Camping Adventure

Jay and I decided to take the boys camping Monday night at Bunker Hills Campground. The campground is located about one mile north of our house so it's easy to pack up and head out for an evening and be home in the morning. When I got home from work, we loaded up the car with our gear and with the boys and headed out for dinner and some snacks. After dinner we headed to the campground to check-in for the evening. Jay and Jonathan went in to see the ranger and pay for the site. Soon after going inside, they both came out to talk to me about the weather news. The ranger indicated that the weather service was indicating a possible severe and very dangerous storm that evening for our area. The storm could produce tornadoes without any advanced notice and had a history of producing baseball size hail. Knowing that the weather service isn't 100% accurate when predicting storms, we decided to take the chance and camp.

Moments later, paid receipt in hand, our happy car load proceeded to our campsite. We unpacked our gear (a lot more than you would think to have for just an overniter!). We set up our tents, our sleeping bags, and pillows. Jay made a lovely roaring fire. We roasted marshmallows. All was merry for about an hour and a half. But it wasn't meant to last. Soon we heard thunder in the distance. Good grief! The clouds were seriously black so Jay decided to sit in the car and listen to the weather band. "Rapidly approaching highly dangerous storm, with a history of producing baseball size hail and potential for tornadoes. Sky to ground lightning strikes. Frequent lightning". Uh oh. The incidences of thunder and lightning were increasing. What to do? What to do?

Well, we decided to tear down camp, throw everything into the car once again and head for home. It was exhausting! I was sweating up a storm (no pun intended)! Jonathan and Eric were getting nervous about the lightning and the thunder. As we got in the car and started driving for home, large raindrops began to fall. When we pulled into our driveway three minutes later, the tornado sirens began sounding. We immediately ran into the house down into the basement and checked the weather reports on the the t.v. "Rotation indicated south of Highway 10 in Ramsey. No confirmation of tornado but take coverage." Ugh! By now it's like 9:30 p.m. way past the kids bedtime but there was no way they could go to bed up on the 2nd floor of our home. I put in a movie for them and then went to check out the weather on another t.v. Soon the wind started whipping, rain started pouring from the sky in a super deluge. Then I heard ping ping ping on the porch roof. The hail was falling. Luckily the hailstones only got to be about quarter size.

Luckily, nothing serious happened to our house or neighborhood from the storm. No tornadoes. No hail damage. No trees down. The kids went to bed a little after 10 p.m. and slept like logs. There was a second storm that rolled through about a half hour later that just produced a lot of lightning and tons of rain. What an adventure! And a ton of work just to end up sleeping at home. It's a memory though.

Eric keeps asking to go camping now. Jonathan wants to go with just daddy so he can get a break from Eric. Me? I'm ready for a massage and days of uninterrupted sleep.