Monday, August 22, 2011

Herondipity

Heron at Bethel Beach






If serendipity is making fortunate discoveries quite by accident, then herondipity is the good luck associated with having the camera handy as a heron is taking off in flight, even if the person taking the photograph is not good at action shots and even if it's very difficult to tell in that last photo what exactly is going on.

Speaking of serendipity, there was precious little some of that involved in Chesapeake Bay Woman's weekend camping trip over on the Eastern Shore, but not enough to outweigh her normal vacation luck, which summarized succinctly is as follows: Murphy's Law.

Once upon a time, Chesapeake Bay Woman completely forgot she was 46 years old and decided to take two teenagers and two almost teens on a weekend camping trip over on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay.

For those who struggle with numbers and word problems, as Chesapeake Bay Woman does, that's one absolutely insane 46-year-old female and 4 children, 2 of whom are not her own.  1 tent. 2 hours away from home on the other side of the Chesapeake Bay where the weather forecast every single day in August is "There's a 100% very good, if not excellent, chance of a spontaneous thunderstorm, and that already excellent chance goes up exponentially if CBW is camping in a tent over here, y'all."  

She also forgot what it was like setting up a tent in Amazon Jungle humidity, just as she forgot how uncomfortable sleeping on the ground is at her age.  And she also forgot how much she dislikes taking a shower in flip flops* with 100 of her closest camping neighbors, all of whom were from the state of New Jersey, a state that evidently encourages people to talk very, very, very, very loudly. No matter where they are and no matter who else is around.  Whatever is on their mind is also on yours.

Hi, Maria from NJ!   Since I have decided you must win the 2011 Blog Cabin, I automatically consider you a Virginia resident already, so please don't be offended at my blanket remarks about your lovely Garden State and its many citizens, all most of whom were on vacation with me this weekend. They're very nice and mean well, I'm sure.  But evidently they can't hear very well because they're always shouting even in casual conversations.  Don't forget the Vietnamese spring rolls.  Thanks!

The serendipitous part of the camping weekend, which was the actual camp site and its spectacular view of the Chesapeake Bay, will be shared tomorrow after I've had time to consult a therapist load the photos.  The un-serendipitous part, also known as The Storm, will be shared tomorrow too.

No photos are available for that Middle of the Nightmare Event other than the flashbacks I'll be experiencing for the rest of my life.

Stay tuned.

Have a great week.

-cbw

To read about CBW's family history of camping fiascos, please click here or here or here. 

*  CBW brought only one pair of shoes on her camping trip:  flip flops.  These same shoes broke before she took her first communal shower (flip flops are essential for communal showers, by the way).  For the remainder of the trip she was forced to wear her daughter's purple Converse low tops.  By this point in the trip, which was the same day she woke up after two precious hours of sleep with sand on her face after the previous night's gale-force winds caused her to almost catch the campground on fire, she just. Didn't. Care.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

OMG--you deserved to be favored with Herondipity after that weekend !! Why is it that camping always sounds so much better than the reality of it..who knew you would have gale force winds and loud Glitterati, from the Garden State, in the mix ?
My first real weekend date w/ my husband involved camping with another couple in Death Valley, which turned out to have the worst storm in a century blowing through. We ended up spending the night, huddled in a cement-block, public restroom in candlelight--(my friend & I in the ladies' facility, befriending other refugee campers, and my husband and friend's date in the men's facility). All tents blew away, and some of the lighter weight cars blew around, too.
Brave soul, you...
LLC

Mental P Mama said...

When will you ever learn???

Jamie said...

I'm wondering what would happen if my cousin and I went camping with you. Every year we go on a road trip there is something cataclismic. One trip produced 4 tornadoes (that we drove by/through) Biblical flooding, torrential rains, fog so heavy we had a 5ft visibility and a mudslid we narrowly escaped from. Oh, and we got shot at while "checking out" (trespassing) at an old insane asylum.

Maria_NJ said...

OMGAWD,CBW WHADCHA TALKIN BOUT, IM NOT INSULTAD! YA KNOW US PEOPLE FROM JERSEY, I DON'T KNO BA WE DO HAVE A HABBIT OF TALKIN LOUD!!!

your the best...you crack me up...

From your mouth to God's ears, should I ever be so blessed, but whether I win that gorgeous home or not, someday Virginia will be my home and Vietnamese Spring rolls are going to be in your future... <3

Trisha said...

What a brave woman! Camping in a tent AND with broken flip-flops. I am in awe.

Daryl said...

OY and VEY .. you should have come up to NYC .. we dont shout as loud as the NJites and it only 'sprinkled' briefly as we were wandering the flea market killing time til restaurant could fit us in

Dghawk4 said...

Bless your pea pickin heart! All I can say is: Been there done that! Although my experiences were in the Amazon rain forest of WV and HOPEFULLY your sleeping bag was dry....mine wasn't. Even though I had a cot, nobody told me not to let anything touch the sides of the tent while it was raining! Glad you made it there and back safe.

Chesapeake Bay Woman said...

LLC-I cannot even BEGIN to imagine camping in Death Valley - on a first "real" date no less? What a story. So you and your husband married. What happened to the other couple?

MPM- No,evidently not. They say that's the definition of insanity, too, doing the same thing over and over again hoping for a different end result.

DJ - OK, so let's carefully but quickly cross camping off the list.

Maria - CAN'T WAIT!

Trisha - The broken flip flops really hit me hard. THey were my favorite pair AND they were necessary for the shower. I wore them in there anyway, broken or not. Then I threw them away, begrudgingly...

Daryl-Sounds like you all had a good time, sorry I missed it.

DGHawk - I've been camping near Harpers Ferry and it was hotter than blue blazes there too. Yes, we kept dry inside, but, as you'll read tomorrow, we almost lost the rain cover and that would have been devastating because the entire top of the tent was mesh and we'd have been floating.

Oh, how sweet it is to be home.

Country Girl said...

What Mama said.

Oh, good heavens. You need to be relaxin' - not taxin'.