I took 3 days off from my full-time job as a massage therapist to go camping with Adam at High Point, in the Skylands of NJ. We love camping and I was really looking forward to getting away even though I have 2 different craft shows this weekend and I need to pack my apartment to move in 2 weeks, oh, and I'm closing my store at the end of this month. Getting away seemed like a reaaallllly good idea. Escape it all for a few days...get my nature on. Well, we got a little too much nature. In the form of an unbelievable thunderstorm that ended up passing through Yonkers, NY as "nearly a tornado".
There had been a brief thunderstorm shortly after we arrived at our campsite. We took cover in the Jeep and when it ended we decided to take a drive up to the Veterans Monument before dealing with the soggy tent we had put up right before the rain. We watched the storm traveling east and basked in the warm breeze and sunshine at the base of the monument for more than an hour. That's where most of these pictures were taken. We returned and hung out the tent fly and sheets to dry.
After we ate dinner we took a nice walk around Sawmill Lake. We were sitting in the campsite deciding our next move when the lightning began. It was cool to watch lightning bugs and lightning at the same time but counting the time between lightning and thunder was ominous. We listened as the storm seemed to move farther away and closer at the same time. It was a big storm. Just as the rain began I ran to the tent to grab the pillows and made it to the Jeep just as the skies opened. The storm was intense, and just when you thought it couldn't rain any harder, it did. We wondered about our neighbors across the road. Their lively camp had quickly darkened and only headlamp movement appeared occasionally during the storm. We both took out our cameras and shot pics of each other taking cover in the Jeep. The storm finally ended and eventually we fell asleep.
This morning we decided that despite the early morning sunshine, the forecast was too sketchy and the tent was too flooded to be comfortable enough for another night in the Jeep and we headed home. Though I regretted it the minute I stepped into my apartment, I'm now happy we came back. I worked on new products for the shows this weekend, made a few sales at the store, and pulled my display together for the show Saturday which offers very little space to exhibit. I guess just 24 hours away was enough to inspire me to carry on!
Wow - sounds like the kind of storms we get down here in Houston! Glad you guys made it out in one piece!
Posted by: Ruth Nasrullah | July 09, 2009 at 12:29 PM