Thunder Storm

Just two days after Grizzmas, early in the morning (so really it was almost only one day. Man I did not get much sleep that week!) I was woke up by a loud boom. I checked my clock and it was 4 am. I was so groggy that my first thought was "Who in the world is shooting black powder this early in the morning." Then, I thought, "Oh no, not more Grizzlarky! Some of us need our sleep!" Then, it occurred to me that it sounded an awful lot like thunder, only a LOT louder than what I'm used to. While I was still thinking this there was loud banging at our door. Josh groggily reached over and opened it. (His bed was next to the door.) It was Evan, the Program Director. He said hurriedly, "Should I sound the alarm or are you going to do it." My adorable husband groggily said, "What?!" (Obviosly he was the only person at Camp Grizzly who could sleep through that!) I said, "Josh, lightening and it's really close!" Evan said, "It's really close and it's really loud! It's woke everyone up!" Josh shot out of bed and said to Evan, "Sound the alarm!" The camp has this huge red alarm that is so loud you can hear it anywhere in camp. I usually wore ear plugs during drills cause I'm not very far away from it and have to stand very close to it for a long time before the people out in the woods with their classes get there. Or at some of the farther away campsites. Anyway, Evan took off to sound the alarm and Josh got the kids all up and instucted us to get dressed quickly. We set a record, I think! The alarm sounded faster though and as soon as we dressed we hurried out of the cabin. We were really probably safer in the cabin, but the campers aren't safe in their tents, so we have to get them all into the lodge when this happens. As we were heading toward the road that leads to the lodge, the whole sky lit up and before the flash had even gone away, I heard the crash, so loud I felt it! "Oh, crap!" I yelled. At least I hope that's the word I yelled. I hope it wasn't the other word for crap. I hate it when I say that word. Anyway, lots of other people were expressing the same sentiments and someone, I think it was my husband, started yelling, "Everyone down! Get down!" So we all crouched down low to the ground and hurried as quickly as we could in that position toward the lodge. My girls were crying at this point. I told them, "It's okay, it's okay. Just get in the lodge!" all the while feeling more vulnerable than I had ever felt in my life. I've never been that close to lightening! Someone told us later that the closest strike was 14 miles away, but I don't believe them. The sound came too soon after the flash and it was way too loud to be that far away! It wasn't very exciting once we got to the lodge. In fact, it was boring and I had to listen to more camp songs when I would have rather been sleeping. My husband looked on his computer on the doplar screen and the red dot on the map was directly over us! Really scary, but obviously we lived to tell about it! Those are the coolest stories, aren't they! Danger, but they live to tell about it. And yet I hate danger! I would rather read a book about someone else's adventure than have my own, but it's good occasionally, I suppose. If I must!