A River Runs Through It ...

... our campsite, that is. :-(

Brandy's Top Five Possessions That May Have Been Ruined by Severe Thunderstorms at the Chicago NW KOA:

5. The Game of Life and Red Sox Monopoly
4. Three books, including one new one (but thankfully, not the one that doesn't belong to me)
3. My memory foam pillow
2. My TV (thank goodness I didn't bring the main one from the apartment! Also, having water pour out of the VCR slot on my TV is a unique experience that I'd like to not ever have again.)
1. My CPAP (does my health insurance have an "act of God" clause?)

Brandy's Top 5 Things That Should Not Sit in 2 Inches of Water:

5. Luggage
4. Bedding
3. Electronics
2. Power cords
1. Stuff that belongs to me!!

As you may have guessed from the above, we had an water "adventure" during our stay in Chicago. The first night, as Michelle reported, severe weather kept us from pitching our tent in the Union, IL campground on Thursday night, and we enjoyed the delightful hospitality of Kati, Bruce & Co. The next morning was supposed to be Six Flags day, but Becky was a little pukey, so we postponed to the following day, and left that afternoon to set up our tent in the sunshine. We enjoyed a lovely baseball game with the Schaumburg Flyers and went back to the campsite for a good night's sleep.

Such a beautiful campsite, no?

Not so! Approximately 3AM, thunder and violent gusts woke us from slumber ... to be followed by more violent gusts and lightning. As the rain began to fall and some slight mist entered the tent under the rain screen, I was a little worried but hopeful that Michelle's tent, which had seen many camping trips, was up to the task.

Not so again! About a half hour to 45 minutes into the storm, the back of the tent fell in on me and Michelle. (I do not blame Michelle or the tent, BTW.) Apparently, my first instinct in a crisis is not to grab my valuables and exit the situation; it is to put on slippers, which is the first thing I did before doing the aforementioned grab and dash. In the gale force winds and downpour, we dashed to the car, quickly closing the two windows that had been inadvertently left open (!).

That's where we spent the rest of the night, with the exception of a brief 10-15 minute period where we dashed wildly from car to tent rescuing essentials that needed to come into the car with us. This included my TV and CPAP, our extension cord and cables, the foot pedal for Guitar Hero Rock Band, and our luggage. We left my pillow and sleeping bag in the standing water, because there really wasn't anything to be done for them.

This was the scene of the disaster the following day:

An intrepid news reporter surveys the damage

We'll post the news report by Candy Sunshine, special correspondent for WKRP, after it has been processed by our studio. (For those who have actually participated in any kind of actual disaster situation, Michelle wants me to note that we are not making fun of anyone, except ourselves.)

Let's just say in closing that that tent didn't make the trip home. Michelle was forced to sacrifice her principles and buy a new tent last minute at the Evil Empire (a.k.a. Wal-Mart) for us to sleep in the next night; but she promises to return it as soon as we get back to Virginia. (It did come with some broken parts, so the return is actually justified on function as wel.) On the plus side, we had a fantabulous day at Six Flags; following tradition, I ate funnel cake and rode all the best rides, except for Superman, which we didn't have time to do.

In Chicago, all Six Flags are American - no foreigners here!

(If you're wondering where Becky and Kwame were this whole time, they slept in relative peace and dryness in my dome tent, which weathered the storm awesomely. We are calling it the Little Blue Tent That Could. Go dome!!)