I Hear The Rain A Comin’

While lying in my tent that first night and gazing up at the sky through the mesh roof I noticed that there were not many stars visible. Later on, I left the tent and could see that a significant amount of cloud cover had accumulated. No fear! We checked the long range forecast before we booked the campsite and were promised a glorious 2 days. Although we have NEVER been on a camping excursion where it didn’t rain, I was confident that we would set a precedent this time.

Morning arrived and it was definitely not as glorious as the day before. Don had water boiling over the campfire so I could make my Starbucks Vias and satisfy my caffeine addiction. I pulled up the weather app I use on my phone and saw the dreaded “chance of storms 60%”. WTF? I understand that weather is a dynamic force and prognosticating it correctly is a crap shoot. I informed Don of this new development and suggested we put the rain cover on the tent and set up the tarp to create some sitting shelter.

Our neighbors were packing up and it seemed they would be long gone. Soon we would have the whole area to ourselves. A short time later, Kim arrived with the boys. Michael, my oldest grandson, had grown significantly since I saw him last and now stands about 5′ 7″ at 13 yrs old. Zachary, the 7 yr old, is Damian’s best buddy & Daniel, the 4 yr old is a miniature version of his father complete with absolute disdain for the outdoors.

(The geese coming home)

(left to right: Damian, Mike, Zack & Daniel in foreground)

We had a nice lunch & I was shocked at how much the boys consumed during the meal. Poor Kim would soon be suffering the same fate that I had, trying to feed all these ravenous young men! The boys were having a grand time in the lake but the sky was growing more threatening. Kim pulled up doppler radar on her phone and informed us that we were in for some heavy rain.

It started as a sprinkle but eventually became a down pour. We took shelter under the tarp and the boys invaded the tent to play video games. The rain would slow, then get heavier and finally it stopped around 6 pm. Kim and the boys were packing up to return home when she checked the radar on last time. She then informed us that doppler radar showed we were in a lull but that a mass of storms would be moving in sometime later this evening and she offered to put us up for the night. Intrepid adventurers that we are, we laughed and assured her that a little rain wouldn’t dampen our spirits.

As we settled in for the evening I noticed across the lake in the distance a familiar haze. I had seen this once before while sitting at a baseball game in Bristol, VA. It was the unmistakable vision of a wall of water falling from the sky and approaching us. It was 7:50 pm and our campground locks down at 8:00 pm. (Literally, there’s a gate that gets locked at the entrance) I pointed to the water curtain and told the guys what I believed it to be and inquired what they thought about it. Matt seemed to think it was fog rolling in but Don said, “So what are you suggesting?” I said I was merely informing them that in 10 min we would be prisoners in what was sure to be a long, wet night in a tent. They both looked across the lake, then back at me and then started grabbing essentials and throwing them into the car. We drove towards the gate at 7:56 pm.

 So much for the pioneer spirit, this girl doesn’t like sleeping wet. In typical Russo style, we decided to bail out on the campsite and located the nearest dry motel room, the absolutely adequate Econo Lodge in Henderson, NC. After a nice, dry night we returned bright and early the next morning to break camp. Damian had another swim in the lake and we packed it all up and headed home.

P.S. We booked a return engagement July 4th weekend with our boat-toting, jet ski owning travel buddies, Kurt & Becky.