Camping at Falls Lake, July 4th, 2008

We decided to take advantage of the holiday weekend and went camping. We chose a state park which was about two hours away, just north of Raleigh called Holly Point at Falls Lake. We arrived Wednesday evening just in time to set up camp and fix dinner over the grill. All was well with the world. I always seem to forget that the first night of camping is pretty restless. Kids can't go to sleep, someone always wakes in the middle of the night because they have to go potty (including me), lots of strange outdoor noises and so forth. The second night is always better, everybody is exhausted and sleeps great!
The activities while we were there included fishing, swimming, hiking, cooking over the fire and just hanging out around camp. We were all having a good time. To celebrate the 4th we decided to take a trip into the city to see the display of fireworks. We knew that if we left the park the gate would close at 9 p.m. and we would therefore not make it back in time to drive in. But the front gate attendant told us that we could park in the front parking lot and walk in after hours. So we decided we were up for the adventure.
What we did not know was that there was a thunderstorm in our future. We got to the fairgrounds with a stop for icecream. We were all sitting in the back of the pickup truck awaiting the fireworks show when the family beside us said, "hope it starts before that storm gets here". We were like, "what storm?" As the lightening began to strike, cars started heading out. John and I looked at each other. There was only twenty minutes until the gate closed at the park. There was no way we were going to make it back in time.
The rain began, the show was now canceled, so we decided to try and get out of there. It took us an hour to get to the street, raining pretty heavy by now. We were just praying that, just maybe, it hadn't started raining at the campground because the tent windows were open.
When we finally arrived at the campground around 10:30 p.m. several cars were wanting to get out of the park and several cars were wanting to get into the park. This was fortunate for us since all three children had fallen asleep and it was still raining. After calling the emergency number, a park ranger finally decided to unlock the gate and let us into the park.
When we pulled up to our campsite John hopped out to check out the damage. There were puddles in all three sections of the sleeping tent. The sleeping bags, sheets and a few pillows were soaked. John and I pulled out a few dry things that we could find and put them into the "dresssing" tent which was dry. we only had enough dry things for two people to sleep in the tent so John and Anna slept in the tent while Kelsey, Emily and I slept in the cab of the pickup truck.
This was probably the worst night of sleep I think that I have ever had!!! I woke up every few minutes but finally got up at about 6a.m. I was sore from sleeping curled up in the passengers side of the front seat but didn't really understand how soar until I stood up outside of the truck.
I could barely stand, let alone take any steps. My back was screaming in pain!
John had to pack most of everything up himself. Emily kept asking, "why can't we stay longer?" Anyhow, we are now home again. Yes, I said "home". the apartment was a welcomed site. Even Kelsey said she was ready to go to the apartment. (It sounds really cute in her two-year old voice.)
I am recooperating with some Doan's back pills. We will probably still be doing the laundry into next week but that's okay. John has been super helpful today! He has been running the wash and folding clothes and let me lay down to take a nap.
I am going to post some picture of the highlights of the camping trip. The first part really was a good time. The rain would have even been managable if we had only know it was coming and had zipped up the tents. Oh well, lessoned learned!