Soggy Roads

Soggy Roads My family and I had been planning a trip to see Uncle Mike in Spokane for a long while. We were going to drive about 1,800 miles to visit him, so we decided to spend several nights camping along the way. The first day we got an early start and covered the distance from our home in Nashville to Kansas City. We checked into our campground, set up our tent, and got a fire going to cook our dinner. As we were watching a beautiful sunset, we noticed the dark clouds rolling in from the west.  Luckily, it didn’t start to rain until we had already eaten. We gathered in the tent and played cards. Drip, drop, drip. It rained through the night. Drip, drop, drip. When we woke up, we were in a foot of water! The whole campground was flooded, and our “yard” was knee-high in water! It was still raining, but there we were, pulling up stakes and putting the wet tent back into the van. Then we piled in too, and left the muddy mess behind to find a restaurant for breakfast. After we used the restrooms to change into some dry clothes, we ordered hot chocolate and pancakes. The next time we stopped, we were in western Nebraska. It was a hot, sunny afternoon. We found the Shady Nook Campground and set up camp again, allowing the tent to air out before we spent another night in it. And, once again, it began raining after dinner. We played cards and charades into the night, laughing about our predicament. The campground did not flood this time, but it did rain the following night in Idaho, too. But despite the rain, we had a blast. The rain just made it more memorable. In fact, it changed our lives for the better. We now own a pop-up camper.