This weekend a bunch of unicyclists were getting together for a camping trip/mountain bike trail ride, so Ben, Henry and I packed up our unicycles and camping equipment and headed north. We had a nice uneventful drive, stopping at Bojangles along the way, and arrived around one p.m. at Douthat State Park. It's a really nice park north of Roanoke, Virginia and south of the Shenandoah area. We set up our tent in a shady spot and got everything ready, and since it was crazy hot (close to 100), we killed some time swimming at the lake, came back and watched a movie, and then had a dinner of cheeseburgers in the restaurant by the lake.
Our lovely campsite:
A picture of happy repose:
Back at the camp site, most of the other unicyclists had arrived and a bunch were unicycling all over the place. I've never seen so many guys on unicycles before; it was fun to watch. Then around seven Henry and I made friends with another unicycle family while Ben all the guys went for a ride on the bike trails up the mountain. Just after eight, we were getting ready to make s'mores for the kids when the troop of unicyclists returned from their trip. I let Henry play with the other kids and went to catch up with Ben at the tent. The sky had gotten pretty dark, but I assumed it that because it was just getting on to evening. Then as I was packing some snacks to stash in the car, the wind picked up. It didn't start to pick up, it picked up all at once, like a giant wall of wind pushing through the trees. I ran over to the other site and made sure Henry was okay and then attempted to help Ben get the tent secured so our stuff wouldn't blow away. A few seconds later the rain started, and it quickly became obvious that something bad was on its way. Then, as Ben likes to say, things got real. Debris flew around; leaves and branches out of the trees, dust flung up from the ground, filling my eyes with grit. I found our friends and Henry and the other kids starting to wait it out in their truck. I suggested it would be more prudent to make for the bath house. Between them getting in the men's room and me telling Ben where were were headed, a tree crashed down, narrowly missing a camping trailer. And yes, I jumped about a foot.
Everyone made it to the bath house okay. A few more trees fell and Henry was really scared so we said a prayer and settled for a long stay in the men's room. Our friends' tent got smashed by a branch, so during a lull in the wind Ben helped their dad get their things packed. Then he checked on our tent and found out the wind had broken the top cover off and all our stuff was soaking wet. He came back to the bath house to let us know and made us wait in there while he got everything packed up. Thankfully our electronic devices and anything important that might have been ruined by the rain was already in the car. Ben made a quick, if not exactly neat job of it and drove around to pick Henry and me up. It was around ten when we began our trek out.
The road was a wreck. We drove out on a carpet of leaves and smashed branches and twigs. Several trees had fallen over, blocking the the roadway, and a bunch of guys with chainsaws worked to clear the way. Ben got out and helped them move the debris out of the way at each fallen tree. At one point we had to move the car off the road to let a fire truck, ambulance and a bunch of emergency vehicles through. Outside the park the roads were a little better, but we still got caught in more traffic jams while trees were removed from the road.
Ben decided we were going home. Henry was afraid and didn't want to come back to the park, all he wanted was to go home, so we drove through the night. At some point we missed the turn off for 220 and ended up on 81 headed for Whytheville. Of course, it was only thirty miles down the road before we noticed and after a few stressful but successful moments navigating through some confusing highway exchanges in Christiansburg we finally got turned around and headed in the right direction.
Just past Roanoke we hit another traffic jam. It was one a.m. and the vehicles parked. Ben pulled off on the side of the road and we tried to sleep. That was pretty much impossible because all the semi trucks left their engines running and some guy was blasting his radio. An hour passed before the road was clear again. Around three a.m. we saw a man standing right next to the road, staring off into space. I thought it was pretty weird, but chalked it up to a drunk guy waiting on a ride, but Ben found it very disturbing: "It's like seeing Pennywise inside a storm grate." That made me laugh. The rest of the drive went okay. Five a.m. we arrived safely home. I sent Henry to bed and Ben and I unpacked the car and draped all the wet stuff out to dry. Then we hit the hay.
I'm not sure we made it home with everything we'd brought, some things were blown away and I believe we lost a couple of towels, but I feel extremely blessed. No one was hurt (at least at our site), our car was spared any damage, and I think I might be able to repair our tent. All in all, the craziest day of my entire life.
I think if we give it a decade or so Ben will be ready for another road trip.
