The Intrepid Part

Well! It sure didn’t take Reality very long to rear its loathsome, unkempt head!

In all my daydreaming and careful planning of this trip, I never once pictured that we would encounter anything as inconvenient as… RAIN! I mean, sure, it was sprinkling a bit as we were doing our final packing, but that was Vermont; of course we know that it rains in Vermont, but I assumed as soon as we left the state, the rain would stop! And my assumption seemed to be validated entirely, because that’s exactly what it did. Throughout the day, the weather just seemed to get better and better; the clouds lifted, and we had a glorious early-spring day.

Right up until 7:00 PM, as we approached the campground we had picked out, Allegany State Park, in far western NY. At that point, the sky ahead turned a filthy black, and we could see the curtains of rain dumping out of the clouds.

However, having advertised ourselves on our blog as Intrepid Adventurers, we couldn’t very well be caught with our tails between our legs, staying in a motel the very first night! So we bravely soldiered on into the POURING rain, and found the campground.

Which was closed.

But not gated, which to us was as good as a neon sign flashing “Free Camping for Intrepid Adventurers!” Surprisingly, no one else was taking advantage of this incredible offer, so we had our pick of spots. As we trolled around looking for the Very Best of the soggy, muddy, puddle-strewn campsites, Robin asked “Mom, why are you and Dad laughing so much?” ("Because we have to laugh, to keep from crying!")

We found a site with especially cozy-looking wet leaves, and Carroll deftly backed the bike trailer in, on only the 4^th or 5^th try! We donned our rain gear, and set the tent up as fast as possible, trying to keep it dry. As we staked out the last corner of the fly, I noticed something was different… something about the light, and the sound… yes, as if on cue, the rain had stopped!

We laughed again, marvelled at the very unusual cloud formations suddenly lit up by the setting sun, had our elaborate dinner of veggie burgers on tortilla “buns” and crawled into bed.