Camping, then camping, then camping!

Wet laundry and fog.

I bid my farewells to the old job and hurried home to pack up the truck and do a quick three day camping trip in the Sierra. There were two catches. One, I don't have a shell for the truck, so everything is exposed. And two...it was pouring. I mean pouring.  We drove for two hours to get to the campground and all the while it poured.  We arrived to the camp spot and it dumped.  I suddenly realized for decades and decades I have been very lucky and always managed to miss some of the rain.  Not this time.  We had to set the tent up in the rain, on soggy soil, and attempt to build a drying fire in the downpour. We succeeded in the former, and failed in with the latter.  What a great experience.  The tent was set, the weather broke, and then it was carefree camping.

 Amazingly, this $30 tent kept us 99% dry in an all night down pour. I was waiting for it to fail in a catastrophic way...but it did not. Dry, dry, dry. Hew!







  I have had the tent for a few years now and it has performed way beyond my expectations. In fact, I slept comfortably and dry in a huge storm in Lassen National Park one year. It rained all night then too and when I removed the tent in the morning, there was the dry footprint of the tent surrounded by soggy soil all around.

Worth the five minute wait!

When camping or backpacking I tent not to need too many creature comforts...except for my coffee. I don't know everything there is to know about coffee, but I love my morning beverage and like it fresh, strong, with a little half n half. Tricks are to preheat the cup, have great beans, grind on a daily basis, keep beans in a cool dry environment...yeah, like that's going to happen when backpacking. OK, so I am a coffee Prima Donna, big deal.

One entertaining sound we heard thought out the week was the constant whine of small pumps inflating those sleeping mattresses. Count me out on that one. When camping, that is to say car camping, I bring the extra futon. Needs no inflation, never lets you down in the middle of the night, and is not very much bigger than a deflated mattress. Besides, with all them BIG houses out there, with all dem BIG vehicles, I don't buy the idea that an air mattress is going to save space...just leak.


All in all the week camping was fun and relaxing.  It is an awesome prelude to the weeks and months to come.  Next week I will embark on a preliminary trip with the Green Tortoise then the week after start as a Driver with all of responsibilities and benefits. I invite you come along with me to not only explore the country in a really cool bus with really cool people, but to also experience, via the net here, my thoughts, challenges, successes, and maybe even setbacks, as I go from a background of cold calling sales to vagabonding driver.  Moreover, if you really want to come along  you can book a trip and see it all first hand. My goal, to get you there safe and sound. Take you to places to blow your mind. And facilitate a life changing trip for you and your friends.

With that, we all can be happy campers!

Special thanks to Boogabaah Weesnaah for her photographs on this entry of me, the french press, and wet laundry.