Camping with a lakeside view should be an excellent idea! Right? So we got a campsite on Colwell lake, but granted we thought this from a PA computer lab. Upon arriving at our lovely campsite on the lake, we ran to the lake and took a lovely happy picture of ourselves, and it all went uphill from the climb out of the glorious lake. As we stood for the picture we swatted a few mosquitos, but only a few. As we walked toward our campsite, we talked about all the great things we would like to do while here…

Well, just a few minutes later we are fighting an army of MI’s finest buzzing bugs while learning about our tent, and our group tolerance for bug bites, our camp ground, and our diminishing water supply. We explored the site’s composting toliet, which didn’t smell too bad, and convinced Val that she would be ok without a shower in the morning. Now we are back at our site excited about our tent, and recording it’s progress on camera. Let me paint the scene for you.

Val is wandering and hopping about the site with her cap, and has been trusted with the video camera, while trying to help in any possible way. Kelly looks at the tent as Megan finishes unrolling it. “We don’t really need tent pegs, I don’t think, unless you really want to.” Megan and I are willing to skip this step and we all dive in to putting tent pole pieces together. Val keeps recording for a bit, and then settles for swatting flies and holding a pole, and trying not to say bad things. Kelly is doing her best to help us, but she has never seen a tent like this, and would certainly not choose to put it up in this place. Megan is shooing mosquitos off herself, and has recently taken a somewhat painful bite to the back. And then the tent collapses.

So we regroup, refocus, eat, pray, do battle and sleep in a set up tent.