The Burros invade our Second Lake Pleasant Campout

This past weekend, Sarah and I went camping at Lake Pleasant Arizona for the second time. We left Wednesday evening and got back Saturday afternoon. It was a struggle to actually get out to the campground because of how pulled down we were feeling, but I got the car packed and Sarah took care of her clothes and the food and we headed out there. 

We got there in the evening time, right as the sun was going down. We didn't actually use a tent the whole campout because we had a, best way to describe it is a plastic sheet for the floor with a outstretched canopy, for the sun. It worked out really well, super easy to set up.

Well, our first mishap of the night was that I realized as soon as we got to the campground, that I had forgotten a lighter for our Propane stove. This was going to be a big hindrance. So, we tried to find solutions for the problem. We decided to try out our car cigarette lighter,  but after a few failed attempts, we stopped. This was a Wedneaday, so there were hardly any campers out. However, there was a trailer. So we went to bug our neighbors and they graciously let us borrow their lighter. But they first had to make sure that we weren't starting a campfire because this was no burn season. So we were lucky.

The second mishap was that night, after we were done watching the Sixth Sense on our laptops, at around 12 midnight, I woke up startled because I had heard footsteps in our campsite. I yelled hello, thinking it was some campers in the wrong site, but no, to my surprise, it was a wild donkey (or burro, as they like to call them). I woke Sarah up and it turns out he was chomping on the only food that we had left out and forgot to pack away somewhere safe. We had left two loaves of bread and potatoes. It through both loaves and some of our potatoes, as well as a thing of salt. Sarah and I were freaking out, wondering what this donkey could do to us. So we prayed and asked for the angels to protect us. After some time of the donkey not moving out of our cpsite, I decided to get up with courage and chase it away. And away it went. Sarah was so proud of me. Sarah didn't really sleep well that night.

The third mishap was on our third night, we were coming back from the lake, but our cruise (which I'll talk about later) let out at around 8:30. We'll, what we didn't know is our campsite closes at 9pm, and we rolled into the campsite at 9:02pm and the gates were closed. So, we decided to find a Walmart to park our vehicle and to go to sleep in for thr evening, expressly looking for a Walmart online that is accepting of overnight campers. Well, we are wakened up by a security guard named Sam at 2am. He talks our ear off about politics and camping out in vehicles, but he is a nice guy and tells us of thr Cracker Barrel parking lot super close that allows for cars to park overnight. We go there and fall asleep the rest of the night. So very eventful time.

But we actually had a good time this trip. We rented a tandem kayak. I was in the front and Sarah was in the back. We learned the subtleties of kayaking and how to work together jointly to get our kayak far. We weren't racing but enjoying a nice time out on the lake. It was quite a lovely and serene experience. It was just nice to be out in the open water, paddling contently. We did get sun burnt though. 

On Friday we did two cruises. The mid afternoon one was a Narration Cruise where the captain took us around the lake and gave us all encompassing facts about the lake and surrounding areas. There were a few families aboard.  We then got off and went to the restaurant on the dock called Dillon's Bayou. We had catfish, macaroni, and potato salad. Then we found a giant chess board and Sarah and I decided to play against each other. Sarah really held her own, but I won. Then, at dusk, we took the Music Cruise which was on the same boat but this time a lot more people showed up. This boat was a double decker with the bottom floor being indoors and the top being outdoors. Sarah and I raced to our favorite table from previously. I went to get us some ginger ale and cranberry juice, and by the time I got back we had a couple that had joined us at our table named Lauren and Jake. We had a pleasant time chatting with them. She works as a dental hygienist and he works for the lake mechanics. It was his birthday. Sarah and I enjoyed the company and the music and the sunset. 

Earlier that day we had gone swimming in the water close to our campsite. It was cold but refreshing. It was nice to be out in the sun and hold Sarah. We also saw a pair of donkeys getting close to our campsite; in other campsites. We did get scared one night, thinking there was another donkey outside our canopy,  but it turned out to be a cactus.

All throughout this camping experience, we had to adjust out dining experience because of the toll that the the donkey's excursion on our food, but because of Sarah's ingenuity with food, I never felt like we were going to go hungry. We had eggs, Pancakes, a biscuit pizza, stew meat casserole. All very good.