Labor Day: Fun, Aches & Promise

I had the opportunity to go on my second camping trip of the summer. I wouldn't say I'm much of a roughing it kinda girl so I'm never one to suggest, or even go, camping. Fortunately, my friends have a camper, so I thought I would embark upon camping again.

Basically...I loved it. Yes I did.

Of course, I wouldn't say we were really "roughing it" because it's nowhere near like camping at powwows with teepee's and tents and whatnot, but whatever. So when the opportunity came around a second time, I was on board.

Here's a list of our Labor Day/Camping Activities:

• Mountain biking: which I had a hate-love-hate relationship with. See below!
• Hiking
• Football and Frisbee fun
• Mexican Train Domino's
• Making friendship bracelets with a cutie patootie
• Sitting in the camper snuggled up with friends as it poured down rain with some serious scary thunder
• Campfire Fun: laughing, talking, laughing, amazing S'mores, laughing, stories and more laughing
• Random songs that I would make up, randomly. Hence the "random" in random songs.
• Etc, etc, etc.

There was a torrential downpour on Saturday with some serious thunder that made us all jump and scream like the girls we were. Of course, there was a simultaneous scream from the campground when one thunder hit so hard my life flashed before my eyes. I felt bad for those in tents. Actually, it was bad enough that those in tents were in their cars until the storm passed. Once the storm passed and the sun reappeared we quickly began playing football, frisbee and had yummy camping foods.

On Sunday it rained some more during our bike ride. I had a bad feeling about bike riding when I woke up. I knew that I knew that I was going to get hurt. And sure enough, during the morning ride when I couldn't figure out the gear system, managed to slice the back of my leg with the pedal of the bike. I have a nasty cut on my leg to remind me of how much I truly sucked on the mountain bike. And then during the afternoon ride, as I was feeling more confident, hit a muddy rut in the road. And as I was brave enough to push through it at a quicker speed to pull myself out of a catastrophe of a flip on the bike, ended up robbing myself of the ability to have children as the back tire slid back into the rut and got stuck in the mud. Which basically means the bike jerked to a stop but I did not; and I flew forward causing a serious injury to the lady parts. Yes, I said it. I racked myself to the point of not being able to sit back on the bike and had to walk it back on the last part of the ride. Extreme pain, my friends. EXTREME pain. It knocked the air out of me. Tears immediately fell on their own and I'm pretty sure I may have screamed something too vulgar for innocent ears. The bike & I fought a muddy rut in the road; and the rut in the road won!!

Before the unfortunate victimization from the mountain bike, I was able to snap a couple of photos of the storm that was brewing overhead. One part of our ride took us through parts of the land that had been ravaged by forest fire. It was a bit eerie with the storm clouds looking very menacing above the wrecked land. As we rode, I was reflecting on things around me as it was reminding me of some personal struggles when, lo and behold, the Lord showed up like only He can and began speaking to me about death, life, truth and His promise as I continued to ride along in prayer.

And then, there it was: we found the rainbow of promise over the ravaged land. I like to think of it as God's promise to give growth and rebirth to the land; as well as to the secrets He was whispering to me on my mountain ride.

God is GOOD!!!

Overall, I had a relaxing fun, albeit painful at a few points, weekend. I can't wait until camping season starts again next year.

Wow! Did I really just say that? I guess I did.