Camping Trip

We went to Chain of Lakes State park with our new gear and bikes in tow. It was pretty cool. We got to see nature and ride our bikes with working restrooms and a place to get coffee nearby :-). The Captain got a nice fire going so we could cook the corn, potatoes, and lamb burgers. I worked on the watchcap for my dad and then we packed in for the night. I could not sleep well. I had a mat under my sleeping bag, so the old hips were doing alright. I know it 'looks' pretty tame and civilized in the photo, but it was much more wilderness than one petite tricoteuse is used to. The problem was that our neighbors were pretty near and nature is loud. Every few minutes I thought some beast (human or otherwise) was coming near our tent. I finally started drifting off when I noticed the fire had lit itself again. I roused the Captain and he put it out. This happened twice. It might have happened a third time, but at 2 am what appeared to be a MONSOON struck. The wind was blowing our tent sideways. The Captain had to rush out and collect the chair and blanket that was blowing away. We were at the lee of the tree so we didn't get too pelted with rain. (Boy am I glad that we decided to put the cover of the tent on. Even though it was sureley excessive since it was sunny and couldn't possibly rain *sheesh*.

To top it all off, there was a mosquito in the tent. We were so diligent about keeping the tent closed, but the Monsoon distracted us. I had 33 mosquito bites from the mid thigh down. The official count was made 2 days after the fact because my left heel was so puffed up that what appeared to be a giant bite was actually 7 individual ones. I am thankful that I have neither West Nile or Elephantitis. The nature seemed to love the rain storm. The caterpillar on our tent roof seemed quite pleased with himself.