It rained. And rained. And when it was done raining, it rained.

Last week was our annual camping trip with Dave. This year, we all admitted we were getting older (and yet no one said a word). We decided not to sleep on the ground. Under the auspices of 'trying out a tent trailer', and failing--we then turned to huttopia camping.

I have to say, this was really great. Even though it rained.

It's been my experience this week that few people know what a huttopia is. Think cabin, made of canvas. All the camping stuff that we normally lug around was already there--with the exception of food and sleeping bags. It had a stove, and a fridge, and electricity. I especially enjoyed the sleeping area, divided by black canvas into two bedrooms. The black part is important for it allowed us all to catch a regular 8 hours rather than waking up with the birds at 4 a.m. Okay, I'm lying a little. The birds still sang, rather it rained or not. I love that, and I hate that at the same time. But at least if the room is dark, it's a lot easier to pretend that it isn't 4 in the morning.

That darned rain though was problematic. First, it invited all the bugs to come to the trio buffet. In fact, if I had to assign one phrase to the week, it was this..."it doesn't itch. It really doesn't itch. HONEST, IT DOESN'T ITCH!!!"

Second, the rain was a direct cause of a three hour detour. The day started out innocently enough--I chose a new hiking trail, but we had to drive to get there. It promised a lovely walk, close to nature (translate that to mean bugs), where the birds were (bugs), etc. etc. We had to take a secondary road, that barely existed thanks to the rain, to get there. And since, upon arriving, we realized that it may have been simpler to just come in the other way, we decided to go back to our huttopia haven that direction instead. BAD IDEA. You see, an hour or so into the drive, the road was washed out. Gone, completely impassable. You'd think that it wouldn't be so difficult to put up a sign oh...anywhere before we got to the 'thou shalt return' point. So we had to drive back the hour, take a detour for an hour, and then drive the original hour back to camp. Boy, was I popular. I wasn't going to choose the hike again!

Third, the rain really interfered with such traditions as roasting marshmallows and cooking sausages and singing campfire songs and such. You need to be able to keep the fire going to really make those things fun. And...well, there was our huttopia just waiting nice and dry, so in fact, we had one fire, upon which we dutifully grilled (er, braised) steaks. That was that!

Still, it was a great week. We went to the mineral spas twice. We were treated to the requisite amount of creature sightings (deer, birds, chipmunks and squirrels, and a fox). We played numerous games of kuuduk and cribbage. I got to ride a motorcycle, which was way cool. We went in the paddle boats, and we watched a loon go fishing. Pictures to come later!

We tried something new, and it was a grand success. Except that it was monsoon season.