Camping 101

Rain
Our Cabin
1. Get to the camp site before the rain starts so you can get the tent put up.

2. Talk to someone who has stayed at the location where you are planning to camp.

3. If the pictures look too good to be true, they probably are.

4. No matter what, have fun anyway!

There are no pictures today, but I'll be sure to get some posted tomorrow. This has not been the picture perfect start to our vacation that Pierce and I dreamed of, but we are still excited and the boys are too-tired, but excited. Before I give you the dreary details, let me started by telling you a cute Draven story. I was in the bathroom with Brody for his 20th trip today (he had a lot of water on the trip), but Pierce just told me this...He and Draven were in the cabin-I'll get to this next-and Draven excitedly told Pierce, "come here, I have to show you something!" So Pierce went into the boys' room and Draven said, "This is the happiest I've ever been in my whole life!" And showed Pierce his sleeping bag and his bed and was really excited. Doesn't that melt your heart?! It makes all the craziness worth it.

OK, to the details...The trip was uneventful except for the 5 stops we had to make before we could really get started-eating lunch, Pierce's work, Pierce's other work, pee pee breaks, etc. Why is it that when you're trying to get somewhere with a car full of kids you have to stop a dozen times? It always happens! Draven also asked every five minutes how many more minutes it would be before we got there-his version of "are we there yet," and Brody kept asking when we were getting to Nana's house?! So, we finally get to Manchester, TN and we are all excited, driving down the interstate, spotting the exit sign, when we notice the KOA sign just off the interstate on the left. Yes, just off the interstate. Who ever heard of a "campsite" that has the calming sounds of 18 wheelers 200 feet away? Then, I went in to register and the kid at the desk asks if we want to upgrade to a cabin for the night, because it's suppose to rain. Nah, we say...it won't be that bad. Just as we got the tent laid out on the ground the lightning started and the clouds opened up! We sat in the humid car for an hour hoping it would let up soon. It finally did, but our campsite was so water logged that we couldn't set up the tent. So, after sitting through an hour in the rain, I went sheepishly back into the office and asked if we could upgrade to a cabin. I think that should have been Pierce's job, but he did the driving instead. Then we went to the highclass eating establishment, Walmart, for dinner because everything was so wet we couldn't start a fire. While at Walmart, the KOA man called and said he had made a little mistake. The cabin he had put us in was rented for tomorrow and could we please move all our stuff to another cabin?! So, we are spending tonight in the comfort of a 2 room cabin, all in beds, and thinking about staying here tomorrow too, as it's suppose to rain all day again. The weather.com people had it all wrong!

We are still optimistic though, and the boys can't wait to get to the playground and the fishing pond, which really are very cool. I think they have to have something awesome to put in the pictures to lure you here. While sitting in the rain Pierce said he wanted to have a real Griswald family vacation...he may just get his wish!