How do we end up here? Couple of friends, shooting the shit over dinner, a few drinks in, and then whoops, we're cycling up a 7+% grade mountain in Italy a year later. In this case, training equated to reading and acquiring things (least of which should have been thicker skin) needed to pack up a family of four (two adults, one nearly 6 year old, and one 17 month old) to camp. For the first time. In Texas.
Semantics.
The Prep:
-- Tent. Colin gifted us one at Christmas. Done.
-- Tent footprint. Ohchrist, what is this? Oh, it can be nearly anything and cheap (see link below*). Win!! Going with a $5 blue tarp.
-- Sleeping bags. We have an incomplete set. Have to rethink this a bit, particularly with kids in tow. Let's keep it cheap, as amateurs do, in case this camping thing doesn't work out. The kids will get our adult-sized bags and then we'll buy two additional oversized rectangular bags for us to roll around in.
-- Sleeping pads. Wait what? Pads? Camping in 2016 means not sleeping on jarring bits of rock and ground impaling parts of our bodies we didn't know existed? But the range of sleeping pad options is alarming. The cheap ones don't put any sort of distance between a body and the cold hard jarring ground. The expensive ones are well, expensive and more suited for single folks who climb Mount Everest. Mid-range price bracket seems promising. Self-inflating? Well sure! But they won't fully self inflate the first time. What, why? Ugh. But what if you're a side sleeper?
-- Lighting. Because holyshit it's dark in the wilderness. Another area with too many options and not enough knowledge to know where to start. As homeowners we have basic flashlights. Throw in 20+ AA batteries and we're covered. Look here! Amazon is recommending a couple of camping lamps, reviews look promising. Click. Add to cart. But what are these head lamps? Ohhell, look away, LOOK AWAY.
-- Other. We are camping with at least one experienced family and three additional families so we don't have to buy everything under the sun—that REI membership can be tested later. We'll gather up travel tissue (both), toothpaste, toothbrush (Target stores do not carry toothbrush caps, wtf?), clothes, shoes, hats, sunscreen, bug spray, sunglasses, snacks, and water bottles (grab the cycling ones, who cares). I'll recycle a bin from the garage to house much of this. It has handles that lock in place and only a 15% chance of outsmarting an animal.
Roughly a month out: our site plans went from a 3-4 hour drive west, to a 5-6 hour drive north thanks presumably in part to the U.S. National Park Service's Centennial celebration clogging up the most frequented parks. Plus, there are very few days in Texas where camping isn't completely miserable. #FindYourPark
About a week out: the weather started to change. It's the third week in November and historically temperatures start to dip in Texas, but it'll be fine—60s during the day, 40s at night. Totally manageable even with a not-even-close-to-2-year-old in tow.
Few days out: For the 2 night camp, we're assigned to provide breakfast—tacos. Oh and the weather is changing a bit more. Likely probably nearly freezing. The seasoned family recommends bringing a few extra blankets and assures us we'll be fine. I hang up the phone and immediately drive to the nearest Old Navy for, of course, cheap winter gear. More importantly, can we cart three dozen eggs 300+ miles without breakage in a Coleman cooler?!
* A few days before leaving we came across this basics list that turned out to be on point.