Camping's rigged....

Spent the weekend camping it up, TuckFard style. I warned them about my perfect record of 38 for 38 rainy camping trips, but no one listened and we all headed out slightly Southwest for some fun. The group consisted of myself and Peb’s, brudder Carson and Suzy_Q, DonKaaa and Queen_K and the growing ever more increasingly beautiful, mini-DonK-eh. There were two girls that got out of the truck with the Carson’s, but I can’t say they were camping with us. I think we saw them get out of the truck on Friday and then, we saw them pack their tent on Sunday as well. What they did between those two periods in time is obviously a mystery meant to baffle all of mankind for an eternity. Or to put it in the correct vernacular for the times, “Adults suck!”

Good times !

True to my outstanding, ( and did I mention PERFECT ?) record for precipitous participation in any camping related experience, it was on the drive there with the park a mere 20 minutes away that “camping” like me really began. Something along the lines of a class 5 Hurricane decided to drop right on top of our little caravan of vehicles. Sideways rain, wind gusts of up to 60 mph. and the odd tree whipping between a couple of the cars for good measure, made me finally settle in for what is the camping like Bam-Bam experience. I was honestly waiting for Peb’s to put on her best Helen Hunt impression and announce “Cow!” as we drove through the last little section of dairy country farmland. Not quite as quick as it arrived, the storm eventually made its way off into the horizon. Leaving no marks of it’s presence at all, unless you count the downed trees and all of the new fishing ponds, where campsites once used to flourish with activity.

Now it’s dark, soaking wet AND…. I have a brand new tent to put up on one of the few remaining islands that somehow managed to survive the recent and instant creation of, the 6th. Great Lake. Since he was pretty much the sole reason I was on this trip and he was also the first to actually make the discovery, I aptly named this new creation “Lake Donkey”….. after Carson.

Setting up a new tent can sometimes be a bit of a challenge, but the basics are pretty much the same no matter what brand or style you’ve managed to pick out for yourself. I happen to be a fan of the “Dome,” version of outdoor shelters. For no real reason other than there’s no “peak,” atop the dome tents like most of the other styles all seem to have. When you constantly camp in a state of monsoon like me, you learn quickly that the peak is the weakest part of any tent. I think it’s designed that way to enhance the wet campers weekend experience. Nothing say’s wet camping like that steady drip from the peak of a tent, dropping right down into the center of the tent itself where of course, is the only possible place to set up a bed for oneself in the space provided. Ah the memories of good times passed! We’ll have to save those for another day however. I had a tent to put up for the first time, in the dark, on the least amount of water I can find and finally, with help from my darling wife, Pebbles. What were my initial thoughts about how this was all going to go you ask?

Camping’s rigged!

I managed to get the last pole for the tent up into the last available sleeve crossing the frame of the dome, right after that last bit of “help” I received, made sure that this pole was also included in the fun of bouncing or smacking off one of my body parts for good measure. I didn’t have my reading glasses with me and I’m not much of an instruction reader to be honest, but since it was Peb’s holding the reading material and also supplying me with a new bruise or welt with every single pole delivery, ‘hitting the builder of the dome with everything humanly possible,’ surely had to be in there someplace! She takes direction very well and usually follows it, to the letter. With the tent all set up and only about a quarter of it actually floating out into Lake Donkey, I took the time to apply all of the bandages, creams and ointments specific to each individual remnant of “help,” I’d received during assembly. It was at that point that I’d realized I’d be saving a little bit of cash on the old bug spray this weekend. Since hardly any of my actual skin could be exposed to the environment.

Thanks for the help sweetie.

For some strange reason and in a remarkable turn of events like the world has not seen for nigh on four decades, the rain stopped. At first there was the obvious confusion and some even started to actually panic. There was, ( as there usually is ) a calming voice and it seemed to be doing the job, as most returned to some form of normalcy and managed to ignore the lack of 100% humidity accompanied by a bunch of good old H2O. There was just air, no water. It was a truly incredible moment and if I’m not mistaken, I think mini-DonK-eh was actually of sound enough mind to capture it on film and record this once in a lifetime experience forever.

Air only, no rain! What a concept for camping.

To be continued…….

My sincerest thanks for dropping by….