Yes, we are packing up our tent and traveling to Beverly Beach, Oregon next month to meet up with cousins coming from Washington, Idaho and Arizona. I actually stole the title of this blog from my Seattle cousin who coined the phrase when she let us all know she had made her camp reservation.
Now it has been eons since I camped out in a tent, but I have no doubt that it will be as exhilarating now as it was all those years ago. RJ does have his doubts though, not about his own endurance, but rather he doesn't share my confidence that I will be able to handle it. I remind him that I lived in a tent for months while backpacking through Hawaii. His response (accompanied with an evil chuckle) ..."and what year was that?"
RJ can never seem to remember that I become highly competitive when challenged with doubt and snark, or may be he is as sly as a fox and does this so I will get in my competitive frame of mind. Whatever his motive, he wants to question my ability to live among the elements for a few days...game on!
We discussed taking our dog Murphy after learning that a couple of my cousins would be bringing their furry friends. RJ did bring up a good point that Vinny, our other dog would be lost without Murphy, who he clings to. I started thinking about Vinny being left behind without RJ, myself or Murphy and it only made sense that Vinny should come along too. So having made that decision, I began to think about the tent we were going to take, a 3-4 man dome tent, would not exactly be an ideal dwelling for two adults and 217 pounds of dog! We must have a larger tent, I thought.
I did my usual research online and decided on a Coleman 8 man tent based on 1) we need a bigger tent, 2) great customer reviews, 3) not sure how often we will camp, which led me to 4) so I better not spend a fortune on one. So off we went to find it because I was not going to pay for shipping charges.
Once we had the tent, we also bought an air mattress, extra sturdy tent stakes, a folding table, two cheapo lawn chairs and a sleeping bag for me since there is only one here at the house. We cracked up because a couple of these things we actually sold in one of our yard sales! That's the way it goes down though, you always need something after you get rid of it, but as RJ put it, "we would have never been able to find it in our clutter!"
It was tempting not to buy a whole bunch of other gear on the market to create a five star camping experience. One thing that did catch my eye was a porta-potty with a separate tent for housing it! If one thing has me a bit nervous about this camping trip, it is how far are the restrooms from our site...in other words...how far do I have to walk in the middle of the night to get there! Definitely too much information, perhaps, but this is where I am all too aware that I have entered into middle age!
As I made my way down the aisle, checking out the gear, I decided it would be fun to freak RJ out. I began to fill the cart up with various items that finally made him question my madness.
He picked up a string of decorative lights and said, "What the hell is this?"
"Oh that", I said. "We have to make our site look decorative and cozy!", pretending as if it was normal to decorate the outside of one's tent. Nonchalantly I continued. "We can get a cute little windsock to hang on the outside of the tent door too! Perhaps even add a potted plant or two!"
"Oh God", he mumbled.
I reached for some "bed sheets for camping" and said, "What do you think? Should we go with the khaki or add a little color with the red? May be the red would be too much, might attract bees! Hmmm...let's stick with the neutrals, after all we are camping!"
"Is this really necessary?", he said. "How do you know if we will ever use this stuff again and where are we going to store it all?"
"Oh, don't worry, we'll manage something", I replied. "Now how about this nifty little rack to make toast over the camp stove? You like toast!"
By this time RJ looked completely frustrated so I thought I better let him in on my little prank. I spun around in Michael Jackson fashion, busted out some dance moves while belting out in song...
Wwwweeeelllllll, he likes bread and butter,
he likes toast and jam,
That's what his baby feeds him,
he's her loving man.
I was quite amused with myself as I returned the extravagant accessories to their proper places on the shelf. RJ looked relieved and could now return to his vision of camping caveman style. Funny though, as we made our way down the aisle towards the checkout, he did give that porta-potty a second look.
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