The Lstrs went camping this past weekend with another bunch of swell folks. Nothing extravagant, just a trip to a KOA about two hours away–somewhere off of 81 between Allentown and Harrisburg. It was a great time, except for all the rain. Late Saturday night, after seeing other tent campers pack up and leave, I decided it was time to take the family home and come back in the morning for the tent. <\/p>\n
We have a good new tent, a Coleman instant tent<\/a>, in fact, but no tent on earth, I’m sure, could have withstood the rains we experienced that night. It rained hard. Then harder<\/em>. Then harder still. Then harder yet<\/em>. Eventually, the water began seeping in through the seams. <\/p>\n I may post more later, but now–for reference–some useful links for next time:<\/p>\n 1. My knot tying skills aren’t what they should be…this I know. I quit Boy Scouts just as we were getting heavily into the knot thing. Hopefully, I can pick up a few pointers here at iwillknot.com<\/a>. <\/p>\n 2. While it is nice to see the stars, I think a rain fly (despite what Coleman says) could be useful. I had planned to put a tarp up above the tent, but the site we ended up on didn’t have many trees. I think I need to put together a kit like this tarp and home-built pole collection from this camping how-to site<\/a>. I like the use of galvanized spikes as stakes, perhaps with washers to grip the rope better. I may just fork out the cash for tarp poles instead of making my own, though. <\/p>\n 3. We had great fun at the Swatara State Park’s fossil pit<\/a>, and collected some wee fossil shells and what I am hoping is part of a trilobite. Its all late Ordovician-era, about 450 million years ago–more than old enough to blow our minds. I might investigate other local PA fossil-hunting locales. If so, these groups might help<\/a>, but many of the links are outdated. Apparently, there are some outcroppings in Deer Lake, PA that might be worth visiting with the kids. It could also be a nice stop on the way to the Yeungling brewery tour. <\/p>\n