Camping.

Recently, I got an email about a friend of mine that is going camping for a few weeks. Although, I have little too no desire to camp for a few weeks, the idea did give me the itch to be in the woods. I mentioned something to Swallow about how it would be really good for me to go spend sometime peace and quiet in the woods. She quickly reminded me how earlier in the year, I had promised her that I would take her camping this summer. I thought to myself, "oh, shit she took me serious." With or without Swallow, I think its important for me to go spend sometime in the fresh air...breath in, breath out and move on.

To prepare myself for my camping expedition, I headed down to the Coleman outlet to see what kind of new gadgets or gizmos that I could add to my camping equipment. As soon as I walked into the store I was in heaven and the funny part about it so was Swallow. I went my way, working my way up and down every isle and she went her way shopping up and down every isle. Rather amusing when she kept asking if she needed stuff. After three days in the woods with me, I doubt she will ever camp again, but I am happy to take her for first official camping trip. She asked if she needed things like a compasses, water purifier, camp soap, or a camping watch. All I could do is laugh. God bless her at least she is trying. She did end up buying a sleeping bag that is rated to go down to 32 degrees.

I myself got a few new goodies to add to my camping equipment. I finally broke down and bought myself a backpacking stove and a 4 pound tent 2 person backpacking tent. I have wanted one for a while that ways 4 pounds or under so I decided to treat myself to one when I saw that it was discounted 20%. The tent I settled on is a true 3 season tent (would be four if I still lived in Florida). It sleeps two with 8.6 sq ft of vestibule, center height of 39 inches (so if it is rainy you can at least sit upright. Once I got home I immediately put it up in the backyard. It took a few minutes to see exactly how it went up, but after a few test runs with Swallow I should be able to have it up by myself within 5 minutes from start to finish. As we were putting it up, Swallow looks at it and says "good lord, two people are suppose to be able to sleep in there?" I looked up at her and said "yep, two people and a dog!" With that being said, I am sure our weekend camping trip should be rather entertaining.

I also bought myself a camping stove and a stainless steel cook set. All in all, I spent almost an hour in the store looking at new gadgets for camping. I'll probably be heading back down to the Coleman outlet for a few more goodies.

On the way back up from Castle Rock we stopped at REI. Browsing through the isles at REI made me quickly realized how much money I saved by driving to the outlets.