T h Corny A T G amIr R L

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

That Family Goes Camping

Since little j's inaugural camping trip last fall we have all been talking about how much we want to go again, and last weekend turned out to be a good time to go. So Friday Big J and I packed up and picked up little j from camp and headed to Bear Creek Lake State Park.

It was a very nice campground with a great lake beach. And we found a spot and started unloading. And then Big J and I remembered why we have been so hesitant to camp in Virginia -- it's damn humid. In fact, although neither of us said so, we were both thinking, "What the hell are we doing out here!"

But we stuck it out, set up our camp and cooked dinner. After dinner we took a walk down to the beach and then came back to start a fire for marshmallow roasting. At the beach we heard a little thunder, but couldn't really see any clouds other than a few north of us. This time of year storms don't move down from the north, so we weren't particularly worried.

As the evening wore on we heard more and more rumbles, but still saw no clouds. About 9 pm little j and I walked down to the bathrooms to shower and brush our teeth. As we were drying off the thunder was most definitely louder, seemingly right over us. Sure enough, we stepped out to the sinks and the rain started coming down. A minute later, Big J poked his head in and were were hoping he had the umbrella. No such luck! He came in and said we should just hang out until it stopped. And shortly we were joined by another family with the same thought.

We visited with the family for a few minutes when an announcement came over the PA system announcing that everyone was to leave their camp spots and take shelter in the nearest restroom because a tornado had touched down two miles from the campground. So our family, along with a few others and several dogs, hunkered down in the rest room to wait for the okay to head back.

We were only there for about 20 minutes, so it wasn't too bad. And fortunately there was a fan to cool it off. By the time we were able to head back the rain had stopped, but true to Virginia thunderstorms, we were left with a sauna.

The rest of the trip was fun and uneventful. We all had a good time swimming, relaxing, playing go fish and working on our roasted marshmallow technique. And even though the first night was miserably humid, we agreed it was a great trip and can't wait for the next one!

1 comment:

Sally HP said...

Camping is so fun! I haven't been in a really long time...and I just read in your sidebar that you're reading Under the Banner of Heaven...isn't it such a good book? Chilling, but good.