Tarp-allachia..before and after

This weekend, Duane and I went camping with my mom and step-dad up to Lake Umbagog State Park in Northern NH. We were remote camping out on an island. That was only accessible by boat. We set up what we fondly referred to as Tarp-allachia and had some serious fun!

Here is a view of our lovely dining area...


Our Gourmet Kitchen...


What a beautiful sky!!!! (does this cumulonimbus cloud spell trouble to anyone but me????) Look! You can see the Old Man of the Mountain in that cloud! Thunder??? No....those are just trucks on route 16....not thunder....


Pretending to be blissfully unaware of the trouble brewing....


1 hour later....our "gourmet kitchen" is all that is left of Tarp-allachia but with a brand spanking new swimming pool! The men folk were keeping us safe by holding down the one remaining tarp while slugging brandy and beer.


The women were hiding inside the Tent Mansion huddling under the pillows watching Finding Nemo on the video ipod while the storm raged on outside....this is all that is left of our dining area. Luckily, the men were smart enough to send us the food before it got swept into the woods along with anything not tied down.


WE SURVIVED!!!!!!


When I finally dared peak out the tent door, this is what I saw....

This storm was scary. Very. very. very scary. There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. Normally, during a storm this bad, I find it a good time to go and clean out my closet (which is in the middle of my house, with no windows). But there was nowhere to go. My step dad counted at least 10 lightning strikes per minute, and we estimate the winds were about 60+ mph. Our tarps were popping grommets, and three of my tent stakes were pulled up. About 45 minutes after the storm passed, and the sun went down, the rangers from the park set out to make sure all of the remote campers were ok...we were pretty glad to hear them come by boat, relieved actually that they did not forget us...nobody on the 30+ remote sites were hurt, scared I am sure, wet and dirty yes, but everybody was ok....