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After celebrating Canada Day in Winnipeg, Manitoba, we of course had to head back over the border to celebrate the Fourth of July in our own country. So, we made our way back down through customs (not without a van inspection and lots of questions) and headed to the Chippewa National Forest.

Related Read: Happy 4th of July-RV Style

We had picked out a free campground in this forest and we were really looking forward to a few days of nature, relaxation, and celebration. It was an awesome campground and we couldn’t believe it was free. Positioned right by a beautiful lake, surrounded by trees, real campfire pits, and even a pit toilet if you needed it.

But, we weren’t the only ones with the idea of free camping for the holiday, and all of the real sites were filled the afternoon we arrived. So, we spent our first day in a little grove swarming with blood thirsty mosquitos. They were terrible! Luckily, the next day someone had cleared out of one of the best camp spots and we quickly snagged it before it was gone again. It was probably one of the best free camp spots we had stayed at on the trip so far. Nice clearing area with sun filtering in through the trees, hardly any mosquitos, an area to hang up a clothesline, room to set up our pop-tent for extra shade or rain protection, and it was all pretty level for the van. We setup our camp chairs and cracked open a cold beer, pretty dang content.

Related Read: How to Control Mosquitoes at your Campsite

Later that afternoon, we decided to really test out our inflatable raft we had purchased recently. It was much smaller than it appeared on the box, and together we were about 100 lbs over the max weight limit it was designed to hold. We got a few chuckles from neighbors down at the lake as they asked us if we really meant to take that tiny raft out into the water. We hopped right in and said we were sure going to try!

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The raft held up fine and we had a blast rowing our way around the lake squished inside with Paris crawling all over us. The water felt great and we jumped in when we got hot and took turns rowing when we drifted too close to the bank or too far out to the real boats.

That was pretty much how our 4th of July weekend went, and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. We enjoyed our afternoons either swimming, soaking up the sun, or getting some chores done around the van. Our evenings we spent around the fire, eating hot dogs or hamburgers, and s’mores for dessert. We even had little sparklers we lit up on the actual night of the 4th, although our neighbors sure didn’t seem to care we were surrounded by forests and lit off real firecrackers EVERY night we were there (Paris did not appreciate that much). The whole weekend felt very American.

We did however, have another uninvited guest join our celebration. We woke up one night to the sounds of scratching and scurrying, this time inside of our walls! Somehow a mouse or something like a mouse, had found its way into the space between the inner and outer fiberglass shells. It bolted from the back to the front of the van and was chewing away on what we think was the cardboard placed between the two layers of fiberglass. Luckily, our little “friend” decided to leave on his own and we didn’t have any further issues with him. But, that’s vanlife, just when you’re about to relax something unexpected is always bound to happen.