# Back From Our First Full Week Of Camping



## 1stTimeAround (Sep 22, 2004)

Our first full week in the camper was wonderful. We used parts of the camper that we had never used before (ie. outdoor cook center), and planned probably better than ever for the maintenance of the camper (ie. awning tie down) and with the exception of one incident the camper ran (or sat actually) flawlessly!!!

We had absolutely beautiful weather and could not have dreamed of it being any better. Every day was in the low 90's with the heat index pushing it near 100, however with the constant ocean breeze and ability to get in the water, the heat was never an issue!! The kids had a blast and so did we. We drove on the beach, caught fish, went "boogie" boarding and played with the dog in the water. We went to the top of the Hatteras Island lighthouse and raced go karts, what more could a kid want!!!

One bitter part of our trip, my daughter fell out of the top bunk on our first night at the campground. At 1:45 a.m. on Sunday morning I awoke to a very loud thud followed by some very loud crying!!







My daughter was bleeding from inside her mouth, her nose and the outside of her lip. She also complained of not being able to move her wrist and was favoring it badly. So at 2:15 a.m., dad and daughter head to the emergency room. After a short 3 hours and 15 minutes, we were leaving the emergency room with 1) one huge gash in her bottom lip but no stitches (my daughter was quite happy about that), 2) a major busted exterior bottom lip but again no stitches (daughter was gaining happy momentum at this point!!) 3) one slightly, barely loose tooth and 4) one minor sprained wrist. Needless to say, I felt like a total horses a%# for not having done some type of railing mod. My daughter is 9 and I just didn't think this would happen. The kids were forced to sleep on the bottom bunk the remainder of the week despite my son's defense of, "Well, I didin't fall off yet" ( I think he has my brains!). I will be creating a railing mod prior to anymore "top bunk" sleeping, hopefully next weekend or the following one.

She is fine now and you can barely tell she fell. She is a VERY, VERY self conscious young lady and really struggled with it the first couple of days with people staring and asking what happened. However, she quickly got past it and had an awesome week at the beach. We even went to her personal beach ( A stretch of Oregon Inlet that we now call it "Jordan's Beach", which she thinks is the coolest!) several times to help the situation and it must have worked.

Have a great time camping!! Just 2 1/2 more weeks until our next trip. We are looking for somewhere in the mountains for 2 adult males and 3 boys ages 7-9 to have some fun. Jellystone at Natural Bridge is not an option, can anyone offer any others?!

Thanks

Jason


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## Highlander96 (Mar 1, 2005)

Jason,

Sorry to hear about your DD! Glad she is O.K.!

An idea for the mountains in VA might be boondocking along the Blue Ridge Parkway. You may also want to look at Claytor Lake State Park in Pulaski Co.

Sorry I can't help with more.

Did you have a problem with Yogi In Natural Bridge?









Good Luck!

Tim action


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## Oregon_Camper (Sep 13, 2004)

Glad to hear your daughter is ok and has no lasting injuries.

Y-Guy made the bunk bad rails for my camper and I highly recommend you take a few minutes and look on my we page for an example of a great way to do this! As an added bonus, he even built a ladder for each side.


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## camp4fun (Apr 2, 2005)

Sorry to hear about tyour daughters fall! We also just returned from a long camping trip that was lots of fun and had the same issue. My children are 12 & 15. I didn't think the bunk beds would be an issue for us. I was surprized when my 12 year old fell off the top bunk bed.







He sported a huge bruise/blood blister on his chin for the rest of the trip. OUCH! We were lucky that didn't have a trip to the emergency room. We will definitely be adding some type of railing before our next trip out. Those bunks are small, it doesn't take much rolling to roll off.


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## Howie (Jun 19, 2005)

G_*lad your daughter is fine, that's the most important thing........... *_


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## NDJollyMon (Aug 22, 2003)

Ouch! Speedy recovery!


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## johnp (Mar 15, 2004)

Sorry to here about your daughter. When we had our 26rs we stopped using the top bunks because my youngest kept falling off in the night. And to think they thought we would buy the 28rsds wrong no more bunks for them.

John


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## samvalaw (Feb 17, 2005)

Sorry about the fall Jason, but glad that the rest of the trip went well. For those of us who are "modification challenged", the bed rails sold for children's beds work fine for the bunks. We found one that was adjustable and pulled the two pieces apart, using only one of the two pieces. The rail base slides under the mattress and the guard rail prevents the child from rolling over.

Enjoy your mountain trip!


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