We thought we were ready for everything. Heat and humidity- we had the gazebo, sun block, and the ocean. Bugs- we had the gazebo, bug repellent, and citronella candles. Rain- we had a gazebo.
The wind blew almost everything away...
(one of the photos below is a video of the blowing tents and the wind, i think you can click it to see it.)
We packed the car very tightly. I was surprised that we fit everything. Gryphon and Ruby were belted in and then packed around. After a stop for gas and ice we were on our way. We had the AC on the whole time as it was pretty hot. As we drove through the campsite we noticed that it was not very hot at all. we did see a couple ponies on the way in.
We pulled up to our spot and noticed that what was probably my cousin's tent was already up but their car was not there. We got out and then got hit by the WIND! It wasn't just a gust of wind but a non-stop gale force wind. Their tent seemed pretty sturdy so we set about getting our stuff ready.
As soon as we got ruby out she started to cry from the wind and just sat on the picnic table and cried for a couple of minutes until she got used to the wind.
We were getting ready to set up the gazebo first when my cousin pulled up. After the hellos, he mentioned that the gazebo may just blow over. We decided to go with the tents first. Jeff had gotten some advise about holding down tents in windy weather. He had some plastic plates with holes in them. You put a rope through the holes and bury the plates in the sand. You then just tie the ropes to the same spots that you would put the steaks in. So we did this and fought the wind to get the tent somewhat standing. The whole side of the tent was just bent in and the poles were bowing in a bad way. We repositioned the tent so that it had a edge cutting into the wind. That seemed to be a small help. As you can see from some of the pictures it was still falling in even with a ton of anchor ropes. It was standing though so we put up Gryphons smaller tent in back of the big tent so it would not get as much wind.
Renee and Adam rolled up and after the hellos again we helped get there tent up. It was a bit stronger but still leaning with the wind. We also watched a lot of other people struggling with their tents. They also managed to get there stronger gazebo up as well.
So we walked down to the beach to check it out. Water was cold, very cold. No ponies here.
Back at the camp I broke out the camping stove that we got from freecycle. i got it set up and was trying to light it when i noticed that a pipe was leaking fuel... I stopped trying to light it. So now we had to try to get a fire going. Adam had some kindling and we had some logs still at our site from the last campers. We did get a week fire going and were able to warm up our veggie dogs and burgers. i was able to keep the fire smoldering and burning until we could add some more big stuff to give us a fire to sit around. we had a beach umbrella laying down in front of it to break some of the wind at this point to. The kids loved the sand dune next to us and it kept them busy. The wind died down a bit at night and it got chilly. We did catch a guy walking around oddly at like 1am and even stealing wood from our neighbor. When Jeff talked to the ranger the next day he said that wood is like gold here and if we could identify the guy to let him know. We also saw 2 ponies walking down the street late at night too. I had no problem sleeping once My feet were warm (I'm sure the beer didn't hurt too).
In the morning the wind was still blowing but not as hard at first but it back to roaring by midday. we contemplated putting up our gazeebo but as the wind was keeping us cool and blowing the bugs away we kept it down. The birds were having a hard time flying too. You could see them a stream lined as possible to fly in the wind. we used Adams stove to cook up some breakfast... I think. We spent the day at the beach and hanging at the camp sight. I think Sarah took a nap and I sat and played with my GPS and read some of my book. I had a change to try Jeff's Trick Kite. that was cool. It almost pulled you off of the sand! Gryphon and i headed to Food Lion to get s'mores supplies and some veggies. I noticed that it was blazing hot in town which made the wind easier to bare with when we got back to camp. We got another fire going for the night as the darker clouds started to roll in. Sarah and I decided to pull our blankets out and sleep on the dune. To bad the sky wasn't clear but it was still nice.
I woke up at one point and heard rain. Pulled the blankets back and mentioned the rain to Sarah. It was just a drizzle so we pulled the blankets back up and went back to sleep. A little later we woke to a more steady rain. we got up and saw the clouds were pretty thick and the rain didn't seem like it was going to stop. Jeff had gotten coffee and some donuts and then had left overs so we had some of that. Still hoping to make another day we put up the gazebo. we had the same problems with the wind and the one side of the gazebo was being pushed in by the wind. Jeff and carol packed up and took off before it started to get bad. We decided to go for a geocache, do the nature center and then comeback to make our decision. Adam and Renee headed out to get some better rain gear. They were here for the week so they would not be leaving because of the rain.
I sure up the little tent and through a tarp over the bigger tent and the gazebo. Then we scooted out and stopped at the camp store and got the kids some rain slickers, a pony pin and pony magnets. Then we headed off for a geoCache called 'Don't Rock the Boat'. The cache was a mini, which ment that it the size of a film canister. We have yet to find one of these mini caches and this would not be the first. It was pouring down rain as we found the spot. There were a bunch of old little boats set on small rocks along the parking lot of a bar. i guess the cache was around the rocks or just off in the woods. It sounds like not everyone looking for this finds it and it has had some problems with not being there in the past. On the way back we hit the nature center and watched a video on the ponies and got to "pet" some live water creatures and long dead remnants of creatures. We took a ride down the road to the State Park and saw some ponies by the road. Going back to our camp we noticed that even more people had left. people with RV's were hanging but there were very few tents left. When we got back to our site we noticed that the little tent was gone with the wind... We jumped back in the car to see if we could find it. the tent made it accross the road and got stuck in some bushes. Sarah rained it in and pulled it back to camp risking being blown away as she did so. We broke that tent down and saw that our other neighbor who was not back yet was now missing their gazebo( the same one we have by-the-way). A quick look around and we saw that it too was stuck in some bushes. They arrived shortly after we did and pulled it back and were packed up and out of there before we where. We checked out the inside of our tent and found that water had made its way in and the blankets were wet. We decided to pack it in. If we were staying for the week or a couple more days I may have wanted to stick it out. So we quickly broke everything down as the wind seemed to pick up... We said our good-byes to Renee, Adam, and Conner. Connor was hanging in their jeep as they tried to water proof there tent and gazebo.
The ride home was long, 4hours, and cold and sandy. it was nice to get home and get showered and dried off.
So was it a bust? hmmm... we did have a nice Friday night, Saturday day and Night. we did do a couple things on Sunday. It would have been nice to be able to do the beach and campfire again on Sunday and we did have a cache that would have given us a nice beach walk. The high winds did make it exciting but the rain+Wind made it blahhh. So I would say it was a 1/3 bust.
I hope we can do it again next year...
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