Flash Floods and Fires

The forecast was terrible, and included flash flooding, torrential rains and even a tornado warning. We were driven by the need to use a graciously loaned pop up camper and we wouldn't be deterred. With camper in tow we headed south on Thursday night to Harrington Beach State park. A park that Lisa and I spent a lot of time in while living in the area more than a decade ago. The clouds and rain made it as dark as night as we drove down even though it was only about 5 in the evening. There were only a few sites that were allowed on first-come first serve basis and we wanted one of them. As it turned out we were able to get site 231, a very desirable site and before the weekend was over we had about 5 different groups stop by and ask when we where leaving because they wanted our site. All the a side when we pulled in on Thursday evening there was an stream running through the middle of the site that was at least mid calf deep (on me not Merrick). The camper went up like a dream and it was because of the camper that we even went with such a forecast, figuring we could always just hang out inside drink coffee and play games. The kids loved it and I don't think Lisa will ever camp any other way. We headed into town to a restaurant we used to visit often, Nieslet's Country Inn. By the time we returned the 'stream' was gone. The rest of the weekend weather was pretty nice, sunny during the day and only raining at night--still it was no place for a tent and we were happy to wake up high ad dry. We fished a bit at the quarry in the state park, Lisa being the only one to catch any fish. We were using slip bobbers and Merrick's cast resulted in all of his line unspooling into the depths of the quarry. Apparently his spiderman bait caster didn't have the line tied to the arbor and the sinker/slip bobber combination just lead to a complete unspooling. Sophia quickly lost interest in fishing and really just wanted to hang out at the table in the camper and color and draw. Standard evenings of campfires and smores made a little nicer by being freshly showered. I did have to talk to the ranger, or rather the ranger had to talk to me, because Merrick was peeing on a tree next to the road. Apparently this is not an acceptable practice in a state park. The ranger suggested I walk him up to the bathrooms. I suggested that I would have him pee near the back of our campground because I wasn't going to walk a three year old up to the bathrooms every 15 minutes. Although we agreed to disagree, no citations were given. Had some nice hikes and the kids even got to ride a trolley around the park on last day there. Harrington is very good for geocacheing and we had a couple of good treasure hunts and one that we never did find anything. Sunday was beautiful and we headed to the beach before going home, found a nice strip of sand that nobody else was using and headed over. The algae had washed into that area and the smell was not at all pleasant, Merrick and his weak stomach start gaging and then into full vomiting of cheetos and chocolate all over the beach and he kept puking until we got him up wind. Obviously we swam up wind the rest of the day. All in all a very nice weekend in the camper, the dogs were fine in the campsite (albeit completely exhausted from the hikes) meaning no kennel fees. No kennel fees, borrowed camper all added up to a pretty cheap weekend in the woods. So long as we don't figure in our new "need" for a tent camper.