Camping in the rain

Memorial Day weekend was great, even with the rain and wind and sickness and … ok so it wasn’t THAT great. But here’s what I remember

S’MORES

BBQ dinners

S’MORES

Eggs in a cast iron skillet

Hershey’s chocolate

Random walking and following turkey vultures

Touring Custer’s House

S’MORES

Running around and climbing in the “blockhouses” on top of the hill

Marshmallows both “raw” and “BURNED”

Touring a Mandan village and mocking Lone Man

Driving ten minutes home to shower in MY SHOWER!!!

Playing cards in the tent

Making a video about our last memories while under a tornado watch

And more S’mores

Basically we went camping at Fort Lincoln which is like ten minutes from my house and 11 minutes from a liquor store. So we had a good time. We figured it was easier to pack if showers were just done at home, cause then we could dress there too. It was MUCH easier. Wasn’t REALLY camping but compared to the other people there, we were roughing it.

We learned that “camping” in ND involves at LEAST one RV if not an RV AND a Trailer.

We were the only ones in the “primitive” camping area… ie… just tents no serious hook ups. It was madness.

We saw a bunch of stuff while were there and it was fun, all the way through the rain. We were touring the Mandan Village and someone working there said “whatever you’re going to do, do it now, we’re under a Tornado watch until midnight”. So we rushed to Custer’s House. We did the tour, bought some gifts, mailed out some postcards and heading back to the camp site.

Since A’s tent was the biggest and shaped more like a circle than the others we just piled into that tent. All EIGHT OF US. It was cramped to say the least. But we passed around s’more fixin’s and a lighter and had a blast anyways. Though one of the girls got sick and wasn’t doing too well. She toughed it out like a champ and hung in there while we played spoons with the marshmallows.

And then the winds came.

You could actually HEAR the wind coming down the valley before it actually hit the tents. It was strong wind to say the least. But nothing bad happened.

Until Chris’ tent broke.

We all dispersed to our tents around midnight, once the rangers came by to let us know that the tornado watch was over. But around 2 am Chris in his one man tent was SOAKED. His rain flap BROKE under the pressure of the wind I guess and just soaked EVERYTHING in the tent, including him. He ended up going to the boys tent and asking for keys to ANY car and went home for the night. He came back in the morning to pick up and drain out his tent. We thought it was hysterical.

We were there for two nights and the total cost per person was like $12 for the entire time, that’s even counting the cars coming through.

Not a bad time and we’re going to do it again soon, this time without the rain hopefully.

A and I came home to clean up and set out the tents to dry and FINALLY met our neighbors.

At least we finally met our neighbors to the east. Nice older couple, bunch of kids that are out of the house with almost as many cats as us. J We’re getting there, my goal is to know all the neighbors by the end of summer.