BS: The Joys of Camping

Subject: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: catspaw49
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 08:41 PM

So Karen and I and our two boys take our usual mid-July camping trip in eastern Ohio, Tappan Lake to be exact. I grew up there so it's a kind of touchstone. We went as always with Connie and Wayne and their sons as we've been doing for many years. In every year past we have been blessed with some beautiful weather and very few days of anything else. This year Mother Nature decided it was time to pay the piper.

We had one really great day of weather and the other nine were a mixed bag of rain, oppressive humidity, more rain, more oppressive humidity, and finally some additional rain with additional oppressive humidity. We set up in a thunderstorm and when we left the sun was trying hard to draw even more humidity up out of the mud.

The trailer is wet and damp and the contents are wet and damp or covered in varying depths of mud. Today I sorted clothes to be washed and had whites with mud, light colors with mud, towels with mud........you get the idea. On the plus side, Karen and Connie got in one glorious day over on the beach as well as several good afternoons. The kids, ranging in age between 11 and 18, all enjoyed themselves and the campsite was great, except for the ... (yeah, you got it) ... mud.

On the minus side, outside of the weather and the mud, Wayne and I had plans to go to three races at short tracks within 50 miles of camp and we went 0 for 3 because of the weather.   Had the tracks swapped schedules around, at least 2 and probably all 3 would have run. I now have a better understanding of "scattered" and "isolated" thunderstorms. But we did find a dynamite restaurant in an unlikely place which didn't substitute for racing but you have to take what you get. I was also smart enough to leave all guitars at home for a change and it was the best decision I made.

So we return home and find the house has no power........Some real rocket scientist, a genius type, screwed up on the total amount due since there was a previous unlogged payment and the electric company turned the power off. I got on the horn and raised a ruckus and sure enough I got the idiot who screwed up to admit it!!! The fact that I was the idiot only served to depress me further. We spent the night in a Hampton Inn and returned home today to a house that reeked of dead food in the freezer and the fridge..............**sigh**...............We also spent the day cleaning out said fridge, freezer, and house, and crying over lost legs of lamb, beef tenderloins, pork tenderloins, venison cuts, chops and steaks, 9 quarts of my homemade from tomatos pasta sauce, 30 pounds of burger, and a mountain of junk food snacks snd TV dinners for the kids.

But we had a great time anyway........Good friends, great meals, wonderful campfires (even in the rain), and probably more stories than from the past five years combined...............but I'm glad to be back!

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 09:40 PM

What it is, man, is you have a bad SOH. Most people think this stands for Sense of Humor, but it does not. It stands for Scale of Hubris. See, you create this atmosphere..so to speak...and then you walk away, you don't post, you don't write, you don't go troll-hunting, you don't indulge in creative literary efforts or even large farts, and leave your friends out in the wilderness wondering about you, and go off to NASCAR and such.

In the old days, you had only half as much free time, because you spent so much time on the Cat. So you had to be twice as sharp, no time to do it twice, so you had to do it right. The OLD Spaw would never have fucked up his G&E like that.

I'm telling ya, there comes a time when we have to deal with our SOH problems, Spaw, and you need to do some deep thinking on this one. Hubris is a bitch, buddy.... :>))

A

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Sorcha
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 09:41 PM

I LOVE camping! We do it every year for at least 8 or 9 days. But, it seems I'm semi allergic to houseflye bites and after about 7 days the toxins build up and start to make me really sick (that and the heat). Being dirty is wonderful! (We are only 20 mins from our house so if it gets too bad we can come in and shower) We have the fanciest loo at the lake and are proud of it! Not been any Mud for several years, because we camp on a sand beach. Even if it pours, it's gone in just a little bit.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 09:50 PM

I want very much to get back to it. We're looking at tent options or, perhaps, one of those A-frame type pop-up trailers, because we want something big enough for me to stand up in and where we won't be on the ground (it's hell to get old!).

Back in '82 we camped out of the back of a Honda Station Wagon and a two-person backpack tent for most of a month while we toured The West. Now we have more aches and pains, I guess, and we are getting crotchety about sleeping on the ground.

That said, I want to do it again some more!! And we're where we can!! Forest Service, National Park, National Monument, Private campground, State Park -- it's all here!

It's the getting settled in before we can that's the hard part!

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Bobert
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 09:56 PM

9 Quarts of homemade tomato past sause?!?!?.... Well, gol danged that makes me madder than a dead dog... Shoot, that's a danged tradegy, Spaw...

Ahhhh, next time you get to paying them bills you give me a call and I'll run them totals by the Wes Ginny Slide Rule jus' fir safe measures... It ain't never got my power turned off... Okay, got my couzin Rufu's Chevette repo'd once but I think ol Rufe must done somethin' wrong like, ahhh, not put a stamp on the envelope... They get in a big ol' fight about that every Christmas and get's so bad that Rether May don't evn come fir Christmas no more...

Man, that's a lot of food. Next time you go campin', take *all* yer food wid ya, Rent one o'them U-Haulz and jus' fill it wid ice and throw everything in there... Works great!!! And makes fir a darned good Wes Ginny air conditioner, too, if ya park it nest upwind from the tent...

Me, my brother and my dad went campin' just about every summer until I was like 17 and got too cool to camp which I ain't no more... Ahhh, too cool to camp, that is... Jus' don't like sleepin' on rocks these days...

But my very first campin' trip I fell outta a boat and just about drowned but I don't remember it unless Iz layed out on a shrink's couch grumbling about toilet trainin' and all and need to pull up something on my dad... "Well, Doc, the man 'bout drowned me when I was 2!!!"

Next thing I remember we was campin' on a river and my dad had bought me a new fishing rod and told me to cast it so I did... He didn't say I had to hold onto it, though... "Well, Doc, my dad didn't say...." So I had to live wid that story until my poor ol' dad passed away at aged 88 some two years ago... I told him I'd pay him back at least a hundred times but he wouldn't have traded that story fir a 100 new fishing rods...

Then I was like 6 and had just gotten outta the hospital with polio so I couldn't walk 'er nuthin and we was campin' way down in Wes Ginny and had rented a rowboat... Well, you guessed it, Spawzer... Kir-plunk! "Well, Doc, he tried to drown a poor little crippled me.."
Lucky that there was another guy on the boat 'er I'd be writtin' this from that crippled kids hospital in the sky... which, of course would be very difficult since internet service has been interupted in Heaven temporarially for "None Payment"... See, lot of that going 'round... Maybe a little Y2K+4 going 'round? Either way, I got it in my will that the Wes Ginny Slide Rule going wid in the box so if I can get past the gate keeper, things should improve as long as God ain't trying to figure out how much He owes on the Chevette...

Well, Spawzer, this is purdy much the way camping went fir me as a kid. Year after year my dad, the joker that he was, would either try to kill me or set me up fir some embarassin' thing that I could never live down... But, I gotta tell you the truth since he's gone and I'm sure this is gonna come up when I get to the gate keeper but after years and years of this stuff, I was like 13. Remember what it was like to be 13? Man, everything was possible except maybe a good feel from Nina Williams... Nevermind, she was sucha prude... Where was I... Oh yeah, we were at this cabin on the Eastern Shore right there on the Chesapeake Bay and it was our last day to be there and he hadn't done one dumb thing to me so I thought, of course, that that meant he had a real biggie still up his sleeve??? Well, you know how they say the best defense is a strong offense? Well, Spawzer, this cabin was way off by itself. Prolly about 5 miles from anywhere. So we were gettin' ready to leave and I saw the keys to the car slip out of his clothes pocket and onto the sofa bed in the cabin and looked to see if he saw them drop!

O, life is good. He din't have a clue. "Well, Doc, I mighta been the one that snuck them car keys into the trunk of the car while he was loading it and just before.... (drum roll).... he shut the trunk!!! Like I said, life is good... Or it was that day... Poor guy jumped around cursing anything that moved. Threw a conk sheel at a seagull he thought was laughing at him! I swear it, this was the best campin' trip, even if it was in a cabin, that this ol' hillbilly ever had. Poor ol' dad, bless his mean heart, sniff, had to walk all the way to that gas station 5 miles away and get the mechanic to drive him back and the two of them worked fir another cursed filled hour taking out the back seat...

Best part about that trip is that he forgot whatever it was that he was so frustrated by that camping trip that he forgot whatever it was that he had planned fir me fir that year's camping nightmare...

9 Quarts of homemade tomato past sauce, you say? Bummer.

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: harpgirl
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 10:02 PM

Sorry about your dead meat, Pat...


When Nathan was just a boy we enjoyed camping to the Georgia waterfalls pictured here:http://www.yahoolavista.com/waterfalls/waterfallsposter/poster.html


One of my favorites was Horse Trough falls at the bottom of Unicoi Gap, a long winding trip either down the mountain or through the gap from the bottom at Helena. I also liked to swim under upper Helton Creek Falls. Last year we visited falls around Fort Payne Alabama.

Now that Nathan is moving to the wilds of west Florida for his last two years of college at UWF, I expect to camp at Blackwater River State Park again when I visit him. My camping buddy is finally leaving home......waaaaahhhhh...I wish he was little again...

harpy

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Rapparee
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 10:39 PM

It is pretty joyful, really.

I remember as a kid sitting around the campfire, telling scary stories and singing the old songs, toasting marshmallows and watching the lightning bugs and the sparks flying upwards...wait, that's what it was supposed to be like. In reality it was burnt hot dogs, marshmallow flambe, fire-baked potatoes you couldn't tell from the rocks, drawing in the inside of a canvas tent in the rain over your buddy's bed roll, mosquitoes the size of C-130s, the smell of the ineffective 6-12 mosquito repellent, pocket knife cuts, playing "stretch" with hatchets, peeing on the fire, tossing a handful of firecrackers into the campfire, tent pegs that pulled out in the rain, constant drizzle, the results of eating beans delivered inside a small tent, ant bites, poker games, stolen cigarettes, spraying flammable mosquito repellent through the flame of a match.

All in all, a REALLY good time. I wonder why adult camping trips aren't like those of my youth? I certainly hope I haven't grown up.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 10:46 PM

There goes Harp carryin' on about Spaw's dead meat again!! C'mon. It only happened a few times...


A

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: harpgirl
Date: 20 Jul 04 - 11:31 PM

"Why Amos deah, whateveh do you mean?" (eyelish flutter)

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Terry K
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 02:41 AM

No matter where else I go every year, I really look forward to my camping holiday. I have what USA knows as a pop-up (folding camper in UK) and take it to Europe every July/August. I go off this Friday by tunnel to France, cross the Alps into Italy, then down to Umbria for three weeks. Good book in one hand, cold beer in the other - heaven.

It's amazing though how friends, who well know my penchant for the finer things in life, simply can't understand that I love camping - they imagine you have to "rough it". I mean, me, rough it? No chance.

cheers, Terry

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: TS
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 02:46 AM

my secret to camping....bring lots of booze...get knackered so you can sleep well all night (aka pass-out)..then when the birds and the sun wake you in the morning, drink quickly to prevent any hangover...carry on for the day and you'll sleep well yet again..continue as above...oh yeah...lots of music and drunk-friendly food works too..and..if possible..the means not to be sleeping alone in the tent...(ahem!)

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: C-flat
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 03:16 AM

It seems I am to be re-introduced to the "joys of camping" (in the UK this means in a tent rather than a camper-van) on the insistence of my 7 year-old daughter who is campaigning tirelessly for me to take her to a muddy place, miles from anywhere, with only the most basic washing/toilet facilities, where we can erect a flimsy canvas covering to protect ourselves from the very worst of effects of exposure and hypothermia.
As a father I know I will eventually give in to my daughters demands, I nearly always do, but I have a cunning plan!
Living a small distance of 30 miles south of Whitby, I am conspiring to book a place on a campsite there, to coincide with the folk festival this August.
Every cloud...............

C-flat.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 03:32 AM

LOVE camping! Love it love it love.

Sorry yours wasn't the best time this time...but considering the law of averages, the fact that it all got dumped on you in one fell swoop, should mean that it's clear camping for another decade!

..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 03:32 AM

no mention of Kenneth Williams.....ooh matron!!

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: GUEST,Julian & Sandie
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 07:48 AM

Ooh we love camping - we'll camp it up anywhere. Can't stand tents though - all those creepy-crawlies and those big poles (no Julee sweetie I wasn't talking about you) and all my clothes get creased and dirty. We much prefer cottaging to tenting.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Mr Red
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 09:57 AM

Well Spaw you certainly put the Mud back in 'catter.

My Joy of camping joins me usually on the Saturday of a festival for the ceilidh. And yes, I always say I am jumping with Joy (meant in the terpsichorean sense of course). She tolerates the caravan (which is smaller than the car). I calls it a Coupe Tup - well she is a sheep farmer's daughter.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: jacqui.c
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 03:46 PM

I've never been camping in my life until this June, when I spent two nights in the back of Kendall's van at Old Songs.

In view of the rain on the Friday night that was probably the best place to be rather than the tent that was first planned. I cooked for the first time on a camp stove and managed to produce an edible meal and learned the art of keeping relatively clean without the aid of a bathroom. The mosquitoes made a meal of me but it was great fun, although Kendall has now bought a mobile home for future forays, which will be a little more civilised!

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: GUEST
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 03:58 PM

Never pitch a tent next to a camper van. The pumps for the toilet and water supply will always wake you up too late or too early if not both.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: mack/misophist
Date: 21 Jul 04 - 11:14 PM

Once I had a job that required me to sleep out doors and cook over a fire for 14 consecutive weeks. Beds and stoves are better. No rattlesnakes in bed, either.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Schantieman
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 12:56 PM

Done by the majority at all UK festivals. Ms Lemon does it every w/e from May to Sept. I did it for about 400 nights as a Scout & later a Scout Leader in my youth (and comparative youth). The trick is ALWAYS to make yourself comfortable - any fool can rough it!

See you on the camp site at Warwick!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 02:18 PM

I hate camping. If it doesn't involve hot and cold running water and room service, I am not interested.

Spaw's story reminds me of a similar vacation when I was a girl - Hurricanes Donna and Connie hit one after the other. The high point of the two weeks of sog was seeing my brother screaming in fright when a nest of baby mice fell down his back as he sat watching the rain.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 02:59 PM

I just bought me a second hand camper, a Hymer which is a quality German make, and it's left hand drive too. What do I care, it's got a 3 burner stove, a fridge, a shower, blown air central heating, water heating, fly screens, and loads of mod cons. I was in the scouts as a boy, and graduated through, pup tents, 2 man tents, big tents, trailer tents, sleeping in the back of my car, and small campers, to attain the pinnacle of mobile comfort; my new van. I love it dearly, and we're off to try it out this weekend, nowhere too far, just a test run.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: SINSULL
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 03:48 PM

No Room Service, Giok?

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Les from Hull
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 04:26 PM

Camping - the excitement is in tents!

Like Steve (above) I was a Scout Leader and I'm used to tenting (as I suppose we have to call it now so as not to confuse Jules and Sand). It keeps the expense down so we can spend more on essentials (like booze and lemonade). I'll be on the Warwick campsite as well, but it's siling down in Hull at the moment so you'd better be sorting out the weather down there. The worst thing about tenting is packing a wet tent and knowing you've got to unpack it again and dry it when you get home.

I can see why Jules and Sand aren't so keen. Them nights when your lallies are so cold, and you wake up in the morning and your riah's a mess and there's nowhere to wash your eek. I got all the palare, me.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: JenEllen
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 04:34 PM

Oh gawd, yes.

In addition to the riverrock-potatoes, you can add hockeypuck-biscuits and JIFFYPOP!!! That enormous balloon of tinfoil expanding over campfire coals, and the buttery smell that in a split second turns toxic because you've been impatient and burned the whole freakin' thing and all that is left when you slit the top is two or three edible kernels and a great blackened wad of cinders.

Worst family camping (Spaw should appreciate this) was when the entire clan went to Lake Michigan for a vacation. Little cabin in the middle of nowhere near Lake Hamlin (?). After a day or two of hot humid funk, us kids were bored stiff and starting to get into trouble. My cousin and I go into the cabin to get a drink. Inside, both my Nana and Auntie stop talking. Of course, we go "Whatcha talkin' bout???" They refuse to tell us at first, then swear us to secrecy before telling us that our campsite and cabin were the site of a grisly murder in the 40s, THIS WEEKEND is the anniversary, and my Auntie swears she saw the ghost of the murdered man in the campsite the night before.

We swore not to tell the other kids, so as not to scare them, then we ran right outside and blabbed. This was all according to my Nana's master plan---The grown-ups had a great time the entire week by taking turns scaring the living crap out of all of us: Uncle wakes up, sneaks outside, moans and shakes the tents. Dad wanders around the campground with a sheet over his head. Aunt waits until we are all just about asleep (we've shit ourselves and moved inside the cabin by then) and then keens and scratches the wall of the bedroom....etc. Dreadful.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Deckman
Date: 22 Jul 04 - 04:43 PM

Have I got tales to tell to you, but only if I can substitute the word "BACKPACKING" for "camping." Until my hip gave out about five years ago, I was a seriously hardcore backpacker! I looked forward to every September as that's when I would go off for 11 to 13 day solo hikes in the Washington Olympic Mountains.

I'd wait until school started and all the teachers and students (and rangers) were out of the mountains and then I'd go in. I'd often go in with 60 pounds of food and supplies on my back. About three days up the trail, I'd climb a high tree and stash a food bag with the final three days of food. Then I'd head in toward "Mt. Olympus", or the "High Divide," or I'd follow the "Press Party Trail." Upon my returning without much food and still three days from the trailhead, there would be my food bag, and vodka, waiting for me! (like xmas all over again).

Sometimes I'd do a "crossover." That's where you have breakfast in Olympia with another hiking party, afterwards you'd exchange cars and car keys, and drive each other's rig to your jump off point. Then somewhere on the trail, maybe 5 to 7 days later, you would meet each other going the other way. You'd share a campfire and stories, exchange car keys, and when you left the mountains again, there was your own rig waiting for you.

With my now new hip, I'm starting to get misty eyed whenever I look to the West from my home in Everett and see the Olympics, just calling to me again. CHEERS, Bob (by the way, camping is great fun also ... but only if you like people and brats).

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: sledge
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 03:16 AM

I love camping but last year I tried something a bit new, for me anyway. I took the bare minimum of clothing, a sleeping bag and a Goretex bivy bag and walked the Ridgeway trail in England, sleeping rough effectively, loved it, plan doing some more come August, if time allows.

Cheers

Sledge

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 03:50 AM

My god, Deckman!!! The things I learn about you here at Mudcat!

"Backpacking" indeed! That sound's more like Testosterone gone Mad! Seriously, your kind of camping is another thing altogether...the kind I'd rather read about while swinging in a nice hammock with a cold glass of iced tea.

..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Deckman
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 06:02 AM

Ellen: To each his own! You'd rather drink iced tea and swing in a hammock! I prefer vodka and getting away from people in the high mountains. I won't talk about how I swing!! (hee hee) Bob

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: s6k
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 06:14 AM

camping is brilliant

fake camping in a camper van is for wussies. thats not camping

i used to like the field behind the moon and sixpence pub in glaisdale, but some bugger has bought it and its now a farm. god damn them. i went there for years and my parents for years before me. that was the best place ever.

now, we found another one in glaisdale that lets you have fires. dont trust the weather, so might go next weekend now.

camping "rules"

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 07:58 AM

I've got an idea, Bob. Next time (next life?) you can just pack me in with the vodka.

Getting away from it all is certainly for me what it's all about, in that I agree. I just know that if I had tried one of YOUR trips, they'd have had to airlift me out! (Swigging on your vodka bottle all the way home)

..xx..e

(PS-But our fishing trip in THIS life is still on. ;-D )

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Midchuck
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 08:28 AM

fake camping in a camper van is for wussies. thats not camping

Bite Me!

I've camped out in all kinds of tents, and without them. I've slept on air mattresses that leaked, foam pads that transmitted the image of the rocks and roots under them perfectly, and on bare ground with nothing but a poncho between me and it. When I was young and elastic, it was fun. Now I'm 62, and my spinebone feels every pebble all the next day.

I intend to get some kind or camper or van affair the first moment my cash flow permits, so I can continue festival-going without pain, during the years of my (slow, I hope) lapse into senility.

When I turned 60, I decided I no longer had to worry about proving I had bigger balls than the next guy. It's very comfortable.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: harpgirl
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 09:37 AM

I have a truck tent like the one pcitured here:http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=40000000226&storeId=226&categoryId=45763&langId=-1&pa



I can add two feet to my camper and ventilate when it's hot and close it up when it rains. I recommend it. They fold into a tiny tote bag when not in use. I also have a "throw up" tent from this company that folds back into a flat circle. Great stuff!

harp

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: JenEllen
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 11:09 AM

What I want to know is what sadistic bastard decided that 'travel' games had to be so tiny?

Sure, they fit in your backpack, but have you ever tried playing Yahtzee on a flat rock by campfire light? Dice roughly the size of the erasers on the ends of pencils, constantly getting lost on power throws and causing everyone to do "dice-hunt" by flashlight all over the campsite? I won't even talk about those so-called magnetic checkers/chess thingies...Ick.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 11:13 AM

Ok-favorite camping/backpacking items....

The "head light". Great for keeping your hands free while rummaging through your stuff at night.


Next?

..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: JenEllen
Date: 23 Jul 04 - 11:26 AM

Ellenpoly;
The head lights are GREAT!! I have one of the little elastic-banded ones and it's wonderful. First time I used it was in a midnight trip to the potty.
First off--it was a 'potty' only in the finest sense of the word. A three-sided privvy that looked out over the Sitkinak Strait on Kodiak Island. You know it's a wonderful bathroom when the 'occupied' sign is putting an antler on the roof.
I was just happy to be off the ground for the first time in ages, just sitting there, doin' my business, and thought "Hey, I wonder if this thing has high beams?" (the light--I know I have high beams) so I started turning the bezel. Whammo. Pitch black.
I finally quit laughing long enough to get my kit up and turn the light back on. I got back to camp, thinking I was safe, only to find out that upon seeing the light on the hill go out abruptly, everyone was pretty sure I'd fallen in. Haven't lived it down yet.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Mr Happy
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 10:25 AM

Latest camping products include a microwave oven, herehttp://thewavebox.com/

Anybody got one?

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 10:44 AM

A friend I visited last year just had a small dorm-size one; they go for about 30 bucks and he just plugs them into the mains. Truckers' supply also has a wealth of cooking and refrigeration options.

Me, I'm taking the panini press along in our pop-up camper this summer! Yeah, we're really "roughing it."

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 11:13 AM

We have a tent. We sleep on the ground in the mud and bugs. We cook baked beans from a can over a smoky campfire which, because of the rain, never gets hot enough to cook anything to a temperature beyond "tepid." The latrine is a hole and we use leaves for toilet paper.

Oh, wait, that was when I was in the Boy Scouts and the Army.

Our next camping trip is next weekend. We'll go to Yellowstone, stay in a cabin, eat in the dining room, and breakfast is part of the cost of the room. Hot showers, maid service, snowcoach in and out and for the tour...

We have a "6-person" tent we haven't even used yet. A queen-sized inflatable bed. Propane stove...dang, but it's a long way from the Boy Scouts.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 11:19 AM

:~)

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Rapparee
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 12:51 PM

But as my brother says about it, "Been there, done that, prefer something a bit more comfortable in my old age."

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Midchuck
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 01:22 PM

In recent years, we've only camped out once a year - at Old Songs. We had conflicts last year, and missed it. I want to go again this year but I really don't want to sleep on the ground. It was fun - until I turned 60.

It doesn't make sense to buy a camper for one long weekend a year. My options appear to be:

Rent a camper, or a large van with a rear seat that folds down into a bed, if I can find a place locally that does it.

Buy a larger tent and some good cots.

Get a motel.

I shall have to brood about the matter all Spring.

Peter.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 01:32 PM

Camping in England? Forget it; damp clothes, no toilets, mud, rain, no washing facilities, cold, drunken idiots keeping you up all night, and I forgot the midges. I'd rather nail my bollocks to the table, frankly.
Now, put me in a fuck-off Winnebago with a shower and a cooker and a fridge and somewhere with a nice view...

Andrew

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Bert
Date: 14 Jan 08 - 11:05 PM

...a small dorm-size one... That's one hell of a big microwave. What do you cook in it? Students?

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 12:44 AM

"I also have a "throw up" tent"


Hmmmm, they musta been selling them Oz for decades then... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: kendall
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 07:41 PM

My idea of roughing it is cutting T bone steak with a dull knife.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: wysiwyg
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 09:38 PM

RA's, Bill.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: Sorcha
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 11:18 PM

We managed to aquire a Tin Tent (RV/caravan/5th wheel campertrailer) and I agree that it is convienent, comfy, gives us a place away from bugs and dirt.....but I still think it's taken a lot of the fun out of camping. For me at least.

Besides, over the years we have collected lots of Stuff for tent camping. What do I do with it now? Not to mention, what do I do with the tent(s)? Just keep storing all of it in the garage I guess. Make the kids deal with all of it someday.

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 15 Jan 08 - 11:29 PM

Think 'Garage Sale' Sorcha.... :-)

Subject: RE: BS: The Joys of Camping
From: mouldy
Date: 16 Jan 08 - 09:07 AM

I camp every year in south west Scotland. We take chemical loos with us, and get our water from the tap at the farm gate. It's on a little bay, and it's great...when it doesn't blow or rain! Still, I go every year, for at least a week, as it's the company I enjoy!
I tend to use a lightweight family tent - I have to be able to put it up on my own. I use a larger one if there is someone with me, or if I've brought the dog with me and I can get help. I also just invested in a smaller one for weekend work, such as morris weekends.

Andrea