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My Brother and I had a great camping trip. Well, I did. He had trouble falling asleep Friday night because I was snoring. He said he couldn’t fall asleep for an hour and a half. Apparently I snore kinda loud. Then, around 2:00am, my Nephew woke up crying because he was cold. Combine those two conditions, and add it all up, and you see that my Brother probably slept no more than 3 hours on Friday night. Not getting enough sleep is tough anytime, but it is especially tough when you are camping. I felt bad for him. I know what it is like to run on little sleep.

Saturday morning we awoke to typical Missouri spring weather. Nice and cold. Since he didn’t get much sleep I offered to get up and re-kindle the fire while my Brother and Nephew stayed in the warm tent. It took longer than usual for the fire to catch so I spent a lot of time huddling next to the smoking embers trying to get warm. It was bliss. You see, I like camping in cold weather. It suits me better than Summer camping. Actually, I like Winter better than Summer period. For me it doesn’t get much better than a snowy Winter’s night. You all can have the heat, humidity and bugs of Summer, just let me have my cold snowy Winters. Mmmmm.

Late Saturday morning we walked around in the surrounding hills a little bit. Not too much as my Nephew is too small to do much serious hiking. After returning to camp, and eating lunch, the clouds rolled in bringing with them a cold wind and the threat of rain. We started packing up camp quickly hoping to get everything in the car before the rain started. For those of you who don’t know, camping in the rain isn’t that bad while you are at the campsite. Typically I bring tarps and poles that I set up to keep everyone dry as we sit around the fire. You don’t feel the pain of camping in the rain until you get home. Why? Because you have to set everything back up again to dry it out or else you get smelly mildew. Yuck! So when you camp in the rain you actually set up and tear down twice, once for the camping trip, and once again at home to dry it all out. Packing up before the rain comes alleviates a lot of aggravation when you get home.

As we were taking down my new REI tent, which worked great by the way, my Brother stopped what he was doing and motioned for me to turn around. I turn to see a guy rolling by on a recumbent trike. We flagged him down and asked him a bunch of questions about his trike. I am especially interested in the recumbent design because it is easier on your arms, shoulders, wrists and neck compared to a traditional bike. Additionally the trike layout allows you to stop riding without falling over, a plus on long up hill climbs. I am looking at getting one as a way to get exercise without too much stress on my joints. I thought originally that Steve, the trike rider, was riding a Terra Trike by Wiz Wheelz, but instead he was riding a Trice, from a British company called Ice. He was riding down the Katy trail when he saw the campground and decided to pull in and check it out. Lucky for us he happened by our campsite. If you want to learn more about recumbent trikes take a look at Ice’s website or Terra Trike’s website for more info. Here is a picture of the Trice T (T stands for tour) with some saddle bags (panniers) for cross country triking. (click on thumbnail for larger picture)

A word about REI’s Basecamp 6 tent. Wow! The full coverage fly made for a very warm night. We didn’t even need to use the catalytic heater I brought. With my old Cougar Flats tent we would have felt a draft all night as the breeze blew up and under the partial rain fly. In the REI Basecamp we didn’t feel any breeze at all. The fly also forms a vestibule area in front of the main door to the tent. For those of you who don’t know, a vestibule is an area of ground covered by the fly, but without a tent floor. When I first set up the tent in my yard I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough room to stand in the vestibule, I am 6′5″, and take off my shoes before entering my tent. The vestibule, because it is the place I wanted to store my dirty shoes, was one of the reasons I purchased this particular tent. I shouldn’t have worried. Even with the exterior vestibule door zipped closed, and the door to the tent zipped closed, I had plenty of room to step into and out of my shoes, thus keeping most of the dirt and sand out of my tent. But wait, it gets better!

No matter how hard you try there will always be a little bit of dirt, and a few leaves, that get into the tent. When you are taking down the tent at the end of your camping stay you don’t want any of those leaves or dirt packed into the tent. The Basecamp 6 is a free standing tent, which means that after you take off the fly, but before you pull the support poles out, you and another person can lift the entire tent up and shake out all the debris through the open front door! You can get rid of the leaves, grass and what little dirt makes it into the tent in about 20 seconds without using a broom or dustpan. Sweet!

Jenn and I rounded out the weekend by going to Church on Sunday morning, taking a nap Sunday afternoon, then heading over to the in laws for my Mother in Law’s birthday Sunday night. We went out for Italian, then went back to their house for her to open her gifts. We had a great time, and all in all it was a great weekend.

What did you do this weekend?

- Sean