After getting a few pitying comments after the last post about how horrible our vacation must be, I decided that for posterity's sake, as much as for worried friends and relatives, that I needed to do a little explaining. We had had a minor household emergency arise the day before our scheduled departure, which led to a very long, hard day with high stress and little sleep. When we finally got in the car to drive to the Outer Banks, NC, we were excited to put the stress behind us and enjoy the beachside campsite we'd reserved for that night.
But because of heavy traffic for most of the drive, we didn't get to our campsite until after dark, only to find that someone else had set up their tent in the spot we'd reserved. We moved over to a less desirable spot and discovered that we'd forgotten our flashlights, which made setting up our tent in the dark all the more challenging.
Finally the tent was up and we crashed.
And a couple hours later our tent crashed.
The wind blows pretty steadily there in the Outer Banks normally, but the combination of the gusting wind and heavy rain that night proved to be the undoing of our tent. We ended up abandoning it in the middle of the night and trying to salvage the rest of our night's sleep in the van (not very successfully I might add). Our 15+ year old tent ended up meeting its demise that night and was left in the campground trash, along with several other tents who had apparently also met their fate up against that wind.
Since then we've been through two dud motels, spotty internet, bucketloads of rain, and two surly teenagers.
BUT....
now we've found a much nicer place to sleep (for less money than the dud motels), the internet works great, a couple of kids are happily posing for my picture ideas, the sun is shining...
and it's looking to be a great vacation!
Lots more pictures to come....
But because of heavy traffic for most of the drive, we didn't get to our campsite until after dark, only to find that someone else had set up their tent in the spot we'd reserved. We moved over to a less desirable spot and discovered that we'd forgotten our flashlights, which made setting up our tent in the dark all the more challenging.
Finally the tent was up and we crashed.
And a couple hours later our tent crashed.
The wind blows pretty steadily there in the Outer Banks normally, but the combination of the gusting wind and heavy rain that night proved to be the undoing of our tent. We ended up abandoning it in the middle of the night and trying to salvage the rest of our night's sleep in the van (not very successfully I might add). Our 15+ year old tent ended up meeting its demise that night and was left in the campground trash, along with several other tents who had apparently also met their fate up against that wind.
Since then we've been through two dud motels, spotty internet, bucketloads of rain, and two surly teenagers.
BUT....
now we've found a much nicer place to sleep (for less money than the dud motels), the internet works great, a couple of kids are happily posing for my picture ideas, the sun is shining...
and it's looking to be a great vacation!
These photos are fabulous! Glad to hear that things are improving!
ReplyDeleteSo glad that your first day/night experience was only temporary in nature. Also delighted that you discovered Staybridge Suites. Enjoy the rest of your stay! Thanks for the cute pix.
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