Tuesday, August 27, 2013

camping essentials

Joe and I both love to camp.  We love tent camping & we have a popup so we spend a lot of time down at our property doing both.  Since our property is just an empty lot right now we set up down there pretty often, sometimes for the entire weekend, sometimes just for one night.  But it is definitely something that we really enjoy doing.  A couple times a year we actually bring all of our tent camping gear on the bike & camp in a town called Savanna at a biker bar called Poopy’s.  Our bike has lot of space for storing things, but we’ve even packed our bike that we wrecked on that only had 2 leather saddle bags & were able to take pretty much everything we wanted.  It’s amazing what a couple bungee cords can do.  But you’re definitely more limited on space so here is my list of essentials, all of which we pack on our bike!



1. Coleman Rosewood 4-Person Tent: We wanted to be able to bring a tent with us while traveling on the bike, but we wanted something that was a little more spacious, (bigger than a 2-person) so we would have room for our bags, and anything else that we leave at the campsite while we ride.  This thing is awesome, it fits in a rectangular bag & I can assemble it by myself, which was a big must.  Easy assembly is key!

2. Coleman Queen Mattress:  Coleman sure does know what they’re doing.  This mattress actually comes in a bag that’s probably 8x10x6, and the bag is sewn to the mattress so you can’t lose it!  We didn’t always use the mattress, but because of how compact it is, we usually bring it with us now.

3. Coleman 4D Quickpump:  No question here.  For $9.99 at Walmart, plus 4 D batteries, and 10 minutes of your time your mattress is blown up.  I don’t want to spend more than 30 minutes setting up camp and I don’t want to work real hard at setting it up, let’s be real, I want it to all be magically set up for me while I watch with a beer in my hand, (like I do with our battery powered pop-up), but if I have to do some work, it needs to be as quick and painless as possible.

4. Coleman Calgary Sleeping Bag Let’s face it, there’s quite the array of sleeping bags out there.  We ended up with two different Coleman sleeping bags which we registered for when we got married.  (We got the majority of our other camping gear via wedding registry as well).  I’m not a huge fan of sleeping bags, I prefer blankets, but for the bike, sleeping bags are great since they roll up & save more space than lugging around blankets.

5. Thirty One Thermals:  I’ve got three different thermal bags from Thirty One and they’re all amazing.  One is the large Picnic Thermal which I used pretty often, whether we’re tent camping or in the pop-up.  Our pop-up only has a small fridge so we use coolers & this tote quite a bit.  You can fill it up with ice and put your beer or even bottles of wine in it, or you can pack all kinds of different meats, hot dogs, eggs, bacon, condiments, etc. in it, it’s big enough to carry a picnic full of stuff.  I also use the Lunch Break tote and the Thermal Zipper Pouch which I use when traveling for my straightener and curling iron.

6. Telescoping Hot Dog Forks: We got these at Rural King a couple weeks ago & they’re perfect.  Since they’re telescoping they’re easy to stow anywhere, and a package of hotdogs doesn’t take up much space either.  For $3.99 it’s easy to get their money’s worth out of them.

7. Camping Attire: What better way to camp than with the “Happy Camper” slogan across your chest!  I actually love this Summer Camp Hoodie.  They’re a bit pricey, & maybe not a camping necessity, but it’s fun to be the mascot at your camping event!

8. Camping Accessories There are a few other things that I would not consider necessities, some of which we do bring & some of which we don’t’ when on the bike.  Fun cozies, like my new Leinenkugel cow boy boot, easy to stow.  Hillbilly Golf or Bags, not easy to bring on the bike, but games I could almost consider a necessity at campouts.  Card games like Spot It, also easy to tuck into an overnight bag.  Beer Can Darts (not for the lightweight drinker, & definitely not for the bike).  These are the types of things that we use at our property when we host a campout. 

So there you have it, it still amazes me that we are able to get all of this stuff loaded onto our bike, plus an overnight bag & come home with lots of goodies from the different places we stop. 

Oh they places we’ll go.

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