Camping in the Rain

Camping surely was an interesting experience this year. It rained most of Friday, prohibiting us from going early and setting up camp. Once we did arrive, we found our campsites to be quite muddy and for some reason our tent smelled really bad. After set up, we grilled veggie burgers for dinner and agreed all veggie burgers should be served grilled over a fire. Yum!

Shortly after finishing dinner, the rain started again, but then it stopped. Hurrah! But then it started again and didn’t stop until morning. Rolling thunder, lightning and heavy rains kept me up most of the night. The horrible weather was accompanied by a leaky tent which soaked our bedding and some of my clothes. Argh. Needless to say, I was not a happy camper in the morning. I was tired, hungry, wet, and it started raining again soon after waking up.

Considering we couldn’t keep a fire going, it was agreed that the best option was to go into town and eat breakfast at a restaurant. We ignored all the typical socially acceptable behavior and walked into Perkins with mud-caked shoes, pants rolled up, no make-up, no showers, hats drawn low and demanded coffee. Now. After a hearty breakfast, we were ready to head back to camp and face the mud again.

Lucky for us, the rain stopped mid-day and we were able to play games, make bracelets with the kids, go on bike rides, and the usual camping activities. I’m sure you know what happened next…yep, more rain. This time it was torrential downpours accompanied by tornados.

All the campers were evacuated into a tornado shelter (aka the showers and bathrooms) and we learned a tornado touchdown was just a couple miles from us. Great. We agreed we didn’t want to spend another night like this:

As soon as the sirens stopped, our camping gear was thrown into our cars (we left our tents behind) and drove to Ryan’s parents’ house for a big sleepover. We played card games, listened to music, drank some rosemary lemonade fizz, and even cooked hot dogs under the broiler for that grilled effect. What a great way to salvage a rain-soaked camping weekend!

We sent the guys back on Sunday to grab our tents and all the other stuff we left strewn about the campsite. It proved to be a beautiful sunny day to reset up the tents, dry them out, and get it all ready for the next camping trip. Just next time I hope it’s a relatively dry trip!

Although this wasn’t much of a food post, I had to share the wettest camping experience I’ve ever had. I promise we’ll be back to food in a couple days. In the meantime, feel free to check out my Grilled Salad over on Bite of Minnesota for WCCO (the post should be up soon).