Camping can be fun

Camping can be fun. As long as it doesn't rain, or tornadoes don't blow your tent away, or your freeze you nuggets off, or run out of beer. Two of those happened this weekend and it felt like a third was damn close. Of course we never run out of beer so it isn't like calamity struck.

Between the wind on Friday night and the freezing temps on Saturday- around 40 degrees- I didn't sleep much this weekend. It is kinda like a Vegas sleep pattern except you can't go play blackjack at 5am after you slept for 2 hours. Thus I crashed on my couch when I got home. I have no idea what happened in the middle of the movie 28 Weeks but I am sure I didn't miss much.

The wind was terrible Friday night. First is rained around 10. The rain was heavy at times but not enough to puddle up. It stopped after a bit just to lure us back to the fire and start up again. I got sick of moving between the canopy and the fire that I gave up and went to sleep. Or I at least tried. The gusts of wind had to be at least 30mph. I wouldn't be shocked if it was more. I knew two things. Staring at the nylon walls of a tent and watching them all move in and out made it look like the wind was coming from all directions. I thought the wind would get under the rain canopy and pick up the entire tent. Then I realized that between me and my friend P, that wasn't going to happen. I settled for trying to sleep hoping a tree didn't break in half and come crashing into the tent.

The second thing I knew was that if I had to piss, I would have to walk to the restroom. Best thing about being a guy and camping is the world is your urinal. You can find a nice patch of trees, slip out of sight and relieve yourself. No need to trek into a covered area. But with the wind blowing like it was, I lost that luxury. If I tried to pee right outside the tent I would have received a golden shower. There seemed to be no downwind so I wasn't going to take that chance.

By Saturday morning the winds had died down a bit and were gone by afternoon. The sun tried to come out and it was comfortable. But I knew later on it wouldn't be nice. Any warmth that sun had put into the air would be sucked out. The heat from the fire was going to be needed.

Sleeping Saturday night was different. There was no wind but it was freakin' cold. I made the mistake of trying to sleep in boxers and a t-shirt. Worse, I woke up to take a leak and just stepped on outside to wizz. That was stupid. By the time I got back into my sleeping bag I was frozen. My body was shaking so bad I had to pile on other clothes. I was tempted to put on every article of clothing I had in my bags to keep warm. It was cold outside and not much warmer in the tent. I thought I was going to get frostbite on my nose by morning.

I gave up trying to sleep by 7. Ben had a fire going so I was able to thaw out my toes. At that point I was done with camping. I just wanted to take a shower and get some sleep.

I survived the first outing of they year. Had a good time except for sleeping conditions. I have a couple of weeks to plan for the next one. Annette claims that it will be hotter than hell. I think she may have jinxed us all.

3 things that make sense to no one unless you were camping with us:
They're evil!
I'm peeing!
You must zip it! (sing along with Devo and it still won't make any sense to you)