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Camping HELL


I just experienced the camping trip from HELL. Sacrificed 1 DS, 1 Playbook, 1 Blackberry and 1 Satellite radio .. as a storm sent a river through our tent.  The afore mentioned electronics spent days resting in zip bags full of rice, in hopes the water would be sucked out and they would once again, zip, brrrrrrrrrg and ring to life.

 Ask anyone – I am NOT a camper, but, this past weekend, we joined some friends at Sandbanks Provincial Park, to surprise one of my best girlfriends for her 40th Birthday.  I watched the weather forecast ahead of time, wishing the threat of rain away – yet determined to make it for one night to surprise my pal. On Friday afternoon, all was looking good.  No rain in sight, blue sky, and another friend texted they had already set-up the tent for my family to sleep in.

 We arrived at Sandbanks, unpacked, and joined our friends for a BBQ and campfire.  After a night of great company, food and a bottle of wine,  I awoke at 8am to find my husband pulling electronics out of a river on the floor of our tent.  So great was his frustration, that we immediately packed up, said goodbye to our friends and headed for home. 

 As we were driving away, we saw a great number of tree branches down and it opened our eyes to our luck to be uninjured, have our kids safe, and only electronics as casualties of the storm.  The feeling of frustration was beginning to give way to relief.  Only then did I allow myself to suffer from the bottle of wine I had drunk the night before.  I opened the window to let the cool air abate my nausea.  My husband told me to open my mouth and stick out my tongue … it would help.  I did, it didn’t and I turned to look at him laughing as he drove the van.  I said, “it didn’t work.”  His giggled response was, “sure it did!  I feel much better.”  Another crisis averted with humour.
                                                                                        We had stopped at the first store to buy Minute Rice and Ziplocbags (and loads of cookies for breakfast).  The rice had worked for us once before with a camera that had gone swimming in a pool. Three days later, we are still down one DS, the satellite radio plays music but only works by remote in its cradle, the Blackberry can send and receive calls but no longer takes pictures or allows for apps, and lastly, we have a fully functioning Playbook – that our daughter says now looks  little 3D, because of the condensation still present in the screen.

 What sense came out of this adventure?  Rice works!  Tents don’t.  Losing a few electronics is nothing as long as our kids are safe!  And – it’s worth it to look like a dog in heat if it makes your frustrated husband laugh.

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