Their First Time...almost

Our camping adventure started like most of our mini getaways ts do, with my beautiful, yet exhausted wife coming home from another 12 hour shift from the hospital. We hopped in the loaded car and took the 1.5 hour drive straight to Petit Jean State Park from Little Rock. You see, this was my wife and daughters very first time camping, so I had planned it to be the best first time experience that was sure to be unforgettable. It will always be unforgettable, but not for the reasons I hoped!

Upon arrival, I knew we were going to be in for a treat, the views were spectacular, the tree lined entrance was hitting their fall peak colors, and most importantly for me, the park was relatively empty (that should have been a sign for things to come). The heavily wooded campsites were private which added to the whole experience. We luckily arrived just in time for a perfect view of sunset from the Cedar Falls overlook. After a nice hot coffee from the Mather Lodge restaurant, we settled back at our campsite (Site 98) to pitch the tent, and heat up the coals for an amazing open fire dinner of Brats & Beans. Now, is it just me or does campfire dinner taste way better when you have no other food option to fall back on? Good thing it came out delicious either way. After the most amazing campfire dinner anyone has ever had in the history of campfire dinners (possible exaggeration), we gathered around the warm fire and roasted...you guessed it, S'MORES! Tummys full of deliciousness, we hit the hay for what we had hoped would be restful sleep. Here is where our story took an ugly and very wet turn. Enter the Thunder and the Lightning and the Rain, lots and lots and lots of rain. Rain dripping on our feet, rain dripping on our heads, you would have thought we were sleeping outside. So much for the extra rain fly I had packed. We had two options, wait out the storm or pack it up and call it a night. I checked the radar for the area and all I could see for miles and miles was red. Needless to say we took the first opportunity we could during a break in the storm to break down camp and head home, we did have a 2 year old and I did not want to risk her health for my desire to wait out the storm. Although it wasn't a complete camping outing with what was sure to be very tasty breakfast burritos and freshly roasted campfire coffee in our new percolator at sun up, it was still a great time with my family! And that is how we shared their first camping experience...almost.