Flaming Gorge Improvised

Vacations when I grew up were planned to the last minute. In a family with eight children the opposite of structure was chaos. So, on Tuesday night last week when I realized that we didn't know where we were staying, we didn't exactly have rafts reserved and we still weren't sure who was coming, I took several deep cleansing breaths. This was a boy's trip, and it was time to roll with the punches.

I asked myself the important questions...

could I sleep in the car...Yes

would we have enough to eat...I could plan for that

did it matter what we did or when we did it...No

And that was just on Tuesday!!

Thursday 1)we left an hour and a half later than planned, 2)we made it almost to Evanston before Brian realized he hadn't packed his brand new wetsuit...or any wetsuit...a crucial piece of equipment in 50 degree water, and 3)our friend didn't have his dive mask or gloves or booties. In the Wal-Mart Evanston parking lot at roughly 9:00 at night (no, apparently they don't carry 5 mil wetsuits or diving masks) the guys decided not to drive back home and retrieve their equipment. Truthfully, part of this was my fault as I refused to pull the trailer, in the dark on a winding road to a location that I had never been to before (bad sport, huh!). The new plan was to drive to Vernal the next morning and hope for the best at the local dive shop. 4)We pulled into our camp about 1:00 in the morning.

On Friday we picked up the rafts and put in the water just below the dam at Flaming Gorge. We loaded up the life-jacketed kids-all 17 of them- and started down the river. By the end of the first mile we had successfully determined the hierarchy of splashing. Adults-ride the raft-some splashing is fun. Teenagers-jump from raft to raft-splashing is necessary. Tweens-can jump in the river-will giggle if splashed. Kids-will drop their legs over the edge of the raft keeping a death grip on the side-splashing other people is fun. Toddlers and babies-where the heck am I, why am I wearing a marshmallow that I can't eat and splashing makes me scream.

When the family ride was over the serious stuff began. I was the lucky one selected for dive support and so with the able bodied assistance of a 12-year-old and 2 nine-year-olds and with 5 spare tanks on board we started again at the dam with the divers. They had an awesome time. A couple guys described it as flying as the current carried them down the river, and Brian said it was one of the most unique dives he has ever done.

Saturday we hiked down a precarious cliff to fish for 10 minutes until the rest of the group arrived and refused to endanger the lives of their small children by joining us. After hiking up the precarious cliff and relocating to a sandy beach (where you could cast your line to your hearts content without catching a single thing) the group split up. Serious fisherman, crazy trail runners, and the other parent not participating in the two before mentioned groups, now left to be responsible for their own part of the 17 children. After our group reassembled at camp, all 5 guys decided it was time for more fishing--coincidentally at the exact same time that dinner preparations were just about to begin. And Brian and I decided that instead of driving home we'd stay an extra night.

Sunday we were supposed to be home at 1:00 so we could be showered, cleaned up, and I would have time to make Brian's birthday cake before everyone arrived at 6:30 for cake and ice cream. By the time we had cleaned up camp...we could still make it by 6:30. By the time we finished fishing again at 1:30 maybe we could make it. By the time we left Vernal at 4:40 we were never going to make it.

And you know what we had a great weekend. Every day was fun. It wasn't what I had envisioned or planned for and it turned out just fine, in fact it was more than fine it was great!

So, for camping this weekend I'm just going to let it all go. I won't plan for anything. I'll have no expectations and I won't worry about what time we're leaving or getting back. I'll just go with the flow, I won't stress about packing or food or sunscreen and everything will be just fine...Yeah, right.