The Maiden Voyage

This weekend we took our tent out for its maiden voyage.  Usually the term maiden voyage is reserved for boats and other watercraft.  It rained enough on the first night that our tent could have floated away but luckily it stayed firmly anchored to terra firma.
In December we shared about camping in our living room.  Our tent hadn't seen any use since then and this was the first time on real dirt instead of carpet.  We decided our first test run should be pretty close to home just in case we needed to bail out so we went of a local state fishing lake about 20 miles away.  I was watching the weather forecast pretty closely all week.  The chance of rain continued to grow each time I looked. However the overnight low was suppose to be reasonable at mid 40s instead of 25F that we had a few nights this week (including a skiff of snow one night).  I figured that at some point we will end up having it rain on us when we camp so might as well test it out on the first try.
When we arrived at the lake we picked our spot and started unloading.  Camping really requires quite a bit of stuff and it is tough to get everything organized and keep it that way-- even for just an overnight trip.  Our tent set up went pretty quick but since it was the first time to use the rain fly we had to figure out how to tie the guylines and use the tensioners.  Thank goodness for a few 3 minute YouTube videos.  Through this process I learned the value of tying different styles of knots that have different capabilities.  Once we were through with that we took a sunset stroll along the lake.  There were a few others out camping which was reassuring that we weren't crazy.  Our next experiment was testing the backpacking stove my boss lent me.  His story of almost setting his dinning room table aflame had me a little concerned.  We were maybe to conservative with turning the gas up and it kept going out.  Finally we got it going and sat around waiting for some water to boil.  We all know what they say about watching a boiling pot.  We got bored before it boiled plus we just needed hot water for our hot chocolate and not boiling.  Darkness had settled in by 8:30 so we settled into our tent too.  We listened to an audiobook for awhile before calling it a night.  I think we slept pretty well for camping.  At two in the morning we did listen to a pack of coyotes howling across the lake.  A few hours later at 4am the rain started.  It was a steady, consistent rain and I personally slept great with the rain pattering on the tent roof curled up in my cocoon of downy feathers in my sleeping bag.  I'm not sure Arthur had that experience (as he is currently in the second hour of his afternoon nap) but when I woke up in the morning he was still sleeping soundly.  Everything outside was drenched and the rain continued to pour.  We were nice and dry due to waterproofing technologies which still amaze me.  However we decided that instead of boiling water in the rain for hot chocolate and oatmeal we should just pack up and head into town for breakfast at IHOP.  While it may not be roughing it, the fajita omelet and raspberry white chocolate pancakes were a great idea.  Omni Vincit Amor.