LaviniaIslas138

My family really wished to go camping last summer and decided we would go to Cape Henlopen so we could possibly camp, visit the beach and fish all at the same place. Our children also really enjoy the hiking trails located throughout the park, which is perfect when they are tired of the boardwalk. Because it was off-season, we had the ability to get a camping site right away. We packed our camping gear, some hiking and fishing things and we were on our way. When we finally got there, we were surprised when we opened up our tent to see enormous holes that were in it. We all wondered how this might happen till we realized we allowed our neighbors to borrow our tent and they must have gotten caught in a storm one night. We, however, did not want to turn around and head home but we couldn’t find a store that sold tents in Delaware that was within a 20-mile radius. It was then that we knew we needed to get creative.

Fortunately, we had brought several poly tarps for fishing and camping. With a lot of ingenuity and patience we  started gathering branches, rocks and everything we could salvage from our old tent. It was then we took inventory of each and every poly tarp we brought to the beach. My husband had fortunately brought every tarp he bought when our hardware store had poly tarps for sale. We had plenty of materials to make a tent and then some. While we knew it wasn't going to be the most attractive  camping tent in the world, my family was happy that we were still camping.

We began by laying down two blue poly tarps on the ground to make sure we did not get any dirt or sand in our sleeping bags. Then we attached them to a brown poly tarp, and a canvas tarp using rubber tarp straps. We then secured the blue poly tarps to the ground with rocks and pegs that we still had from our old tent (not every little thing can be as good as we had wanted). Finally we covered the whole thing with waterproof canvas tarps to keep the rain out. It wasn't pretty but it was steady and we might easily use it for a week after we used the rods and pegs from our old tent and some durable branches from around the camping spot. Then the storm came. I have never ever seen my husband fix anything as rapidly as he did when he threw duct tape on every blue poly tarp, hay tarp and rubber tarp strap after he heard thunder in the distance. Somehow he managed to protect every nook and cranny in the camping tent to make sure not even a drop of water could come into the tent. The next day we looked around us and saw that everybody else in the park had retreated to their vehicles after their camping tents had flooded that night. Our poly tarp tent, branches, duct tape and all, had stood victorious amongst the camp. hay bale cover