Now, we've been camping before and I actually enjoy camping very much although our entire family has not been able to go for quite some time. Serena and I have started a tradition of sorts. For the last several years, Robin, Crysta and Kayla have gone away for two weeks of CEF's Christian Youth in Action training prefacing a summer of missions work. Last year Serena and I went camping during the time the other girls were away and we continued that new tradition this year.
So we loaded the van, bought the groceries, got the fishing permit and worms, ran some last minute errands and headed out of town. Our destination was Stockton State Park, about an hour drive north. We arrived and found a desirable camp space among the mostly empty campground. We registered and paid the fees, were warned of impending storms and then began to set up camp. The first thing to do was to put up the E-Z Up canopy we purchased a year and a half ago. We purchased this primarily for use during summer Bible clubs but planned to use it for family functions as well.
The canopy fell apart as Serena and I tried putting it up. About six of the metal struts were broken in the middle where they passed through hinge pins. I couldn't believe what was happening. The canopy I paid two hundred dollars for not too long ago had been destroyed. The last time it was used was at our church's Fall Festival. Some well meaning but uninformed individuals had attempted to put it away without the proper knowledge and just broke it to pieces. They may not have known they broke it when they put it in the carry bag and I know it was unintentional, nonetheless; there goes two hundred dollars.
The rest of camp set-up went well. I used a small tarp, originally intended as a table covering, and sundry ropes and bungee cords to fashion a suitable canopy over our table. This performed well to keep rain and tree debris off our heads. We enjoyed a nice evening around camp making plans to go swimming the next day. I was tired because I had worked the previous evening and had been awake for around 24 hours by this time so we decided to go to bed when the sun went down at 9:00.
The storms came. It started raining and thundering and lightening. We slept off and on for about five hours occasionally waking to the audiovisual stimulation provided by the storm cells passing through. Around 2am I was awakened to a loud thunderclap. I lay there pondering the elements of the storm: It was raining, hard. The thunder was loud and rolling, the kind you could hear for 10 or 20 seconds. The lightning was occasional but spectacular as viewed through the thin blue nylon tent fabric. I was laying there amazed that there seemed to be no appreciable wind. About that time, Serena rolled over and cuddled up to me. The next thing I knew the wind had collapsed half our tent. This caused the rainfly to come loose and let rainwater filter in through the tent netting. We lay there, getting wet, contemplating our next move. I had decided we would probably need to abandon our tent but was in no hurry because it was raining, hard, and while we were getting wet inside the tent, there was not nearly as much rain inside the tent as outside.
After several minutes of soggy reflection, I realized that our situation would not be improving on its own. So the decision to abandon our tent was made and we sprang into action. We grabbed flashlights and headed out into the pond that was our campsite to the safety of the Villager. We were drenched from head to toe and both had to use the bathroom. I drove to the bath house and, after taking care of business and drying off a much as possible, and decided we would enjoy a drive into town since we were stuck in the van anyway. So we spent the next hour exploring the town of Stockton. We ended up back at the campground and dozed for the next few hours sitting in the reclining front van seats.
That morning was spent cleaning up from the storm. Our tent was not damaged in any way. The flexible shock-corded poles were just collapsed by the wind. It was a simple matter of pushing the inside of the tent up and the poles snapped back into position. I secured the rainfly better and added some tie-downs to help keep the tent from collapsing again. It didn't work. That evening while sitting around the fire another storm front came through and collapsed the tent again. We were not in it this time and things did not get as wet because of the improved rainfly. It did give me an opportunity to learn that the tent was just not stable in high winds. I secured the tent poles to some trees to prevent another collapse. I am getting ahead of myself though.
After the storm clean-up we headed back into town to find a Laundromat to dry all our clothes that got wet. We stopped to take some photos on the way back into the park and just about the time we arrived at our camp site the van started acting up. It turned out that the crankshaft pulley (or harmonic balancer) just busted. This meant that there were no accessory belts to drive the, uh, accessories, including the alternator and water pump. So that afternoon was spent making arrangements to have the van towed home the following day. Thank God for friends that were able to make arrangements to come get me saving me over half what a commercial tow truck would have cost.
The only really sad part of all this was that Serena and I did not get to go swimming. The beach area was several miles away and I was not about to walk there. This saddened Serena, but she soon got over it and made the best of it. She still had a great time and is ready to go back already.
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