Saturday, July 9th, 1977-In which Pete sleeps in a tent for the very first time.

Today Pete and I going camping, the very first time for Pete to sleep in a tent.  Dave plans to take Pete and Sharon fishing, too.  Pete got up early to watch cartoons.  Pete insisted on my watching with him so I put his pillow on the beanbag chair and lay down and slept while he watched.  Then came all the last minute things-finishing packing, putting our pills into my "first-aid box" (an old cosmetics bag), giving Pete his vitamins so we don't have to take them and his first Prednisone so I could pack it, cooking a hearty breakfast (bacon and eggs to follow our cereal) so Pete wouldn't start out hungry, trying to figure out how much food for Pete is enough and not too much...and writing this now since I don't plan to take my diary along.  Dave picked us up at 12:30 and we drove back to the Loebach's house where they finished packing up their gear.  Pete, Sharon, and I had half the back seat-the camping gear had the rest.  We were on our way through Nyssa when a a young girl on a bicycle pulled out in front of us without even looking.  Dave jammed on the brakes, stopping so close to her it looked like he was touching her front wheel.  There was a tinkle like broken glass and Pete was crying because "the car hit him" (he bumped his eye on the edge of Little Davy's "infant seat".  The girl kept on going-didn't even spare us a glance to see what damage she'd done.  As we went on it started to rain and we thought of turning back but kept going.  Dave said "The tent's never been rained on, so now's the time.".  We went up to Lake Owyhee State Park and camped by the sulfur hot springs so we had plenty of hot water for dishes-just fetched it in a bucket.  They have an aluminum frame tent and Dave got it set up very quickly though he had a little trouble getting the pegs in because the ground was so dry.  It started to thunder and we had more rain (no lightening tho') so  Sylvia and I took the children into the tent.  We closed up all the flaps and told stories-I told "Elephant's Birthday Party" and Pete told "3 Little Pigs" (pretty well, too).  Then the rain stopped.  We were all hungry so we had bacon and eggs (we'd planned to have hamburger, but it was frozen solid).  Then Sylvia napped while Dave and I watched the children.  In the afternoon, little Davey wandered away and a neighboring camper returned him-said he'd been just on the edge of the springs.  We ate hamburger for dinner.  Pete had his with no bun-and I gave him a  little bite of mine.  When the dishes were washed and the children in bed, Sylvia and I put on our bathing suits in a nicely leaf-screened "dressing room" and went into the pool where the hot spring runs into the river.  From step to step the pool was icy, hot, and in a few patches, lukewarm.  It was too shallow to swim there but we splashed a lot and had a good bath (I forgot to take soap so I didn't get as clean as I might have).  Good thing we didn't go skinny-dipping (yes, thanks, Mom, that certainly would have been awkward to write about!-PL) as we planned since more swimmers came as we were leaving.  Dave had taken Pete fishing in the afternoon and gone in up to his neck retrieving a float that broke off trying to land a fish Pete had hooked-took his boots ages to dry out on the clothesline by the tent.  Hung Pete's shoes up there too, since he'd stepped in the hot springs by the narrow plank bridge.  Sharon spent her afternoon trying to "build a bridge" Pete could go across and not get wet.  Dave had chopped wood with his hatchet and found a  nice medium sized log and cut it into pieces.  He constructed a fire pit with rocks and had a nice fire going when Sylvia and I came back from our starlight swim.  We steamed our suits the best we could and I sat by the fire in my wet suit and the car coat Marilyn gave me-an odd combination.  Then I changed into my nightgown and robe, and put the car coat on again so I could sit outside and have a cigarette before going to sleep.  Sylvia changed into her slacks and shirt and decided to sleep in those.  We had 5 sleeping bags in the tent so there wasn't too much room but Sylvia tired to get Dave to sleep across the bottom of the tent (the little ones didn't "fill up" their bags so there would have been room at the bottom-but Dave insisted on sleeping outside.  He said he'd go in the car if it rained.  Then Dave held the lantern for me while I gave Pete his pill.  He was so tired (no nap) he wouldn't even sit up and swallow his juice to take the taste of the pill away-just swallowed the pill and went back to sleep.  Managed to do it without waking the other children.  Then Sylvia and I crawled into our sleeping bags, leaving Dave still sitting by the fire.  We had our fluffy quilt under our bags, but the ground was still pretty hard.  We spread a thin blanket over the tops of the bags in case it got cold in the night but we didn't really need it-the tent stayed warm.  I turned a few times, carefully, so as not to bump anyone, burrowed into my bag so my feet touched the bottom, and slept.  Sylvia said Davy cried in the night but I didn't hear him.