4th of July

Fourth of July is one of the "tradition" holidays for the Oxford side of the Caldera family (huh?). Which means it's a big deal, and people always try their best to show up. Thankgiving is the other holiday like this for Keith's side of the family. Anyway, the 4th consists of rustic camping out in BLM land along the Smith River west of Eugene. Rustic is becoming a relative term, as the number of luxurious camp trailers and RV's is starting to outnumber the tents and tarps. They've been coming out here to camp each year for all of Keith's life minus a few exceptions where they tried the "civilized" camps with rangers and formal camp spots - it wasn't to their liking as they were a little too loud and rambunctious for the camp host's liking.

At any rate, here is a look at what goes on during a typical 4th of July camp:

First and foremost.....lots of eating and hanging around:


Each night there is a poker game of some sort - as of late it has been Texas Hold'em as that is what everyone is playing these days:


Lots of horseshoe playing (note the big RV behind Dwayne - tough life if you have to sleep in that! - needless to say that was not where Keith and I settled down to sleep for the night):


For the second year in a row we had a rousing Cribbage tournament. Emily was the big champ last year, and Keith took the prize this year.


Weather permitting (or not for some folks) there is always large parts of the day devoted to the two swimming holes:


Where Gracie impresses all with her rock catching ability:


This is another shot of the "big" water hole that has this cool "waterfall" to soak under:


And the new activity added this year thanks to the plethera of children that showed up was waterfights with big soakers. Kiel put us all to shame.