2024, Family, Travel, Uncategorized

The Best Laid Plans of Mice and . . . Campers?

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“The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men gang aft a-gley.”—Robert Burns.

Sandra and I recently went on an eight-day camping trip to explore several of the state parks in southwest Minnesota. We paid extra to rent an Airstream trailer—Bun Bun, according to the owner—to see if Airstreams are superior to other, cheaper trailer brands. FWIW, the Airstream wasn’t worth twice the rental price of other similarly sized trailers.

As we started the trip, we imagined bright sunny days and moderate spring temperatures. The plan was to enjoy new hiking trails and explore the historical significance of parks like Ft. Ridgely, Blue Mounds, and Pipestone National Monument. What we got didn’t quite match “the dream.”

I won’t bore you with the details. I started this post with that in mind, but decided the post would be far too long. So here’s the plan in a nutshell compared to what actually happened.

  1. THE PLAN: Beautiful spring weather in MN. REALITY: Six days with rain out of eight total.
  2. THE PLAN: No illness, injury, or other issue to hamper our “fun.” REALITY: I got bitten by a wood tick during my first hike of the trip. Fortunately, Sandra noticed the nasty little bloodsucker as I prepared for bed. After she performed “emergency surgery,” we wasted two-plus hours the next day finding a clinic and having the bite checked for Lyme Disease. So far, I’m fine.
  3. THE PLAN: No mechanical issues with the trailer. REALITY: The electric cord that connects the SUV lights to the trailer lights came loose on an annoyingly bumpy section of highway and dragged on the pavement for at least an hour. We didn’t notice until we stopped at a rest area. Luckily we got it fixed within two hours (in the rain! At 5:30 pm on a Friday!) by the owner (and his employee) of a fantastic small business, Eric of Riverside Trailers in Rock Rapids, IA. The other downside of that was neither the travel insurance I bought, nor AAA covered that expense, so I paid the bill, plus gave generous tips to the men who did the work. Told them to have a few beers on us.
  4. THE PLAN: Minimal bug issues and lots of eating around the campfire or at the picnic table. REALITY: Horrendous bugs at Ft. Ripley State Park. Head nets required. Three days lost of enjoying the outdoors. Blue Mounds was better. The rain fell early or overnight, so we enjoyed four campfires on our last four nights.
  5. THE PLAN: Visit and at least do one hike in each of eight state parks—Ft. Ridgely, Lac Qui Parle, Upper Sioux Agency, Camden, Blue Mounds, Split Rock Creek, Lake Shetek, Kilen Woods. REALITY: Rain washed us out at Lac Qui Parle, USA was closed (given back to the tribe), didn’t go to Camden. But we compensated with a rain-soaked visit to the Jeffers Petroglyphs and a tour of the Rock County Historical Society (home of the 6000+ nutcrackers reneeinnd mentioned.

Mound Lake Dam, Blue Mounds State Park

Interpretive Center sign featuring author Frederick Manfred, Blue Mounds State Park

Jeffers Petroglyphs

Nutcrackers at Rock County Historical Society Museum

Quarry at Pipestone National Monument

Author at the falls at the Pipestone National Monument

Overall, we still had a successful trip, just with lots of memories we would have preferred not to remember, along with some pleasant ones as well. Sandra loved the nutcrackers, and a few of the hikes were excellent. Pipestone National Monument and the Jeffers Petroglyphs are pretty cool too.

When have your best laid plans “gang aft a -gley?”

51 thoughts on “The Best Laid Plans of Mice and . . . Campers?”

  1. Substitute “tent camping” for the “Airstream trailer” and your vacation experience would have been complete.

    As to plans gone a-gley, our vacation trip to Groundhog, Colorado, as last presented to the Trail on December 7, 2019 is the best I have to offer.

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    1. I vaguely recall that story. But I’m going to refresh my memory because I remember some of the gruesome and really funny details. Probably weren’t that funny at the time, though.

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    2. Bill, that date isn’t right. Did you mistype the year? I’d really like to read that story again, but I’m not particularly impressed by the results of my WP searches.

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    3. I have menatlly filed away the phrase “Well, this isn’t the Holiday Inn, you know,” and I am waiting for the perfect opportunity to use it. I might substitute “ain’t” for “isn’t” if the mood takes me.

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  2. I just added a photo of the Pipestone National Monument. Chris, I am so glad that Blue Mounds State Park was a pleasant stop for you. My best friend lived on a farm just adjacent to the park, and we would climb the fence and hike all over the park from her pasture.

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  4. Like the Planned vs. the Reality, Chris. : )

    My gang aft a-gley things were big ones, like marriage #1, but you see that you had to do that to get to something else.

    I’ve written about my family’s living in Greeley CO while my dad went to summer school – we’d heard that the trailer court had grassy lots for the trailers, a playground… the year we started, that court was full and we ended up in what had been a (gravel) parking lot between the college’s football and baseball fields. Details here – https://trailbaboon.com/2015/07/29/the-trailer-court/

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  5. Some people in Luverne are livid about being identified with nutcrackers. The chamber of commerce is intent on using the nutcrackers to lure people into town.

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        2. As I wandered through the displays, it seemed to me that quite a few didn’t even have a working nutcracker mechanism. Many appeared to be plain old painted wooden dolls.

          There were also some made of glass, or crystal (maybe plastic?) that didn’t seem to be able to crack nuts either. Lots of ornamental nutcrackers, cloth nutcrackers. I guess they just had to have the general shape of the toy soldier nutcrackers made famous in The Nutcracker Ballet.

          Chris

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  6. Rise and Shine, Baboons, from JacAnon,

    An AIrstream trailer was a prominent plot device in an early (1980s) Carl Hiaasen novel. That novel got me started reading a long string of his books. Remembering that book was my first thought after reading your plans several weeks ago. Chris, the weather in SW MN, NW Iowa is a gnarly and unpredictable beast. All those windmills are stationed there for a good reason. As a kid we went often to the Pipestone National Monument on visits to Grandma’s house. I loved finding the Rock Face on a cliff.

    Really, most of my life did not go as planned. But as I view it now, that is just fine with me. My parents would have told you upon my birth (during the Story County Fair) that I would be a farm wife. I think that role would have been hard for me and that it is best that such a thing did not happen. More later. Busy day ahead here.

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  8. When my father was a high school sports official in southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa in the 1960’s and 1970’s, he always made sure that he had enough gas to get home after Saturday night games in Iowa, since the Dutch Reformed denizens in Rock Rapids and the other towns closed all businesses after midnight. No gas sales on Sunday!

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    1. From JacAnon. As a small child I thought the name of the town was Rock Rabbits. When we would stop there to visit my aunt and uncle I spent all my time in the yard looking fir rock rabbits.

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  9. Dad always called that area of Iowa The Holy Land. Fred Manfred was from Doon, IA, just south of Rock Rapids. Dad was born in George, IA, just east of Rock Rapids.

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  11. my plans gone inside out are my life today

    I can hardly wait to see how it comes out

    it just gets more interesting every day

    my travel plans are always wide open so the stuff that happens never squelches the expectations it just modifies the next step on occasion

    I have a 50 reunion with my band from 1972 that got shuffled from pandemic world. We had it planned for last year switched to this summer and then the bass player who is a artist had his opening in Paris yesterday and his plans to host in Houston in July or August just got pushed to April 25 after I asked for a date because July and August are closing in.

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  12. my plans for my life included 2020?being my retirement celebration but in my life I shook the dice and am dealing with the result.
    it’s a great opportunity to appreciate the options

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  13. Not sure if it’s a WordPress thing, but today I am able to “like” comments, but I’m not offered an opportunity to “like” the post itself. Nevertheless, to be clear, I like the post. Even if I haven’t found a way to “like” it.

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    1. My recent trip to Ireland was fantastic in almost every way. There was nothing there I didn’t like – except the food poisoning.

      I did get very sick. On about day 7, we ate at a fabulous restaurant in Doolin, Fitz’s. Colleen had fish and chips. Mary Jo had roast beef. Laurel had an American cheeseburger. I had a seafood platter.

      I’ve always wanted to have a seafood platter. I couldn’t think of a better place to try fresh fish and seafood. There was salmon, tuna, cod, a pickled fish salad, snails, mussels, clams, and a fresh oyster. It was really a feast. There were so many things I’d never tried. I was determined to try it all, and I did.

      I’ll never know if it was the oyster or not. It was the only thing that was raw. Two days later, I was very sick. I still don’t regret trying it. I was quite violently sick for three or four days toward the end of our trip, but I kept going. I just didn’t eat anymore. I finally ate on the plane on the way home.

      I was just starting to feel better when I got home, but I got a severe cold. It seemed to last forever. I started to wonder if it was a mild case of covid. I’ve never had covid so it’s possible. It really took a long time to feel better.

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        1. I was sick in Dublin, after our tour of Trinity College. I wasn’t feeling great that day and we walked a lot. But I enjoyed it so much! I’ll never forget it. Our tour guide was dressed up like James Joyce. He said he was a second-year scholar of history. He’d passed his exams and earned the right carry a sword. He was just adorable and he gave us a great tour of the college. He dropped us off at the Library where we spent an hour in the Long Room and the Book of Kells exhibit. Then we walked back to our hotel. Later that night (all night) I was very, very sick. The next day we had to take a taxi back to the airport. Laurel left for home, and we had to pick up a rental car. (I paid for that car twice: $753.81 each time, and I’m still contesting it through my credit card company.) I started to feel quite sick on the drive into Northern Ireland, so Colleen did much of the driving. I was quite sick for the next three days. No more lovely seafood for me!

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        1. I read a bit about bacteria. There’s a bacteria in coastal fresh fish that’s called vibrio. Some bacteria can be pretty tough to get rid of if you don’t take antibiotics for the infection. I didn’t want to see if Medicare worked in Ireland, so I refused to go to a clinic or urgent care. Colleen wanted to take me, but I was afraid of what it might cost. I toughed it out. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. (Maybe?)

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    3. It looks like no one has been able to like today’s blog. The icon to click on isn’t even evident. I’m wondering whether this is due to user error?

      I notice that Chris is listed as the blog’s author, whereas when Ben’s guest blogs are posted either Renee or VS, depending on who facilitated the publishing, is listed in that spot. Was Chris’ blog published differently than Ben’s?

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  14. I am reminded that the Burns poem was directed at a mouse whose plans for a nest were disturbed. I’ve been hearing. for some time, some rustling noises in the kitchen area, and have had humane traps set out there and in the basement. I have relocated nine smallish mice at Harriet Island since April. The noises have not completely subsided, though, so I think there may be one or two whose plans to raise generations in my comfortable abode have gone awry, but haven’t been entirely deterred, I still have to convince the older and wiser ones to walk into the traps.

    This wasn’t a problem, so much, when I had cats.

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  15. I really only had two disasters that didn’t go to plan that I can think of and I’ve told both of the stories here. The one was when the shelf fell off the wall in my studio with everything on it, trying to put it back together and the massive numbers of trips to the hardware stores over the course of three days.

    The other was the doomed last vacation with wasband #1. That included the Great Debacle of Wall Drug.

    I don’t know if this means that I’ve been lucky enough that everything goes to plan (knocking on wood right now) or that I’m flexible enough that I didn’t think of them as big headaches when they happened.

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