I wanted to post something last night—I really did.  But it turns out that somebody upstairs had different plans for me.

Well, right as I was about to start writing a post, the wind gusts at the campsite had become so strong that my tent was ripped out of the ground.  I’m guessing the wind gusts topped out at about 40-50 mph.  I jumped out of my car and grabbed hold of the tent, which at this point had become a sail.  Well, no, that’s incorrect.  It still held its shape, and acted more like a kite.  Like I was flying some ridiculously large, stupid kite.

Anyway, when the wind finally subsided for a moment, I was able to stake it back in the ground and put the nearby picnic table over one of the stakes to try and keep it in place. 

It was at that point I had a choice to make.  Try sleeping in the tent, or sleep in my car.  Well, I didn’t want to lose the $30 tent—so of course I shoved my sleeping back inside and tried to get some shut-eye.  The damn thing wouldn’t blow away with me in it, right?

My plan worked for all of about 10 minutes.  Then the wind picked up again, and started warping my tent much like a 13-year-old girl warping a photo on her iPhone.  It wasn’t long until the freakin’ thing collapsed on me while I was inside it, and all of a sudden I had to fight just to untangle myself.

The picture you see below is the result of my wrestling match with this wonderfully constructed tent.  I yanked out two of the poles to flatten it, and executed it Terminator style under the picnic table, ultimately deciding to sleep in my car.

And call me crazy, but just as I was trying to fall asleep, the wind gusts were so strong that I was even a little worried that my car would flip over.  Talk about insane.  

Talk about a great way to start the Hope.