Whew, long weekend!!

Ok, to recap the last two days, lots of stuff happened. :-) Sunday consisted of going to Sunday school and church in the morning and then after church we met with everybody planning to go on the hiking trip and decided that we'd leave at 6. So, I really wanted to squeeze in some more golf before then. But, I went home and looked at the radar and there was massive amounts of rain headed right my way. So I decided it would be best not to risk it and sure enough, about an hour later, around 3, the rain came pouring down and rained for almost 2 hours. I was really upset not only because of not playing golf, but because it was jeopardising the camping trip. It finally ended raining around 5 but I was still really concerned because the radar showed a ton of more storms just across the Appalacians shooting right for us. So I figured that it would rain all evening and really make for a lousy experience. Anyhow, we met at 6 at the church and luckily nobody decided to back out, so that was great! We got over to Claytor Lake around 7ish and then realized that we needed a second camping space to accomadate everybody. The problem was, the place was packed already, so me and Curt drove around awhile looking for 2 spots close to each other. Finally, we found 2 that were right next to each other and just made the perfect spot. It was such a blessing to find that second one, we really needed the space! Then while we still had light, we got all the tents and equipment set up and grilled up some food. Then the rest of the night (until like 1:30am or so) we just kinda milled around talking, eating, singing worship songs and playing some games. It was a lot of fun. :) I must say that the highlight though was sneaking out with Curt, Doug, and Joel during worship (I feel slightly guilty, hehe) and going down with Curt's dog Sambo to the lake. It was so nice and peaceful outside and we just wanted to go walk around and enjoy the lake some. So we did that a bit and then decided to go down on the man-made beach. This quickly spawned ideas of swimming, so Joel got in and then Curt also. I really wanted to but I had jeans on. Finally I was like, oh screw it, and jumped in. It felt sooooooo good!! The water was just perfect and we had some fun just swimming around a bit. :) Technically we weren't supposed to be there and we quickly left once Curt said he saw a park ranger car stop off in the distance. So I came back to camp in soaking wet jeans and sand all over me, but that's ok, it was a good time! Of course the biggest blessing of the evening though was the weather. I don't know where all the storms went that I saw on the radar, but from 6pm-2am it was dry and very nice outside! It was just perfect timing! Then, right after we all got in our tents it started to drizzle which progressed to a huge group of showers and thunderstorms which lasted all night up until about 9am. It rained so hard all night long, I couldn't believe it! It was kinda neat in a way to be out camping in thunderstorms like that. The only problem was, it was so loud! We only slept from approx 2am-7am as it was and then about half of those hours I spent awake due to the rain or thunder or something. So I got maybe 2-3 hours sleep and was just exhausted all day today!
So, all us guys got up a little after 7 this morning. Oh yeah, there were 8 guys and 6 girls who came in all, so it was an awesome turnout! Anyhow, so it was still raining when we got up and everything was soaked! Luckily, my tent has a rain-proofing cover on it, so me, Joel and Robert were dry all night. :) Everybody else got somewhat wet, some more than others. So then we just kinda chilled around a bit and got some breakfast. I was pretty bummed out most of the morning because the way it was looking, I figured it was going to rain all day and we wouldn't go boating. Then a little after 9 it stopped raining. So we figured we'd pack and then kinda play it by feel as to whether to boat or not. We finally got everything packed around 11 and ready to go, and by that time it hadn't rained for awhile and the sun was periodically sneaking through. So we went down the the marina and deided that we'd take our chances and go out boating. We settled on getting a 5-seat pontoon boat and then the Baker's brought their canoe which we were able to get 3 people and the dog in. So we left the dock a bit after noon and went to explore Claytor Lake! We spent the next four hours just driving around, swimming, diving, fishing, eating, etc. It was so much fun! The weather was just perfect also! A bit overcast, but the rain stayed away and often we got some nice sun too! It was so great, I'm really glad we got to do that. :) Only problem is, I was stupid and didn't realize that this was the first time in like 2-3 years that I've taken my shirt off in sunlight. I put some suntan lotion on my neck and shoulders but that was it. Now, I'm dying! My back is like cherry-red and so is most of my stomach. :-( I got no sleep last night, and I doubt I'll do much better tonight. So, I'm really paying for this trip, but it was worth it! Good times. :-P After boating, I packed all my stuff, then met Steve and we headed out of Blacksburg around 6:30 and drove all the way back up here by about 10:10. There was a decent amount of traffic on 81 tonight because of the holiday, but somehow we still made really good time. I guess we didn't hit many lights on 7, so that's always good. But, now I'm back in one piece, blogging, and about to pass out.
Deep Thought of the Day:
Ever since Friday night I've been feeling in a funk of sorts. I'm not sure what it is, I feel almost like a sadness of sorts. Even though I had a great time camping and boating, my heart just wasn't there totally and it really affected me socially I think. I'm not totally sure what I'm feeling right now, but I really need to think more into it and figure it out because it's annoying me! :-/