It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

» Posted by Alissa on Aug 24, 2011 in My travels | 2 comments

So, I’m back home from my camping trip and still feel refreshed and recharged. The rain did make things a little bit damper than normal, but we survived just fine. Rain got us Friday after we had set everything up and the tarp we set up under the tent wasn’t quite enough to keep the sleeping bags and pillow dry. So, sleeping conditions were a big soggy on Friday night, but we dried out just fine.

We had plenty of great outdoor weather, and being disconnected from the rest of the world were not aware of the dire weather predictions for Sunday night. We were actually taking a little tour at the astronomical observatory at the park when we learned that a monster storm was headed our way with all sorts of rain and hail predicted. When the other woman at the tour saw our shock she said, “You’re not camping out are you?”

Rain had already begun to fall as we got back to the campsite and we decided to pack everything up, but neither of us were in the mood to cut our little vacation short. So, we upgraded to a nice dry camping cabin and stayed dry as we watched the storm from the safety of our front porch.

Lucky for us the earthquake didn’t hit while we were on our camping trip. I don’t think it would have done any damage, but we might have had cause to wonder if the world was suddenly coming to an end. I felt it here at home, thought at first I mistook it for my dog scratching his ears. (Hey, he can be a very aggressive scratcher at times!) Imagine my surprise, when I looked up and saw he wasn’t even in the room, and that it was pretty strange that the entire floor was shaking.

Now that I’m catching up on things, I have a couple of links to share with you. First, here’s a nice review of Popular from a librarian blogger. Second, there’s a short interview with me up at the Class of 2K11 website with a few more details about my next book