Anastasia Camping Trip

        About a month ago, Dylan and I headed out on our way to Anastasia Park for a spontaneous camping trip. We had our new camping gear,  chili dog supplies, and hearts ready for an adventure and an adventure it was. 

        The first mishap was with the food. Nearly to the campsite, Dylan noticed our just purchased chili was the dreaded can-opener-we-didn't-have kind. Go to a Publix to return it? Stop at a pizza place? Stop at a pizza place. Now, with subs in hand, we made it to the campground. Beautiful it was, with winding roads canopied with natural Florida trees.
        While eating our subs on the picnic table, we were now grateful for the quickness of our backup meal, for the mosquitos would've really gotten their fill if we'd had to cook with our slow-cooking stove. With bellies full and legs adorned with new bug-bite mountains, we headed to the beach.

"Shouldn't we just walk to the beach? It's so close! We're in nature!"

"Not with these mosquitos!"

       So off we drove. We enjoyed our long walk on the uninhabited beach with a boldly colored sunset. Our tummies started to hurt a bit at this point. "Was it the subs? Did they food poison us?" We joked about the ironic idea of writing a Yelp review on our phone, in the tent, in the wilderness. "Or maybe it was the whole bag of potato chips we shared..." Back at the camp, we laid in the tent enjoying the movement of the trees, but the rumblings of our tummies were getting worse and worse at this point. I was able to fall asleep but Dylan never could.

         The last blunder occurred when Dylan decided we didn't need the rain cover for the tent because "It probably won't rain."   

"The weather says it will at 1am. We're just going to be waking up, struggling to throw the thing on in the rain."

"But it's too hot," he said.

            1am hit and so did the rain. And hard. Dylan almost got me when he asked me to be the one to put the cover on. "Wait a minute, this is your fault, you do it!" "But you're closest to the exit." Now we're laying under our crooked rain cover with water still flowing in. We tried to wait it out in hopes it would slow down and not fully flood the tent, but several inches of water later, we decided to clumsily and chaotically pack up the tent. So I'm running back and forth from the tent and car, in my nightgown, with Boy Scouts nearby, screaming and laughing the whole time. 

          Finally, we got all packed up and drove back through the peaceful city of St. Augustine. Our clothes, the gear, and the car were soaked, making it smell for weeks. Some perfect tunes and jokes about stopping into a bar and demanding a drink in our PJs made for a good memory.       

Best parts of the trip? 

1. Being able to laugh at all of the ridiculous. Didn't even have to wait for it to become a funny story later. It already was

2. Serenely gazing out of the rain-coverless tent finding uniqueness in the trees

3. The ambiance of the lovely drive back home
4. Finding that any trip is enjoyed with this guy