Our not-so-bright-idea to go camping... on the Oregon Coast... in March

So I know that this trip happened a while ago-- the second week of March to be exact-- but it took a lot of contemplating the adventure before I knew how to write about it, or even if I wanted to write about it at all. After thinking things through, I decided it was best to look at the experience not as dreadful, or a disaster, but to look at it as a tragic comedy; and only then, was I able to come to terms with what happened.

So to lay out the trip a little for you, It was Mack's spring break from school, and he, along with all his guy friends decided there was not better of an idea than to go camping on the beach. They ran the idea past me, and I, loving the beach, was all for it.

Now there are a few red flags that pop up even before we left for this trip that should have made us stop and think, but being the beach-loving college kids that we are, we ignored them. My first red flag was when I asked the boys what I needed to do to plan, they replied "Katie, you do some much for us, with the Thanksgiving dinner and treats every Friday, that this one is on us. All you need to do is relax and show up, we will do the rest." Now all of you who know me, know that when someone tells me to 'relax' I get more stressed than if I was doing all the work on my own. But, nonetheless, I appreciated the thought and decided to stay out of it. I mean how bad could it be, right?

Our plan was to leave Saturday morning at 7 AM-- way to early for college students, but we were excited to get to the beach. So Mack and I wake up early, get ready, pack the car, say goodbye to Cooper (tearfully on my part), and head over to the dorms to meet the rest of the crew. We get there at 7:05, knowing they would be running late, and see half of our 15 total in the lobby, which was more than I expected. Then we find out that the other 7 are just getting out of bed, because at 3 in the morning, the dorm fire alarm went off, and they had to stand outside for an hour before being let back in. *Red flag #2

After stopping for coffee and a snack, we got on the road and headed for the coast, driving in pouring rain the whole way. *Red flag #3. Fighting my urge, and losing, I called Jordan, the head of the dorm gang, and asked what he thought about the weather, "We're an hour away from the Coast, Kate! It will clear up, relax and enjoy the drive." Ugh, relax... ok... right...

But turns out, Jordan was right, once we got to our destination, South Beach State Park, in Newport, Oregon it wasn't raining, and the sun was trying to peak out of the grey overcast. So, we started unloading the cars, 5 tents, food, beer, and clothes. Then I hear an "uh-oh". I was scared to ask, but I knew someone would, turns out, they forgot the tarps, hotdog buns, and s'more stuff back at the dorms, but remembered the beer, of course. So, half the group packs back up and heads out to a near by walmart to buy our missing materials while the rest of us set up tents and flip them upside down so they don't get damp from the wet grass.

Once the other half of the group got back, we finished setting up the tents, with tarps underneath and headed for the beach. We had a good hour on the beach walking on the sand and basking in the sun that would peak out of the clouds every so often. A couple of the boys were even brave enough to go swimming, no thank you. As we started getting hungry, we decided to head back to the site and build our fire for dinner. "uh-oh". We forgot firewood and sticks for roasting hotdogs and marshmallows... This time I volunteer to go to the store to get out of the wind that was starting to pick up.

After another run to the store, and the boys' hour argument about how to start the fire-- teepee style, cabin style and how much lighter fluid to use, we finally got a nice fire going. Just in time for the rain. And when I say rain, I mean might-as-well-jump-in-a-pool-you'd-probably-stay-drier, rain. It was a mess. We cooked our hotdogs, and by then we were all soaked. So the boys, being engineering students, climbed the trees around the fire and tied our extra tarp above us to try to keep us dry. And by try, it failed, we were soaked.

Finally, we were all sick enough of getting soaked, that we decided to put our jammies on and climb into the big tent to pay cards. When Mack and I went into our tent to change, we stepped into a lake. About an inch and a half of water covering the floor of our tent, seeping into our sleeping bags, clothes, pillows, everything! Upon announcing this to the group, we discovered three of our four tents had turned into lakes because of the downpour. Taking another 6 sleeping bags, pillows and more clothes.

So, we were left with one tent for 15 people, about 12 sleeping bags, and a bunch of wet clothes. After making plans for some people to sleep in cars to stay dry, someone checked the time and realized it was only 9:00 PM. 9:00 and we were all going to bed! I wasn't having that, and the last thing I wanted to do was sleep in a wet sleeping bag, on the cold hard ground, so Mack and I packed up, and drove home that night! We got home around midnight, I took a hot shower and climbed into my warm comfy bed.

Needless to say, I never want to go camping on the beach again, unless it's July.