Child Memories at Lake George

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There are so many camping stories I could share with you, it’s hard to pick just one.  When I was a kid, my mother didn’t own a car.  Her best friend, Sue, drove her everywhere.  One year, Sue decided to take her son, Craig, on vacation.  She invited my mother and I, and James who was friends with Craig and me.  James and I were in the scouts together, and Sue decided that we would borrow a tent, and some other camping equipment from James’ family, and go camping in Lake George.  Us three boys were all around 13 years old, and really James and I were the only ones with any camping experience.  We all piled in Sue’s station wagon, and drove to Lake George.  We registered at the Adirondack Camping Village, and went to our site.  It was a nice enough looking site.  Us three boys got out the tent, and started setting it up.  James and I thought that we knew what we were doing, but it took quite a while, and a good bit of help from Sue and my mother to actually get the tent up.  Once the tent was set up, we put all our sleeping bags, and clothes in the tent, and then we headed into the village to have some fun.                
We got back to the campground pretty late that night, and after a campfire, and some messing around, we finally settled down for bed.  I honestly think it was somewhere around 1:00 am when we finally got to sleep.  I awoke sometime around 3:00 am with my face in a wet spot on my pillow.  I was still kind of half asleep, and figured that I had drooled on the pillow, or that it was condensation, so I rolled over.  That’s when my right hand landed in a puddle inside the tent.  I quickly woke my mother up, not knowing why there was a puddle in the tent, and thinking that perhaps one of the other boys had an accident or something.  Shortly, everyone in the tent was awake, and the flashlights were on, and then we all realized what was going on.  It had started raining out, and we had broken a fair number of important camping rules.  First off, our tent was in a low spot, which had pretty much turned into a small pond when the rain started.  Then, to make matters worse, we had no rain fly, or tarp, so the rain was leaking through the roof.  The seams in the tent had not been sealed, so they were leaking too, and we had 5 people in a tent that was probably big enough for 2 or 3 at most, so there were sleeping bags, pillows, and clothing bags against the fabric walls of the tent everywhere, causing more leaks.  It was a LONG wet night.  Luckily, in the morning the rain stopped, and it cleared off.  We spent the morning laundering all our bedding, and clothing, and then enjoyed the rest of our camping trip rain free.                
I’m now 38 years old.  I still remember that camping trip fondly.  I had such a good time, despite the rain, that I return to the Adirondack Camping Village every summer, now with my wife, and our three kids.  Believe it or not, my mother still camps with us too.  Over the years, we’ve had some other unfortunate mishaps, and odd experiences, but no matter how bad things go, we always wind up having fun in the long run!