Rained Out!

Camping in the rain is not fun but you sure make memories! Yesterday, we awoke to find the sky overcast and dreary; this however, did not deter the plans for the day and the teens & chaps went tubing for several hours. When they came back, they had a late lunch before heading to the field to play flag football.

They weren't gone but maybe 10 minutes when the skies opened up and it started raining. I thought Mr. R was going to bring the teens back...but I suppose if you're going to be wet, you might as well enjoy it! They finished their game while we played Phase 10 back at the campsite.

Thankfully, the rain stopped by the time we were ready to make supper: hobo pies (last year was the first time I had heard of these and for those of you who don't know what they are: on a piece of foil you place a pat of butter, slice of onion, 4 or 5 potato rounds, couple carrot coins, topped off with meat patty--last year we used hamburger patties; this year we mixed our own--sprinkle salt and pepper and any other spice you want. Wrap it up with the foil and then double wrap that. Place it in the coals of your campfire until ready to eat--about 15 minutes.) After supper we were relaxing around the fire when the sky began lighting up. As one of my friends said it was between a light bulb about to go out and a strobe light. We began to sing songs and share testimonies. I was so comfortable sitting in my chair...toasty warm....and just enjoying life when I saw two blue lights suspended in air. They were too high to be people holding flashlights--I really did not know what they were. Anyway, I watched these lights until they came to OUR camp....hehe...they were flashlights--or head lights. The people who came over told us that there was a warning for severe thunderstorms and winds--perhaps even a tornado! And, at a campsite where you have to provide your housing and such, guess where the safest place would be during a tornado---at the outhouse! Ewww is right!
Well, we had about 20 minutes or so until the storm was to hit so we continued to sit around the fire. Our next song was Till' the Storm Passes By :)

Pastor than came and told us that when the storm hits the boys would go in the big van and the girls to the ladies camper. Even before he finished speaking we felt great drops of rain--Splat! We all scurried about securing things so they wouldn't blow away before going to our gender specific places to wait out the storm.
The wind howled; rain pelted the camper windows as the thunder boomed and lightening flashed through the sky. The camper was a bit cramped, but it was dry :) Since there was extra room in the camper (Crazy Lady had gone home for the night) Mrs. R said that it would be ok for us to sleep in there with her. Three girls shared the bed and I took the floor (call me weird but I don't like sleeping with people who are not under 5:)
Now, normally, once I'm asleep, I'm out; but Mrs. R said that in the middle of the night she heard the boys screaming  like girls and running past our camper to the van. In the morning we found out that out of the 3 tents the boys set up for themselves one was flooded, and the other the poles had snapped causing the tent to collapse. As for the girls tent, it too was flooded. My suitcase was soaked inside and out as well as my extra pillow.
What a night! I'm just glad that this all happened on Saturday night. We left our campsite at  7:30 and headed back to civilization and a washer/dryer machine :) Now we just have to do damage control at the campsite and we can finish off our week on a good note :)