Camping is for Suckers

Did anyone see the 2006 blockbuster comedy "RV" with Robin Williams and the incomparable Jeff Daniels? If you wasted 98 precious minutes of your life on this film (which will sadly never be returned to you), you know exactly what the Grange Family Camp-Fest '08 was like: Lots of zany adventures with a mishap around every corner, including several hilarious scenes in which a guy gets hit in the junk. Spencer and his family made the trip up from Olde Mexico to meet us in southern Colorado, and brought with them gifts of turquoise, dreamcatchers, and Bimbo bread. It rained almost every second of the day, but we still enjoyed ourselves immensely.

Our accommodations on the road:

Here's our camp site. I love how the setting sun brings out the color of the adobe communal outhouse behind Isabel and me.

We made a visit to the Great Sand Dunes on day 1, not long before it began to rain non-stop. The wind blasted us relentlessly, but that didn't deter me and my brothers from scaling the tallest dunes in North America, then slaloming down. Isabel did not like the sand dunes (too much sand in her thigh-rolls.) Teri always tells me how much she wants to go to the beach. I think this trip should tide her over for a few years...look at all that sand!

The other highlight of our trip was a visit to the Gator Farm in the San Luis Valley. They have over 400 alligators there, as well as a wallaby, some emus, and a couple of ducks. It felt like a South American zoo, where only chain link fence separates you and the flesh-hungry beasts.
My brothers and I posed with our bountiful offspring.

Thanks to Mom and Dad for sponsoring this trip that ended far too soon.