O'Bannon with the Schmitts

Before this year, I had never gone camping and really had no desire to do so.  I didn't grow up doing it and if I was going to go out of town for the weekend, I wanted to go somewhere with a TV, wifi, and air conditioning (or heat if it was in the winter).  Brady convinced me to go to camping with Autumn, Nick, and Kadance over the July 4 holiday, and my cousin, Janelle, convinced me to go with them at least once this summer.  We decided to with them this past weekend to O'Bannon Woods State Park.

If you are going to camp and are a little uneasy about it, like I was, here are a few tips:

• Make sure you are in a camper and not a tent.  I don't think you could pay me to tent camp when it is 90+ degrees outside.
• Go to O'Bannon.  They have a pretty awesome pool.  (Even though I have no photos because I didn't take my camera to the pool.)  
• Go with experienced campers.  They make sure you don't run out of the essentials such as water, lighter fluid, and beer.  

We arrived at O'Bannon on Friday afternoon.  We both took the afternoon off, and it was a good thing.  We got there and we were supposed to be at site 188.  Janelle and family were at 187, so it made sense to book 188 if we wanted to be near them, right?  Apparently not.  188 was pretty far away from them, so we made arrangements to transfer sites.  We got a site next to them and proceeded to go park.  Brady is an inexperienced camper parker (for the lack of a better word), so he had a little trouble getting the camper into our spot.  A nice man tried to help us, but when Drew and Janelle got back from the pool, Drew made it look like backing a matchbox car into a regular parking spot.  We got everything together and were ready to have some fun.  Friday evening was spent just hanging out and having dinner.  We did go down to the Ohio River though.  It was a pretty nice view. 

Also a nice view:  watching the kids and some of the adults on the back of the truck on the way to and from the river.  Here are a few shots I took from the inside. 

Once we got to the river, here are a few of the pictures we took.

 

Saturday was a busy day.  We went on a hike for what seemed like longer than the posted two miles.  The scenery was very pretty, and we had fun.  After lunch we went to the nature center and visited the pool.  If you like to camp and swim, O'Bannon is the place for you.  Their pool is awesome.  They have an area that has spray jets for little kids (or adults, I don't judge), a kiddie pool, and a pool with two great slides.  Brady and I tried both slides and had a blast.  

After all of that excitement, we went back to the campsite for dinner.  Some of Janelle's friends made ribs for everyone.  Everyone else brought a side.  We were in charge of corn on the cob, and the Schmitts brought potatoes.  Everything was delicious!  

We packed up this morning and came home.  While I don't think that I'll be a camper multiple times in the summer, a few times would be fun to spend time with family and friends.  It was a great weekend!  Thanks, Janelle and Drew, for letting us tag along on your camping weekend!