Who'll stop the rain?
I felt a little under the weather on Friday morning, so I left work early. Weighed in at my meeting and then went to see a movie with Elizabeth. Very relaxing and just what the doctor ordered.
Got home and packed up the last bits of stuff - then Liz came over to help load the car. It was crazy finding a spot for everything, but thankfully it all fit and we got on the road to pick up Carrie at 6:15. Picked up Carrie after a little traffic, and headed towards Milwaukee. Very little traffic made for a speedy trip! We pulled into the Joseph Bong Recreation area around 7:30 to go check in. Our campsite was #109 which wasn't far from the bathroom. What a quaint campsite! It was grassy and surrounded by bushes - so we couldn't see any of our neighbors unless they walked by the car. We had marges, grilled hot dogs, and chips with queso and bean dip. Yum! Then - we devoured S'mores. Soooo fullllll. After only a couple hours, we were exhausted and all crawled into the tent to rest our eyes. It got ridicks cold in the middle of the night, and Carrie & I were both shivering, but Elizabeth was in the middle, so she was nice and toasty.
Woke up ridicks early the next morning (at 8!) and had cereal and played Uno before deciding to get dressed. Carrie was the UNO Champion. We all went to the bathroom and got ready for the day. After we were all somewhat acceptable looking, we hopped in the car and drove to Milwaukee. It was a quick drive, too. I was nervous about the crowds in Milwaukee for the fair and the Brewer's game, but it looked pretty deserted. We were all hungry, so we stopped at a mahogony McDonalds for some Happy Meals at noon. After our delicious greasy meal, we were in a spending mood, so we went across the street to a Family Dollar store where we all bought something we needed. Carrie needed a pillow and a travel size game of Sorry!, Elizabeth needed a travel size game of Trouble and a blue lounge floatie, and I needed a blanket and a sandbox set. We packed our prizes in the car and headed over to the Miller Brewery just in time to beat the crowd headed in for the 1 pm Tour.
We enjoyed the Tour (this was my 3rd time this year) and then we enjoyed getting to the Miller Inn for our free beer at the front of the pack. (that's right, after taking the tour 2 other times, I've picked up a few pointers). After our first sample, we headed over to the Beer Garden and Liz saved us a table while Carrie & I picked out our two other samples. We hung out drinking our beer (Liz isn't that into beer, so she shared it with us), and then we handed Liz the keys. She drove us back towards the campsite and we made a stop at the Mars Cheese Castle. We tried lots of samples (meh) before we found the selection of sweets, and we all got a sweet treat. We got back to the campsite and started getting stuff ready for dinner. Carrie chopped potatoes, and I prepped the grill and seasoned veggies. We played a game of Trouble and grilled food for about 30 minutes before it started raining. We had a fire going, so I moved the aluminum pockets of veggies to the over-the-fire grill so I could put the brats and burgers on the propane grill. It wasn't really coming down hard, but we decided to prepare for a long night and eat in the tent. We took some beer and wine and hung out eating out tasty food in the tent. After a while, we started getting loopy and we had a mini-dance party while Liz was on "Drip Duty" watching the top of the tent for any leaks. Everything was starting to get soggier, but we were having such a good time, we didn't even notice. After a while though, we decided to move the blankets and stuff to the car to prevent major soakage. We decided it was time to go to a dive bar.
We noticed a few of them not too far from the campsite, so Carrie drove and we reached Esposito's, which sounded like a Mexican place. Come to find out: it's just a random name. Oh well, they made amazing Bloody Mary's, and they had Mike's Hard Lemonade for Liz. We all got to pick a song in the juke box and Carrie & I discussed our show while we waited to hear our selections. I looked outside around 9:30 and saw that the rain had stopped!! YEAH! So we finished our drinks, and rode back to the campsite. On the way back, it rained a little bit more, but it stopped when we got there. Liz was in charge of drying stuff off in the tent, we moved the blankets back in, and I got a giant fire started. We had 2 things of wood left to use, so it was time to burn! It started up really quickly thanks to a little Boy Scout Water (aka Lighter Fluid) and we had a giant fire going in seconds. We all sat in our soaking wet chairs and enjoyed staring at the fire. Liz even made a couple S'mores. It was all going to be okay. Even if we had to sleep on blankets with a few wet spots, it was going to be a good night. But then it got worse. Not only did it start raining, it started raining big fat drops and in a matter of minutes, we were soaked. The fire was good to go for hours, but I was DONE.
I grabbed my pillow and went to sit in the car. I had accepted defeat. While I was sitting there, I saw that Carrie & Liz were headed into the tent. I thought for only a moment, before jumping out of the car, and telling them that I thought it was only going to get worse. They agreed, and we threw the already soggy blankets into the trunk and covered everything else up. Liz got in the back seat (that was already full) and Carrie & I sat up front. We rolled down the windows a little bit, and Liz got her fan going. Despite the fact that we were all crammed in a car, it was actually cold, so we got covered and that's when I cried. I'm a giant baby. It was only 11, so we bitched about the weather for a little bit, laughed for a little bit, listened to the iHome for a little bit, and then exhaustion set in. It was really difficult to sleep for great lengths of time because some part of our bodies would start to ache. Not only that, but Carrie & I were also being rained on along one side of our bodies. So I'd be enjoying a comfortable spot on the pillow and a drop of rain would fall thru the crack in the window and land on my face. That went on all night. Around 3 am, we all kind of woke up hysterical. We drove to the bathroom and all shuddered at the sight of our rain-soaked hair. We drove back to the campsite, and parked again. By this time, it was thundering and lightning. Very scary.
You are probably wondering why we didn't just give up and go home right then and there. Well, it's simple really: parking. Finding a parking spot at the end of a long day of work is trouble enough, but driving back at 2 am wouldn't have made it easy to find a spot at all. Not to mention that everything was soaking. Plus, I think we were all kind of hoping that the rain would stop and we could dry out the tent and finish our camping trip on a good note. But the rain never stopped, and we "slept" all night in that car. At 5:45, I woke up and saw that it was lighter outside, and that the nightmare was almost over. Carrie sighed really loudly. We came up with a game plan, and it took us 5 minutes to break camp and shove everything in the car. We didn't even bother changing into dry clothes. We left the campsite at 6. We stopped at McDonalds on the way back for some breakfast and rode back in the pouring rain. We entered Chicago at 7:15 and dropped Carrie off around 7:30. I dropped Liz off at her place at 7:45 and found a parking spot and was home in bed at 8 am.
Thankfully, when I woke up at noon, the rain had stopped and it was a beautiful day. I called Liz and went to the car to take everything out to dry in the sun. She showed up and helped to lay stuff out. We played a game of Sorry! and it didn't take long before everything was dry and ready to be rolled back up. I drove the car over and we unloaded everything in a couple of trips. We celebrated by eating cheese (from the Mars Cheese Castle) and watching a show on candy & ice cream.
Nick got home a little before 4 after his weekend trip to Detroit with his brother, Joe. Evidently, the bus showed up over 2 hrs late on Saturday because the driver didn't show up - but the driver that they got to replace him was a speed-demon and got them there before the Baseball game. They were going to see the Tigers play the Sox!! The Sox won 7-5 and went on Sunday to sweep the Tigers. Woo!
After a weekend like that, I can look ahead at the coming Disney World trip with a giant sigh.
Got home and packed up the last bits of stuff - then Liz came over to help load the car. It was crazy finding a spot for everything, but thankfully it all fit and we got on the road to pick up Carrie at 6:15. Picked up Carrie after a little traffic, and headed towards Milwaukee. Very little traffic made for a speedy trip! We pulled into the Joseph Bong Recreation area around 7:30 to go check in. Our campsite was #109 which wasn't far from the bathroom. What a quaint campsite! It was grassy and surrounded by bushes - so we couldn't see any of our neighbors unless they walked by the car. We had marges, grilled hot dogs, and chips with queso and bean dip. Yum! Then - we devoured S'mores. Soooo fullllll. After only a couple hours, we were exhausted and all crawled into the tent to rest our eyes. It got ridicks cold in the middle of the night, and Carrie & I were both shivering, but Elizabeth was in the middle, so she was nice and toasty.
Woke up ridicks early the next morning (at 8!) and had cereal and played Uno before deciding to get dressed. Carrie was the UNO Champion. We all went to the bathroom and got ready for the day. After we were all somewhat acceptable looking, we hopped in the car and drove to Milwaukee. It was a quick drive, too. I was nervous about the crowds in Milwaukee for the fair and the Brewer's game, but it looked pretty deserted. We were all hungry, so we stopped at a mahogony McDonalds for some Happy Meals at noon. After our delicious greasy meal, we were in a spending mood, so we went across the street to a Family Dollar store where we all bought something we needed. Carrie needed a pillow and a travel size game of Sorry!, Elizabeth needed a travel size game of Trouble and a blue lounge floatie, and I needed a blanket and a sandbox set. We packed our prizes in the car and headed over to the Miller Brewery just in time to beat the crowd headed in for the 1 pm Tour.
We enjoyed the Tour (this was my 3rd time this year) and then we enjoyed getting to the Miller Inn for our free beer at the front of the pack. (that's right, after taking the tour 2 other times, I've picked up a few pointers). After our first sample, we headed over to the Beer Garden and Liz saved us a table while Carrie & I picked out our two other samples. We hung out drinking our beer (Liz isn't that into beer, so she shared it with us), and then we handed Liz the keys. She drove us back towards the campsite and we made a stop at the Mars Cheese Castle. We tried lots of samples (meh) before we found the selection of sweets, and we all got a sweet treat. We got back to the campsite and started getting stuff ready for dinner. Carrie chopped potatoes, and I prepped the grill and seasoned veggies. We played a game of Trouble and grilled food for about 30 minutes before it started raining. We had a fire going, so I moved the aluminum pockets of veggies to the over-the-fire grill so I could put the brats and burgers on the propane grill. It wasn't really coming down hard, but we decided to prepare for a long night and eat in the tent. We took some beer and wine and hung out eating out tasty food in the tent. After a while, we started getting loopy and we had a mini-dance party while Liz was on "Drip Duty" watching the top of the tent for any leaks. Everything was starting to get soggier, but we were having such a good time, we didn't even notice. After a while though, we decided to move the blankets and stuff to the car to prevent major soakage. We decided it was time to go to a dive bar.
We noticed a few of them not too far from the campsite, so Carrie drove and we reached Esposito's, which sounded like a Mexican place. Come to find out: it's just a random name. Oh well, they made amazing Bloody Mary's, and they had Mike's Hard Lemonade for Liz. We all got to pick a song in the juke box and Carrie & I discussed our show while we waited to hear our selections. I looked outside around 9:30 and saw that the rain had stopped!! YEAH! So we finished our drinks, and rode back to the campsite. On the way back, it rained a little bit more, but it stopped when we got there. Liz was in charge of drying stuff off in the tent, we moved the blankets back in, and I got a giant fire started. We had 2 things of wood left to use, so it was time to burn! It started up really quickly thanks to a little Boy Scout Water (aka Lighter Fluid) and we had a giant fire going in seconds. We all sat in our soaking wet chairs and enjoyed staring at the fire. Liz even made a couple S'mores. It was all going to be okay. Even if we had to sleep on blankets with a few wet spots, it was going to be a good night. But then it got worse. Not only did it start raining, it started raining big fat drops and in a matter of minutes, we were soaked. The fire was good to go for hours, but I was DONE.
I grabbed my pillow and went to sit in the car. I had accepted defeat. While I was sitting there, I saw that Carrie & Liz were headed into the tent. I thought for only a moment, before jumping out of the car, and telling them that I thought it was only going to get worse. They agreed, and we threw the already soggy blankets into the trunk and covered everything else up. Liz got in the back seat (that was already full) and Carrie & I sat up front. We rolled down the windows a little bit, and Liz got her fan going. Despite the fact that we were all crammed in a car, it was actually cold, so we got covered and that's when I cried. I'm a giant baby. It was only 11, so we bitched about the weather for a little bit, laughed for a little bit, listened to the iHome for a little bit, and then exhaustion set in. It was really difficult to sleep for great lengths of time because some part of our bodies would start to ache. Not only that, but Carrie & I were also being rained on along one side of our bodies. So I'd be enjoying a comfortable spot on the pillow and a drop of rain would fall thru the crack in the window and land on my face. That went on all night. Around 3 am, we all kind of woke up hysterical. We drove to the bathroom and all shuddered at the sight of our rain-soaked hair. We drove back to the campsite, and parked again. By this time, it was thundering and lightning. Very scary.
You are probably wondering why we didn't just give up and go home right then and there. Well, it's simple really: parking. Finding a parking spot at the end of a long day of work is trouble enough, but driving back at 2 am wouldn't have made it easy to find a spot at all. Not to mention that everything was soaking. Plus, I think we were all kind of hoping that the rain would stop and we could dry out the tent and finish our camping trip on a good note. But the rain never stopped, and we "slept" all night in that car. At 5:45, I woke up and saw that it was lighter outside, and that the nightmare was almost over. Carrie sighed really loudly. We came up with a game plan, and it took us 5 minutes to break camp and shove everything in the car. We didn't even bother changing into dry clothes. We left the campsite at 6. We stopped at McDonalds on the way back for some breakfast and rode back in the pouring rain. We entered Chicago at 7:15 and dropped Carrie off around 7:30. I dropped Liz off at her place at 7:45 and found a parking spot and was home in bed at 8 am.
Thankfully, when I woke up at noon, the rain had stopped and it was a beautiful day. I called Liz and went to the car to take everything out to dry in the sun. She showed up and helped to lay stuff out. We played a game of Sorry! and it didn't take long before everything was dry and ready to be rolled back up. I drove the car over and we unloaded everything in a couple of trips. We celebrated by eating cheese (from the Mars Cheese Castle) and watching a show on candy & ice cream.
Nick got home a little before 4 after his weekend trip to Detroit with his brother, Joe. Evidently, the bus showed up over 2 hrs late on Saturday because the driver didn't show up - but the driver that they got to replace him was a speed-demon and got them there before the Baseball game. They were going to see the Tigers play the Sox!! The Sox won 7-5 and went on Sunday to sweep the Tigers. Woo!
After a weekend like that, I can look ahead at the coming Disney World trip with a giant sigh.