Camping

I went camping over Memorial Day weekend at the Boca Rest campground. This is a nice little campground, not very many trees, but not as heavily used as the more heavily wooded Stampede camps and it's generally pretty easy to get a site a literal stone's throw from the lake.

I continue to accumulate camping equipment every chance I get, so that I can go camping, using my own things, without having to borrow this, that, and the other from my parents. My recent aquisitions include a sleeping bag big enough to fit comfortably in, a foam pad to sleep on, a nice tent to sleep in (though this was used by the ladies this weekend, so I have yet to get a firsthand account of how comfortable it is at night - though I think I will like it, given that it seems very well ventilated, and I love to sleep outside), a tarp, a hammock, and some nylon rope.

It was a very enjoyable trip. Windy as I have ever seen it on Saturday, but I am pleased that my new tent endured the gale. We had a small crew, never more than 6 people, and this was very fine for me. We played more Risk than I had expected (2.9 full games, instead of the usual .8), but to sit in a tent on a lazy summer day with 3 friends conquering the world is a welcome unexpectedness.

There were no guitars for the last couple nights of the trip. This is unusual in a group where at no time did fewer than half of the people there know how to play the guitar. This was in my opinion a very nice thing. I love to go to a campsite and play the guitar around the fire and sing songs, and enjoy the evening. But in lieu of a traditional sing along, we got to spend more time talking. This was... quite nice. Whereas I am usually anxious to stop singing so as not to bother our campsite neighbors, I could have sat around and talked for hours more.

Then, to top it off, I got to go to bed and look out on the clearest sky I have seen in ages at night. A dark, clear night where the moon rises at 3am or so... Trust me. It doesn't get much better.

It was foggy, too. I have some nice pictures of it, and will be working on posting them to the Morgue File as I have the time. Can I say that knowing that people are using the images I post online for whatever reason makes me feel more like an artist? I was thrilled when my first picture passed 100 views.