Camping Fool

As of yesterday, I may be up to three scheduled camping trips this summer. In addition to the two I’ve told you about, I’ve potentially added another in July: three nights in the Trinity Alps (if there’s available space somewhere) with my once-boyfriend/now plain-old-friend. We’ll see if that actually happens. After well over a year of being mostly shut in, with little to look forward to, it’s nice to have these upcoming diversions.

Since my early twenties I’ve been well stocked with what I’ve needed for overnights in the outdoors (tents, sleeping bags, folding chairs, propane stove, lantern, and who knows whatall). More recently, at no minor cost, I’ve supplemented with necessities for older people who are weary of the discomforts of sleeping in nature: a potty bucket, a pop-up privacy tent to put it in, that bug-proof screen house, a big cooler that’s reputed to keep things chilled for more than a day, two yellow jacket traps, a three-inch-thick sleeping pad, and even a little battery-powered fan. This is all well and good, but whether or not I can jam everything into my petite Subaru Impreza remains to be seen.

All I’m still yearning for is a bigger tent than my cramped backpacking ones. I’ll need it for sure if Ember does decide to join me on the Lassen trip, which I’m hoping she will. I’ve got my eye on a relatively inexpensive one at REI.

Today, Molly and I herded the mounds of trash generated by my massive possession-purge to the curb for tomorrow’s bulky waste pickup. She was a lifesaver and did most of the work. My back will rejoice that the heavy lifting is, at last, pretty much done. Here’s the basement, before:

The driveway, before:

The curb, before:

Oh, by the way, see how tiny my car is? Wanna place bets on my chances of success in getting all the camping gear in there? Anyhow, here’s the street-side, transformed:

Actually, the junk took up a bunch less room than I anticipated, but I’m pretty much at Waste Management’s yardage limit. If I go over, they charge $60 per cubic yard (or is it cubic foot?) extra. I’m a bit worried that, as often happens, passersby will dump their own stuff onto the pile overnight, at significant cost to me. Fingers crossed. In an attempt to keep scavengers from tearing open plastic bags in their search for hidden treasure, I left a request:

It didn’t take long for the curious to stop their cars and examine the goods. Just before dinner I started to take out my recycling, but held off to allow this person finish her explorations. She departed with some nice books, DVDs, tomato cages, and that pristine metal bucket thing that I put out at the last minute as an afterthought. So glad someone could use them.

This morning I bought a variety of non-alcoholic drinks, from ginger beers to lemonades: brands I’d never tried before. In an attempt to cut down on my high sugar levels, I got several that were sweetened with stevia, a new-to-me substance. Oh my goodness, is that stuff hideous. I forced myself to keep drinking it, but in the end, down the drain it went. I still can’t get rid of the foul aftertaste.

Man, I can’t believe what I just went ahead and did: ordered the the Eureka Copper Canyon LX 4-person tent. I guess I’ll have a comfy place to stay when my creditors catch up with me. Time to cancel and shred my charge cards, methinks.

I do hope I can set this sucker erected on my own.