Camping: The Good, the Bad, and the Unconscious

To make a very long story very short, it did rain, but at the right times, mostly.

We left on Thursday evening, got to the park and set up camp with the mother of all tarps over everything. Slept peacefully that night with short smatterings of rain through the night, but not enough to make things soggy. Friday morning was lovely, warm-breezy, a few clouds and a little blue sky showing. But while we sat at one family's picnic table drinking coffee, we felt just a few raindrops here and there. Certainly not enough to make us stop drinking coffee - we DO have priorities, you know - but enough to get Kenny's attention. He looked at Ben and said, "I'll pay for the rest of your stay and even throw in twenty bucks if you'll go home." We considered the offer because we really like our friends, but in the end, decided there was enough blue sky to keep us safe.

Friday passed warm and lovely. We walked on the Potomac River beach, played football and cards, and generally had a wonderfully relaxing day. Then came Friday night.

The kids (10 of them, between 12 and 18 years old) decided they would play hide and seek in the dark, with the object being to get back to base before "it" caught you. As soon as I heard the description of the game I knew it would end with someone getting hurt. I wasn't disappointed.

The adults were sitting around the fire talking when, in a lull in the conversation, we heard a very loud, sharp CRACK followed by moaning. And because I am a mother and have the gift of interpretation as well as eyes in the back of my head, I knew it was Elijah. The camper behind us had an awning sticking out one side, with metal support beams diagonally from the corners of the awning to the bottom of the camper. Elijah came out of the darkness at full speed and caught the beam just slightly above the bridge of his nose. His feet came off the ground until he was horizontal in mid-air, and he landed with a thud. He remembers the hit, then waking up with all of us huddled around him. His first words? "Hey, I was SAFE!" We knew he would be fine. A little ice, a little Advil, Dad waking him up every few hours, and NO bruise - he was highly disappointed. He wanted at least a black eye to show for it.

So next year? We're playing shuffleboard.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Camping has left me thinking.

I promised some friends a description of the latest camping trip by this afternoon, but alas, my sleep-deprived body won. Having just finished my two hour nap, The Good, the Bad, and the Unconscious will have to wait until tomorrow. But lest you think I have fallen off one of those cliffs near our campground, I share the following.

I came home from this trip considering one of the great dichotomies of life. I live in America. Land of the free, home of the brave. There are men and women all over the world right now living day and night in grave danger, fighting for my freedom to go out and live like a homeless person for a weekend, if I so choose. And when we got home last night, one of the newspaper headlines stated that, under Raul Castro, all Cubans now have the right to own a cell phone. The attached photo showed people lined up in the street outside a cell phone store in Havana. Since I sent my oldest daughter to Cuba on a missions trip in 2003, we have some understanding of how most Cubans live, and for many of them, it's like we lived on our camping trip this weekend, but without the heated bathrooms. These people are dirt-poor with no hope of their economic situation ever improving.

Last week Raul sent a national soccer team to Florida and guess what? Seven of them immediately sought political asylum. I'm sure it was for more than a cell phone.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Told ya.

Today
Mar 27

Few Showers

73°
54°

Fri

Mar 28

Scattered T-Storms

75°
42°

Sat
Mar 29

AM Clouds / PM Sun

55°
36°

So today's the day we go camping with half the church. And as you can see, the weather forecast is not stellar. But we're ok, because we have the god of all tarps and 300 feet of rope to tie it up with. We're going to be warm and dry while we sleep, cook, heck, we could probably go for a two mile hike and still be under this tarp. I'll take pictures.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Pete meets his match, and Kaylie finally shows up.

If you have ever wondered how to intimidate a 70 pound bulldog, I have the answer.

Bailor.

See the cute little guy in my profile picture with me? The 35 pound 3 year old? Yes. He literally leads my dog around by the ear. It's sad.

In other news, my friend Cari was about three weeks from her due date (with her seventh child) this past Friday when the doctor diagnosed toxemia and put her in the hospital. He told her they would try to induce her labor, but if it didn't work, they would have to do a C-section. So beginning on Saturday, they gave her different drugs to get things going and, bless her heart, nothing worked. Still, she kept saying she didn't want a C-section because, get this, she wanted to go camping this weekend. Her family is the one that started this whole half-the-church-camping thing, and by golly, she just made up her mind she wasn't going to miss it. So the pitocin steadily increased all day Saturday. All day Sunday. ALL. DAY. MONDAY. Kaylie was finally born a little after 9 pm last night. That is one stubborn woman. And you know what?

The forecast for this weekend is rain.

I think I owe Cari bigtime.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Randomness

OK, this time you get fair warning. Tomorrow is National Corndog Day, so get on the stick (sorry) and get some corndogs TODAY, or you'll be missing the fun tomorrow.

And now some random facts, in no particular order:

1. I can walk a half mile in 8 minutes, but it takes me 40 minutes to swim it, and I wind up gasping for breath and making the lifeguards nervous.

2. Even though I'm 20 pounds heavier than I was in college, I wear jeans that are two sizes smaller. What's up with THAT?

3. My neighbor got a puppy last week. Her husband had told her not to. My neighbor and her husband both work full time. She is paying Elijah to take the puppy out several times a day. She came over to get all our extra newspapers yesterday and asked if she could just leave the puppy here until it's trained. Let me think about that NO.

4. Just over a year from now I will only have one child in college. I believe I see light at the end of the tunnel.

5. My new favorite dinner is mahi mahi with crab/shrimp/scallop stuffing at Bonefish Grill.

6. Teenage boys eat. Constantly. There is no filling them up, so don't even try. Ben and I were heading out for dinner a little while ago, and Elijah came over and put his arm around my shoulder. He said quietly, "Mom, TRY to bring home some leftovers?"

I don't think corndogs are what he had in mind.

Be thankful ~

Karen

Someday I'll learn to wear my walking shoes.

Sorry about the delay in posting. I've been nursing my extremely sore legs.

Last Friday I took a bunch of teenagers up to the Pentagon for a tour. We followed another mom in our home school group. The directions we were given had us parking in a Macy's garage across the street and taking the footbridge across the interstate. Now, I'm normally pretty thoughtful about things like this, and I don't usually drive my big van into the city because of parking issues. My usual routine is to take the metro. But this time, since I had other people's kids with me, I followed directions. Bad move.

We found the parking garage and pulled up to the ticket dispenser, Becky's car being in front of me. I knew we were in trouble when the sign said 6'6" clearance. Now that I was in that lane, I had to back out into traffic on Army-Navy Blvd. The people in Arlington love me. So we went around the block and found a parking meter. I should have been alarmed that ALL THOSE SPACES with parking meters were available, but we had a long way to walk so I didn't stop to think about it. I started demanding coins from everyone, and together we were only able to come up with enough to buy us an hour and 48 minutes. I should have saved it all for the parking ticket we got for being 10 MINUTES late. Like I said, the people in Arlington love me. Especially the traffic cops.

So we had our Pentagon tour, then decided, spur-of-the-moment-like, to zip over to Arlington National Cemetery. If you've never been, you should seriously go. The place is enormous, and I really think every American should visit it just once. The enormity of the sacrifices made for us hits home in a big way. Anyway, one boy's grandfather is buried in Arlington, so we went to see his grave first. Of course it was ALL THE WAY at the bottom of the hill. Then the girls wanted to see the guard change at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, which is, of course, at the opposite side of the cemetery. I am not kidding when I say it is uphill. All the way. Both ways. And I was not wearing my walking shoes, hence a good case of shin splints Saturday and Sunday.

Then Sunday was "Friend Day" at church, so we cooked a big breakfast for our Sunday School class (lots of standing), then the teens (of which I have two, so I help) served dinner to around 400 people. Yeah. Lots of standing. So today instead of my 30 minutes on the elliptical, I swam 800 yards, which is almost half a mile. And I think I'm beginning to prefer the swimming over the sweating.

So there. That's my excuse for not blogging since last week.

I found out today that something like 55 people from our church are going camping with us next weekend. I hope they don't kick us out if it rains. The 10-day forecast only goes up to next Wednesday, the day before we go. And Wednesday it's supposed to rain. *sigh*

Be thankful ~

Karen

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the . . .

I cannot believe I am even writing this. Hold on to your hats friends, because WE HAVE BEEN INVITED TO GO CAMPING. There are a few families in our church who regularly camp together at a state park here in Virginia, and we're going the week after Easter.

God have mercy on their poor souls. Or at least their tents.

They've heard the stories. They've seen the pictures. They know the reputation that precedes us. And they STILL asked us to go. Should I offer to pay for psychiatric examinations? Buy them self-help books? Ben says, "No, just buy the mother of all tarps. Or ten."

So that's what we'll do. Pack up the van with tents, chairs, food, and tarps enough to cover all of Westmoreland County and head for the woods.

At what age do we begin to learn from our mistakes?

Be thankful ~

Karen

Yes, we are pro-life.

Just in case you're interested, you can see the 2008 National Pro-Life T-shirt Day t-shirt here, modeled by two of my very own lovely daughters.

The Noah Experience becomes the Penguin Chronicles.

You'll be glad to know our reputation is still intact.

It rained. But that's putting it mildly. Let me start at the beginning.

We drove down to Cherokee, NC on Thursday, a gorgeous, blue-sky, warm-breeze, sunny, T-shirt day. It could not have been more perfect out. I was optimistic.

Oh, fool that I am.

The rest of our people arrived from Tennessee and we had a great time over dinner that evening. Here we are in front of our miniscule (but dry) cabin:

Yes, Mike really is that much taller than I am.

Friday morning we awoke to the distinct sound of rain pattering on the roof. Or drumming. Really it was more like a violent beating. Here's the front of our cabin - we needed a canoe to navigate the waters.

I don't know if you can really appreciate the depth of this puddle, but let me assure you Crocs are not the shoe of choice in this situation.

Instead of the great hike we had planned, we went to the Museum of the Cherokee Indian. A bit of a letdown, but we're staying positive. In the afternoon the rain finally let up a little, so we did a short hike nearby and saw an old water-powered grain mill. Here are some of the guys on top of the flume that diverted water from the stream to the mill:


The trail beyond the mill was to continue over the stream, which we were supposed to be able to ford by stepping on a few rocks. But because of all the rain, our stepping stones were underwater. Jacob was determined to find a way though, and here he is formulating a plan:


He climbs:

He makes it to the other side.



Great, now what about those of us over 40? We walked back to the bridge and used the path on the other side. Not nearly as awe-inspiring, but safe.

After our cold, wet hike we went back to the campground and, hallelujah and glory to God, found the indoor hot tub. You can put up with a lot if you have a hot tub to look forward to. And all fourteen of us fit in it.

You know, I think there will be hot tubs in heaven. I'm going to look for that verse this week. But I digress.

We had to leave Saturday because Mike and Lovely had to get back to school on Sunday, so we got up and started rolling sleeping bags. This is what we saw:



I think we have cemented our reputation firmly. No one will ever again ask us to go camping.

Be thankful ~

Karen

This is not a good sign.

Apparently, the Noah Experience has begun early.

Last night it rained here. Probably in anticipation of us going camping. Why wait, right? Anyway, when Abbie went out to move Ben's car this morning, she came in looking worried and told me, "There's a LAKE sloshing around in Dad's car." I assured her I would go out with a towel to mop it up. She replied, "No, you'll have to BAIL it out." I laughed at her certain exaggeration.

But no. The girl is honest to a fault. It WAS sloshing. It WAS a lake. I DID have to bail it out.

I hauled the shopvac out there and got that baby humming. Vacuumed THREE GALLONS of water out of the passenger side of the car, and I am not making this up. Put the windows down and let the sunshine and breeze do the rest.

Then when I talked to Ben around 5 pm, he said, "You know, the trunk has been getting a little wet lately. Have you looked in there?" You have got to be kidding me.

So after dinner I went out and opened the trunk. Put all the tools back in the garage and felt the carpet. Sure enough, damp, but not soaked by any means. Then I had the thought to lift up the cover on the spare tire well.

CURSE the THOUGHT!

The spare tire was about 7/8 submerged in water. Vacuumed another 2 or 3 gallons of water out of it and left the cover in the garage.

Mommy, may I skip this camping trip?

Be thankful ~

Karen

Hey, I've come up with a name for our camping trip.

OK, well, we're going camping tomorrow. I keep checking the forecast for Cherokee, NC and it keeps saying rain on Friday. That's the day we're supposed to go on this long hike with incredible scenery. I really don't know why this surprises me. I mean, we ARE the Sargents, and it does ALWAYS rain when we go camping. But we're getting a cabin with electricity, so I'm bringing a griddle and probably an electric skillet. I'll have the chili in a crock pot and someone else will bring an electric coffee pot. It will be so. . . UN-camping-like. And how are we supposed to make s'mores? And why didn't we just stay at a hotel with free breakfast and an indoor pool and high-speed internet? Because that wouldn't be CAMPING, and we HAVE to be able to say we went CAMPING. I don't know WHY, I just do what I'm told, so by golly, I am going CAMPING and I will ENJOY it.

I'll take pictures so you can enjoy the Noah Experience with me.

Be thankful ~

Karen

My geekness shines through.

I am SO excited!

Tuesday, March 4 is National Grammar Day. Do you hear me, people? That is like National Zippo-lighter Day for pyromaniacs! This day is near and dear to my heart and I can't believe I just found out about it. You can read more details here, and even buy a t-shirt to commemorate the day.

Why have a National Grammar Day you ask? In answer, I share this quote from their website:

We owe much to our mother tongue. It is through speech and writing that we understand each other and can attend to our needs and differences. If we don't respect and honor the rules of English, we lose our ability to communicate clearly and well. In short, we invite mayhem, misery, madness, and inevitably even more bad things that start with letters other than M. (Seriously—sort of. But it is true that misplaced commas have cost companies millions of dollars. Murderers have been identified based on idiosyncratic grammar errors. And even the oft-maligned semicolon has changed the outcome of court cases.)

And what can I do to celebrate? Have a good-grammar potluck!


What do you serve at good-grammar potlucks? High-fiber foods, of course. They're good for the colon.

I'm sorry, I just couldn't resist. But seriously, what better reason to celebrate an otherwise mundane Tuesday?

I'm starting my party-planning right now.

Be thankful ~

Karen