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Well this weekend was our annual trip to Flatirons Res outside of Berthoud, CO. We usually head here in April, because the mountain spots are still snowed in. It started off as the worst trip ever and ended awesome.
On Friday morning, I decided I would drop my daughter off at kindergarten and then head on over to buy some firewood, as it is illegal to gather at this campground. I checked the website and it said they opened at 9am. This was good, cause I could drop my daughter off at 9am, head over and pick up the wood and start packing. I arrived at the place and they were closed, the sign said they opened at 10am. So I went to another place and got some firewood there. I returned home, and we decided just to take my wife's Expidition, to save park entry fees. She had to take a math test at 10am, so I would drop her off. We arrived at the place where she was to take the test, and the teacher sent her an email at 10:05, saying she couldn't make it and wanted to reschedule at 11 am at a different location. So we changed our plans to me pick up the daughter and then start packing. My wife showed up at the new location and time, and the teacher wasn't there, and ended up wasting most of our morning. We all had lunch and proceeded to pack. We made it to the storage unit and was in for a surprise. I had paid my stepson $25 to straighten it up. Apparently, his idea of organized and mine are totally different. It took us forever to get our stuff and get packed. I was glad we had our list, that helped a bunch. We returned home for some final items. My wife was doing something and looked over and realized that her cats had pushed the window screen out and were outside on the loose. So we spend the next hour looking around the neighborhood for them. We eventually found them, it was just another PITA. And finally we were off....
We arrived at our site and started setting up our site. We were almost totally setup, when another family showed up. He said we were in his spot. I said no, I reserved this for Fri and Sat night. He said he just booked it for Thur and Fri, because someone else had reserved it for Sat and Sun night. I pulled out my slip and sure enough, I had booked it for Sat and Sun night. What a boneheaded move. He talked to his wife and they said they said we could stay and share the site. That was extremely nice of them, and we said that if they wanted to stay Sat night, that they were more than welcome. So that crisis was solved. So we finished setting up and my wife wanted to go and take a shower before we had supper. So we drove to the marina bath house to the new shower facility. It takes tokens instead of quarters and I could not get the machine to take my money, and there was no attendant anywhere. So we drove to the rangers office and talked to them. They said they would work on it and see if they could fix it, but not to expect anything until maintenance came in the next morning. So went back to start supper. When we were eating supper, my daughter realized that I had bought bread and butter pickles instead of dill. She doesn't like bread and butter. And the next problem.....I had decided to try dry ice for this trip. When I bought the dry ice, they told me to be careful with it, cause it could burn you. So I put the dry ice in the bottom of the cooler, and placed a folded bath towel over it, and loaded it with food. I noticed when I was getting the meat out for supper on Fri night that it seemed not cold enough in the cooler, so I removed the towel. At this time the rangers came back and gave my wife tokens for the shower, but we decided just to do smores and call it a night.
When we got up on Sat morning, I was going to make breakfast. but due to food being in direct contact with the dry ice, the eggs were frozen, the ham was frozen, basically everything in the cooler was frozen. Plus we forgot milk, so there was no way I could do omelets and french toast. So we decided to head to the house for breakfast and some showers, since we had planned to come home Sat afternoon for a few hours. At this point in time I was seriously thinking of just calling the trip off....
When we got back, things settled down and was better. We chose the spot at the very end of the campground, and it was a peninsula. We took a walk and my daughter wanted a close view of a prickly pear cactus. So I took out my Gerber multi-tool and cut off an ear. I made sure that I didn't touch the big spikes, but it turns out they have smaller spiked that got in my hand. I had to use a knife to scrap the off. This will lead to the addition of Elmer's school glue to the first aid kit. Basically you put the glue on the thorns or splinter, let it dry and pull it off. Thorns and splinters come out with the glue. We met a nice couple on the pier, fishing and visited with them for a spell. We left and went for a little drive and saw almost got sprayed by a skunk in the road. We also came upon a heard of 20+ mule deer. Then it was back to the camp site. A little later the family from the pier came down for smores and ended up leaving with our Aloe Vera, as they didn't have any sunscreen or aloe vera and they lady looked like Sebastian the crab, for the Little Mermaid. We were able to spend some time enjoying the lake and breeze, which made the trip enjoyable.
On Sunday morning the wife decided she wanted to shower, so she took her and the little girl to the marina shower house. While they were gone, I started breaking camp. Upon their return a heard of about 10 elk came off down off the ***** just to our east, got into the water and walked around our peninsula. Roughly 50' from where we were camping. It was awesome. Kind of a message of "don't give up, it is gonna be a good season." I will post some pics later, when my wife finds her camera cord.
So anyone have any tips on using dry ice for coolers? How much and how to keep stuff cold but not freezing?
On Friday morning, I decided I would drop my daughter off at kindergarten and then head on over to buy some firewood, as it is illegal to gather at this campground. I checked the website and it said they opened at 9am. This was good, cause I could drop my daughter off at 9am, head over and pick up the wood and start packing. I arrived at the place and they were closed, the sign said they opened at 10am. So I went to another place and got some firewood there. I returned home, and we decided just to take my wife's Expidition, to save park entry fees. She had to take a math test at 10am, so I would drop her off. We arrived at the place where she was to take the test, and the teacher sent her an email at 10:05, saying she couldn't make it and wanted to reschedule at 11 am at a different location. So we changed our plans to me pick up the daughter and then start packing. My wife showed up at the new location and time, and the teacher wasn't there, and ended up wasting most of our morning. We all had lunch and proceeded to pack. We made it to the storage unit and was in for a surprise. I had paid my stepson $25 to straighten it up. Apparently, his idea of organized and mine are totally different. It took us forever to get our stuff and get packed. I was glad we had our list, that helped a bunch. We returned home for some final items. My wife was doing something and looked over and realized that her cats had pushed the window screen out and were outside on the loose. So we spend the next hour looking around the neighborhood for them. We eventually found them, it was just another PITA. And finally we were off....
We arrived at our site and started setting up our site. We were almost totally setup, when another family showed up. He said we were in his spot. I said no, I reserved this for Fri and Sat night. He said he just booked it for Thur and Fri, because someone else had reserved it for Sat and Sun night. I pulled out my slip and sure enough, I had booked it for Sat and Sun night. What a boneheaded move. He talked to his wife and they said they said we could stay and share the site. That was extremely nice of them, and we said that if they wanted to stay Sat night, that they were more than welcome. So that crisis was solved. So we finished setting up and my wife wanted to go and take a shower before we had supper. So we drove to the marina bath house to the new shower facility. It takes tokens instead of quarters and I could not get the machine to take my money, and there was no attendant anywhere. So we drove to the rangers office and talked to them. They said they would work on it and see if they could fix it, but not to expect anything until maintenance came in the next morning. So went back to start supper. When we were eating supper, my daughter realized that I had bought bread and butter pickles instead of dill. She doesn't like bread and butter. And the next problem.....I had decided to try dry ice for this trip. When I bought the dry ice, they told me to be careful with it, cause it could burn you. So I put the dry ice in the bottom of the cooler, and placed a folded bath towel over it, and loaded it with food. I noticed when I was getting the meat out for supper on Fri night that it seemed not cold enough in the cooler, so I removed the towel. At this time the rangers came back and gave my wife tokens for the shower, but we decided just to do smores and call it a night.
When we got up on Sat morning, I was going to make breakfast. but due to food being in direct contact with the dry ice, the eggs were frozen, the ham was frozen, basically everything in the cooler was frozen. Plus we forgot milk, so there was no way I could do omelets and french toast. So we decided to head to the house for breakfast and some showers, since we had planned to come home Sat afternoon for a few hours. At this point in time I was seriously thinking of just calling the trip off....
When we got back, things settled down and was better. We chose the spot at the very end of the campground, and it was a peninsula. We took a walk and my daughter wanted a close view of a prickly pear cactus. So I took out my Gerber multi-tool and cut off an ear. I made sure that I didn't touch the big spikes, but it turns out they have smaller spiked that got in my hand. I had to use a knife to scrap the off. This will lead to the addition of Elmer's school glue to the first aid kit. Basically you put the glue on the thorns or splinter, let it dry and pull it off. Thorns and splinters come out with the glue. We met a nice couple on the pier, fishing and visited with them for a spell. We left and went for a little drive and saw almost got sprayed by a skunk in the road. We also came upon a heard of 20+ mule deer. Then it was back to the camp site. A little later the family from the pier came down for smores and ended up leaving with our Aloe Vera, as they didn't have any sunscreen or aloe vera and they lady looked like Sebastian the crab, for the Little Mermaid. We were able to spend some time enjoying the lake and breeze, which made the trip enjoyable.
On Sunday morning the wife decided she wanted to shower, so she took her and the little girl to the marina shower house. While they were gone, I started breaking camp. Upon their return a heard of about 10 elk came off down off the ***** just to our east, got into the water and walked around our peninsula. Roughly 50' from where we were camping. It was awesome. Kind of a message of "don't give up, it is gonna be a good season." I will post some pics later, when my wife finds her camera cord.
So anyone have any tips on using dry ice for coolers? How much and how to keep stuff cold but not freezing?
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