The Median Sib

I spent a couple hours this morning at a store that had everything for outdoor adventures. A friend who is also wanting to get into camping met me there and we chatted with the salesperson for a long time and asked a lot of questions. The salesperson was most helpful, and I believe I know what I need to go camping. I was SO tempted to buy everything today and go camping tonight. However I reined in my impulsivity (is that a word?) and decided to think about it a few days, and if I still have the camping bug, I’ll buy what I need later this week - and go camping next weekend. And since I know myself fairly well, I’d put money on the fact that I’ll be buying the supplies this week and camping next weekend. I’ll be doing what the salesperson referred to as “car camping” - driving to a park with established campsites, and just moving my camping stuff from the car to the campsite. No hiking involved in getting there. The backpacking can come sometime in the future depending on how well the car camping goes.

I enjoyed looking at all the possible things to buy. There was every gadget imaginable. However, the one thing that got me excited was the COOLEST stove! It’s a small hand-size unit that screws into a propane canister - it has little arms that fold out and you set a pan on the arms. Easy, simple, probably not very steady — but I loved it! The tents were interesting, too. If you haven’t looked at tents lately, you should know that the designation of 2-person, 3-person, etc. is deceptive. The three-person tents would only be practical for three VERY friendly people. I believe I’d get claustrophobia in the one-person tents and even the two-person tents. The tent I will most likely buy is a 3-person tent. It will provide plenty of room for me when I go by myself, and if I find someone who wants to go with me, there will be enough room for two. I really wouldn’t try to squeeze three in there, though — unless two of them were Lily and Sophie. Which is actually an idea for maybe a year or two from now when they’re a little older. They’d think camping was a big adventure.

Now that I know what I want to buy, I’ll concentrate on where I want to go. It’ll probably be a state park somewhere within a hour’s drive of home - with lots of hiking trails and some pretty scenery.

The details are worked out. My fall break starts next Wednesday. So as soon as I get off work I’ll pick up Sweet Stuff and Sunshine from school, and we’ll make the 3 1/2- hour trip to visit my mother - their Grandma Ruth - in Georgia. In one of my mother’s guest bedrooms, she has two twin beds and a full bed. The last time I took the girls to visit my mother, the three of us slept in that bedroom, and they thought it was such fun. They each had their own bed, and Grandma Carol slept in the room with them. So we’ll drive down on Wednesday. Then on Thursday we’ll go to the Pumpkin Patch that their Aunt Debi manages for their local church. Aunt Debi will let us join a preschool group that will be on a field trip to the Pumpkin patch. We’ll participate in story telling and pumpkin decorating. The girls will have a great time, and we’ll bring lots of pumpkins home with us. We’ll come home on Friday morning - just in time for the girls to spend the weekend with their parents and for Grandma Carol to go camping. Sounds like a good plan to me.