Went "Camping" over the weekend

What do you do when you are going out of town to visit your mother and her house is already full with an adult grandchild and his girlfriend? 

Option 1-Stay at a motel- expensive and risk of bedbugs are high

Option 2-Stay at nearby Kings Mountain campground- What we REALLY wanted to do but Joe’s mom didn’t want us so far away, and the poor weather conditions worried her

Option 3- Stay in our tent in Joe’s mom’s big backyard. Close to her and can come in if weather is too rough, but can have privacy when we need it.

Option 4-Put air mattress in her living room and make EVERYONE uncomfortable and have to wait until Joe’s mom goes to bed (usually after 4:00a.m.) before getting to rest.

We decided on option 3. It was the compromise between what we wanted (Kings Mountain campground) and what Joe’s mom wanted. So we had all of the work of camping, without the fun of camping (by fun I mean, no campfire, no cooking outside and no campfire.) But we did have privacy and the que for the shower was shorter than it might have been at the campground.

As we were traveling Saturday morning though, we started to waver about option 3, longing to stay at King’s Mountain. But we didn’t pack for full on camping (no cooking gear, shelter or food,) just for “camping lite.” Oh, it was sssoo tempting to just drive over to see what campsites were available and I almost had Joe convinced. But logic took over and we went to his mom’s. Yes, I did shed a few tears.

Joe and I still had the fun challenge of the weather. It was sprinkling when we set up the tent, but we got it up and all of the inside set up before the rain and wind started. Later we had to go to the dreaded big box store and when we got back the storm was in full swing. It was a rough night, not because of the rain and wind. It was the cold dampness that challenged us.

For bedding, we had the big queen size air mattress. But the air in the mattress stays cold, so to combat that we put many layers on the bed. First a homemade quilt, then a quilted mattress cover, next bottom sheet, electric throw blanket, a top sheet and finally my favorite comforter. We were still cold.

For the tent itself Joe put the ground tarp under, and a cover tarp over the rain fly. We put the tent in front of her storage shed so we could be close enough to the house to have electricity. Her property goes far beyond the shed.

For the inside we put more tarps on the floor, along with several throw rugs and a carpet remnant. (I want to get a better flooring system, but can't decide on a large area rug or segmented rubber tile like for a kids room. I'd prefer an area rug, but it depends on what we can find while doing to our weekly thrift store hunting. I can see pluses for each. But that's another conversion.) Also, we had an indoor propane heater and an electric space heater. We had to buy a clip-on fan to circulate the warm air. After many tweaks to our set up, here was our final it is. 

We didn’t get it right until Sunday evening. Saturday night was a little rough, but that’s what camping is about.

For us, I had on my thermal socks Joe gave me for Christmas, stretch pans that I call my “camp pants,” a long sleeve nightgown, a hat, a zip-up hoodie and sweater. That’s what I slept in and I was still very cold Saturday night. Joe wore shorts and a t-shirt, go figure. 

This was not what we had in mind for our first camping trip of the year. But being flexible is part of camping and knowing that we were able to, not only survive our stormy trip, but to enjoy and have fun is best of all!

Update: I v-logged the rest of the weekend and have posted it.

And for the first time, I show my middle-aged hippie self.