We went to Rock Cut State Park (near Rockford) to go camping over the weekend. Here are six sucky things about our trip:

1. Raccoons. A raccoon snagged an entire package of hot dog buns off our picnic table. After several attempts to trap the raccoon, we were unsuccessful (but we sure scared the shit out of it).

2. Race track. The park must be adjacent to some sort of race track because for hours on Saturday night you could hear the sound of speeding cars off in the distance.

3. The bathroom toilet. Despite it being a flush toilet, it had no seat. The porcelain of the toilet was rounded off to make a quasi seat. But it was very low to the ground and awkward to sit on. And it didn't help that it had pee all over it. We eventually found an outhouse with a toilet seat which became our preferred place to poop.

4. Kids. There were tons of kids in the campground, riding bikes up and down the street all day. On the positive side, they did provide some entertainment. There were 4 separate bike crashes right in front of our campsite in the same day. I don't know what the problem was, it's not like there was some big rut in the road or something. It was very strange.

5. Trailers. I guess we reserved our site too late, because we were nestled amongst tons of camping trailers and RV's. You know it's trouble when you reserve a site that has a power hook-up. Some of the RV's kinda made me laugh. Some of them had flags and lawn decorations and cheesy lights and signs that said their last name on it like they were permanently moving in. I told Freund that next time we went camping, we had to bring a lawn gnome. The first night there was good. Our neighboring site, which had no trees separating us, was vacant. But when we returned from our hike on Saturday, our neighbors had moved in. Which a big 'ol trailer complete with the following items: a satellite dish, obnoxious lights, some sort of pump that was really loud when it ran, and more annoying kids with motorized scooters. Keep in mind that there was nothing separating our sites, and the back side of their trailer was about 3 feet from the wall of our tent.

6. Lack of soda. We had a craving for caffeine on Saturday and we did not bring any pop. There was a Pepsi machine next to the bathroom, so we decided to walk down there with some dollars. We found out that the dollar taking apparatus did not work, so we were going to have to use change. So we had to walk back to our campsite and get quarters. Back at the Pepsi machine, we loaded it up with quarters. 1st Pepsi button...sold out. Orange...sold out. 2nd Pepsi button...it works...but gives us a Diet Pepsi. I put in more quarters and try the rest of the buttons. Mountain Dew...sold out...Mug...sold out. Pissed off, I used the change return button. That, of course, did not work either. So all we were left with was a can of Diet Pepsi which wasn't even cold.

Other than these things, the trip was pretty good. We had a pretty good hike and canoe adventure on Saturday. We climbed a giant rock which was dangerous, but exciting. And we ate well as usual. I was able to perfect my cooking of potatoes over the fire. Geo was able to perfect his cooking of cinnamon rolls. Alcohol was not allowed in the park, so we kept it in a cooler in the van and poured our drinks in plastic cups. Since the van was used for this purpose, we dubbed it "The Speakeasy".

For more pictures from this event go here.