Boy, am I glad that Joel and I have a sense of humor. We really needed one this last weekend. This is going to be long, but entertaining I promise--it is about a very memorable camping experience. I will put numbers in
parentheses with all the "funny" things that happened I am sorry, but I don't have pictures on this computer, so I will post pictures from the weekend later.
It all started on Friday night...
Joel and I headed out of Des
Moines after I got done with work to go camping. We arrived at our destination
Muscatine, IA (30 miles south of Davenport). We were camping at
Fairport State Park located on the Mississippi River. Upon our arrival we put our tent up and then realized we didn't have any wood. Joel went into town looking for wood. He had to go to 3 stores before he had any luck--he knew the small town of
Muscatine after that. Meanwhile, I was at camp waiting for our friends Josh and Renee. They came while Joel was gone. After realizing that their bike rack caused two dents in their trunk (1), they set up their tent. Joel came back to camp with some wood and started to try a fire (2). The wood was too green and just wouldn't start. Our camping neighbors were nice enough to give us some
tiki oil and some dry wood, so we did eventually get a pretty nice fire. As we were sitting around the fire (remember it is now dark out), the rangers come by and start reading a rule
verbatim from their clipboard. I guess that we were only allowed one "
camping unit" per site unless we had minor children and it was a very small size. So, they told us we needed to either all sleep in one tent or register and pay for another site (3). Due to the principal and how they told us, we did not want to pay for another site. (The campers next to us had a lot more square footage than 2 tents!) Josh and Renee took their tent down and moved in to ours. Fortunately, we have a good size tent, but no air mattresses were allowed, so we slept on the hard ground.
Then there was Saturday...
Joel, Josh and Renee are big coffee drinkers, so Joel gets his camping stove out and proceeds to the process of making coffee in his percolator. However, after an hour and a half of waiting for it to percolate, Joel determines his gas tank is not working (4). We get the fire going and then cook a nice breakfast over the fire. That actually worked out very well. After breakfast, we plan to go to another state park that is about 6 miles away. We had taken our bikes, so we could bike there. We determine it would be best if only three of us bike. This way we have the car and the cooler with our picnic lunch. So, Josh, Renee and I set off on our bikes and Joel takes the car. About a mile out, the tire on my bike pops (5). Joel has already left and is waiting for us at the other park. Our first option is for Josh to bike back to our site and try to call Joel. He does this, but Joel doesn't have reception. Our second option was for Josh to bike the 6 miles and meet up with Joel. So, he does this. Renee and I were standing on the side of the road just waiting for our ride. Joel and Josh come back and we load the bike onto our rack and go to the other campground for our picnic. Once there we walk around and look at a cool old mill and have a nice picnic lunch. (By the way the weather was absolutely perfect for these events). We then drive a little
further to where there are some hiking trails. We now have 2 bikes on top of the car and Josh bikes to the hiking trails. We then go for a beautiful hike and saw some awesome rock formations and waded in a small creek. We are done with our hike. Joel and Renee decide they want to bike back to our campsite, because they haven't had a chance to bike yet today. Josh and I get in the car and actually decide to park where we picnicked. This way we can make sure Joel and Renee are okay and take pictures of them flying by. They pass us and then turn around before we can head anyway. They had just heard thunder (6). All of us do not want anyone biking in a thunderstorm, so Josh and I were going to go back to the campsite and unload the bike with the flat tire and then come back to pick Joel and Renee up. Josh and I drive back and see really dark ominous clouds and I think we both saw a funnel cloud. About the same spot my tire blew out it starts pouring rain. It is so hard that I can hardly see the front of my hood. I was so scared, but there was no shoulder, so I kept going very slowly and we did make it back to camp. We decide that there is no way we won't get wet, so we just stepped out of the car and both were drenched in a matter of seconds. (It was like we had gone swimming) We take the bike down. We also have noticed that the one tent we had up is now half flat and filling with water (7). Josh stays at camp and I go back to pick Joel and Renee up. Fortunately, the rain has let up and it is a lot safer to drive. I get back to the picnic area and see the bikes under the pavilion but no one else is around. I get out of the car and start walking to the old school house. I find 12 people and 3 dogs in the men's bathroom in the basement of the school house--Joel and Renee included. Come to find out about a minute after Josh and I left the ranger came by and told them there was a tornado warning and they needed to seek shelter (8). I had just driven through a tornado warning!! The bad weather passed and I took Joel and Renee and their bikes back to camp. Everything was soaked except for our camping chairs, which our neighbors rescued by setting under Josh and Renee's down tent. We proceed to pack everything up and determine a hotel might be in order for the night. However, before we can get a hotel, Josh and Renee realize that they need a new bike rack, because
theirs isn't working properly (9). They go into town and try to find something, but end up having to call
Dunham's Sports up in Davenport. Josh drops Renee off back at the campsite. We load 2 of the four bikes unto our car and Joel and Renee go into town and find a hotel. While Josh drives 30 miles to Davenport for a bike rack and I watch the other two bikes at the campsite. While I was there by myself I was able to dry out the tent, air mattress, our tarp, and the sleeping bag for the most part. Joel comes back to pick me up and we load everything that was with me into the car and go to the Holiday Inn. That night we sat in a hot tub, played
Pirateer, and laughed about everything we had gone through on that camping trip. Renee and I pretended to roast
marshmallows over a lamp in the hotel room. Yea, we didn't get to have any
smore's this camping trip...sadness.
To Close the Weekend off--Sunday:
Sunday morning we all woke up refreshed and to a little more rain. We packed everything up and played a few more games of
Pirateer before heading our separate ways. Now, what I am about to tell you did not happen on the camping trip, but it fits with the type of weekend we were having. Joel and I got home and unloaded everything. We took a nap and then went over to our friends' house for homemade pizza and games. Rick went downstairs to get us drinks and he found about 3 inches of standing water in their basement (10). We did still eat the homemade pizza (which was super good!), but we did not play any games, unless you call using a dry/wet vac and scooping water into buckets a game. :) After getting the water level down by a lot we had strawberry ice cream and fresh strawberries.
All in all it was a good weekend. :)
(By the way it is my 25
th Birthday today! I love celebrating birthdays and hope that I always do. I would say that this trip around the sun was a pretty good one with lots of changes.)