My parents gave us a tent on our second Christmas together, and since then, we have enjoyed the adventures of camping. Throughout Medical school and residency, it was a way we could vacation on a very tight budget.
As our family grew, tent camping had it's own difficulties, like the time we camped at Tyler state park, and we were attacked by bees!! All the kids were stung, and there were so many bees that while I would spread mayo on the sandwiches, trying to make lunch, 2 or 3 would land on the mayo and get stuck!!
Also on that same camping trip, our 3rd child was under a year old, and chose to try and cut some teeth during the night. Since we were tent camping, as well as all the other people out at Tyler State park, I felt the need to try and keep her quiet. Needless to say, she finally fell asleep at midnight, only to wake up again at 4 am. The only place to sit and rock her was in the cinder-block community bathroom, where, for the next 3 hours, I sat on the toilet seat, rocking and singing to her, with spiders and roaches watching me from the spider webs over head, until the sun came up.
It was also on that camping trip that we realized, that camping with 3 small children, in a tent, all under the age of 5, required so much packing and unpacking.
Needless to say, this burned me for awhile, and I stated that the next time I went camping was going to be in a trailer!!
Once we moved to Cleburne, from Shreveport, we were thrilled to find out that there was a Cleburne State Park. A wonderful place for us to go visit, close to home, yet still be able to camp.
Again, Ray talked me into trying to tent camp one more time, since Esther was a few years older, and not teething or nursing anymore.
I gave in, and we packed up for another adventure. Since all of us had grown a little taller, we had outgrown our four man tent, and felt compelled to borrow Ray's brother's 8 man tent. A huge, very nice tent, but not rain proof!! No forecast for rain, though.
Ray also thought it would be fun to borrow his Dad's boat, just to add to the fun activities that we were going to enjoy with the family.
We packed all our STUFF up, and headed out. Set up the camp, and really had a good time together until bedtime. What we didn't realize, was that we had set up this huge tent right next to a ragweed bush, several to be exact, on 3 sides of the tent!! That night, as we fell into bed, exhausted from all the fun, several of the kids began to cough. This continued all night, and most of us didn't sleep, and we couldn't figure out where these coughs came from, until the sun came up the next morning, and we saw all the ragweed.
The next night, we had it figured out, a dose of benedryl for all the kids was the trick. This would keep the allergic reactions down, and hopefully help with the coughs. All went sound asleep that night, and Ray and I were high-fiving as we drifted off, until.......
The wind started picking up, then a thunder in the distance. Before we knew it, the rain was coming down in buckets. Now remember, this was not an adventurer's tent, it was not weather proof. All of a sudden, one of the kids started screaming, we turned on the flashlight, and the whole roof of the tent was sagging down, with gallons of water pressing hard down on it. The weight was too much, and it began to pour into the tent, right onto the kids. No matter where we moved them around in the tent, the water was coming.
With no signs of stopping, Ray looked at me and said, "you know what we have to do!" Ray ran and started the car, with the heater on, then we methodically began to move our 3 young children into their car seats, covered them in blankets because they were soaked and freezing, and then for the next hour, Ray and I ran back and forth, through the rain, loading up all our STUFF into the back of the car. The time was sometime after midnight, but still way before morning. As we finally got the last item loaded, and got into the car, completely soaked to the bone, but happy to know that home was only a 10 minute drive, and we would be safe and warm in our beds very soon, we remembered...... The boat!! Ray did not feel good about leaving the boat on the beach, unprotected, while we were safe at home in our beds, so we hooked up to the trailer, and I stood at the ramp, in the rain, holding a flashlight to try and guide Ray and the boat onto the trailer. After a few misses, we got it loaded and were finally on our way.
That was it!! This was the very last tent camping I would do. It is the trailer for me from that point on... or so I thought.
More to come later, this post is long enough as is.
God bless,
JJ
More to come later, this post is long enough as is.
God bless,
JJ
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