Almost-Memorial Day Weekend Camping at Prineville Reservoir
We decided to take the Casita out on its first camping trip this season over Memorial Day weekend –without a reservation. The only way we could make this work was to take off on Wednesday and hope to get a first-come spot. We originally planned at camping in a small, dry campground along the Prineville River north of the Reservoir. But, we forgot the name of the campground and couldn’t find it on our limited data as we were driving, so we ended up at the Reservoir. Jasper Point was an all first-come campground, and we got a prime spot with electricity (bonus!).
It’s fantastic to be camping again! We all love it, even Iris. Though, we’re doing a terrible job on keeping the Casita neat. There’s no way we could live in it for three months again based on our current habits.
On Thursday, we enjoyed a nice cup of coffee in the campsite. Mike pointed out how ginormous the rabbits are here – they’re the same size as Iris if not fatter. Then, we went into Prineville because we realized we had brought four Apple devices but no Apple charging cord. We went to breakfast in Prineville at a really great place. The food was good but the people were better. When the server learned we had a dog in the car, she let us sit in the upstairs patio with Iris. The weather was perfect, if just slightly cool in the 60s.
We went on a kayak trip. The Reservoir is actually a pretty great place to kayak, with a number of inlets and interesting rock formations. Iris had a great time swimming and chasing the stick. She even managed to stay afloat without her life jacket but wearing her doggie cam. We saw a bald eagle, a vulture, and a pelican that swam away as we paddled closer to check it out. We finished the afternoon with dinner and a nice evening walk of nearly 2.5 miles along a dirt road in a wildlife preserve area.
Friday morning, I went for a run. I ran along the same wildlife preserve road and met up with Mike and Iris, who walked it after me. Then, we went kayaking again. We wanted to kayak by some large rock formations further south in the Reservoir. We saw a colony of swallows that nested among the rocks and were feeding their young. That was cool. We saw another type of water bird with a whole bunch of young that were flying in and out of a nesting area along the water. It was pretty neat. We gave Iris the chance to swim again but she was tired and wasn’t interested. Then, we went to lunch at a brewery in Prineville. It was OK.
This afternoon started THE BATTLE OF THE BEANBAG GAME! (We know it’s called the cornhole game but we don’t really like that name so we’re officially changing the name as to our game set.). We set up the game in our campsite. It’s a dirt campsite, but it’s more like a soft sandpit and we walked barefoot. Mike took the first game. Vicki came back and evened it out. For the tie breaker, it was neck and neck, but Mike eventually took the prize. But the competitors were not yet finished. They played a fourth game, and Vicki took the win. So, the score is officially 2-2. We’re calling it good…for now.
We left early Saturday morning and returned home. We’re fairly refreshed and motivated. It was a fun camping trip.
