Camping Finale: Out With a Bang

....And I do mean that literally. Last we left you, we were on our way back to camp to start a fire for dinner. So we begin the prep work, and the boys get the fire going like champs. Though, the longer we went, the darker the sky became, until it finally just opened up. Seeing it coming we had already picked up most stuff except the tent, since it was waterproof and had the fly on. So when the rains came, we headed to the car to wait it out. We waited, and waited, and the rain came harder and harder, until it finally seemed to conquer our little fire. The storm was literally on top of us with thunder and lightening, and then you hear this deafening crash, and at that moment we saw the bark of a tree fly right off of it.

It was nothing less than unbelievable. These are the pictures if you have never seen lightening hit a tree and see the bark get blown off. The tree was still standing, as was the clothes line tied to it. It looks as if it was just peeled, and it was very smooth.

Oh yah, this was on the campsite across the road from us. The boys were a little distraught at that idea. They were glad to be in the car. But about this time the boys became worried about their webkinz that they had left in the tent. (They would be so scared.) So Matt being the great dad he is, ran out in the storm to bring back two little pets from our tent, just in time before they were carried off by the flood that was pouring into our "waterproof" tent. You guessed it, our tent proved not to be waterproof, not even the rain fly. It was pouring into the tent by bucket fulls. So much for night #2, this was the official end of our trip.

So Matt systematically pulled all our wet things out of the tent and loaded them into the car, along with the wet tent and tarp, and off we went. But not without first checking to see how good their fire really was, and it proved to be awesome. These are the still red embers left even after the storm. So we at least would have had a fire. Good Job Boys.

As we were pulling away, the sky cleared, but without a tent, you really are done. So we made plan B and headed home, just in time to get caught in a traffic jam on 85. Then after coming through that, we caught up with the storm and drove through the driving rains this time, yuck. Once in Charlotte, we stopped for a pizza for dinner that night and as we waited, the storm passed us for time #3, yes, you heard right, 3 times we went through the same storm. We finally made it home only to find that our A/C was out yet again. But Plan B was still OK, it would be like camping in the house now, no big deal, right? That was until I was unloading the car and found that my trunk was full of termites, hundreds and hundreds of termites!!!! Yes, I do scream and throw fits at times like these, me and bugs like that don't get along. So Matt came running to the rescue, I put the boys to bed and we collapsed into our very hot bed late that night for the conclusion of our 1st Lucas family camping trip. Plan B was officially done. As was any other plan that had to do with camping.

Will we do it again, you ask??? I can not answer that one just yet, I am still seeing my therapist for my bug counseling. Happy Camping!