Years and years ago, I went camping at Illinois Yearly (Friends) Meeting in McNabb, IL. At Illinois Yearly Meeting House were primitive dorms and an even more primitive camping spot across the road. My friend Joan and I chose the campground, knowing we would have to walk across the road in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. We were okay with that. We put up the tent when there was just enough sunlight to light our way, and then we settled in for the night.
I thought I had found the comfortable spot in the tent, only to realize that the air mattress settled on top of a tree root and was not quite as comfortable as I had hoped. Joan was likewise settled on top of a tree root, and there were no comfortable spots in the tent. That was okay; I still had the great outdoors to hang out in.
In the middle of the night, I woke up to rain. How cozy! I felt a bit less cozy and a bit more exposed when I heard lightning, but we were pretty protected under a tree. Had I been thinking better, I would not have felt cozier under a tree, but I was somewhat sleep deprived and not thinking clearly.
When we woke up the next morning, I realized my air mattress was floating. The whole tent had taken on about an inch or two of water. So had our sleeping bags, our spare clothes, and the rest of the contents of our tent. We had to take everything and hang it in the tree to dry. Luckily I had some clothes that had stayed dry so I had something to wear that day. Everything else was in the tree to dry.
We spent the next two nights in the dorm, having ended our grand camping experiment.
Words Like Me 