Oh MAN!! Where have I been? I've missed out on all the baby excitement! And I wanted to put in a vote for Keiryn!! Can't wait to hear the results!!
OK, well, so we survived the whole camping experience - and we will call it all very interesting!

This is going to be a long post, even for me!! Where should I start...hummm...maybe with the fact that we went on FRIDAY THE 13TH!!??!?!?!?!??
Alright, it took me 15 or 20 min longer to get home on Fri. than what I'd planned for. Then I couldn't find DH - kept trying to call him to get started on some stuff to help - but he didn't answer home or cell. Come to find out he'd gone to the Verizon store to do something for work.

OK, so he finally gets home & we go to load our little cooler & quickly decided it wasn't big enough for food AND a 30 pack of beer + a 12 pack of Corona AND 2 bags of ice!!

Did I mention there was no room for the FOOD?! We were also bringing a small cooler for the beach - but that was no help either & had to dig out yet a 3rd small soft cooler which IMMEDIATELY began leaking - so we put it inside 2 trash bags - still making a puddle. Can anyone say "not a good plan"?!

We ended up dragging out an old paint pan of all things to set it in for the ride!

Meanwhile, DS is just going "Boy, you guys sure are bringing a lot of beer!" I told DH he didn't need to pack every single beer we had! But he wasn't hearing me!!

Guess what I did tonite? I went to
Walmart & bought a larger 100 Qt cooler for our trip in 2 weeks! (Now we probably WILL need the luggage rack thing!)
OK, finally, an hour late, we're off. We need to get to Rt. 50 & go thru Annapolis to get to the Bay Bridge - gotta cross the Cheasapeake Bay...do NOT want to go the Beltway to Rt. 50 during a Fri. eve. Rush Hour - so took many, many back roads. By the time we get to the bridge the tolls have even cleared out pretty good & the traffic was moving almost at speed across the bridge. Eventually, to go to the beach we were going to, we had to turn off of Rt. 50 onto a little country 2 lane road. Can anyone spell S-L-O-W?! We get within 30 mi. of the beach & it's about 8:00 & DH has to pee + we haven't eaten yet. So we stop at a McDonald's. While we're there, DH says "Oh, let me grab a beer from the back". Can anyone spell M-I-S-T-A-K-E?! I forgot to remind him that things may have shifted a bit - up goes the hatch & out falls the big 6 gal. jug of water!! Busted! Actually, it just cracked up on the top corner, so we had to empty out maybe two gallons & I had handily packed some packing tape which I used to patch the crack like a bandage. So we saved about 4 gal.

OK, but at this point, we're not going to arrive before dark!
Alright we finally get to Rt. 1 & are driving around trying to follow the Mapquest directions. They're not working.

Pull into a Walmart & call them & get better directions - we were VERY close, only 1 U-turn away! Get to our site around 9:30. It sucked - but it looked like they ALL SUCKED. We put this freaking tent up using a flashlight & my headlights! At this point, every flying insect in Sussex County was dive bombing us & DH is screaming for the bug spray as we're trying to swat with one hand & hold the tent with the other! The tent assembly process & getting the air mattresses out & started took a little over an hour!! It was at this point we noticed that my headlights were getting dim - and my windows were down & the sunroof open!! Try to start truck. Grrrrrrr. Grrrrrr. Grrrrrr. Hummmmm. Nice. Picture hands on hips, head shaking, swatting bugs and needing a drink BAD!
Suddenly, after watching our show, our tent city neighbor emerged from under his pop-up tent awning with his "friends" (they were flying the rainbow flag) and asked if we needed a jump!! YES!! We're saved the humiliation of having to go over & ASK for help!!

OK, it's 10:50, mission accomplished - leave truck running for 15 min... Go to check out the bathhouse & go to bed!!!
Never heard such a noisy freaking campground in my life!! Quiet time? What's THAT mean? Turn down your redneck heavy metal radio to only #10 on the volume?! It was QUITE an interesting mix of people staying here that's for sure. Lots of white trash, rednecks, the rainbow set and of all things, several really large Asian families with like 10 people per tent (which not to be politically incorrect, but THAT one surprised me)!! Never figured them for campers! Anyway, the sites were SO-O small and close - it was like an outside cubicle world!! We all slept TERRIBLE that first nite!
Sat. am we were up at 7:00 - since the REST of the campground was also up at 7:00 to start the battle of the radio stations

Go to bathouse. Hummm. Closed for cleaning

Cleaning = good. Closed = bad. OK, ignore urges - go start breakfast and make some coffee! (Found some instant Maxwell House in like tea bag things - actually turned out pretty good!) I made sausage, toast & egg beaters. Then packed sandwiches for the beach & cleaned up. This cleaning up & packing everything away for the day thing is for the birds I must say. Very time consuming. I quickly decided that since we also had to break down the tent on Sun. AM plus we wanted to go to the beach for awhile we would bag the whole breakfast at camp thing for Sun.! Or else we would never get to the beach! Anyway, we got up at 7 again on Sun, along with the rest of the "Big Oaks Family Campground" & just started packing up! There was a WaWa up the street so we just went there & got MTO subs made to take to the beach then we went to this place called the Fractured Prune & got a good cup of coffee & fresh, hot, made to order donuts (I had a "Dirty Beach" and a "Reese Cup")! Yummm.
We drove down to Bethany Beach & hung out with our neighbors, their cousins & some other family that was down there with them (like about 20 of us). We just kept moving back from high tide. We ordered like 6 pizzas in the evening & stayed on the beach from like 11:30 am until almost 8:00 pm!! It was a perfect day! THANK GOD! We made our own little happy hour (OMG - I brought a pint of the Capt. and let's just say that there's only about enough left for one more drink.....) Anyway, perhaps he's the reason I slept much better Sat. nite?!
Lessons learned...bring a fly swat. Don't leave headlights on for 90 min. w/o truck running. Need bigger outside rug (at least at the beach). Whisk broom / dust pan VERY handy. Needed a way to pour the boiling hot water for the coffee (dutch oven not very good for pouring into coffee cups). Solution - purchased a measuring cup with a pour spout to use as a dipper for next time. Try diff. campground next time to see if the site size is bigger and if the customers vary a little. Bring kindling for fire. Don't bother planning to cook a breakfast if you're in a hurry to leave - bring donuts!

Would say the worst of it was the closeness of our neighbors and the noise. We weren't COMPLETELY miserable & it was a cheap way to go to the beach for the weekend. Rain would've made it BAD tho. Hopefully, we'll be OK in 2 weeks on our rafting trip (no bathhouse there tho)!

This was a good "dry run"!