Crazy Americans

Yesterday there were massive storms here north of Auckland. So much rain hurled itself against the front of the caravan that it started streaming inside, into a large bucket we emptied six times.

Campers, if you're feeling dispirited (or happy that you don't camp at all), you are reading our minds.

Try as we might during every break in the storm, we couldn't figure out how the water was coming in, settling on the sill and quickly filling the bucket. Hastily, we moved all electronics and ultimately slept through a dry night.

Today dawned sterling blue with fast-moving clouds. We'd been in touch last night with the nice people who rent us the caravan. They were shocked, having never had a leak in this trailer, and offered all sorts of assistance.

Not wanting to stay here another day to await the caravan specialist they offered to send out, we decided to go with Jeff's suggestion of tape. Honestly, we were supposed to depart today for locations north and at least two of us weren't overly happy about still being here.

Do big-box stores look alike the world over?

So off we went for the tape, returning and making quick work of it once we decided how we'd apply it. At this point we were wondering if the indoor rain was a total fluke, based on the angle and force of yesterday's downpour. But tape we did--three layers.

I insisted we test our work, so on this sunny day, Art got up on the picnic table (with his matching t-shirt and bucket) and heaved water down the front windows, with all his might attempting to mimic the storm. 

Inside, we were prepared with a catch basin, but all was bone dry after the splash. Please say a little incantation that this remains standard.

Time for second meal. This recipe for basic bulgolgi seemed like just the thing for the griddle-like grills here at the campground.

The flat surface heats up on these grills, and earlier this week I'd watched some fellow campers quickly cooking meat and shrimp, tossing on the protein and plucking it off as their hungry children watched. That group was Asian, a German couple just pulled in next door, and last night we had a young French family parked here. Kiwis too, a mini UN.

We put oiled cauliflower on first with small onions and finally the marinated meat with a bit of sweet potato.

 

Not photogenic, but a keeper. Tonight we're dry and a dreamy cool front has moved in (80 F is just about our upper limit). We're still here for camping!