This past July, my family and I took a white water rafting vacation in West Virginia. We arrived on a Thursday afternoon, when the sun was casting down its hottest rays. Our cabin was upgraded for that first night. The enhanced cabin included a hot tub and its own shower. That night, we were lucky.
Friday morning started out early. I, including my family, got ready with the mindset of being in the water all day. Sun tan lotion was applied to every inch of exposed skin, making the cabin smell like a long, hot day out in the sun. Everyone wore his or her bathing suits under their clothing, knowing they were going to get wet. Heading out the door wearing cheap water shoes purchased at the local Wal-Mart the night before, and stomachs encasing a filling breakfast, we were prepared for our white water rafting adventure. We weren’t prepared for what was waiting for us when we got back.
When my family and I got back from our white water rafting expedition, everybody was eager to take a shower. Nobody likes having the lingering smell of lake water on them. While my sister, stepbrother, and I all took turns taking a shower, my mother and stepfather started to cook dinner. Five minutes until the hamburgers and hot dogs were complete, the sky turns into a black hole. Then, out of nowhere, a freight train noise erupts through the sky. Trees viciously try to escape their imprisonment in the Earth, and all you can see for miles ahead is debris. Lightning lights up the sky, and thunder splits straight down to the eardrum. Because my family and I were on the top most section of the campground, we got into our car and headed downhill.
Trees blocked our way to the rest of the camp civilization. Peoples' tents were thrown against the walls of trees surrounding the campground. The trees’ branches ripped the material into shreds. With nowhere to go, we retreated back to the only safety we had, our cabin. Upon arriving back to the cabin, we shortly discovered there was no power. Everybody was convinced that the power would be back on in the morning. We were wrong.
The power wasn’t to come back on for the next two weeks. We had to survive two more nights in our cabin. Everyone's phones died the night before, and now there was no way to charge the devices. Half the states electricity was either shut down or running on generators. Everything purchased had to be paid for with cash. If you couldn’t pay with cash, then you were out of luck. Gas stations were lined up with blocks of cars, and eventually all gas stations in a reasonable distance away ran out of gas. That day, I realized society relies too much on the luxuries of electronic devices, credit and/or debit cards, and gasoline. If people learned to rely on face to face communication, cash, walking and/or bicycling as well, a power outage would not be as big of a deal. Plus, people would have better social skills and would help reduce the amount pollutants in the environment! If everybody acquired this experience of their own, the way of living in today's world would be more diverse.
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