Shelli Stevens

So I think I mentioned I was going camping, right? Well…it was pretty fun. For the most part. First let me say, I’m a half-arsed camper. I am. I enjoy sleeping in the tent and bonding with nature. But I’m not crazy about the mosquitoes part and I do want my Starbucks in the morning. Oh, and I MUST. HAVE. A. BATHROOM.

So here’s the break down of my trip. I took the kid and niecelet over to Eastern Washington. We camped at Wenatchee State Park which was just beautiful and had a great lake! Yes, I dragged them away from the campsite daily to shop in quaint town of Leavenworth where I could also get my Starbucks fix. We did some mini hikes, went swimming, the usual camping stuff. And one day, we decided to drive for an hour or so to visit my niece’s grandma in Lake Chelan. Heck, I hadn’t been in awhile and it’s beautiful there, right?

Well…it was. Until these weird dark clouds started rolling in. And we’re like…hey, those kind of look like thunder clouds, but they weren’t in the forecast, were they? Yeah…anyway. So we decide to head back to the campsite. That’s when the thunder and lightening start. And then the rain. And it’s raining hard and fast. Soon we hit the main highway andtraffic starts to slow way down. I look to the side of the road and what do I see? These giant crates just floating–floating–down the street. Or pretty much river.  And within minutes, it’s pouring into the street.

It was kind of surreal, because I recently wrote a flash flood in one of my books. So I’m staring at this going WTF? Then I went…oh my god. I know what this is! And cars were turning around and trying to drive through it. And this river of mud was just pouring down the street. And I’m in this small Honda while all these trucks around me are just thinking they’ll wait it out. After a bit of panic I manage to steer through it and you can see the side of my car from the result. I’ve realized I’m a bit of a reporter, because as I was doing this, I was taking tweeting and taking pictures with my phone, or having my niece do it (kid (6) was freaking out in the back seat).

So we turn around, make it back to Chelan and try to wait it out in a pizza joint. But it never stops. And we come across some lovely people who offer to lead us on another road out (because the road we knew was soon closed due to the flash floods).

We made it out, driving in massive thunder and lightening and rain storms. And it was so fascinating and exciting. And not as scary once we weren’t trying to drive through a flooding street. My niece took pics of the beautiful sunset and now wants to become a storm chaser (yeah, my brother thinks I’m GREAT now).

But we survived and I’m totally excited to share the pics and blog! Yay!