May. 3, 2009

The Aborted Camping Trip

Wowowowow. So much to catch up on; I don’t know where to start! But I HAVE to start with this past weekend; it’s been beyond imagination. We’ve been eagerly anticipating the camping trip with the Browns for almost a month now. We planned it near the beginning of April; some subset of their family will be gone at various times all throughout the summer and so the only time we could go camping with all of them would be before they left for CA on the mission trip. We squeezed this in between our presentation last Thursday and our Final Presentation next Thursday (they leave next Monday). Emily, Courtney and I have been talking about what to do, what to bring, and how much fun we’re going to have and I think it’s fair to say it’s been a much-anticipated event all around. Then we found out the forecast: 80% chance of rain, dreary and about 60 degrees. Funfunfun. Being the adventuresome (and perhaps slightly stupid) people that we are, though, we decided to go for it anyway. The Browns couldn’t get to the campground – Buffalo Point, of course – till about five, but we arrived at the campsite about two. There were two other campers in the entire loop, but we soon discovered we were not alone. There were the gnats. Never in my life have I experienced anything quite like it. We stepped out of the car and they swarmed us. They were everywhere, and they flew into any hole they could find – eyes, ears, nose, mouth – whatever, they’d go into it. They quite enjoyed dive-bombing us and Josiah made up a new dance: we call it the “THEY’RE IN MY EYESNOSEMOUTHEARS!!!!” dance. He got so obnoxious that Dad finally asked him to leave while Mom dodged the gnats to set up the awning and Dad, Andrew and I worked together to get the camper set up and unloaded. After we’d completed the basics, we kids begged off to go swimming. It wasn’t that warm, and we were pretty sure that the water would be cold, but we were trying to be optimistic and, to be honest, mostly just wanted to get away from those evil gnats. We headed down to the swimming hole – “lagoon” as we like to call it – and dove in. It was definitely cold, and the recent flooding had cut away a lot of the outcropping so there was a lot of current through our little swimming area, but we didn’t care. There were no gnats down there, it wasn’t raining, the boys were hyper and I was just calmly watching, daydreaming about looking up and seeing the Browns walk over the hill. Well, we stayed down there till Andrew said he had to go back because he was freezing – he has no fat on his body so that’s a frequent problem – and trudged back through the nice soft sand and the green poison ivy (no kidding) to the campsite. We had not been there five minutes when Andrew practically shrieked, “That’s them! They’re HERE!” and the Browns’ silver Odyssey pulled into loop C. She just looks happy, but she's really being eaten alive by gnats. Naturally we were all ecstatic. Josiah attacked Ryan, Andrew attacked Rachel, and I took Emily and Courtney. Not literally, of course. But by the time our parents had begun their secret chat we were all well-engaged with our favorite people. Mom, Dad, and Mr. and Mrs. Brown talked and talked and talked while the Browns headed for the bathrooms to get suited up (we talked them into going swimming). By the time they returned Dad dropped the ball: we were going home. Apparently the ranger had just come by and informed them of some pretty rotten weather heading our way in the form of torrential rain, wind, and possibly tornadic activity. It had been executively decided that we didn’t want to hang around for that, so Dad informed us that we’d be having dinner there at the campground and then we’d head home. Naturally, we were all disappointed, but as the girls and I headed out to the “beach” I determined to stay in a positive mindset. None of us really knew what would happen over the weekend, but I was determined to enjoy whatever time I had with the girls. And have fun we did! The girls dove in with no hesitation to my joy. We swam around there for a few minutes and then Rachel said she wanted to swim across to the other side. If any of you have been in a river you know they have killer currents, so I told her if she felt up to it I’d go with her but we’d have to start quite a ways upstream in order to not end up way far down the river. We swam across and it was cool to watch Courtney and Emily swim together (they look very official and actually swim with a real stroke, not the frog stroke like me). The guys showed up soon after and swam across as well, making it far further upstream than us. By the time we’d returned to the shore we started on I was completely exhausted but Rachel wanted to do it again. She cracks me up. We had all kinds of mud threats from Josiah and Courtney built a “slide” on the dunes, but it was rather sad. Josiah rediscovered mudsicles, made with wet sand. Josiah got the “Spirit of the Lord” song Jory sang over and over at LC stuck in our heads, and then I retaliated by singing the “Testimony” song Alex sings at church. Emily saw a snake. We had running and jumping contests and Emily won. Eventually we got tired and cold and went back to the campsite, but I hear tell that Josiah, Ryan and Rachel stayed down there for at least thirty minutes longer having mud wars. Courtney, Emily and I headed to the showers. There was a lady in the big one so Emily and I sat and waited while Courtney stepped into the small one… and screamed. She pulled back the curtain (yes, she was fully dressed) and pointed to an enormous wolf spider standing near the drain. She stepped on him and washed him down the drain. I have never in my life heard her scream, and it was SO funny! In her defense, though, she doesn’t scream much at all and she says she had a bad experience with a wolf spider once. Still, it was pretty hysterical. Later she stepped into the same stall to change or something… and screamed again! Apparently she bumped the knob for the shower so the water came back on and soaked her now-dry clothes. Emily and I were in stitches, but Courtney wasn’t real happy. :) She’s a good sport, though. When we came back we were once again subjected to the evil torture of the nasty gnats. Emily and I played cuppers but never finished because I was tired (yeah, wimpy me). The parents grilled the meat and warmed the potatoes over (and in) the fire and by the time the guys returned from their mud fight we were about ready to eat. It was a delicious dinner. The Browns had some kind of coal-grilled chicken, potatoes and veggies, which they shared with us. We had grilled chicken and kielbasa, along with creamy cheese potatoes, which we shared with them. Ryan graciously finished off the potatoes (it was service and sacrifice). We all enjoyed the impossible-to-cut chain saw bars (Mr. Brown cut them enormous, which we all appreciated) and then rushed to collapse and pack up everything before it started raining. The men prepare dinner. YumYumYum! While we were packing another ranger came by and told us that a tornado was heading for us and would be here in a few hours and if there was a problem the bathrooms would be the safest place to be. Hmmm. Glad we’re leaving. We finished packing and set out for home as it started to rain. Dad, Mom, Courtney, Emily and I were in our car, and the remainder of the people were in the Browns’ van. I got really sick on the way there – well, just the last half-hour or so – and had trouble on the way back, too. I mostly just curled up in the backseat while Dad asked Courtney and Emily conversational-type questions. I think I slept somewhere in there too. When we got to the Browns’ house it wasn’t raining but it was quite cold and windy. There was quite the transfer of baggage and people and within ten minutes we were headed to Walnut Shade, now carrying Andrew and Rachel with all their luggage plus the folks we already had. Jo stayed with Ryan at the Browns’. It rained all the way home. It was late; maybe 10:30 or 11 when we got home. We unloaded the essentials and then all collapsed in my room. I made the executive decision that I didn’t want to sleep in KT’s room. Don’t ask me why. We all crowded into my room; the first night Emily and Courtney took the bed, while Rachel and I slept on couch cushions. They were comfortable but rather annoying as they would consistently slide apart in the middle of the night. However, we had no creepy sleep-swaying or talking experiences. :-) Up at 7:30 the next morning. Well, actually, my alarm clock rang off at six because I forgot to turn it off, but none of us had trouble going back to sleep as far as I could tell. Emily and I showered quickly and then we all went outside to help Dad unload the camper. There wasn’t actually all that much to do. Rachel and Andrew unloaded the van and enjoyed a rather jerky ride from the toyport back down the driveway at my expense. It was a coolish morning and of course everything was muddy but it wasn’t raining. When we got inside we set about clearing and setting the table, washing the mounds of dishes, and cracking eggs for breakfast. We had barely started this process when the guys (plus Ms. Sue) showed up. There was no consensus on how many eggs to make so we made 25 and ate all of them. Mom wasn’t there because she felt cruddy. It was mostly because of all the bug bites she had on her legs, we think. She’s still having some trouble. Courtney dried dishes; Emily made up the scrambled eggs; and I washed dishes. Random people helped get the table set and everything out that we were eating for breakfast. Mr. Brown fried some bacon and (drum roll please) scrapple, an East Coast breakfast meat that we’d heard a lot about but had never tasted. Along with eggs, bacon, and scrapple we also had Pop-Tarts, which we managed ton convince some of the Browns’ to try with butter on them. Toasted, of course. That’s the only way to eat pop-tarts. Clearly this was the feast - breakfast of champions! When breakfast was over Mom tried to do the cleanup but we asked her to sit down and Courtney, Emily and I cleaned up breakfast. As soon as we’d finished that Dad announced that we were going hiking. See, our mindset for the entire weekend was that we were camping even though we weren’t, and we had planned to go on the death hike (you’d have to be there) Saturday morning had we been camping, so Dad saw no reason to change this, since we were still camping. Therefore, we all packed up trail mix, water bottles, and ponchos and packed up to head to Busiek for some hiiiiiiiiiiiiiking in the rain. It was sprinkling when we left but this soon increased to a steady rain that showed no signs of letting up. As we sloshed through the muddy grass, trying to keep various extremities dry, many of us wondered why we were doing this. However, wanting to be positive, many of us chimed in with various VeggieTales quotes to keep everyone smiling and Josiah kept saying “come in, Render Man Five,” which was annoying but funny. This is the before shot... we didn't get an after shot but I don't think it would have been real attractive. :-) After hiking for less than ten minutes we came to the creak which is usually dry but, due to all the rain recently, was rushing very quickly and there was no bridge where we were. With jubilation, the kids announced that we’d have to turn back. Dad, not one to give up but also smart enough to not try to wade through that creek, agreed but said that in order for this to be considered a hike we’d have to have a snack break. Tired from our ten minutes of walking, we agreed. Trail mix all around. This restored the general mood of the group and after Mom commenting that her legs were happier after seeing “trigger happy” carved into a log, we headed back. I'm still not sure what Mom was doing but it was definitely amusing. Everything was rather soggy and stinky on the way back, except the trail mix, which Jo and Ryan neatly finished off on the way home. At home we draped the wet ponchos over the porch swing and headed inside, laughing about our soaked clothing and our mock hike. To be continued…

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May. 4, 2009 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Melissa

haha, fun stuff, I thought of you guys at some point when it was raining and cold and wondered if you had followed through. Glad you still had fun =)

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