There are many reasons why this is the first time we've gone camping. One, we never owned equipment. Two, summers are really busy for Todd with work, so even though I have them off, it's tricky. Three, I don't camp. I like air conditioning and soft beds and perfect darkness and quiet (I could probably camp in a cool cave and be fine, haha). Four, now that we live in Kansas, camping is tricky with bugs and humidity and crazy weather!
But, we decided to just go for it. Sometimes I feel like we are working on a pre-children bucket list...and we've gotten some extra time to work on it, so we are taking advantage!
We decided to head out to Kanopolis State Park, which is in Ellsworth County. When I googled "best places to camp in Kansas," it popped up. It's only about 1.5 hours away, so off we went!
We stopped in Lindsborg, and I had a "Swedish burger," which was basically a super delicious burger with some lingonberry sauce. Then, we headed off to the campground. We saw a few deer on the way, and the fireflies were out in full force. It was beautiful.
After driving for a while, we found a campsite and checked in with the camp host. We were lucky to find a site really close to the water. We had lots of neighbors, but they were really quiet, so that was nice!
We set up our tent (which was super fast...didn't that part used to take a long time?), and Todd built a fire (with a little bit of help from me). Side note: we got free firewood and a good story out of it. I saw someone post online for some free firewood, so we went to that address. Well, no one was there, no wood, but a random Mexican guy was out there, and he told Todd that he had some firewood he could have. He gave us his address, and told us to just head into his backyard. So being the adventurous people that we are (and hoping this wasn't some sort of setup for axe murder), we went over there. Todd had to go down a long driveway, unlock the gate, retie it so the PONIES WOULDN'T GET OUT (hahaha), and then go back to the get the wood. The ponies were following him around, but they didn't try to run out, so that was good. It took a few trips, but it's a good story, and we had some free firewood!
Anyway, we had a beautiful night camping. It was amazing to see the stars, and I even saw a shooting star! With the breeze, the s'mores, the good company, the fireflies, and the gentle sound of lapping waves on the shore of the lake, it was wonderful!
We won't talk about the sleeping part, except to say that Todd slept great, and I stayed up worrying about bugs and bears and coyotes.
The next morning we broke camp and bravely headed off to hike.
We hit the nature trail after that, which was a little less creepy, but not a lot because all of these frogs and lizards kept randomly running out in front of us, or jumping across the path. I was already jumpy from the first experience, but we made it around the entire loop. Todd just laughed and laughed at me for my wimpiness, but I will OWN IT!
We were pretty hot and tired at that point, and we thought we'd hit the lake beach for a few minutes just to cool off our feet. Well, we grabbed our swim suits, beach chairs, and a floatie and ended up there for 2 hours! The crowd was family-friendly, the water was the perfect temperature, and so we just ended up relaxing for a few hours.
On our way out, we stopped by Lindsborg again for some shaved ice (where a crazy lady used her kid as an excuse to cut in front of us after she specifically told us "I'm not cutting in front of you, we just need to stand in the shade." Weird). We got some yummy sandwiches, and a really good watermelon coconut limeade, and then we headed home!
It was a great trip: smooth ride, great camping spot, good hiking/swimming, and awesome company. I think we may do it again sometime!
