in which i stalk the weather channel

i always do this right before a vacation. ESPECIALLY a camping trip. jeezums, pretty much nothing is worse than a miserable camping trip. and while a rainy weekend doesn't necessarily ruin a camping trip, and while a f-ing hot weekend doesn't necessarily ruin a camping trip... both of these are factors of misery at assateague.

hot-hot weekend:

cons = no shade, therefore blazing hot no matter what. even at 6:30am. imagine yourself slightly nauseous from drinking too much coffee all morning while sitting in the blazing sun... then crawling into a sweat-den of a tent to change into your one-piece bathing suit. crouching on a wobbly air-mattress, sweat pouring from every pore, falling over onto the clingy sheets, sand sticking everywhere, shoving your sweaty gross body into a suddenly uncooperative bathing suit. you unzip the door and come tumbling out, gasping the (comparatively) cool air, bathing suit indecently crooked and sand all over your face.

pros = the dribbly cold water showers never felt so damn good.

OR

rainy weekend:

cons: the drizzle woke you up at 6:00, so you decide the go make a fire and have coffee. the wood is kind of wet and the ocean wind keeps blowing the goddamn flame around so the water won't boil. after fudging around with it, cursing the day you decided not to bring the propane stove and getting sticky black soot and sand all over your hands, the best you've got is hot-ish water. you dump the grounds into the water and stir, declaring it cowboy coffee and scurry back to the tent. you pass the day crouched in the tent playing scrabble and cards on the air-mattress, hot and sticky, listening to the dribbling rain and getting sand all over the bed and loosing half the good scrabble letters.

pros: at least our nice tent doesn't leak! yet.

scott and i have been pretty lucky in camping. we've had some hot weather, but not for the whole weekend. and now we have a sun shelter to put up at the camp site. and we've had rain, but not for the whole weekend. once the sun comes out, it's pretty easy to forget the misery of just moments before. that's why it's pretty key to go for more than one night. that way, if the first night is horrifying then you have another day to have fun and redeem yourself. or if the first day/night is just perfect, then who cares if the second day was rot. at least you had one good day.

the worst trip we've had was also the very first time we went camping together. (pictures here) it was a last minute trip for scott's birthday in late july, and we couldn't get reservations for assateague. i saw good reviews online for first landing state park in virginia, so we gave it a whirl. we couldn't leave until friday afternoon, so we didn't get there until early evening. i picked a site from the map at the check-in station, and we drove off to get settled in before hitting the beach. the "site" turned out to be about 10' square, no shade, with an electrical pole and transformer of some kind taking up about half of it. it was located right along the sandy access road on a hair-pin curve, and had suspiciously recent tire tracks running through the middle of the only area big enough for a tent. we dashed back to the check-in station because we had been told the park was sold out for the night. luckily the ranger saw that i was on the verge of a blow-out and gave us a different site. the site was actually very beautiful and covered in scrubby beach trees, but seemed awfully close to the neighboring sites. we set up the tent, dumped our junk and headed for the beach.

the park is at the mouth of the chesapeake bay, almost where it dumps into the ocean. which means that it is a pretty busy shipping area. which also means that all the junk from upstream has drifted many miles to jam up and linger there at the mouth of the bay. we were both wearing our glasses, and had to remove them to get in the water, so we had a pleasant evening bobbing in the lake-like bay. we watched the sunset over the dunes and relaxed after the stressful 4 hour drive. we had fun cooking over the fire that night and prepared for bed.

it quickly became apparent just how close to the highway the park is located. just through the nice scrubby trees we could see the headlights and cars and trucks flashing by on the side of our tent. we could HEAR the rumbling traffic all night long. then our obnoxious neighbors started drinking heavily while playing some kind of cranium game - you know, the kind with the really loud buzzer/timer that gets louder and LOUDER and more frantic? each time you take a turn? yeah, it was pretty terrible and hot and neither of us got much sleep. breakfast was fast and we ran back to the beach in the morning. this time i had my contacts in, and we saw tons of dolphins! yay! leaping along the shoreline - and i truly mean hundreds. however, shortly after taking a stroll along the waters edge i also noticed some stuff floating in the water. TONS and HUNDREDS of jellyfish. as far as the eye could see, there were huge-ass jellyfish. which, apparently, dolphins love to eat. then i looked closer and saw all sorts of dirty garbage floating in the bay - dirty underwear, tampon applicators, rubber gloves, diapers, plastic bags. then i noticed the rainbow sheen of boat fuel skimming on the surface. blearg. then we left. i'll never swim in the bay again.

BUT! we've had many lovely trips to assateague! which is why i am excited for this weekend. weather permitting, we are going to try the backcountry camping at assateague - which involves walking a few miles along the beach to a large campsite. no potable water, but they do have outhouses. and it's miles from the next campsite. my concern: there are only TWO oceanside backcountry sites. two. and they are first come, first served. the website says that each can hold up to 25 people, so even if someone is already there i am hoping we can share a spot and still have some privacy. here's hoping! so far, the weather channel says sun and mid-80s for the weekend. i'm off to check it again...