Thoughts To Ponder

"Joy is a net of Love by which you can catch souls"
-Mother Teresa

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Camping In The Rain. Ohhh What Fun!

Our camping adventure started Thursday when the kids got out of school.  Kelly Watson and I packed up and hit the road.  I had never pulled a trailer before, so that was kinda fun for me.  On our way we got to talking and of course I missed my turn,  surprise surprise,  well any way we went way out of the way.  When I finally realized that we were lost I called Matt,  fortunately we found another route that was just as fast.  I found out that I can go the wrong way, and still be going the right way, if that makes any sense.  Moving on.  When we get to Beavers Bend, Kelly and I selected the "perfect spot" and set up her tent.  Just as we were finishing, a man told us the bathrooms close to us weren't working,  that explained why no one else was down that way.  So we loaded back up and moved on.  After carefully selecting another "perfect location" we started the process all over again.  The five kids were wonderful about the whole thing.  Kelly and I are now professional camp setter uppers in case any of you want to hire us.  lol We set up two tents, a canopy, and fed the kids in the dark,  cause our light bulb burnt out.  She had two small flashlights and I had two book lights that the kids carried around.  We were laughing and having a wonderful time in spite of our hardships.  As we were sitting around in the dark enjoying our break,  our dog Minnie started barking, Meagan looked to see what the trouble was, and it was a raccoon, whom we named R.J.  He was so pesky and nosy.  Kelly was brave and shooed him away(so we thought).  We got the kids settled down and we turned off our flash lights while we were waiting for our men folk to arrive, we didn't want our batteries to run out our first night.  While we were sitting and relaxing I heard something right beside me.  I slowly called Kellys name and she flipped on the light,  she screamed and I jumped and ran,  R.J. was right between us.  When she screamed he ran so fast we didn't even have time to see where he went.  We laughed forever over this.  Finally around 11:00 the guys arrived.  Boy were we glad to see them.  They had a good laugh over all our tales.  We finally went to bed around midnight.  It started raining around 7:00 I guess that next morning.  It rained and rained and rained.  Kelly and Derek's tent started filling up with water from the bottom and ours started dripping from the top a little.  We cleaned up that mess when it stopped raining at around 5:00 that evening.  We found a laundry mat and dried all our blankets and towels.  Went back to camp, and prepared for the next storm.  While we did laundry Matt, and Derek, went to Wal-Mart to pick up extra tarps, and another canopy.  We completely completely covered both our tents and was ready to go.   The weather predicted a possible tornado.  We were determined to wait it out.  It rained AGAIN,  starting at 3:00am until around 7:00am.  At 7:30 a man we met at the laundry mat, stopped by to see if we survived,  He was so kind, he brought us donuts and a news paper.  He and his wife were so sweet.  Any way, we enjoyed the sun shine after that.  All of us went on a 4 or 5 mile bike ride in the woods,  my behind thinks it was more like 6 or 7 miles.  It was beautiful.  The kids walked around in the river at a waterfall that we found, and off on another adventure we went.  We had a wonderful time.  The canoeing was great.  The river was slow so we enjoyed the view as we floated along.  We tried our luck at fishing,  the only thing we caught was a limb thanks to Mason.  At least he caught something.  I am so thankful for the Watsons.  They are great examples.  I didn't have to worry about gossiping or anything like that.  I am glad to call them friends.  Sadly our trip had to come to an end, we arrived home late Sun. evening.  Believe it or not I am ready to go again.  Only next time I am going to try and figure out how to take a portable washer and dryer. lol Camping is great, even camping in the rain is okay, but all the laundry afterward really stinks. ( Literally and figuratively.)

5 comments:

  1. good for you to take your kids camping! Jeff's idea of roughing it is our 5th wheel and no tv. =) And of course he has to have internet! Lots of fun memories! Leesa

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  2. Sounds like a lot of fun...I want to come next time!!!! Katrina

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  3. Been there, done that MANY times! I hate to camp in the rain. In fact, camping in good weather isn't my favorite, either :) Next time...it's a cabin for me. The kids & Lloyd can do whatever they want :)
    I am glad you guys had fun. You never cease to amaze me at your resilience! *pats you on the back*
    Denise

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  4. Sounds like loads of fun. A good thing you all were able to put up (I guess the correct term - would be to "pitch" a tent) the tents. Glad you all have wonderful memories to look back on. :)

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  5. Sounds like great fun! I remember some wonderful, treasured adventures of camping in rain storms with our "Wirth" family! Then Tom and I had some really fun camping trips with our kids and the "Peach" family.

    Making memories with your kids is a wonderful thing. Some of the very best gifts you can give your children is to love their daddy and to invest your "time" loaded with love into their lives. Sounds like you're doing that.

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