We awoke early this morning... about 3:45 a.m. to be exact. Our guard dog, Rusty, became restless. He wasn't barking, only moving around. I noticed the wind was beginning to blow, but it was not that bad.

Around 4:00 a.m., the weather report came on the radio and stated we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. Some parts of SW Virginia were under a tornado watch. A few minutes later, the wind picked up and it began to rain.

Instead of going out to put the awning up, i put on a pair of shorts and opened the window on the door. My thinking was that i would hold the awning in place. Go ahead and laugh - it worked, but i won't try it again!

Here i am at 4:30 a.m., pair of shorts, no shirt and flip flops, outside under the awning with rain swirling around me. The rain was cold, but with everything that had already happened, my awning was not going to be next. The wind would blow and lift one of the poles off the ground and i would grab it. Then the other pole, etc. This went on for 15 minutes or so. By this time, T was up watching the excitement - scared to death. She is from Tornado country in Illinois. The least little wind and she says a tornado is coming... i hope she is never right about that!

When the wind died down, the rain came - it poured. I went inside and we listened to the radio for the next weather report. The meterologist said the winds would be most severe in the first 15 minutes and that it was a fast moving storm. From that, i assumed the worst was over. I told T, "No sense in both of us staying awake. I am going back to bed!"

I woke back up around 9:00 a.m., showered and went to visit with friends who finally found a spot in the campground. At 1:00 p.m., my parents and the in-laws arrived for grilled hamburgers, baked beans and potatoes. We sat under the awning chatting about the weeks events and watched other campers move from one site to another. To me, the tear down and set up is not worth it.

Three hous later, everyone left and the dearest son went to grandparents house again for the night. Today, the weather has been pretty dreary and windy. The weather forecast for tomorrow is sunny and nice. We are leaving tomorrow - we have all had enough rain!

As soon as everyone was gone, daughter dearest began asking about a fire. It was pretty windy but i decided to try anyway. We wadded a few newspapers and gathered plenty of kindling. As soon as i lit the newspapers, the little firebug started throwing stuff in! It wasn't long and we had a HUGE roaring fire.

On one of daughter dearest's trips to the bathroom, she noticed another camper had left a pile of firewood behind. We immediately started looting the site taking all the wood we could carry. We even got T in on it!

I started tending the fire again and she kept going back bringing one piece at a time (they were pretty big chunks of wood). Finally, we had almost the entire pile of firewood at our campsite and she was tickled!

I realized there was no way we could burn all that wood so we asked our neighbors if they would like some. They had company and everyone was gathered around the fire with quilts and blankets. They accepted and we gave them half the pile.

There was still a little bit of wood at the other site and we could not stand it! We went back to get more and as soon as we returned we took it over to the neighbors. We told them there was a few more pieces left... next thing we see is the neighbors looting the firewood!

We roasted marshmallows and the fire lasted for hours. The dearest daughter fell asleep in a chair beside the fire... picture perfect end to a great evening.

We are going home tomorrow... more rain is on the way.

We have successfully used every cooking apperatus we have: gas bottle grill, charcoal grill, fire pit and gas stove. Since the temperature was "cooler" i went ahead and tested the gas furnace. It fired right up and it hasn't been used in a couple of years.