Camping Days!

Friday started off our weekend very busily as we ran 5 errands in preparation for our departure from Lincoln! So, instead of leaving Lincoln around 1:00 or 2:00 as we had hoped, we ended up heading down the interstate at 3:30 instead! I am choosing to believe this tardiness on our part wouldn't have made a difference to the weather at Lake Calamus when we arrived 3 1/2 hours later. Even though we had seen the rain on the windshield for the last 75 miles of our trip, we didn't realize the the temperature had also been dropping 10 degrees every hour. When we arrived at the lake, we noticed the water was covered in "white caps." Thinking nothing of it and not noticing how hard it was REALLY raining, we traveled through 3 different campsites looking for "the ONE" - void of people, close to water, and some trees for protection. (Little did we know how MUCH we would need that "protection.")
On the furthest side of the 10 mile diameter lake, we found our site. Eric and I hopped gleefully from the truck to do a close-up inspection.......only to do to quick hop right back in! Driving rain, freezing temps, and frigid wind! (We had left Lincoln with 80 degree weather and I was wearing shorts and t-shirt!) Gasping for breath, we sat dumbfounded. What do we do? Wait for the rain to subside? Turn around and see if there was a motel in the area? Go home? Or set up camp any way? If you chose Option #4, you would be correct. Eric thought we should get our ginormous (gigantic+enormous) tarp set up as a rain shield first.
So, being the "helpful" wife I am, I set out to get the tarps from the camping tub and he scouted a spot for the "shield." Unfortunately, we had picked a camping site with only 3 trees - and tarps have 4 corners. After battling the wind, rain and the tarp (which was given superpowers by the wind and rain) for almost an hour and getting nowhere, we moved our attention to the tents. By this point, we are both soaked - my hair is dripping in my eyes and the ONE sweatshirt I brought with me is heavy with water and failing to keep me warm. At some point in the set-up process, we also discovered that the one thing I asked Eric to throw in his clothes bag (clean t-shirts) was missing! He was wearing his ONLY shirt and it was also soaked and wet.
The tents went up with minor setbacks - mostly because my fingers were too numb to be of much help to me - and we quickly tied all our belongings under a tarp for the night. We talked about chucking it all in and heading back to Lincoln (this was around 11:00 p.m.) and I said "We could be at IHOP by 2:00 and have pancakes!" But we ended up staying that night and ate cereal on our air mattress by the bowlful. I'm glad we stayed (now) because it turned into a great couple of days. The next day, the sky was clear and we had perfect weather for the next 2 days. We hiked with the dogs, took a LONG nap and went wading in Calamus River. Sitting around the campfire was WONDERFUL in the morning when my nose was still frozen from that night before and we made an emergency trip into Burwell for chocolate chip cookies. All-in-all, we had a fun, relaxing weekend that left us refreshed and ready to face our real lives again.