Cutting the Crap: Camping

So this weekend we were invited to go camping with family down near Alamosa.  For those of you who don’t know, this is near the Colorado/New Mexico border and was a LOOONG drive from our house.  No worries, though.  It was a fun drive even if the kids (and we had our nephew with us) were a bit nuts in the back seat before we got to the campsite.  

Where was said campsite, you ask?  Actually, we camped on some property that the family bought earlier this year.  There was no electricity or running water, so we roughed it.  We even had a latrine that was nothing more than a toilet seat and a hole in the ground.  But I’m getting ahead of myself.  We had to pack before we could actually GO anywhere.  THAT took a lot longer than I wanted it to.  We didn’t get to Colorado Springs to hook up with family until about 4pm-ish. So since I’ve learned exactly what we do and don’t need for a camping trip like this, next time I’m hoping to cut down packing time significantly.  Here’s my short list.  If we have just these items next time, I think we’re good.

• Tent & tools to erect it
• Food (and dishes)
• Water
• Sleeping bags, air mattresses
• Clothing for the allotted time
• Toilet paper & wet wipes.
• Lanterns/flashlights
• A shovel

We had a LOT more stuff in our van than what was on this short list.  I’m not going to get into that now.  You really don’t want to know.  

Something else we need to do BEFORE heading out next time is practicing putting up our tent.  We borrowed one from some close friends.  They’d put it up before and told us that it took them (two people) about 45 minutes to assemble from start to finish.  When we got to our campsite, it was dark.  And rainy.  It took 5 people 45 minutes to assemble.  Yes, we did read the directions, which were cryptic. (when I say “we”, I’m not actually included.)  Things were color-coded for our convenience, but in the dark, that helps very little.  And though I complained that we really didn’t need such a BIG tent (it slept 12, for crying out loud), I really did come to love the extra space we had.  I would really like one of those spring loaded tents that you pull out of the bag, untwist the hoop things, and let it fly.  No, I don’t know the technical lingo for tent set-up.  Gimme a break.  But I digress.  As I said, this tent slept 12, had two rooms, and it came with TWO CLOSETS.  Yes. You read that correctly.  It had closets.  Not sure a tent needs those, but someone obviously thought so.  If you’re camping, I’d argue that you don’t need closets.  Just sayin’.  Maybe that crap needs to be cut.  Next time, we’ll hopefully have a simple tent (even if I will miss the closets of the borrowed one.)