Brief Bit of Gauley

Car entertainment

"This is the summer that wasn't." - Ron Samlin over Fourth of July. We were talking about how cold memorial day was and how the temps seemed so mild compared to last year. Ron made this statement and it stuck with me. Come labor day, all the rivers were roaring with water, so rare for the end of the summer where we were lucky if we got in the two foot range on the Yough. And then we approached the third week in September, Gauley fest. Last year we spent five days getting to and from there. David and I paddled and enjoyed the cool mornings and warm days. Gauley, where the water is usually controlled by release from the dam. This week, though, the engineers were dumping what seemed like everything they got. This, along with rain spells caused the rivers, once again to be high and mighty. I had a thought earlier in the week before we left that if it was to be raining, Abi and I would stay home and David could go down without us. But, the report was fine on monday, 70s and sunny. By wednesday, it was to be scattered storms but a low percentage. So, we packed up and headed west and south. We were going to ease into the trip, driving enough hours to get to Abi's naptime and stopping for the day. We checked into a Hampton and the only plans for the rest of the day was swimming in the pool and finding dinner. The next morning we woke to gray skies and drove through intermittent rain. The gloom started to settle on me. What would I do with Abi if it rained all day? We got to Summersville and started making plans with the other kayakers. I scowled at the rain drops hitting the puddles in the gas station lot while we waited for our diner lunch. I knew there was a new bouncy house that just opened but that wouldn't sustain Abi for two days if the rain kept up. After dropping David off to decide his paddling fate with the others, Abi and I went back to the shack for a nap. When she woke up she was more interested in playing with her toys inside, lining up her mickey mouse clubhouse figurines throughout the shack. I noticed that the sky was mostly blue through the slit in the curtains so I had hope that it wouldn't rain the rest of the day.

After a while, I asked if Abi wanted to go to the playground and she did. So, we walked over to the playground within our Battlerun Campground. Last year there was a boy who came out of a nearby tent to play but this year there were no kids in sight. She played for a little while but mostly wanted me to push her in the lazy swing for thirty minutes (those new, fat, plastic swings where kids just sit without doing anything to make it swing. David calls it the parka lounger swing. Google: Special Needs Swings.)

Luckily, all this lounging and lazy swinging passed the time enough to get us to dinner time. Now that Abi likes and has the teeth for pizza, I wanted to try the pizza and ice cream order-at-the-window place down the road. Close to camp made it appealing. We sat and did play-doh for thirty minutes and then ate some pizza before hearing David was off the river. We headed back to the Abi shack and laid inside watching videos on my phone until they drove up. I wanted to build a fire and the car needed gas so David and Abi set off to take a shower while I headed off in search of wood. Unlike the state grounds we are used to, firewood is not easily found in Summersville, but finally another campground was selling wood. So I happily bought two bundles imagining the flames going as big as the metal fire circle would allow. Another annoying thing about this part of the world was that they trust you to pump you gas and pay for it later. Not used to the old days of no credit card swipers I went and stood in line to give them my card only to be told to pump first and then come back. Only a place that sells cold pop would be so 1999 (hehe that's my snarky northeasterner coming out).

Sully is watching us

david driving, abi photgraphing

David texted that there was no hot water in the men's side so when I returned we decided no shower for Abi. He also asked if I got kindling for the wood. Nerp! So, we had starter stuff (lint, cardboard) and two bundles of half wet logs but no kindling. This was shaping up to mirror the great fire starting fail of 2009 (that's a story for another time). So, David put Abi to sleep while I stubbornly tried to rip off pieces of wood from the drier wood to have kindling and tried starting the fire a few times but gave up and took a cold shower (no hot water on the women's side either). He gave the fire a go and a log caught once in a while but it was mostly a loss. We ended up watching Dexter on the DVD player in the dark. A white animal hulked down to the river's edge in the semi-dark and at first glance it looked like those little white dogs with the big fluffy tails. The moon was rising giving light along with the intermittent camp lights along the driveways. Later, david saw it up close as it was sniffing around the Abi shack and it turns out it was an almost all-white skunk.

Abi's Angry face - car selfie

In the morning I emerged from the Abi shack to news that the rain would start at 10 am and go all day. With a check of the river gauge it was decided that we would just try to go back home. So, after arriving a little more than 24 hours before, we packed up and hauled north and east. The rain started shortly after 9 and we stayed mostly ahead of the tumult that was heading northeast as well. We stopped at a burger king in northern west virginia to let abi run a bit in the indoor play structure and then at a walmart in maryland for her nap. David popped the shack up and Abi and I napped in the parking lot while it rained and the wind blew against the walls. And then we started the home stretch. I sat in the back and got plenty car sick trying to keep Abi happy. She watched Monsters Inc at least four times in the two day span of traveling we did.

We made it home by bedtime on saturday night. Gave Abi a bath (she was done with it after I washed her) and told her stories while she laid on her belly with her bear tucked under her arm. It was a disappointing trip but maybe we'll have better luck next year.

And that's how you write a post about a whole lotta nothing