The long national nightmare that was our three-week camping trip to the High Sierras is finally over! Despite minor injuries to every member of our family (fish hooks, rocks falling on heads, falls into rivers, and agenda-driven picnic tables) somehow we survived!

The funniest of the injuries happened to my husband in Yosemite. As per the ADA, the campgrounds have equipped all the sites with wheelchair accessible picnic tables. Unfortunately for the able-bodied, this means that the table part sticks out a good three feet further from the seat. Late at night and in the dark, one can only see the top of the table and it is easy to forget things like that. While we were all sitting around the campfire, my husband backed up to sit down and found the reminder quite painful. As our campground host laughed knowingly about this accident, I am sure it is nothing unique to our experience. I am also reasonably sure that the number of people who have actually used the wheelchair feature of this table are fewer than the number of people injured in the way I described! But this was nothing compared to what happened to my in-laws on the way home.

Somehow my father-in-law lost control of his vehicle and jack-knifed his 5th wheel trailer along the I-5! It, and the truck, rolled over at least twice, pinning them inside and destroying everything. It is a miracle that they survived the crash without serious injury. But if you’ve never seen anything like this, it is difficult to describe. Think of an alien ship sucking everything up into the sky and then dropping it from several thousand feet! Then consider that trailers are made out of thin sheet metal, styrofoam, staples and the cheap pressed board they use for the backing of a cheap bookcase. It was quite a terrible scene.

But let me also say that if you know anyone who has one of these things and allows people to ride inside of it (or for that matter, in the non-vehicle part of a motorhome) please tell them to reconsider. Not only would no one have survived if he had been riding inside of it--neither would he be in one piece! The highway patrol officer called his wife from the scene to tell her that their plans for getting a 5th wheel so the kids could ride in the back were now off!

But, there was some good news. The fishing was fantastic, the scenery spectacular, and above all . . . the kids thought it was all one big adventure.

Now we are back to our more pedestrian existence, school has started, and the adventures must wait--at least until next summer.