oh a campin' we will go...

a campin' we will go,
hi-ho the derry-o
a campin' we will go.

tomorrow we leave. at approximately 5:00am. i say approximately, because i know that something will go haywire at the last minute and we will likely leave about 45 minutes past due... but that's life! and i am down with life.

scott found these great external frame backpacks on craigslist yesterday - $75 for the pair! that's darn cheap. they are hardly used - especially the green one - and he threw in all sorts of random stuff like emergency heat blankets (which we will hardly need at the beach), straps to tie our junk to the outside of the bags, first aid kit, and a random baggie containing 2 rolls of Tums, a pack of shoelaces and some odds and some blister pads for hiking. god love craigslist.



[blurry picture, taken from craigslist ad]

i went to REI last night after work and picked up a boatload of platypus water bottles, since there is no fresh water (potable or otherwise) at the campsite. i also got a bunch of fancy-pants dehydrated meals and some little tiny bottles to decant stuff into. it was a painful amount of money, but it's stuff we'll use again and again. and still cheaper than one night in a hotel room at the beach.



a second trip was to Target, to get a few essentials - a new t-shirt, and a cheapie inflatable raft to use in lieu of the big-ass heavy air mattress that we normally camp with. i have a bad back and i can't sleep directly on the ground without suffering major consequences the next day. scott mocked me for being a giant wuss, but now he has requested that he get one too. ha! i figure, why not have a little comfort? the stupid thing can't weigh more that half a pound, and it squishes down as flat as a thick piece of paper.

so now i just need to run BACK to REI because i forgot to get fuel for the stove... and back to target for scott's raft, and to the grocery for a few crackers and stuff like that. geez. it's never simple, is it? :) i figure, once we've been camping a few years we'll finally have accumulated most of the gear we'll ever need. i hope? please tell me that is the case.

in other news, my car started making a disturbingly loud G-R-O-N-K sound if i make sharp turns. or sometimes for no reason. we should probably take scott's car down to the beach, just in case.