Camping

Well, Nathan and I celebrated our veterans day by escaping from reality for a few days and headed up into the Los Padres National Forest and camped. To begin the day, we woke up bright and early, packed up what goodies we had at home, then ran off to Target to buy those we didn't.. A tent is a necessity when camping in November :) The drive was beautiful! I couldn't believe the weather! It was November, and I was wearing a tank top and shorts! We drove down the Big Sur Coast, about an hour and a half drive, and then turned left onto the Nacimiento Ferguson Road. Well we almost didn't turn because I saw the sign, but didn't see the road, It was a tiny road that disappeared into the woods, thank goodness I was going slow enough to realize there actually was a road there. If not we would have cruised on down the coast. So I turn onto this road and we just start cruising, we are beginning to worry that we might not get a spot because of the holiday weekend, but either way it was a beautiful drive. The fall foliage was in "bloom" and it was very colourful, we drove down this windy road leading us into the middle of nowhere until we see a sign that says In less than 3 miles you will be entering the Fort Hunter Ligget Army Base, uh oh! I knew that the camp site was before the base, so then I begin to think we passed it. I keep cruising trying to figure out if i should turn around and then THERE IT IS! A BIG SIGN THAT SAYS "Ponderosa Camp-ground" We pull in, and hunt for the perfect spot... the first place we stop has 3 camp-sites, one down by the water, one up on top of the hill and one by the cars. We chose the one up above, and what a great choice it was, close to the water, but private enough that you couldn't see it from the road, the rest of them you could. from that moment on we were in our own little la-la land. We let echo run loose since there was NOBODY ELSE in the whole campground! Set up camp and built a fire, then I started wood hunting...and couldn't find much.. WHAT KIND OF FOREST DOESN'T HAVE WOOD LAYING ABOUT?? that was odd, we did manage to find enough twigs :P and we did bring some of our own wood. We built up a fire and had a blast. We barely spoke any English, keeping the majority of the conversation going in Spanish! woo hoo!! We had some fish for dinner, and of course SMORES! That night we head off to bed at 8 (i know shockingly early but we were pooped and night fell around 5:30 ish ) and about 3 hrs in we are both freeeeezing! We don our huge snow jackets and hats and everything else we had and were still cold! In the morning around 6:30 we  build up the fire and melt the icicles off our faces (not really but it felt that way) so we decide to drive into fort Hunter after breaky and buy more firewood and some blankies. Well, fort hunter...really isn't a fort, it is a training ground and only has about 250 people who live and work there.. so much for finding a commissary and PX... Next stop, King City, Well that was a bust too, we are now about 25 miles away from the camp ground, well Nathan didn't want to stay until we found more warmth, so we head onto greenfield... We go to Safeway and buy more food, and they had wood on sale woo hoo!!! and then stopped into rite aid hoping they had blankets..nada, on our way out we see this bin, and it is full of these fleece throws for 2 bucks a piece, we buy 8! Well sure enough that was plenty to keep us warm :) YAY! So we are huddles around the fire about to put it out when we hear this loud cracking sound coming from the area behind the tent! then we hear some deep snuffling. Echo then stands up and does the deepest GRRRRRRR I have ever heard in my life, and keeps this up for about 30 minutes.. I am freaking out but trying not to and I run and grab a bunch of twigs and build the fire back up, Nathan starts talking REALLY LOUD! and eventually the noises go away and echo calms down. What ever it was, it sounded HUGE! But we made it through the night without getting eaten by some mystery animal :) We then packed up and came home and enjoyed a day lounging about and doing a bit of cleaning! It was a great weekend! I will add pictures to this later. (since i am currently at work and do not have any with me :( )