Scared Stiff in a STORM.

Yes, I am a wimp when it comes to storms. Correction, was a wimp. After my experience on the first night of camp, I believe that I have made significant progress in my ability to weather a storm.

When I was in High School, we went camping at Lake Miltona with some family friends. The kids were in a tent and the parents were sleeping in a motor home. Some straight line winds or maybe a small twister came through the camp ground and it was the eeriest sound. You could hear it coming through the trees and then it hit. The tent blew down and we were stuck inside with water pouring in and we couldn't find the zipper right away. Let's just say, that this experience, helped me develop a certain fear of storms.

Well on the first night of camping with the Young Women, we knew that a storm was coming and so we started asking the Stake Leaders what the protocol would be for severe weather. They told us to listen for horns honking and told us to run for one of the shelters that were at least a 1/2 mile away! It was going to be the only night that I was alone in my tent because another leader was coming up the next day. I had the thought, "of course the storm would come on the ONLY night that I am alone in the tent!" Well as we were sitting around talking before going to our respective tents, the thunder started in and my heart started skipping beats.

As the storm intensified, I could hear the girls giggling, with hoots and hollers. It made me smile and think of it as an adventure that would make for a good story later, however, then I felt the first little drip on my forehead. Oh, how fast my thinking changed again, I thought, "Are you kidding me?" That drip just started the flood gates. We got 3 inches of rain in about an hour or so and it was really windy so it was raining in sideways. After getting wet for a couple of minutes, I decided to throw my rain gear over me with our dish tubs on my stomach and later the other one on my legs. This picture was taken around 2AM. I also texted Benjy something like this, "This tent is crap, crap, crap. Love your wife!" I was actually laughing at the time, I took this picture because I knew if I wasn't laughing, I would have been crying!

I found in the morning that every tent leaked and two other groups of girls were evacuated in the night because they were sleeping in ponds of water. Our poor girls also woke up soaked!

And yet, they woke up smiling, laughing and ready to go on their 3 and 5 mile hikes! Again, what an example they were to me!