When Rayne finally made it over to the park, it was already midafternoon. Thankfully the sun was shining, drying up the puddles from the previous day's rain.
Rayne walked over to the service desk and was greeted by the park ranger.
"Hello! Welcome to Three Falls Park! How may I help you today?", asked the park ranger. She was a middle aged woman with short brown hair. Her most notable feature was her great height!
Rayne looked up at the woman thinking that she was at least 6ft tall!
"Hello! I have a reservation for a campground. Here is my ID", said Rayne while placing her ID on the counter.
"Oh perfect, let's get you checked in!", replied the park ranger.
"Lets see, we have you reserved for lot 48. It's in a great spot, very close to one of the larger waterfalls in our park!", she said, smiling at Rayne.
The park ranger handed over the receipt and the parking pass, along with a coupon to the small campground store.
Lastly, she handed Rayne a small booklet, "Here is a booklet with our parks rules and regulations, as well as a fold out map of the park. Please enjoy your stay!".
Rayne walked back to her car, opening the booklet to take a look at the park map. Her lot was on the east side of the park, on the outskirts of the designated camping area.
She decided to stop by the small campground store on the way to her campsite. The store was indeed small, selling a mix of food items and small camping equipment like flashlights and batteries.
Rayne walked through the store filling her cart with random snacks and items she didn't have in her system. She grabbed a can of all her favorite sodas, ice cream bars, instant soup packets and of course items for smores!
The mean looking lady at the register glanced at Rayne with a judgmental look when she saw how many items Rayne picked out. Without saying a greeting she began to scan the items, making the atmosphere a little stiff.
Rayne got back to her rental car, holding a few bags of items she had just purchased. Sitting down in the driver's seat, she pulled out the map once more and memorized the route to her campsite.
She drove through the scenic forest admiring the beauty of the tall trees and small wildlife. A few fluffy rabbits scattered as they heard the car approach. Rayne was so excited to see the small, cute creatures and hoped to see more around her campsite!
Before long she spotted a wooden pole with a sign on it that said "Campsite 48". Raye drove her car directly on to the campground and got out of the car.
The campsite was larger than what she had expected! It was surrounded by very tall trees and small plants.
She noticed a large stream flowing with crystal clear water just a few steps down from her campsite.
After walking around her campsite she began to unpack and set up her tent. She looked around her system to see the different kinds of tent options she had stored. After clicking on the "Tents" folder she was shocked at how many different options she had!
There were micro 1 person tents all the way to blow-up castle options!
"Hmm, I should have looked through these before I got here", mumbled Rayne. Since Rayne stored the items with their packaging on, she could only go off of the small picture that was on each tent box.
She scrolled some more before giving up. "I have no idea which one to choose! I guess I'll just choose whatever the 12th tent is in the list!".
Rayne scrolled down the list from the top, and counted until the 12th icon. Without even glancing at what kind of tent it was, she clicked the icon and began to set it up.
Twenty minutes later Rayne began to regret her decision. The tent in front of her looked more like a house! It was an enormous, three room, inflatable glamping tent! The only benefit was that it was an inflatable type tent, making the set up very easy after the initial stage of spreading it out.
She walked inside when it finished inflating and was stunned! She could easily stand inside this tent! She even reckoned that the tall park ranger who checked her in, could stand comfortably inside of this tent!
As Rayne was marveling at the tent she randomly chose she heard some people talking outside.
"Mom! Mom! Look at that tent!!! It's like a house!", a young boy shouted excitedly.
Rayne walked out of her tent and saw some people setting up in the neighboring lot. A young boy around 10 or 11 years old was staring at her tent excitedly.
"Luke! Please don't yell, we need to be respectful of our neighbors! Do you remember what I told you in the car? People come here to relax, and we need to keep our voices down", said a woman who was dragging a tent from her car.
The woman placed the tent on the ground and walked over towards Rayne. She maintained a respectful distance and apologized for her son's shouting. "I really apologize, I am camping here with three boys, and I will try my best to make sure they keep the shouting to a minimum.
Rayne walked over smiling. "Hello, I'm Rayne, and I am solo camping. No worries about the noise, I can see the kids are excited to be here".
"Oh where are my manners? I'm Natalie and my two sons are Luke and Isaac", Natalie said pointing at the boy who shouted, then another boy who was standing beside the car.
"It's Isaac's birthday weekend, and he wanted to go camping with his friend Dave to celebrate", she said smiling then pointing to another boy who was standing next to Isaac.
"Ah that sounds like so much fun! And happy birthday to your son!" replied Rayne.
Natalie excused herself saying she needed to set up the tents, while the boys ran around exploring the campground.
Rayne went back to continue setting up as well. She walked back inside the tent and pulled a number of items out of her system, since she had all this space in her tent.
She first took out a king size inflatable mattress, followed by an inflatable couch.
Rayne scratched her head while looking at the couch, she didn't even know that such a thing existed!
"Oh well, I guess I'll just experience glamping", she laughed.
When Rayne finished setting up her tent, she realized it looked more like a livable house. Her 'bedroom' had a king size mattress, a super plush sleeping bag, blankets, and even a rug!
The second room was converted into a mini kitchen with top of the line camping appliances. It had a propane stove that converted into a table, a sink that hooked up to a water reserve and could pump water, and a rack with cooking utensils!
The 'living room' felt like an actual living room. The inflatable couch was large enough for three people to sit comfortably, and was decorated with pillows and blankets. There was a collapsible coffee table in front of the couch, which was where Rayne planned on eating.
The tent even had a collapsible screen that worked with a projector to act as a TV, but Rayne felt that was a little over the top and didn't use it.
She walked out of the tent and couldn't help but look over at her neighbors campsite. Natalie had just finished setting up the second tent and was blowing up the air mattresses.
The first tent was a very small old tent. It was a very faded yellow color, and a few spots looked like they were torn. The second tent was a bit bigger, looking to fit two or three adults. Rayne figured that the larger tent was for the boys, while Natalie would take the very small tent.
Rayne noticed that they only had one air mattress, most likely for Dave since he was a guest. The rest of them pulled out three worn out sleeping bags from the trunk of their old car.
Natalie went over back to the car and Rayne overheard the boys talking.
"Isaac! You promised that I would get to sleep in a big tent! This tent is so small, the three of us will barely fit! If my dad was here, we would have a tent that big!!", Dave said to Isaac, unhappily, pointing to Raynes' tent.
"This is a big tent! Mom bought this big tent for us!", replied Isaac, keeping his head down.
"Yeah! Mom saved a lot of money to buy this tent for us! Look, it's big, I can stand up inside!", said Luke, standing up in the tent.
Rayne frowned hearing this, she didn't want to be the reason why these kids got into an argument. She was also unhappy with this boy! If he was a friend, why would he say such things to him?