"You know... Young people nowadays think an adventure is going to be this romantic, easy thing," Gio said. "Well it's not. Adventures are often like this. Sometimes you get uncomfortable but that's what makes it an adventure."
60 hours earlier.
The time had come. We finally hit the washboard road that signaled our camping destination. As the trucked bounced like a pogo stick due to the bad shocks, nothing could pull our spirits down not even the sign that said five more miles of dirt road. The sun was setting, the windows were rolled down, and the dust that blew in made us further realize that the Christmas camping trip we had been looking forward to was beginning.
The truck bed loaded with ice chests of food, tarps, rakes, shovels, stoves, and tables made me think about the Baja camping trips I got to do when I was younger. What we were doing was essentially the same thing. We drove to the dry side of the island. The side that is more of a desert and gets considerably hotter and gets less rain than the north shore.
Surveying each campsite slowly, we decided on one that had only a few tourists at it. Upon unloading our truck and the arrival of our friend Robo, the tourists realized that their territory was being taken over and decided it was best to move a little further away.
While setting up his tent in the fading sunlight, Robo called out, "We could see some bad weather tonight, it might rain and get windy."
Gio remarked, "It never rains out here. The storms always blow off shore and talking to the tourists, they said the weather has been incredible. If it does rain it will blow through quickly."
As Gio and Robo put their rainflies on, I was busy covering my hammock with a tarp in the spindly mesquite trees. Not wanting to cut the rope I brought into smaller pieces, I had to create a spiderweb of rope in every which direction to hang my hammock and tarp. Satisfied with my work, I crawled into my hammock and fell asleep.
10pm
The howling wind cut through the hammock's material and chilled my body. Laying in my hammock, I was torn about getting up. I could scramble in the dark through the mesquite to fix my tarp, or I could make a mad dash to the truck to grab my comforter.
Deciding upon grabbing my comforter, I placed it in my hammock as it started to rain. It wouldn't have been a hard rain except for the wind that made it so. Instead of rain drops falling, they were sailing horizontally. Crawling back into my hammock determined to fall asleep, I curled up as my hammock was being tossed around as if it were in rough seas.
2am
Waking up to the sound of the wind beating the tarp like a drum and the incessant swinging of the hammock, I realized that I was also getting damp. The rain was beginning to leak through the tarp and onto me. Peaking my head out to see how Gio and Robo were fairing. I saw Robo's headlamp sprinting back and forth through the darkness. I laughed to myself because I wasn't the only one uncomfortable.
Gio sensing that we were up hopped out of his tent and said, "How are you guys fairing? I'm having to keep my feet against the tent to keep the rain from getting me wet!"
"I'm fine" I called out, "I'm just a little damp."
Robo said, "I'm pretty wet, my rainfly isn't working, Wyatt seems to be fairing better than you and I Gio! This is going to be a long night!"
6am
Falling out of my hammock like a person that is leaving the bar in the early morning, I made my way to the picnic table like a zombie. Seeing Robo and Gio looking the same way made me feel a little better. We were cold and defeated as the tourists around us packed their tents up to get out of there. It was only the first night and we were supposed to be there for a week.