Body work avoided, barely

© 2012 Lydia Hinshaw 

The Prince with the offending limb

Still one of our favorite campgrounds

 MANITOU SPRINGS, CO -- We thought we'd left hurricanes behind in Florida, until Saturday night here.

 Camped in one of our favorite campgrounds, we fell asleep at the early hour that is normal for us since we became old folks.  I woke up near midnight to that familiar on-coming train sound.  Between brief periods of calm, we were getting brief periods of high winds.

 The campground is alongside a creek, and the creek is lined with tall cottonwood trees.  Small twigs and branches fell harmlessly on the Magic Bus for quite a while.

 Shortly after 1 a.m., something much larger crashed into the Bus.  This was enough.  We hurriedly cleared out my upper bunk, lowered the pop-top and moved the vehicle 50 feet to a spot where it was not under a tree, and was at least partially sheltered by the campground's office and shower building.  There we managed to get a few hours sleep, until about 5:30 a.m., when the campground managers appeared to start cleaning up the mess.

 That's when we got a good look at what had fallen on us, easily the biggest downed limb on the property.  Fortunately, it hit a glancing blow, inflicting a minor scuff mark on the Magic Bus' tailgate. Something we can use as a visual aid in future war stories.

 The couple who manage the campground have worked summers here for 10 years.  They said it was by far the worst windstorm they could remember.

 Sunday morning was clear and perfect and the wind had gone.  We left the campground to see more of Colorado, but we'll be back one of these days.

 We enjoy being close enough to walk to dinner in Manitou Springs, and the chance to do laundry in the campground's spacious and reasonably priced laundromat.