Camping Achieved!

We wound up having a great time this weekend. The mission was to test drive everything the camper is supposed to do.

Our first night was kind of a mess. We arrived well after dark, because the actual campgrounds were full. Camp was out in the bush about 40 miles from the main highway. There is a paved road that took us most of the way in, but we took a considerable amount of dirt road before we found a spot. This camp has no WiFi, no cell service, and even the radio and television stations won't reach. (Perfect.)

Our first mission was gasoline. I managed a fast upload when the gas station happened to have WiFi.

Back at camp, we needed to test drive everything. I managed to pigtail the generators together, and make the air conditioner work. Thank God, it was in the low nineties. We tested the microwave too. These two items will not run without two generators in tandem, but it all works.

We bought a new gas can just for generator gas. Apparently it's been a while since I bought a gas can. The stupid nozzle has a safety on it – a safety that doesn't work – at all. I fiddled with it for about an hour, and without a nozzle you can pour gas, but it goes everywhere except where you want it. I looked in my tool kit, but nothing caught my eye. I thought about using my pocketknife.

I managed to pull the nozzle apart with my hands, gutted the internal parts, and got enough of it back together to fill the generators. It's pretty hard to screw up a hollow tube to use as a spout, but a team of engineers managed to invent something new. We'll be looking for a new nozzle.

We sat up our outdoor grill and built a pretty respectable kitchen under the awning. Both of us kicked back and read for a spell. I really enjoyed this part. The temperature dropped, a breeze came up, and the awning provided shade. My wife tested out the sound system. This is another thing I didn't necessarily want in a camper, but if it exists it must be tested.

Outdoor speakers

My wife doesn't mess around either. No mellow notes for her. ACDC provided the soundtrack to our afternoon.

To me, camping is all about getting away from things. I never wanted a microwave or a television, but in modern campers it isn't even an option not to have them. My wife bought a movie, and the plan was for dinner and a movie.

We spent about an hour and a half trying to make the DVD player talk to the television. (It exists, so we must test it out.) It went kind of like this…

“What the hell did you touch now?”

“Nothing! What did you touch?”

We wound up making it work, and watched a pretty fun movie called The Kingsmen. It had a graphic novel feel to it, but we both had a good time. Some of the stylized violence made me laugh out loud. (What can I say, it 's the truth.)

We fixed our dinner and dug in to watch our movie. Food out camping is never health food. In my family it's all about working on your first heart attack.

Homemade baked beans, steak, and campfire potatoes filled out the menu. We loaded our DVD, but you know what always happens. One of the nosy neighbors stops by.

Right out the camper window

Blogging is international in scope. For those elsewhere, this is a doe mule deer, so named for the ears. We have both whitetail deer and mule deer in this area. She stuck around for hours, and didn't really care if we were around or not. She nibbled the weeds and even looked in the door at one point.

This particular deer is pretty young and probably weighs all of ninety pounds. A big buck will go over two hundred pounds.

I got up early and checked for otters, but no more showed up. I was ready with my trusty cell phone too. I kept my phone nearby at all times. We camped in a meadow area instead of the deep timber. My questing bird didn't show up or I would have captured a sound bite.

On the way home we passed this pretty waterfall. We stopped to check it out. I told my wife to give me her best pinup pose. I was allowed to take this picture. She used to be a lot more fun.

It was 108 degrees when we parked the camper at the storage slot. We camped. Everything works, to a degree. We made a list of a few items we still need, but will be going out again.

I didn't outline a darned thing, didn't write a short story, and really don't regret a thing. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend too.