“It was raining all over the Hundred Acre Wood. There was a thunderstorm. There was a bit of a cloudburst. It rained, and it rained. And the rain, rain, rain, came down, down, down. In rushing rising rivulets till the river crept out of its bed and crept right into Piglet’s…So the Hundred Acre Wood got floodier and floodier.” The campsite at Canaan Valley “Resort” should be called Hundred Acre Wood.
Tim and I were blessed with a sunny day on Thursday to put up the tents. But every day after it rained. Canaan Valley claims to be a mountain meadow. But it is not far from the Dolly Sods, if you are familiar with them. In other words Canaan Valley is actually a mountain bog. In winter when it is frozen and receives lots of snow I imagine that the skiing is good. But in the spring it is both wet and cold. The rain moved in from the southwest and turned around and came at us again from the Northeast.
The lodge is up high in the park with a good view of surrounding mountains. But the campsite is down low and water rushes through it. The sites have paved pull offs for trailers or RV’s, a picnic table, electricity and water. There isn’t a level spot anywhere to put a tent. The first site that we were assigned was too boggy to put a tent up on. After some renegotiating, we were able to get 2 sites on the uphill side. However, that meant the rain ran in small streams under our tents!
We set up four tents. The largest (a 9-man), Tim and I took for ourselves because it was the oldest and most patched. It was 15 years old. The second largest (an 8-man) we gave to David and Pamela, it is 10 years old. We bought a new 6-man for Brianna and Tara. Jonathan had a 3-man to himself. Now if you know anything about tents, you know that a 3-man dome tent sleeps one person. But Jonathan loved it. He screamed with delight when he saw it. We had air mattresses for everyone. But in spite of Tim’s careful work to patch it, Brianna’s leaked both nights. Ours fits into a fold up bed, but the bed broke the first night.
The two large old tents were great in the summer at the beach, but the design is really poor. The fly pours the water right down on the windows of the tent. So both of them had great puddles of water in the tent. The new 6-man tent though actually did quite well. At one time, though, it looked like it might float away. Jonathan’s little tent, I pitched on a little knoll and it never took on water. Praise the Lord. His first camping experience in a tent of his own turned out to be a positive one in spite of all the rain.
In fact it was fun to watch him playing in the rain and splashing in the running water on the last day. We put up a couple of tarps over the cooking area and managed to have hot meals in spite of the weather. On Sunday, the Meeks helped us take down two of the tents and the tarps. Tim and I worked a while after they left but we finally gave up and rented a room at the lodge for the night. Which was at least dry, if not too comfortable. Actually our airbed was more comfortable than the beds in the lodge. But we got hot showers, with dry towels, and dry beds. In the morning we returned to the campsite to take down the remaining two tents. We decided to throw out the 15-year-old tent. The designs of the new ones on the market are so much better that we may throw out the other large one too. It poured rain again just as we were leaving!
Lacy went with us on this trip. At first she was running around like a puppy, enjoying every new smell. But by the end of the trip she was one wet, old dog, glad to be coiled up on a pile of not too wet towels in the van.
We learned that we had some gear that we no longer want taking up storage space! The days of preparation were good too. Lots of things needed organized, cleaned and repaired. Next time I will carry more trash bags to put things in to keep them dry. If the retreat is at Canaan Valley next year we will either get a cabin or camp at Black Water Falls, which is not far away and has a nicer camp grounds. (If it is the same time of year, I vote for a cabin and I’ll bet Pamela does too.)
The speakers were very good. And they said a lot of what we have been hearing in other places, like at the Exponential Conference we just got back from. God is calling us into smaller mission driven home churches that are more about being family than meeting on Sunday. It is about putting hands and feet on the gospel message. Keeping our eyes on Jesus, while putting our love into action and being committed to each other.
We had a great worship team and there were a lot of smiling faces in spite of the very hard rain and penetrating cold.
The best of course, was developing a closer relationship with the Meeks and others that were at the retreat, as well as meeting a few new people.
