The Camping Trip - A Nightmare Tale

Tomorrow, I will be going on the first very first camping trip of my life! I am so very excited. Of course, this won't be my first time sleeping in a tent or anything, but I've never been on an actual trip where we would be camping with friends.

Needless to say, the trip turned out as I expected. It was awful. Here's what happened:

On Thursday afternoon, my Mom was planning on driving Andrew and I down to the Bendixens, where we would be staying until the following Wednesday. I had hoped to leave around 3pm, but, as the story of my life goes, we never leave on time. At 3:30, as we were nearly heading out the door, the basement started to leak because of all the rain we've been getting. Mom assigned me the job of sweeping it all up with our shop vac. What a great day to start the best weekend of my life! I worked for hours on that, so we didn't leave until nearly 8pm!

We arrived at the Bendixens and found they were all in bed. Very welcoming to their guests! I thought. I had to sleep on the floor, without a blanket. Andrew had selfishly taken both the comfortable place to sleep and my blanket. I couldn't get to sleep all night long; although it hadn't been a great day, I was excited about how awesome the camping trip was going to be!

I waited... and waited... and waited... it was nearing noon and I didn't know if I should get up, or just stay in bed like everyone else. Levi stirred, stood up and yawned. 'Bout time! I wispered. I couldn't believe what he did next. He got out of bed, went to the bathroom and then went back to sleep. What?!? I was getting restless, laying there for nearly twelve hours. I figured the best thing to do was quote Bible verses and pray, so I did that for over an hour.

I had hoped to be leaving early, but they just wouldn't get up. I was relieved when Levi's parents announced it was time for devotions. Ele began with prayer, then talked about the importance of getting up at a decent hour if a person wants to be blessed. He quoted Proverbs 6:9: "How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?", and also Proverbs 20:13: "Love not sleep, lest thou come to poverty..." I couldn't believe what he was saying! Ele! You didn't get up until after 2pm!!!

Afterwards, I was really hoping to leave soon. I asked Barak if everyone was ready, and he seemed surprised I'd even think of heading off so soon. "Well, J.J., we have a few service calls to do, and then we'll go. Okay?" I decided to accept it, hoping it we would be done within an hour or so. Little did I know, one of the jobs was going over to a friends' house to push a red button, and the other was a chimney job which turned out to be a total frustration. It was after 6pm, and we were finally done! I was excited, that is, until Jeriah decided we should cook up a quick barbecue, as we wouldn't want to spend extra money to pick up something on the way. So Jeriah and Ele worked for over an hour getting dinner on the table. I was grateful for it, but it took such a long time.

After wanting to leave all day long, we packed up Ed (the van) and were on our way! Levi had heard about my disappointing time thus far, and wanted to make me feel better by letting me sit by him. How thoughtful! After driving for a few minutes, I began to get very, very sleepy. I hadn't slept in 30+ hours. But, because of the Levi's "consideration", I was squished in between Andrew and Levi, of which talked the entire time. I only fell asleep towards the end. As I awoke, everyone was unloading the van, and most everyone else was surrounding Ed, greeting our group.

For the first time in a while, I actually felt like smiling. Ryan Cooper and I locked eyes. I stumbled out of the van, still half asleep, walked towards him and gave him a hug. Everyone, and I mean everyone, burst out laughing, but I didn't know why! I felt something paper-ish on my back and grabbed at it. It was a note which read, "I'm A Geek. Please Laugh." I was furious. This was the worse day of my life, and now someone had to go and embarrass me like this! I looked around and saw Kevin looking very suspicious. For the first time in my life, I just wanted to take him down. Storming over to him, I planned on hitting him square in the face. But that didn't happen.

Rachel stuck out her foot and caught me very much off guard. I tripped and went face-first into a sharp rock. I could feel some cuts on my face, which left red marks for several weeks. I was going to be meeting some new people! What a good first impression. It hurt a lot. I began crying out in pain, and walked straight back to the van. Andrew and some others put together our tent. As soon as that was up, I grabbed my stuff and shamefully walked for the tent, staying there for the rest of the night.

For at least an hour, I heard the laughs and singing of everyone around the camp fire. A few times, my name was mentioned, followed by some girls' voice giggling, "Did you see him crying? I almost wanted to laugh." Ryan Wegner repeatedly told them to be quiet. "He can probably hear us," was his reasoning. I couldn't take it anymore. I fell right to sleep.

The next morning, I awoke worriedly, thinking I may have slept in. I checked my watch. It read 10:05, so I wasn't worried, considering the time the Bendixens had got up the previous morning. After lying there for less than half an hour, I decided I should get everyone together and apologize for what I had done. I sat up, but Andrew wasn't in his sleeping bag! I shot out of the tent and found the campsite nearly abandoned. Mr. Heyworth and Mr. Cooper were sitting off to the left talking.

I, still in my pajamas, asked them, "Where is everyone?" They seemed shocked to see me. "Good morning, J.J. Wait, what are you doing here. They left you?" They left me? I stood, puzzled. Mr. Cooper decided to explain. "Last night they decided to hike the mountain over there. I figured everyone knew about it, but they must've forgot you." Either they forgot me, or just didn't care. I stood there, not knowing how to respond. "Well, what time did they leave?" was all I could muster. "Hmm... I think it was right about 10:00," came the reply. No, no, no... I missed them by five minutes.

You can imagine my frustration. I am writing this from Mr. Heyworth's laptop, and tears are literally falling down my cheeks. It's nearly 5pm on Saturday, and the others still aren't back. I don't know what I'm going to say to them when they arrive. This was the worst day of my life, and all I want to do is go home.

If you could keep me in prayer, I'd really appreciate it.

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Oh, and in case the missed it, the above is all a joke. :P