Then we crossed over to our real sets for the ALMS race. I wanted the Aston to dominate, and they didn’t quite, but they hung in there and performed for the whole race, which was more than you could say for quite a few other teams. IT was HOT in the stands, so we picked up a pizza, which is, for some reason, always better at the track and sat in the shade to watch. It was a long race, and we were tired, so we headed back to camp.

We were on the tram again, and got stopped for a while waiting for a pit crew guy to have to be lifelighted out on the helicopter. There was a fire, and he was burned, but I think he’s doing well now. Scary.

When we got back to the tent we rested for a while. The mattress always stretches out after you fill it, so let’s just say it wasn’t on the firm setting for Jason’s nap. There wasn’t a line for the showers so we took out turns, and as I was brushing my teeth, I was very glad I was a woman. I heard one man yell to another in the showers “Hey! [friend’s name] Are you starting at the top or the bottom?”. We cooked dinner, shrimp, chicken, and corn, yum. Corn was the best, even though we didn’t have butter or salt. We went down to another campsite to celebrate a birthday, and the came back up to go to sleep.

Halfway thought the night, Jason gave up on the mattress, and I woke up like this:

We broke camp just as it began to pour. We hid in the car for around half and hour and when it looked better, we made it to our seats. We had just finished out bucket of fries when the skies opened up again. There was no-where to go, we didn’t have any umbrellas or ponchos, and we’re crazy, so we sat there and got soaked. It actually turned out well. The wet kept the sun from baking me as much, and we were kinda dry by the time we left.

As for the race: I was ecstatic when Vitor was leading. If not for yellows, once again, I think he would have really had a chance. I don’t know why, but I don’t like Briscoe. I don’t really know anything about him, but he just rubs me the wrong way. Overall, it was a good race, and everyone in our stands cheered when Milka passed Roth, and then groaned when we heard she had spun it not too long after.

We made it home, and had a great weekend. I’m really a wimp though, with the heat and all of the walking, I felt bad about complaining, and constantly said I was going to quit, but then was right back to it. Jason was completely within his rights to smack me right there, but didn’t. Thanks.

Oh yeah, also, this.