It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

I am happy to report we survived our camping adventure!  Turns out, the final tent I purchased was juuuuuusssst right!  Whew!

We made it to camp around 11:00 Friday morning.  It was a nice little drive and a pretty morning.  We quickly got our tents set up, mattresses blown up and sleeping bags unrolled.

It wasn't long before it began to rain.  Thanks to Teresa, we had a nice tarp hanging over our picnic table so we had a nice dry place to sit.

The girls did some bonding and coloring.

Teresa made us some Jeweled Apples.  Yum!

We wanted to be sure we could have a campfire that night so here was our solution:

Things were off to a great start!

And then...it happened!

Yup!  The weather warning sirens blew.

Since Teresa is the experienced camper, I look up at her and said "Now what?"

She directed us all to the car.  I grabbed Max and we made the dash to the car through the pouring rain.  We listened to the radio as we watched fantastical lightning and felt the pounding of the rain on the car.  It wasn't too long before the all clear was given.  Whew!

By this time, the girls were hungry and I had forgotten the bait so a trip to town was required.  Back into the car we piled, and off we went.  Unfortunately, I took us on quite a tour of the surrounding areas before we stumbled upon the bait shop.  With worms in hand, we set off to the Dairy Queen for a treat for having survived the storm.  Since Teresa knew where she was going, she drove us back to camp.

We spent a few hours walking around the camp, chatting with other storm survivors and getting the lay of the land.

Then it was time for supper.  Our first camp meal!  How's this look?

Mmm Mmmm Mmmm!  Baby back ribs and fresh corn on the cob!  Life is good!

After dinner and cleaning up, it was time to build a fire.

Being the brilliant campers we are, we had taken the above precaution at the onset of the storm.  Don't laugh. It worked!

Smores were enjoyed by all!

Around 9:00 p.m., right around dusk, we began to hear the most beautiful bird call.  It wasn't long before we agreed it was a whippoorwill.  I was enchanted as I had never heard one before.  It so added to the magic of the lightning bugs and campfire.  In case you would like to hear one, follow this link:

http://www.soundboard.com/sb/Whippoorwill_sounds.aspx

Isn't it delightful?  I sure thought so!

While still trying to sleep at midnight, I wasn't so enchanted with it.

At 3:30 a.m., I was ready to shoot it.

After a very, long night of no sleep, we were treated to blueberry pancakes by Teresa.  They sure hit the spot!

We spent the day doing some walking, a little swimming (the water was a bit chilly and the sun was in a constant state of hide and seek in the clouds) and very little fishing amid about a million zillion lily pads.  Becky caught the only fish of the day.  It was about a 3" sunny.  Back he went.

We enjoyed great pigs in a blanket, boy scout style.  You take bread stick dough, roll it around your hot dog and bake them over an open fire.  As Rachel Ray says "Delish!"  And of course, we just had to have some Smores again! 

I want to share with you a very special marshmallow that Teresa was roasting...

Do you see what we all saw?  See the little legs poking out at the bottom of the picture?

It's a TURKEY!  Have you ever seen such a thing?  We were so excited! 

Anyway, in the midst of all of our activities through out the day, we had cell phones ringing with calls, cell phone beeping with texts and the radio turn on and off.  All three were reporting severe storms for Sat. night.  We debated all day on what to do.  Finally, at around 5:45 p.m., after hearing the storm described as a gully washer with very high winds, we resigned ourselves to it and sadly decided to break camp.  I'm am proud to say that it took the 4 of us girls only 45 minutes to break things down AND get the cars packed up!  We are good!  I'm just sayin'!

I'm not quite sure how, but we all managed to have a great time!  I've decided it's because we were with such good friends!

Even Max seemed to enjoy it all!

OK...maybe he doesn't look so happy here but he sure was when he got the scraps from the ribs!  He was such a good boy I just had to treat him to some Chicken McNuggets on the way home!

Now, you must be asking yourselves if we'd do it again.

As we hugged each other good bye, we asked each other the very same question.  We all agreed...

DEFINITELY!!!