Whitewater Camping Trip

5 moms, 13 kids, high heat, stifling humidity, soaking rain...that was our camping trip. We arrived on Monday and we knew it was going to be hot and the weather didn't disappoint. By the time we got everyone's camps set up, we were all drenched in sweat but after a little while, you kind of stop noticing and just go with it. It's easier to just be out there than to be in and out of A/C because then you really know how hot it is. We made dinner and it was just too hot to make a fire, much to the disappointment of the kids.

My night royally sucked to put it mildly. The heat wasn't the issue. It cooled down enough that sleeping on top of the sleeping bag with a sheet on was just fine but we learned just how persistent raccoons can be and just how dang long it takes them to break into a bag of chips...a long time. Needless-to-say, we lost some of our food and learned a very valuable lesson: lock things up in the car before going to bed. I went out a few times and stood there shining a flashlight into the food tent and although it worked for a little while, the bugger always came back. In the morning, we realized what a royal feast he truly had: 8 ears of corn, 1 bunch of bananas, 1 bag of corn chips, he tasted the pancake mix but passed on it and completlely made away with the bag of homemade granola. We didn't find a single piece of it nor did we find the granola bag. I got about 4 hours of sleep.

Tuesday morning, we awoke to some rain and cloudy skies but we managed to salvage most of the pancake mix and made some really good pancakes for breakfast which the kids scarfed down in no time flat. Then, we packed up for the day and headed into Wabasha for some sight-seeing. We left just as the downpour started - luckily, we were able to make sure that our tents were closed up tight before we left.

We spent the day in Wabasha and Alma, WI visiting the National Eagle Center, a lovely cheese shop, Dam No. 4 on the Mississippi River and a gorgeous view of the river valley from Buena Vista Park in Alma. We ended our day at Lark Toy store which is well worth the trip just for that. It's amazing and the hand-carved carousel is awe-inspiring. It was great. We headed back to camp and started making dinner when we started to hear the faint rumblings of thunder heading in again. 2 of our party had left during the day because of a sick kiddo so we were down to 4 mamas and 12 kids and soon, we lost another family who took off for home before the rain started. That left 3 families. This happened to be the one night that we had planned to cook our meal on the fire itself and the fire was built and meals were on by the time the rain started and once it started, it came down hard! One family decided to head for home and come back the next day to de-camp which left us and my friend Barb's family. We were rather undecided as to what to do and we had the meals cooking on the fire. We finally decided that having the kids in the car was the right place for them to be. Luckily, I had packed up the food and already shoved it into the car before the rain started but then had to shut up the tents and get the kids into the car amongst a veritable barrage of questions: what's happening? Where are we going? When are we going to eat? Are we going home? Where are we going to sleep?...it kept going...cue closing the car doors.

Barb, meanwhile, was standing over the fire with a large umbrella to protect it and our food. Once the water covered our feet and the lightning was over us, we decided that we had to leave. We tossed the foil dinners into the back of the van and jumped in. We knew we had to feed everyone and had felt rather dejected when we checked one of the dinners and found it to be raw. All that work and it didn't even work! I had an idea, popped my mom's address into the GPS and discovered that we were only about 40 miles away. That sounded like a nice, warm, dry and safe place for us to spend the night. I ran back to the tent to grab a few necessities and we took off leaving our camp behind us.

We arrived at mom's house to a warm and dry welcome and to the quite lovely realization that most of our dinners were actually cooked and all was not lost. We got everyone dry and fed and shipped them off to bed. When I heard the next raging storm come through that night, I was really glad that we were under a solid roof in a nice, comfy bed!

After breakfast on Wednesday, we headed back to camp to check on the damage and to pack up. When we left, Barb's tent was sitting in about 3 inches of water so we knew that we were done. Our camp fared rather well. The tents were slightly damp (the boys more than mine) but not drenched and nothing a little airing out wouldn't fix but we were determined to just get home. We spent a couple of hours packing up and headed out. We figured that even though it wasn't ideal, it was still fun. It was all made worth it for me when, as we were pulling out, M said from the back seat "thanks for bringing us mom. I really had fun."

We decided to end things on a positive note and got together last night to eat the meal that was already prepared and divide up the remaining food. It really was a good way to end things and everyone had a good time and even some laughs about the whole thing. We did agree, however, that camping in August probably isn't going to be our thing. We may try September next year :)