A Wet Start

It took us a little longer than (some of us) expected to get packed and out the door on Thursday morning. I definitely felt the stress and felt very rushed in my packing attempts. After getting in late the night before, there was a lot to do to get ready! I was unpacking, doing a few loads of laundry, checking directions and weather (should have spent MORE time paying attention to this part....), repacking, grocery shopping for a few more things and food we needed for the trip, cleaning out car - oh, and dealing with 4 kids in the midst of it who were VERY excited to go! We discovered it was supposed to rain that afternoon and evening, so that added a bit of tension. We finally were able to get on the road after lunchtime.

We went to a state park in SC near the NC border - about 2.5 hours from us. It was a beautiful drive through some of the country - even when the rain started. When we arrived at the park, it was pouring down rain, and when David got out to go check in, he got back in the car and said "should have packed some warmer clothes!" It had been in the 90s the whole week, and so even though we knew it was going to be cooler, we were not prepared. We drove to our campsite and after sitting in the car to determine what to do, we finally had to bite the bullet and get out. We left the kids in the car (kids that were bouncing off the walls because we were HERE, but they weren't allowed to get OUT yet) and got out in the pouring rain to set the tent up. We knew we couldn't wait it out - we just needed to get the tent up as fast as we could. Thankfully it went up very smoothly and stayed pretty dry on the inside. We weren't so lucky - we were totally soaked, and of course so did the only sweatshirt that I brought. Sigh.

We got everyone inside and tried to get our stuff settled the best we could. We changed our dinner plans and ate the sandwiches we were going to have the next day for lunch instead. Finally the rain ended and we were able to get out and romp around a bit. The air was very cool though, and we knew we were in for a long, cold night!!

The good news though was that we met a nice family at the campsite across from ours - they were from Lexington as well and had two twin 5 year olds! They go to the church down the street from our house, and the dad is a karate instructor - so my boys were in awe! :) They helped us get our fire going, and it wasn't long before we were enjoying some smores! :)