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Previous Challenge Entry (Level 1 – Beginner)
Topic: Camping (07/11/05)
I awoke suddenly to the sensation of a fat drop of water landing on my forehead. Slightly panicked, I felt around on the blankets and air mattress to see if anything else was wet. I looked up to the top of the tent and saw that directly above my head another drop was forming. Sighing, I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the fact that I could get very wet tonight. Somehow, in spite of the impending doom, I was able to go back to sleep.

A chainsaw ripped through the tent, tearing me from my sleep. What is that? I wondered. Surely that isn't -- I threw my pillow over my head. My dad was snoring…again. I tried everything I could think of to ignore it. I quoted Scripture, I prayed that God would make Dad stop, I tossed and turned, I tweaked my dad's pillow, and I sighed very loudly. None of it worked. Finally, I just could not stand it any longer, and said, "Dad! Turn over!" not thinking he'd hear me. But he woke up. With a bit of grumbling, he turned over and promptly went back to sleep. Finally, I thought. Now I can get some sleep. I went back to sleep, hoping that the next time I woke it would be morning.

The birds were loud. One in particular had a piercing call that insisted everyone get up because it was going to be a beautiful day. After yet another interruption early this morning, I didn't want to get up. I opened one eye. Dad was awake and getting up. My brother was still asleep on the other end of the tent. I could hear the patter of the rain on top of the tent. I closed my eye. Dad announced he was going to McDonalds to get a hot breakfast and we needed to get up. I stretched and got up, gathering my stuff for a shower.

Ahh! Coffee! It revived me enough to listen as Dad spoke of the plans for the day. After breakfast, we headed south to California for a day of sightseeing. We saw the California coast as well as the Battery Point Lighthouse. Have you ever seen oysters all clumped together? It's pretty amazing. We then went to see some of the Redwood National Forest. After the ocean, they seemed a bit too close together to me, so we headed back to town.

When we returned to camp, I did not want to stay in the tent. There was a trail behind our campsite so I decided to follow it. It ended at a beach where I saw what appeared to be church group making all sorts of sand sculptures. I decided to go on along the shore to the beach we had visited the day before. The sand gradually became more and more coarse until there were just rocks on the shore. These rocks, in turn, became larger until I found myself crawling over boulders to keep going. Every once in a while, I'd hear the waves crash on the smaller rocks and the water would pull them back towards the sea. The sound of those rocks moving against each other was like thunder the first time I heard it.

I returned to the campsite but no one was there. By the time I had changed my clothes, Dad pulled up in the van asking if I knew where my brother was. I hadn't seen him and Dad seemed a bit frantic because he thought he had seen Thomas on top of a huge rock by the beach. Dad went to look for him and I went into the tent to read my book. After a time, they came back and Thomas told me about climbing to the top of a huge rock. He seemed quite proud of himself in spite of a few scary moments. We proceeded to make dinner, which was not that great but we ate it anyway.

Our tiny fire was fighting for life when I heard a single voice rising above the clatter of other campers. He was singing a worship song. As soon as I heard him, I knew that no matter what else happened while we were camping I was going to have a great time.
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This article has been read 1280 times
Member Comments
Member
Date
Theresa Kissinger
07/19/05
A nice slant on the topic.
Nina Phillips
07/20/05
Sounds like fun to me!
Very vivid descriptions of your camping experience. Thanks for sharing. God bless ya, littlelight
Shari Armstrong 
07/21/05
Some very nice descriptions. :)
Amy Michelle Wiley 
07/21/05
I especially liked the first sentence. :-) I enjoyed the story--good job!
dub W
07/21/05
Some sparks here toward a quality piece, a little heavy on process. Keep working.
Brandi Roberts
07/21/05
Love the negativity leading up to a positive note at the end. Thanks for sharing.
Val Clark
07/22/05
Glad that you eventually had some fun! Good description of the snoring Dad! It would have enriched my understanding of your character if I knew how he felt about the 'lost' brother.
Suzanne R
07/23/05
McDonalds for breakfast? Now, that is my sort of camping!
Lynda Lee Schab 
07/23/05
Too fun! Loved the chainsaw line. Ha! Thanks for taking us through your camping experience. Well done!
Blessings, Lynda