Back From Camping in the Thousand Islands!

We had quite the start to our camping trip!  As soon as we left, we stopped at a gas station to check the air in my tires.  It said it was really low so Tony added some.  So as we are pulling out I remembered I left my pills at home.  Tony was kind of mad, but since we were only a few blocks from home we turned around and I got them.  As we were driving back home, my tire pressure sensor light came on.

So we stopped at a different gas station figuring the first gas stations gauge must have been out of whack.  Now my tires were reading 50 and I’m only supposed to have  32 pounds  of pressure. Tony quickly released enough air to get it back to where it should be. We started driving and the light stayed on. We were both getting really aggravated so we stopped at a 3rd gas station where my tires were reading too low again. Luckily the 3rd time was the charm and we had finally found a gauge that was giving correct readings! By that time the stress had made us hungry so we stopped at McDonald’s for lunch!

We made the three-hour trek to Wellesley Island where we were staying at the State Park.  We were eager to get set up and start cooking some dinner!  We got to our site which happened to be the same one we had 2 years ago. It looked smaller.  We were just standing there looking at the site and I realized I couldn’t even find the fire ring.  We started slowly unpacking trying to figure out why it looked so different. The people at the next camp site over asked if It was our campsite.  No we just randomly unpack the car at other people’s sites.  We told them yes and they said they would move all the cars. It was then we realized it looked so small because they had so much stuff on their site (two tents, a storage trailer and a HUGE gazebo) they were using our site to park their cars.  Once they moved the cars, I found our fire pit which was right next to the pole dividing the two sites.  We dragged it to the middle of our site so when we started the fire later that night we wouldn’t be right on top of them.  We got our tent and gazebo up in record time and I started setting up the inside of the tent which Tony started setting up the  cooking area.  I could tell he was getting mad but it was already a bad day so I didn’t want to ask what was wrong.  He eventually admitted he left the adapter for our propane hose in his truck (where we always keep it) which didn’t help us because we had my car.  I should also point out that we also couldn’t stake down the tent because somebody had left the hammer in the truck as well.  I could have complained like he did about me leaving my pills home but hey, why start a fight when we are both already grumpy and hungry.

So we get back in the car and drive back over the bridge to go to Alexandria Bay to try to find a store.  By then it was after 5pm, on a Sunday, so all the hardware stores were close. We google mapped on my phone the nearest Wal-Mart/ Kmart / Lowes / Home Depot and they were all in Watertown – about 45 minutes away. So we went to Kmart first and ended up buying a bucket to soak the corn in, but they didn’t have the part that we needed. Neither did Lowes. Luckily Wal-Mart had the part and we raced back to the Campsite. 

After that we were able to eat, have a few adult beverages and relax in front of the fire!

We set up 4 tiki touches that had the Bite Defender + Citronella oil in them, plus we had one of those Thermacell Mosquito Repellent hand-held devices.  That helped a lot – we could literally see swarms of bugs on other people’s sites, but not ours. Of course some bugs were on our site so we did spray some bug spray – we had a natural spray, plus one that had DEET in it. I never felt anything bite me, but I had that “buggy” feeling.

After hearing about my last camping trip and how I had so many itchy bug bites, my friend Carolyn sent me some SKIN SO SOFT Bug Guard Plus Anti-Itch Spray.  I sprayed the  SKIN SO SOFT Bug Guard Plus Anti-Itch Spray on my exposed skin  and didn’t have a problem the rest of the night. I should mention that the Bug Gard doesn’t actually repel bugs, it just stops the itching. Of course over the 4 days we were camping I did end up with a few bug bites.  I think I got them from being in the car when we were out sight seeing. I would just spray the Skin So Soft on any itchy spots and it would really work to make it stop itching!  The bottle was small enough to keep in my purse which I loved! I also liked that it had a pleasant smell – it didn’t smell like chemicals or medicine.

 

To find out more about our trip, check out these posts:

Sight Seeing around the Thousand Islands Region

and

More  Sight Seeing Around the Thousand Islands Region