Potato Chips & Tents

Ready for the road!  

I spent part of the weekend cleaning and repacking the van, practicing setting up my new tent, working with my new kitchen gadgets, and generally getting ready for my trek.  I had to vacuum the van out in stages as it had soooo much stuff already for my trip.  Why bother, you say? Because my sister, who up to now had been borrowing the van for many months, has a full time job and an eight-year-old. So no time + hungry child = potato chip strewn van.  I didn't want to spend most of my trip fighting Mavis over not eating what's on the floor, so I vacuumed.  Initially I used one of those $10 Chinese-made jobs, but the carpeting in the van only laughed at that, so moved on to the car wash with their industrial vacuum.  The best $1.50 I've spent.  Oh, and by the way, I found a lot of detritus in the driver's seat too.  (Love you, Leigh...)

The tent is another story.  I ordered it from a somewhat spooky hunting/fishing/hometown militia merchandiser called The Sportsman's Guide.  I had done a bit of research and found that their prices were more competitive than even Amazon for a lot of camping supplies.  With the help of my friend Liz (who also purchased it for me), I decided to go with this tent, not realizing how freaking huge it was (and what that means putting it up alone). Practice, practice, practice.

My home for the next few months.  I can freaking stand in it.  What was I thinking?