Tent

My tent is in my dining room.



Does this sound strange to you? If you know me, it should. A tent is something I never thought I'd own, let alone set up inside my house.

Last year, my first as a Girl Scout leader, I dreaded the camping trip I knew would be coming in spring. As the leader and our first-aider I would be required to attend.

I'd never been camping in my life. This was a choice. I'm not someone who roughs it or likes bugs or likes to meet new people on my vacation. At least, I didn't think I was.

However, it turned out that I liked camping very much and thought it would be even better to do it with my own family. Within a couple of months I had bought us a tent and scheduled a trip to camp near Busch Gardens in Williamsburg.

You could spot us as newbies from a mile away. We didn't cook dinner until it got dark out and only then realized that our dinky lantern threw very little light. I planned on mac and cheese but forgot a strainer--luckily, as newbies, I knew not to camp in the wilderness, there was a Walmart a mile away.

So--this year's Girl Scout trip. Gorgeous weather Friday and Saturday. Saturday night, a bit of rain, Sunday morning a LOT of rain. And more rain. And lightening. And thunder. I'm the mean leader and didn't let my girls eat or leave the tent for any reason until they packed up their gear and got dressed. So, we were able to take down my tent in drizzle.

The Brownie leader is nice. He cooked breakfast for his girls and let them sit in their tents while the food, etc got cleaned up and we waited around to see if the rain tapered off. No luck. The brownie tents came down in a gale with lightening so close we needed to stop and run for shelter.


Me not loving the rain


Katie getting wet

Live and learn. I was much more experienced this time. Packed much better and got the tent down pretty ably with help. I learned to delegate the hard way (due to having to attend a funeral the two days prior to the trip) and it turns out, as always, that people are happy to pitch in.

The girls had a great time. The smiles and hugs --yes hugs from the 9-13 year old set--were well worth getting wet and muddy.

And now I have a tent up and drying in my dining room. How cool is that?!