Camping in a Hurricane from Shon

Spring Break is just around the corner. Which means it is almost the anniversary of our family camping trip in a hurricane in Corpus Christi, Texas. Ahhh...the memories. Anyway, I was searching email lately for something and ran across this email from my brother Shon after we tried out camping in a Texas hurricane. It brought back sooooo many funny memories, I just had to relive it again and thought my family would get a kick out of it too. From an email Shon sent to the family March 20, 2005: Well I am sure you will get different versions of the Robinson, Zufelt, Moeller camping trip but here is a little bit about our adventure. We went to a place called Mustang Island State Park which is on a barrier island just outside of Corpus Christi, Texas. It is about a 5 hour drive from our house there. My family got there about 5:30 on Friday night and we chose our campsite. The campground facilities consisted of a picnic table (not everyone had one but we did!!!!!), a garbage can, and a port-a-potty every 300 yards along the beach. We just drove straight onto the beach and we camped between the sand dune and ocean. There was about 50 yards between the water and dune. The wind was blowing pretty hard so we parked the van to break the wind and got the tent set up. By the time the tent was up it was dark and we all were totally full of sand from the crazy wind. Sarah and Abby were wrecks because the kids stayed in the van so they wouldn't get sand in every crevas and cry from the wind blowing it in their eyes. It was kind of frustrating to get there to the beach after a 5 hour car ride only to be foiled by the wind. Once the tent was up we put Abby and Sarah to bed. Juli and I ate "sand"wiches and looked at each other like we were idiots for not packing right back up and going home. The wind did die down after about 8:00 and it was actually a pleasant evening. Everyone else went to bed while Bryce and I went to get Angie and Kristie's families. They showed up at about 10:00 and set up their tents. Then we went to bed. Saturday started out as a very nice day. We spent the morning and early afternoon at the beach. The kids built sandcastles, flew kites, caught clams and crabs, played Frisbee, played in the sand etc. They had an absolute ball. Anthony even went boogie boarding. Abby loved the sand. She had a good time walking in it and digging and playing with it. She was a very dirty girl most of the time. Angie and Brian made a very nice breakfast of bacon and eggs and muffins. Then my family made hoagie sandwiches for lunch. After Ben and Abby had a nap we drove to the USS Lexington. It is a WWII aircraft carrier that is now a museum in Corpus Christi. We took a ferry across from the island to another island and then a bridge across to the mainland. It was pretty impressive to go through the Lexington. We went up to the "island" where the ship is controlled, all around on the flight deck where there were ~15 different airplanes and helicopters. We also went down in the ship to the engine room, the dentist office, the chapel, the post office, the barber shop, the hospital, the mission briefing room, the war room (command center), captains room, the emergency room (fire and hazmat stuff), the hanger, the cafeteria, the room where they filmed some of pearl harbor, etc, etc. It was pretty amazing to think that in 1944 they built that ship without computers and it was so technologically advanced. Anyway the kids enjoyed it and were tired after walking miles and miles. When we were done it looked like it might rain so we decided not to cook dinner in the rain and went to Outback Steakhouse. Boy did it ever rain while we were eating. There were tornado warnings on the TV's in the restaurant, hail and lightning etc not to mention the torrential downpour. After it cleared up we headed back to the beach. When we got there it wasn't raining too hard. K&A's tent was upside down and some of the poles had come out of ours but B&A's and ours for the most part were fine. K&A took down their tent and slept in their car. Brian and Angie slept the first part of the night in the tent. On the way home from the restaurant all the kids fell asleep so we didn't want to put them in the tent since we might wake them up. Also the bottom room was flooded (3 room tent) and there were only enough dry blankets and sleeping bags for 2-4 people to sleep in the tent. We all started out trying to sleep in the van and people moved around every hour or so when someone would wake up or cry or get eaten by mosquitoes. It is very interesting sleeping a family of 6 in a van! It can be done but I would not recommend it. At about midnight we finally got pretty well arranged and slept for a while. Juli, Emily, Sarah and Abby were sleeping in the tent (they were the comfortable ones) with me and Bryce cramped in the van. Have you ever slept on a 4 foot bench? At about 3 or so in the morning I woke up to tons of lightning but it wasn't raining. I noticed that Angie and Brian's tent was gone but their car and K&A's car were both still there. Everyone had moved into their cars. It was like it was constant lightning and the sky was just always bright. I also saw that the wind had picked up a lot. I ran in to the tent and told Juli we should probably move them all back into the van. By the time I got to the tent and grabbed Sarah it was pouring rain and the tent was getting pounded by the wind. I carried Sarah and then Emily back to the van and threw them in. Then we grabbed Abby and Juli came. Now, all 6 of us were wide awake inside the van watching the tent get pounded. Juli suggested we go put the poles down so at least the tent didn't break. I thought that since the tent had made it through that first storm alright while we were at dinner it would be fine, so I didn't go do it (I also didn't want to get any wetter). Then the wind really started blowing and I decided I probably should go let it down. Just about then I heard 2 loud pops and the tent poles broke. Oh well I guess I will listen better next time to what Juli says. Now we were in a really fun situation. Everyone was in their cars ready to go except our family. We had a broken 10 man tent with stuff in it (pack and play 4 air mattresses, duffel bags, etc.) sitting on the beach and there was no way to get that thing in the van too. It was also quite obvious that we were not going to get any more sleep with us all crammed like that in the van. The smart decision was going to be to just head home. How are you supposed to roll a loaded tent up, through it in the van and take off? We waited until the rain died down a little (not stopped raining just stopped sideways raining) and then Angie and I tore down the tent and put all of our gear in their car and our van. It probably took a good 20 minutes to get it all done. I invented the next reality show. Camping on a beach in a hurricane. CAN YOU DO IT? The best part was trying to take apart the pack and play, deflate the air mattresses and get the bags out of a tent that is laying down and being pounded by wind and rain. I did learn some things. If you are claustrophobic I definitely would not suggest crawling into a ten man tent in wind and rain and dark where a pack and play is the only support holding up the roof. It is pretty tough to move around when the ceiling sticks to you (because it is wet plastic) and the wind is roaring. After we got packed up we drove to the other side of the sand dunes where there was a shower and bathroom. Everyone went to the bathroom and I changed my clothes (somehow our clothes bag was not packed at the bottom of the van) and I found DRY clothes! There are little miracles. We then drove home leaving at ~5 in the morning arriving home in Houston to crash about 10AM. Our garage and back yard are like clothes lines. Emily is supposed to write in her journal about what she did for spring break. I bet nobody can beat her stories..... Jason keep up the hard work. Shon and fam