Thursday, October 7, 2010

The next October camping I do will be in Florida

Let's sum up Webelos Unplugged weekend by saying I was cold day and night, and I threw up.

I arrived with a completely overloaded minivan in the pitch black of night to find a roaring fire and most all of the pack already set up. As one of only two women at the event, I got the extra special treatment of having my tent pitched for me by the boys and their dads. This was awfully nice of them considering I had enough gear to ascend Everest. There were about 30 campers at my site, and 300 in all, so it was a bustling place. The weather was actually not bad, maybe low 60's, so by bed time I was actually hot. We'd used ground covers, air mattresses, camping pads, sleeping bags and down comforters. We wore long underwear (silk) and all new, dry clothes. I thought, this will be a piece of cake.

Oh, how wrong I was.

Somewhere in the middle of the night it started to rain. And the wind blew, and being in a polyester walled tent I heard EVERY noise. I was convinced bears or raccoons were outside. I had marshmallows in my tent and the cardinal rule of camping is NO FOOD IN THE TENT. I was yelling shoo shoo go away creatures at 2am. (It turned out to be all the dad's snoring in tents next to us). And I was FREEZING. FREEZING. And I was dizzy (more on this later), and by 6am, when light dawned, I was exhausted.

I trudged up to the shower house (about 100 yards away) and got a hot shower and felt better. William was up and roaring to go. He'd slept great! By 9am were were sitting in our first scout activity, Readyman, for a two hour session.

and then I crashed. I was a zombie. I trudged back to my tent and took a nap, thinking this would refresh me. It did, to some extent, but something wasn't right. Every time I lay down, the room would spin.

By Saturday night, I wasn't feeling well at all. And by 3am Sunday morning I was really sick. Looking back I was having tummy troubles the day before, but the virus kicked in full swing the next morning. After a night spent sleepless and freezing, I managed to drag myself to the shower house and wish to God I could throw up to make the nausea go away. I lay bundling, shivering and shaking on the bench in the shower house wanting DIE. At some point someone called my pack committee chair who was camping and she came to rescue me. Some Pepto Bismol pills, a banana and some soda and I was ok to go back to the camp site. The entire pack had packed up my whole tent and even offered to drive me home. It was about the sweetest thing anyone could do. And of course I felt perfectly pathetic and hated being a burden but what could I do?

It turned out later I was suffering from a double whammy of a tummy virus and Labryntitis, which causes Vertigo, which I get in the winter. Even now, a week later, I am still taking prescription Bonine (used for motion sickness).

I had all the boys write a note to the rest of their den describing their experiences and they all reflected on what a great time they had, so in the end, I am happy we did it. But next time, we camp in Florida.

Here are a bunch of photos that I took:
























3 comments:

Let's Find H-Man A Wife said...

At the risk of being repetitive under no circumstances DO WE CAMP. And lady you've been cut out this movie; sorry.

Elizabeth Webber Akre said...

The only thing about sleeping on the ground in Florida is that you're eye-level with the gators! Glad you survived!

Weekend Cowgirl said...

I am not a camper!!! No way-No how.

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