Insomnia and Flying Tents

This is our third night in the tent, though it may actually qualify as the second since we "slept" in the car most of last night after arriving back to the camp site in time to see our tent tumble plastic floor over rain shield. The kids screamed, which was in part due to the curse I yelled, and in larger part due to my husband and I jumping out of the car with little concern for the lightning and gusting wind. (I'm not sure if anyone makes Cat 5 tents, but they could make a fortune in the Alps.)

After righting the tent, redistributing weight (ie the 4 backpacks) to each corner, then attempting to hold up the windward side, it became obvious that if the tent survived, we probably wouldn't--being the highest things standing on the ridge that night. So, we evacuated the tent of all worldly goods (The boy was a huge help here, and in the girl's defense, she asked to help, but we made her stay inside the car where she sadly put her head in her hands and cried); collapsed the tent; rescued my husband from inside the tent (not having given fair warning that it was collapsing); folded it up; and then shoved it under the bumper (having no room in the car with bedding and backpacks scattered throughout).

Once safely inside, we organized the car, collapsed the back seats to make beds for the children, then settled in as best we could. A point worth mentioning here is that a car is only so comfortable when your choice for foot space is under the clutch or over the steering wheel (I tried both) and your seat will only recline as far as the bed you made for your children. Now, I know kids come first, but being the adult seems especially tiresome at times like this.

By 5:00 AM, it was clear that the storm had passed and if we were going to dry out the tent, assess the damage, and get some sleep, reassembling the tent was in order. So we did. And we were sound asleep inside the musty, damp tent when the construction workers began working on the hotel's extension at 7:00 AM....which brings me to the first night and insomnia.

Now, before you chalk-up insomnia to jet lag, let me say that I did everything Rick Steves (the travel writer) said to do in order to avoid jet lag: I had everything packed 24 hours before our departure (well, Rick says 48 hours in advance, but I've always been a crammer); I got plenty of exercise and fresh air when I arrived, and I didn't go to sleep until bed time local time (here, I'm an overachiever at a 10:41 PM bed time....due in part to the campsite proprietor making us move the tent at 10, but that's a story for another time).

So, maybe it was jet lag, or the boy stealing my pillow, or having to crawl back to the high ground every so often because the new campsite was uneven, but I learned a few things about life that night and here they are:

1) A child sleeping more than 100 yards from a toilet will get up 200% more often to use it than a child sleeping less than 20 feet from a toilet.
2) Cats everywhere on the planet choose midnight (plus or minus 30 minutes) to pick a fight.
3) Even a tent seems haunted when you're the only one awake at 1:00 AM.
4) Cows wearing bells don't call it a day until just before 2:00 AM, and they're up by 6:20 AM.
5) People who own combination campsites/hotels have no trouble cutting cement block and running cement mixers at 7:00 AM.

So, it is the third night in the tent. We're in Austria tonight and the Germans have stopped blowing their air horns and singing their national anthem, but they're still talking about the soccer game that was recently on the big screen TV in the nearby courtyard... Well, they could be talking about State-sponsored religious organizations and I would have no idea. All I know is they're frequently invoking God.

© 2012 Nicole Wirth
Author of:  Letters to Salthill