What a Blast ... the morning after

Right after signing off last night, the multimedia show started up. Lightning, thunder, and unremitting buckets of rain, all 19.8 mm of it, thrashed our little site hour after hour. Gone were the cutesy animal sounds, not a chirp, a peep, or a chipmunk chatter, nor noisy neighbours yakking past quiet hour. We had to yell in the tent to be heard. And then there were periods where you thought it's finally blown over. The sweet welcome hush, nothing except the distant hum of the shore, not unlike the 401 nights. And then the percussion would start back up again, light and slow, gradually picking up and crescendoing into a crazed concert on canvas.

And then it stopped again, this time with the faint glow of dawn, and I waited long enough to step out onto the soggy ground. The deed was done--puddles everywhere, minivan still unlocked (there was only enough time to switch off the camp light!), tents waterlogged--but our little bivouac had made it. The kids had done a good job of layering an extra tarp over the tents!

So here's thanking God for the rain and for surviving it. A doxology for the morning after:



And compare the video with yesterday's (below). What a difference 24 hours makes!

10 p.m. update
Bit of a bummer tonight--after nicely checking back into Marco Polo Land, drying out and waterproofing the tents, and doing research on places to go, we hightailed to the provincial capital and birthplace of the nation, Charlottetown. We always try to kill two birds with a stone, and this trip was to get a spare inner tube for a bike, load up on groceries, take a peek at PEI's raceway for stock cars, and take in the Festival of Lights: The PEI Sound and Light Show.

At $15 for adults (x 3), $7 for youth, and no charge for kids under 12, the speedway was no go. I was amazed on the way out to see a constant stream of cars arriving to watch the event. We raided our usual--Dollarama, Wal-Mart, Canadian Tire, Superstore, and McDonalds--and got what we wanted and more. Then we hit Charlottetown in the dark, found free parking, and booked over to Province House.


Only a handful of stragglers were there. Plus a sound crew packing up. We found out that the guy supposed to open Province House so that the crew could get a power supply didn't show up tonight. We'll just have to go again. At least it's on nightly; so maybe next week.