Camping in Tropical Storm Debby: A Memoir

The trip was supposed to be a quick, fun, summer get-a-way.  Mom had just purchase a new camper and was itching to try it out.  The kids were thrilled to go to the beach and couldn't wait to have one big slumber party in the bigger and improved sleeping quarters.


Mom's new camper is much bigger than the old one.

We gathered our chicks and drove the two hours down to stay at the Carrabelle Beach RVC Outdoor Destination.  (Note:  I think this is a really weird name. Marketing Department, you dropped the ball on "catchiness" and easy to remember names.)

I must say, this is a really nice RV park as RV parks go.  I can't call it a campground because it has no place for "real" campers to set up a tent, only miles of concrete and manicured landscaping.  (*smirk*)  But, it's super nice for what it is.

Friday night was our first night there.  It was overcast.  Setting up the new camper was frought with hair-pulling issues like:

• A window cracked during travel.  What happened?  I dunno.  Find the duct tape.
• Handfuls of strange poles, a fabric awning, and no instructions make an interesting set-up.  A nice old guy with nothing to do hung around for hours with us, trying to figure out the "puzzle".
• Kids, go play!.....Not right there!!
• Why is all this water pouring down the side of the camper?  The air conditioner?  That's weird.... Hope the canvas is waterproof!  (Little did we know....)



I am really proud of myself for taking on grilling.  Never done it.  Never.  Woohoo! The chicken legs were awesome!!

The place has a really nice pool, which we ended up spending allllllll our time in because:

1. It was raining and it's not very fun to sit in a camper all weekend.
2. The beach was disgusting.  It was completely covered in seaweed, in the water and on the beach.  We didn't really know why until Saturday night.  (more on that in a minute)

Tater-Tot

Tabi

Teegan

Tobi

Noodle

Hopers

Joey, Elaine, and Jeremy came down for the day to meet us at the beach.  They even brought Seth with them.  However, for the reasons mentioned previously, we had no beach fun.  We had a pool though!  Yay!  We swam and ate lunch.  At times, we ducked under floats to keep the rain from beating us in the face while swimming, while staying in the water because it was warm.

Eventually, though, that fun came to an end because SOMEONE, who shall remain nameless on my blog for all eternity because I'm a nice person....pooped in the pool. 

Yes.  You heard me right.  We're talking little-nuggets-all-over-the-place-everyone-get-out-of-the-pool-we-have-to-call-the-proper-authorities-someone-pooped-in-the-pool!

End fun.

Well, almost.  We did take the kids out to eat seafood Saturday night in Carrabelle at a great little place called The Fisherman's Wife.  Really good.  Yum.  I want shrimp just thinking about it.

Okay.  Now End Fun.

Unbeknownst to us, a tropical storm had been silently slipping toward the gulf coast, making little news until it decided to unleash it's full fury on our vacation.  The old guy who had been helping us came by and mentioned we should bring down the awning because "a storm" was coming.  That's about all we knew as we went to bed to a partly cloudy, breezy evening.

I awoke in the middle of the night to what felt like horrible airplane turbulance.  The wind was hammering against the canvas sides of our pop-up camper, shaking everything with a vengence.  I tried to continue sleeping but fears of being snatched into the ocean by a giant Poseidon-like hand kept me awake.

When morning dawned, things just seemed to be getting worse.  Tropical Storm Debby was now making headlines and floods everywhere.  We fed the kids pop tarts and tried to keep them calm with a dvd while Mom and I discussed what to do.  The wind was driving the rain sideways.  We cringed at the thought of trying to take down camp in it.  Another option was to stay another day and hope the storm moved off quickly without destroying the little matchbox we were sitting in.  We also briefly discussed abandoning everything and hopping in the cars to go home.  Finally, we came to the conclusion that seemed most right, yet least fun.  Take down the camper in a tropical storm. Ugh.

Step One:  Put on plastic ponchos and stuff  kids into vans.

Step Two:  Put everything possible into trash bags and run back and forth between camper and van in the driving wind and rain.

Step Three: Remove shreds of poncho from body and give up on the thought of being dry for the next several hours.

Step Four: Watch the camper fill with water as you lower the roof and tuck in sides.  Ick.

Step Five:  Drive for two hours in a crazy storm, but make it home safely.

All I wanted was fuzzy bedroom slippers and a bowl of soup when I got home, but Debby had other plans for me.  She followed me. This happened moments later:

One of my beautiful pecan trees lost a major limb to the wind, falling across the yard on to a white crape myrtle. I mourn the loss, but am soooo grateful for God's protection of everything. I mean, EVERYTHING!  We didn't get crushed like bugs or tossed into the sea.  We made it safely home.  The tree could have fallen on my house or my deck or my vegetable garden--but it didn't.

Thanks God.  You're awesome.

I did learn some things through this trip, though. (I'm really into making lists today, apparently, too.)

1.  Camping in Florida in the summer stinks.  (Didn't I learn that last time?)
2. Always check the weather before going somewhere in a pop-up.
3. That brown thing in the bottom of the pool is not dog food.

Camping, Airplanes, and Kids Going MIA

Memorial Day Weekend:  The Let's Do Something Weekend.  The Go Somewhere Weekend.  The Remembering Weekend.  We did.  We went.  We remembered.

To start off, the girls and I, along with my Mom and the Fearsome Four, decided to go and visit Paw Paw and Snookie in Pensacola.  In order not to trouble my grandparents too much, we camped in their yard.  It was great to see them and I'm still kicking myself for not taking a picture of them.

However, I was fully reminded as to why we Floridians don't go camping in the summer.

It was hot.  Stinkin', buggy, 100 degree hot.  We had to find some things to do other than sit around and sweat during the day.

Saturday, we went to Pensacola Beach.

It was Tate's first time seeing the beach.  A first beach trip is a momentous occasion!  He loved it.  He let us swim him around out in the water.  He enjoyed digging in the sand.

It was still hot, but at least we could get wet!  The water was perfectly clear of any seaweed or jellyfish.  Though, we did see a big fish.  Possibly a barracuda.  It was in a hurry to leave us, so I couldn't say for sure.

Next to us, there was a middle-eastern family with two young boys.  The boys had life jackets on all day.  After lunch, I looked over to see a commotion going on with the parents and some other people.  There was an empty life jacket sitting next to their blanket.  A woman helping them ran up to us and asked if we had seen the little boy.  He was missing.  Everyone along the beach began searching for him.  All I could think about was that empty life jacket laying there as I scanned the blue-green water.  The mother tearfully held her chest and called for him, running down the sand.   The father stood in the water, beating it with his fists and pulling his hair. 

For about 15 minutes, everyone was holding their breath, until someone found the little guy in the bathrooms.  Mom and I were so relieved, we had to take a moment to wipe our tears and breathe deep.  He wasn't kidnapped.  He hadn't drowned.  He just didn't tell his parents where he went.  The happy day could go on.  (At least for most of us, anyway.  I'm sure that little guy was in a heap of trouble!)

That evening, we ate dinner with Paw Paw and Snookie and then tried to hit the hay.  Between the roach joining me in my bed in the camper, Tobi and Tabi's dogs barking every hour on the hour, Teegan's asthma coughing, and everyone needing to go to pee (which made the dogs bark), I remembered why I needed to bring my own tent next time.  I also considered sneaking off to a hotel.

The next day, we went to the National Naval Aviation Museum.  If you know anything about Pensacola, you know there's a Navy Base there.  This museum is on the grounds of the base, and it ain't no rinky-dink operation.  It was definitely the high point of our weekend.

Arguably, it was also the low point, but I'll get to that in a minute.

This place is awesome.  The kids loved it. Teegan's first question about the place was, can I touch an airplane?  Boy, can you....  Everything is touchable, rideable, get-in-able.  Teegan was in airplane heaven.  But not just airplanes.  There are helicopters, jets, hot air balloons, air craft carrier decks, blimps, and space stations from throughout history.

There are also lots of detailed models of different aircraft carriers.  One of them had a fun "Where's Waldo" type of scavenger hunt to do.  Can you find the sailor who is seasick?  There's a little guy throwing up over the side.  Can you find the man feeding the ship's dog?  Can you find the cook peeling potatoes?  That kind of thing.

My pictures are slightly misleading.  Somehow, it looks like we were the only ones there, but in reality, the place was slammed.  Everybody and their grandfather was there. It was Memorial Day Weekend.  The museum is FREE.  And it's a hundred degrees outside.  What would you be doing?

But the museum is also really big, too, so we had plenty of room to roam.

This machine gun thingy rotated as the kids cranked the wheel.

Every nook and cranny had something to see or climb on.

The floor tiles were made like an aircraft carrier landing strip.  The kids pretended to be airplanes landing and taking off for a while.

After, we drove over to Fort Barrancas for a picnic lunch (a historical site also on the base).   We had to do a quick height check, just to make sure everyone is still growing!

Left to right:  Noodle (age 10), Tobi (8), Hopers (6), Tabi (6), Teegan (4), Tate (2)

We were planning on going to the zoo after lunch but instead decided to go back to the museum to finish our tour.  That's how much we like the place.  There was an entire second building that we hadn't explored.

Back at the museum, the kids ran around fighting over who got to be first to sit in each cockpit.  Things spiraled downward to the point where Hopers and Tabi went MIA.  Mom had to call security, probably replaying yesterday's beach event with the missing boy over again in her mind.  I didn't get the chance to wonder if my daughter and sister had been kidnapped, because I was outside in the parking lot, waiting for a locksmith. (Remember that low point of the weekend I mentioned?)  I had locked my keys in the car, knowing it the moment my door snapped shut with an internal "Nooooooooooooo!!!!"

Sixty dollars later, I had my keys just as Mom came out of the museum hauling six cranky kids behind her.  Once again, no one had been kidnapped (or drowned), but I'm pretty sure there was a bit of prankster-style hiding going on in an airplane cockpit by two little girls who shall remain nameless.

The next morning, we sweated our way back through packing up a campsite, bid our goodbyes to Paw Paw and Snookie, and hit the road for home.

WWTW on the Blackwater River

For most of Spring Break last week we did absolutely nothing.  I think one day we went to the park. I also distinctly remember going to the grocery store. We were buried in the thick of normal day-to-day stuff, where I muddle through getting laundry and the house clean with spring-allergy abused sinuses, and the kids geting the laundry and the house dirty with reckless abandon.  It's a synergistic relationship we have.

But over the last weekend we decided to revive the tradition started many years back with my mom: The Wild Women Weekend.  Typically, my girls and I have taken a spring trip somewhere with my mom and her girls.  This year, however, we have a new addition to the family: my little brother, Teegan.  So now we'll  just have to call it the Wild Women and Teegan Weekend.   The WWTW.  And next year, when the adoption is final for my little brother Tate, we'll have to call it the Wild Women and Teegan and Tate Weekend.  The WWTTW.  Ummm, yeah....

Anyway. 

We went camping.

First, we spent Friday night camping in my grandfather's yard in Pensacola so we could squeeze in a quick visit with him.  We stayed in my mom's very old and crotchety pop-up camper, which doesn't so much "pop" up as "wrench every muscle in your body through a slow and painful cranking effort" up.  Super fun.  And because we spent Saturday and Sunday night in a different place, we got to "pop" that baby up and down four times. Whoooo hoo.

About 30 minutes from the city is the Blackwater River State Park.  I had never been there before, but to my mom, it was like a homecoming.  Her childhood memories are filled with camping and playing on the banks of that river, even before there was a state park to contain it.  She loved the idea of coming to this place with her children and grandchildren to create new memories through the generations.

We like traditions, my mom and I.

The campgrounds were fantastic.  Apparently, after hurricane Ivan ravaged the area, the place had to be rebuilt.  Everything was new and well-maintained.  Even the bathrooms, which can be pretty yucky in such situations, was so clean that I didn't have to panic when the kids inevitably crawled on the floor.  (Usually, it's Hopers.)

Our spot was situated on a paved loop of sites with a playground in the center.  The kids were immediately sucked in to play without pause until dark. 

They each had a scooter, which they rode around the loop approximately 953 times each day.

I totally recommend bringing scooters any time you go on a camping trip with kids.  There's sure to be a paved spot somewhere and the exercise will wear their little bodies down to nothing just in time for bed!  Not to mention, scooters these days can practically fold to the size of a sardine can, saving a lot of space compared to bikes--vitally important when you're already dragging your whole life out into the wilderness.


The other great thing about the Blackwater River state park was the Blackwater River!  Just a short walk down a path brings campers to a sandy beach.  The river is naturally sandy and has small beaches at every curve.  Many people take canoe trips down it to find a private beach to camp or play on.

At first it was a little cloudy and cool.  The water was cold.  Teegan stayed as far back as he could, making a disgusted face.  This was all very new to him, and he wasn't going to warm up to it quickly.

Mom convinced him though.  Slowly, he inched toward where we sat.  Slowwwly, he stepped out in the water.  Moments later, he was splashing and laughing.  "FUN! Mama! FUN!"  This was his first time swimming.



Teegan laughing in the water.




The Blackwater River is named for its tea-color.  The dark brown comes naturally from the tannins in the leaves of the surrounding trees.




Hopers and Tabitha searching for underwater treasure.



Noodle and Tobianna getting used to the cold water.

 Eventually, the clouds passed and the heat of the day drove us all into the crisp water.  We explored the nearby beaches and looked for interesting driftwood.  The kids caught minnows and made drippy castles.  At one point, Tabitha stuck a bit of driftwood into one of the holes in her plastic croc-style shoe.  She held her foot up for everyone to see saying, "Look, it's a croc-roach!"  Ha ha...welcome to Florida, where even the cockroaches inspire the imagination.

In the evenings, we cooked kid-friendly meals involving various types of pasta, veggies, and miscellaneous items.  The task of creating one meal for five picky children was daunting, but not impossible.  Afterward, we sat around the fire and sang songs and told stories.  The kids enjoyed the "circle story" method, where one person begins a story, passes it to the next person, who adds more, who passes it to the next person and so on.  This can be really entertaining with a bunch of imaginative kids.

"...all this time I've been kissing an alligator??"
"...and the babies played all day in their daddy's really long beard"
"...so the really beautiful girl traveled around collecting new stuff.  She bought a new camper."

Three days were hardly enough for any of us, and as Monday came, it was hard to tear ourselves away from the enjoyment.  We "popped" the camper down and waved goodbye to our new favorite spring getaway.

Hopefully, this will become a new-old tradition.  Long live the WWTW!  Or the WWTTW... or whatever....

Wild Women Weekend

Obviously, it's not what you think. Do you even know me? Get your mind out of the gutter...
The Wild Women Weekend is a little tradition my mom and I have where we get away with just the girls. I've written about it in the past in this post. Of course, this year it included an eight-year-old, a six-year-old, and two four-year-olds, so it was bound to get wild at some point. Hey, YOU try wrangling four small people in and out of multiple public bathrooms for 3 days straight without anyone licking a trash can or falling in a toilet.
I'm just sayin'...
Well this year we decided to take a trip over to Pensacola, FL to visit my grandparents, go to the beach, and relax (ha!). We stayed in a hotel in Milton, the nearby and more affordable town that my parents grew up in, since most of the hotels in Pensacola and the beaches were booked up and extra expensive for Memorial Day.
Friday evening, we spent visiting with my mom's dad and his wife. We brought puzzles and games to help keep the kiddos occupied and minimize the damages--because, as Tobianna says, "Their house is small, but REALLY fancy!" (Tobianna, if you didn't know, is very fascinated by "fanciness" in general.)
Saturday morning, us adults dragged ourselves from bed after several hours of wishing the kids hadn't awakened before the crack of dawn. We went to Navarre beach.
It was a pretty day. Hot, sunny--full of other people doing their holiday weekend thing. We lugged our chairs, towels, coolers, cameras, floats, sand toys, etc. to the "perfect spot" on the beach and made ourselves at home.



After a few hours, some clouds moved in, making us suspicious enough to decide to put a few things back in the van. My SLR camera was one precious item I didn't want getting wet (the waterproof camera could suffice). Some of the kid chairs and coolers and cell phones also went. But then, the air seemed to clear a bit, taking our suspicion with it. We settled back into our fun.




Another hour passed and the sky suddenly blackened with grey clouds. Beach-goers began to file past us, dragging whining kids behind them.
As we packed up too, fat drops slapped the ground around us, the wind picking up speed in tandem. We realized packing was futile when the lightning cracked above us with simultaneous bursts of thunder, and just snatched everything up in wet, sandy bundles. By the time we made it to the nearest picnic pavilion, the rain was sheeting in sideways and the lightning pulsed every few seconds.
Here's where the fun really started. We were completely soaked to the bone. Our towels and clothing and skin were dripping wet and caked with sand. The thunder crashed so loudly above us that it evoked a scream from the girls each time. In between, they cried. I think Noodle asked me if we were going to die a few times. Another family trapped under the pavilion had lost their twenty-year-old daughter when she went for a walk down the beach before the storm started. The younger sister was crying--adding to the cacophony--while her parents decided what to do.
We took a few moments to deflate several floats while the kids shivered and cried. One woman eyed the tearful children and gave me a look that said I'm So Glad I'm Not You. I smiled back and said, "These are memories in the making, right?" Then, we made the last dash to the van, stuffing the mess and ourselves through the doors. With the heat turned on (who could guess we'd need it in Florida in May?), and the wind no longer whipping rain in our faces, everyone began to calm down a bit.

Ahead of us, a long line of vehicles stretched its way down the street from both ends of the island and across the bridge. We inched. We sat. We inched some more. The storm continued in its fury. Mom worried aloud whether it would be safer to be in the car, exposed at the top of the bridge, or back under the pavilion with the metal roof and the screaming kids. I'd take my chances with the bridge. However, I couldn't help dredging up in my mind the conversation we'd had the day before about the Pensacola bridge that had ripped apart during hurricane Ivan. I shuddered and updated my status on Facebook to keep my brain busy.
We survived, of course. No one was struck by lightning and no bridges collapsed. We looked and felt like drowned rats, and I don't think my mom's minivan will ever be the same, but hey, memories in the making, right?
We spent the rest of the evening cleaning up and visiting again with my grandparents. They were even kind enough to wash and dry all our soaked laundry so that we could make another go of the beach the next day.
Needless to say, the girls weren't super thrilled at the idea of the beach again the next morning when we spied more dark clouds. The moms threw up their hands in surrender. The end of the Wild Women Weekend had come. (We drove home, chased by storms all the way.)
I think next weekend will be The Women Stay Home and Get a Massage Weekend.

Our Unlimited Adventures

We just returned from our Spring Break trip. Noodle, Hopers, Amie, Tabitha and I had decided to get away for a few days (Sunday through Wednesday, to be exact) and have some fun. We stayed at a place called Adventures Unlimited which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. But if you're curious, it's near Allentown, which is near Milton, which is near Pensacola... and if you don't know where Pensacola is then I'm sorry, you need to consult a map of Florida.

We stayed in a little cabin in the woods on the edge of a lovely creek.

It had a small kitchen/dining/living room area, a bathroom and a bedroom. On the back of the cabin was a screened porch with a swing and rocking chair overlooking the creek. Noodle's first comment after surveying the inside of the cabin was, "Hey, there's no TV!" However, she quickly forgot about television when she discovered the water out back and spent almost all of her time during the days at the edge of it with a fishing pole, a bucket, and a scoop net.

Hopers and Tabitha were excited about playing in the dirt, and spent much of their time trying to fall in the creek.

Day Two, Noodle and I planned to go on an "adventure" to explore our surroundings. Before we had even left the cabin, we found this amazing little lizard with a forked tail. He hung out for a while as if he were used to getting is picture taken. Then, Noodle and I trekked down to the creek and began to travel along it with our buckets and nets (just in case). We found a board across the creek and tried to walk out on it, but it sank in the middle, so we decided it was a very poor bridge and didn't cross it. We went further until we came to a place where the bank on the opposite side of the creek was very high and someone had secured a large tree trunk all the way across. They had also tied a rope at my shoulder height so that one could cross without having to balance too much. However, Noodle had no benefit of the rope and found it an exciting challenge to get across. At first, she held my hand. But, being much braver with practice, she was able to get across all on her own, over the rushing waters of the creek. On the other side, we found a Ropes Course hidden in the woods. We only surveyed it, however, because you needed a ladder to get up to the first level. We also found these interesting plants growing in the path of one trail. They look like some kind of carnivorous plant, but I'll have to investigate that further.

The're only about the size of a penny. We also did some minnow catching below the balance brigde where the water was shallow and the bottom sandy. At first, it was difficult because the water was like ice. COLD. No really. COLD! We stepped in and had to jump back out after about 3 seconds because of the pain. After repeating that pattern for 15 minutes, our feet were numb and we were able to stay in.We returned to the cabin after that because my grandparents were coming to visit. But, after lunch, Noodle was itching to go back to the bridge. She convinced everyone to come with her. Not only that, but everyone crossed the bridge. Hope crossed while on my back, PawPaw and Snooky crossed... even my mom did it! And she's so afraid of heights that she used to get woozy trying to tuck in the sheets on the top bunk bed that my sister and I had! I was very proud of everyone for being "adventurous".Day Three, we went to the zoo in Gulf Breeze. It was filled with many beautiful animals, some that I have never seen before. Noodle was especially enthralled by the orangutans with their baby that clung to the mommy as she climbed around and eyed us with her deep gaze. It really made me wonder what she was thinking about. Hopers was thrilled by all the creatures. She "oohed" and "ahhed" at each turn, pointing and laughing. It was such a joy for me to see her experience these new things. Tabitha also seemed to enjoy the animals, but got too tired after a while and slept for half of the zoo trip. We saw many kinds of primates, lions, tigers, giant snakes, beautiful Toucans, a baby zebra, a giant rodent that was the size of a large hog (the name escapes me), vampire bats (Noodle loved those), a petting zoo (Hopers was afraid of getting too close to them), and more. It was a fun time.Day Four, we packed up to go home. We discovered a cousin (he discovered us, actually) who happened to be on staff at Adventures Unlimited. He gave us some help with packing. It shouldn't surprise me to run into family members in the woods though. When your family has been in an area for enough generations on every side, you tend to be cousins with everyone.