Camping in the Rain

I have just returned from my first camping trip of the season.  Taking my 50 year old vintage camper is always a catalyst for a story.  Fortunately, the story is simply that I was thrilled to show off all of the work my hubby and I have done  at refurbishing, restoring and redecorating our charming little TARDIS to her previous owner.

 I toddled off to Staunton , VA where the nearby KOA had a beautiful creek and lake surrounded by lovely willows in the gentle hills of the southern Shenandoah valley.  It was truly bucolic-even in the rain. It rained  on the way and poured when I arrived but it did stop raining shortly after I got to my campsite.  I immediately put up my new home made canopy and was delighted to have a dry area to hang outside and enjoy the more gentle rain and paint. I did not finish my painting yet.

There were three of us that met up at this campground.  One of us lives in Abbington, VA which is as far south west in Virginia that you can manage without being accused of being in Tennessee.  She has the accent to prove it too.  One of us is from the Deale area (aka South County) of Ann Arundel county, Maryland.  She too  has the accent to prove it, not to mention freakishly shiny hair! Then there's me, from St. Mary's County, MD but living in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia.  My theatrical accent coach in college would still be proud since I refuse to pick up the local WV accents and only occasionally let slip the odd "deed so by gawd cap'n" in passing.

 We all enjoyed watching the raindrops creating enchanting whirlpools in the lake that expanded and over lapped in a delightfully quixotic dance of entropy all over the water surface.  The ducks on the lake seemed quite oblivious to the charms of the water droplets, their own attention focused on the variety of campers snacks and feasts all around the lake.  They totally avoided any fisher folk for fear of squiggly worm infested hooks magically descending upon them from the sky as children & adults tried to learn to cast their lines for catching elusive little fish beneath the mystical ripples in the lake.

One reason I enjoy camping is to escape the chaos of the political issues.  No TV.  After a weekend that was 66%  camping in the rain we discovered that we all agree that 48-50 F (9.44 C) feels significantly different in the cold pouring rain than in the bright sunshine.  If only all of us in this country would find something we can agree upon.  Perhaps we should just go someplace and do something different just for no other reason than the agreeable & shared experience.