Storm Camping

I look at two weather forecasts - the National Weather Service and Weather Underground (which uses an independent fine grained data collection network). Both the NWS and WU predictions were dire for Central Texas for Memorial Day weekend. Thundershowers and several inches of rainfall. Conditions ripe for tornadoes and flash flooding. 

So we went camping on Saturday morning after a good breakfast.

This is our new REI half Dome 4. The new family casa. Compared to what other people pitched it was modest. The kids set it up. I put the rain fly on top, ready to be pulled into place if needed. We are at a friend's farm near Rosanky, Texas. It is just beautiful.

About 60 adults and kids showed up. Many had spent the previous night there and in spite of dire predictions it hadn't rained a drop. But it felt more like entering a game of Russian Roulette half way. And a bit later it did rain. The kids got wet and played through it. We drank and watched. The showers passed. We went fishing. And drinking. Jo took a nap in the tent.

After dark the kids watched Big Hero 6 projected on a bed sheet hung in a covered pavilion. Then the serious rain came. The kitchen floor flooded. We thought of leaving but I couldn't find my car keys. I started searching in the rain. A few people left for Austin. Evan threw up. Someone found Jo a couple of foam pads to put down in the pavilion and I got the sleeping bags. Kids and a few families turned in. A few others trooped off to their tents in the steady pouring rain. No wind - just rain coming straight down and very hard. I flopped down in the tent.

It rained all night. At dawn it finally stopped raining and I started looking for my car keys again. The kids had been bitten by something at night - their faces were bumpy and red. None of the adults - just the kids. The kitchen was operational and we ate freshly made breakfast tacos. Evan had thrown up at night and now again. People packed up and started leaving. I called a locksmith in Austin. It took him a couple of hours to get there. He tried for 30 seconds and then said that the car had a "high security key" and neither he nor most locksmiths would be able to help and turned around and left.

Tucker needed to get a second car back to Austin from the farm, so he lent it to us. Just as we were packing to leave a parent called from Austin to say that they had found my car keys in their truck. They had left last night during the storm. We drove back to Austin in Tucker's minivan, exhausted. I was dirty, wet, sick, and ridiculously hung over. Jo was tired, thrown up on, sleep deprived, and miserable. Evan had finally stopped throwing up and was insisting that he was hungry. And Vivian was shocked when I told her that we were going back to Austin - "Why can't stay here longer?"

We got back home and realized that rain and high winds had ravaged the area just across the street from Rosedale. Huge oaks in Central Market had been ripped and shredded. Further west, the Blanco river had flooded and killed several people. Though it was too late to get to New Braunfels for Quinn, Devyn and Kai's conformation due to our car key fiasco, Nicolle told us that the interstate was closed due to flooding. 

Thanks to Gunaraja, I didn't have to drag Jo and the kids back to Rosanky, but I spent the rest of the day picking up keys, driving back to Rosanky, getting the car, and dropping off the Tucker's van - all in hungover slow mo.