An Update on Tent Camping!!

Hi friends! I've missed you this week! Tent camping was sooooo much fun! To give you a few more details, we stayed at an RV campground in South Carolina, and rented a spot to put our "RV" in. Except, of course, we put a tent there instead! By no means were we roughing it! We had a nice 8 person tent, where we put a queen sized air mattress plus a twin sized air mattress. We put sleeping bags on top of that. We had a hanging organizer for our clothes, and several battery operated lights hanging from above, and one even had a little fan! The tent had windows, where if you rolled down the sides of the tent (by a zipper), there was a screen that would let the breeze in and keep the bugs out, so it didn't get hot. That was just inside our tent. Outside, we had a large canopy, where we set up tables to put kitchen utensils, plus a toaster oven and a two burner stove. We brought several extensions cords, so we could plug everything up. The ground was pretty much a sandy dirt, so we put down many, many outdoor rugs and tarps (which came in handy when I had to go barefoot most of the week! More on that later ;)) We also had a big tree that gave us plenty of shade, and I don't remember ever getting hot. We also brought several fans, lol.

To the left, you could see the waterpark, about twenty feet away from our campsite. To the front, you could see the ocean, about 300 feet away from our campsite, as well as the bathhouse. To the back, there was a nice store, which carried everything from souvenirs, to beach necessities, to groceries! There was also a restaurant there. We were so close to everything. We also rented a golfcart, which we were soon to realize was the main way of transportation. You could hardly get around in a car, due to all the golfcarts! The trip was a lot of fun!

At the beginning of the week I noticed I had a small rash on my right foot that itched. I would scratch it, it would feel better, everything was fine. I probably should have told someone, but if you know me, you know that I don't tell people that I'm in pain until I am really in pain. Which takes a lot for me, considering I have a very high pain tolerance. Anyways, It went on like this, until I noticed that suddenly, this mysterious rash was on my left foot, too. And then it popped up on the back of my hands. And then it started itching really, really bad. Anytime I wore shoes, I was in major pain. So I went barefoot. I didn't wear shoes anywhere except the bathhouse, because everyone knows those floors are gross. I enjoyed this part, because I've never liked to wear shoes anyways. This just gave me a good excuse to not wear shoes. However, this rash was really itchy, and I finally told my Grandma, who immediately texted my mom. We are a family that is very much into essential oils, and so mom guided me through on what to put on it: lavender with lotion, After Bite (an oil that treats bug bites), etc. I ended up buying Benadryl from the store, but I never used it, because I was already tired, and I knew that the Benadryl would knock me out if I took it. I had it just in case it got really bad. My parents came on Friday, and then mom was able to help me treat the rash. It's a good thing she came when she did, because on Saturday night, both feet were swollen and red, itchy as well as burning. I sat in a fold up chair, with a pack of ice on my feet. My feet were also slick and shiny, considering I had lubed up with every oil I could think of, plus Cortisone cream. I ended up taking an Ibuprofen. My parents were even talking about taking me to the doctor once we got home (yikes!). By Sunday morning, the swelling had gone down, and, while the redness was still there, my feet didn't itch or hurt. I figured out that when my feet were in the sun, or if hot water from a bath was on them, they started burning again. The same was with my hands, but my hands never got as bad as my feet. We got home yesterday afternoon, and my feet felt fine. So what was this mysterious rash? We are thinking (but still not 100% sure) it was sun poisoning. While I didn't get terribly burnt, I did some research and it said that sometimes, the sun just reacts differently to your skin than other times. As I write this the following Monday morning, the rash is still visible, but it's not itching. Now my back is itching, but that's just from the sunburn that is starting to peel, lol. That's probably the worst thing that happened this past week. I didn't let it keep me down, and I still had tons of fun. Thank you for your prayers, they were appreciated! And now...pictures!! P.S. I've got more fun blog posts on the way!

 On the way there

The sky was soooo pretty!

Setting up our campground; it took us almost 4 hours to do!

This was my first sight of the beach! Blue skies and blue water!

I made a turtle in the sand, lol

The campground has 8 fresh water lakes; we fed the turtles in one!

These ducks may be cute, but they kept stealing the turtles' food!

The sunset one night on the beach

This was the view if you turned around opposite the sunset

Sunday morning before we left, we got up at 5:50 to go see the sunrise! Definitely worth the early morning!