The truck is packed. We're driving up the highway. Doug is scanning the radio dials for tunes and comes across a BonJovi song.
I sometimes have a hard time hearing people. I'm known to mishear stuff all the time. This is a very well established fact. Things are sometimes hard to hear, especially in the truck, with the noise, the road, the stereo, the everything. I could have sworn I heard Doug say:
"There must be some Big Butt Joey Revival going on or something, maybe he's going on tour... they're playing a lot of him on the radio lately."
And I'm thinking "Who the hell is Big Butt Joey?"
He said "Big BonJovi revival going on..." I started to laugh. And I could not stop laughing. I had to explain to Doug and Jessica what it was I thought I heard. We decided there and then that Big Butt Joey would not be forgotten. He would have his revival. And this entry is dedicated to him. Nothing but love, Big Butt Joey. Nothing but love.
We should have left Friday night. We would have had more dry time. This weekend was fun, but it was just plain rainy and drizzly. Meh!
We dragged our feet on Saturday, got up there around 3pm... set up camp and got all organized. We were waiting for Aaron to come, and decided to go to the lake to look around. When we came back, Aaron was there, tent all set up, life was good. We built a fire, made a dinner, kicked it into hanging out gear. A crashed early and went to bed. Doug and I enjoyed looking up at the small opening above our heads at the stars. We should have gone to the lake to see the sky. That was the last open sky we would see for over 24 hours.
Eventually Geoff ended up splashing me while showing me his mad swimming skills, so I dunked and felt my heart explode and my brain shoot out of my eyesockets. Damn. It was frickin' freezin' in there people.
But before I knew it, I was acclimated and comfortable and had a blast swimming with Geoff. We were there around an hour. And then I figured we'd best go find out what the men had planned. We discussed, and decided, and the men pitched the tarp to keep the table and stuff left behind dry. Because it totally looked like rain.
We went Geocaching up on Center Hill in the park, and while we were there it started raining. The air could no longer hold all that moisture. We ate cookies in the car and drove to the next cache, hoping that the rain would let up. On the GPS, there was this road... it went straight to where we wanted to go. So Doug went to take it.
The road was paved for about 10 feet, then turned into a dirt road, and Doug was going about 35 when he SLAMMED on the brakes, scaring the shit out of me and the kids because we couldn't see why...
The road ended, and dropped off about three to four feet down. Then the road looked like a hiking trail... not a road. Holy shite. We just avoided major damage and possible airbag deployment. We just avoided becoming the General Lee, with Doug and Aaron playing Bo and Luke. We so would have been airborne completely. But.
We were stuck. Freakin' horribly stuck.
And it was pouring out. Aaron and Doug tried to push the truck while I rocked her, but it wasn't going anywhere. We debated going forward but at the angle where the road dropped, we'd probably bust our transmission as the truck bottomed out. Not cool.
Aaron got a neighbor two doors up from the end, and he pulled us out. He said it's a real road, and we could have driven it, but thought it would be better to pull us out with the rain and all. Kudos to him. And he had Bush stickers on his car, so one can honestly say that not all Republicans suck ass.
I've said it before and I'll say it again -- I love our truck. But she isn't All Wheel or even 4x4. We need a different vehicle for our crazy off-road lifestyle.
We tried to give the man cookies -- but he let us keep them. Good for us. We were free -- and soaking wet. We went to the waterfall.
Smalls Falls is located up Rte 4 from where we were camping. There are two caches there, and a really nice rest area to park the vehicle in. We COULD have driven to the road up above the falls, and did do that for a few minutes, but then decided getting stuck out there where there were no kind neighborly types... that would super suck.
We parked in the rest area, climbed up the trail to the top of the falls. Aaron went in first and Geoff followed. I figured I'd go with and keep an eye on Geoff while Aaron did some things that I didn't think Geoff should be doing.
If I thought the lake water was cold, I was totally wrong. This water -- this was cold. Unbelievably. My feet were instantly numb, my legs, knees and thighs again -- totally blue and numb. It took me forever to commit to the dunk, but eventually I did, and my eyeballs exploded and my lungs imploded. Damn, it was cold.
But once I was acclimated...
We had a great time there. Doug scored the cache, and we had a great lunch.
At this point, it was pouring out. We headed back to the camp to relocate the tarp so we could plant ass in front of the fire, and I discovered that our tent was seeping liquid. It has held against the rain spectacularly in the past -- why it decided to seep on Sunday was beyond me. The floor was wet, and it was wet where the door was and the window. It was the suck.
I ran all through the tent moving stuff to the center and drying the floor and corners. Aaron took Geoff fishing, Doug collected firewood. I was cursing the tarp set up, because we should have tarped over the tent. But in all our years of camping THAT has never been a necessity.
We either invest in a new tent or start tarping, the way I see it.
Anyway -- The rain let up around 7:30, and we enjoyed a huge assed fire and dinner. The tent was drier than before, but still kind of moist. I left all the flaps open to the air... inside the tent was hot even though the air outside was cool. I hoped that some of the moisture would evaporate and things would get more cozy.
Then, around 4am, the rain resumed. We had taken the tarp down because stars were out... what a bad decision. Stuff left out on the table was now soaked. Nothing was ruined... but my hat was out there. And our swimming towels. Oy. Bad planning dudes. Where is Big Butt Joey when you need him!
I was then totally paranoid about the rain. I sat up, checking surfaces, closing flaps, using a T-shirt to wipe moisture up where it was coming in. Shaking my fist at the sky.
Around 6am I finally fell back asleep. Geoff woke up shortly thereafter. I was up. That was that.
We had breakfast, retarped and dried the site the best we could. We took showers and hit the road before noon.
Around Augusta, the skies cleared. It was 81 degrees. Not quite sunny, but sure as hell not pouring.
I was so pissed. Stupid spooty weather.
We approached our town, and the skies were kind of ominous. I looked at them and laughingly said to Doug "You just watch, the minute we get home and start unpacking the truck the sky is gonna open up on us. I guarantee it."
And sure enough. Right when we got home. Zing. Rain. Gah.
This experience would scare off most. I think we may camp for Labor Day weekend next weekend, if we can get a reservation somewhere. I was totally stressed by the rain, the tent, the moistness. But at least it wasn't cold. I slept in a T-shirt, and was perfectly comfy temperature wise. There is nothing worse than camping and being cold... I hate that shit. So the forecast for next weekend is clear and beautiful, but we'll see what Katrina's remnants have to say about that when Friday comes.
Anyway. We're home. I'm glad. There's a flickr.com photo set that goes with this weekend, if you want to go view it. I only got one license plate because my husband drives too flipping FAST and my camera zoom so doesn't work at all. That was the suck. We passed Montana, Oregon, Wisconsin, Ontario, Nova Scotia, Indiana, Illinois, Oklahoma... countless others. And I have NO photographic proof for my gallery. Pfth.
I'm glad to be home.
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