Fordem Ranch Camping
In the Middle of Nowhere
I was very lucky growing up, my extended family had a large ranch about an hour east of San Diego. As a kid, we camped up there a couple of times a year. We would go on walks, enjoy campfires, climb trees, and go down zip lines. As I got older, we took advantage of the shooting range they built into an overlook.
Having the new RV, now was a perfect time to try boon-docking. No power, no water, and no other hookups. Since we were going to be there, we invited everyone up to join us. Nick, Christianne, Alex, Charlie, and Mini also joined us. The perfect reason to get the tents out for the night. Aaron, Nick, and the kids in the tents. Desiree and Christianne in the RV. Grampa showed up and impressed the kids by sleeping on a cot outside without a tent. He made Wade a slingshot from a manzanita tree cutting forever building a bond — if you had a boy a weapon, you make a friend for life. He then showed them lighting a fire with white gasoline. When building a fire now, Wade expects an explosion. Grandma brought Amelia’s birthday presents which she got to open early. She loved her new earnings.
The area is set up for large family events so there are some built-in features like seating, a small kitchen, and most importantly a rope swing for the kids. That swing must have been occupied about 90% of the time with adults taking turns pushing and helping the kids.
We also made Helmets over the fire. Helmets are premade biscuit dough (the stuff in a vacuum tube) over a dowel. Cook them for about 10 minutes, they pop off and fill the cavity with jam, jelly, honey, or whip cream. Perfect camping treats.
Best part of the whole trip, Nick, Dad, and I got to do some shooting. I pulled out my old pump-action 12 gauge that was my grandfather’s. Dad brought his automatic 12 and 20 gauge which were half the weight of mine. My skeet game is still very strong. We also used the 9mm on a can. I was also able to get in some basic gun education with the kids: “these are bullets, what do you do if you ever come across these?” The correct answer is, get an adult. Amelia passed the test, I need to work on Wade
