Getting you started on outdoor adventures

Every year I anticipate The Camping Trip. This year is no different. In April we gathered around a calendar to find two weeks that would work for everyone to enjoy the great outdoors. Well, that in and of itself took forever. Meetings, appointments, oh my gosh! We aren’t celebs, just way too busy with life events.

We settled on a couple of workable weeks, reserved a spot in our favorite campground and slipped into our crazy busy cycle of work, work and more work.

Pulling into the campground.

I’m a list-a-holic. I live by my lists (packing, to-do, grocery, you name it!) I teach school and the last few weeks of school are hectic to say the least, but on my desk I kept a bright pink piece of paper folded length wise for my camping list. The first list is a mish mash of things to pack, things to do to get ready for the trip, and household things to do that in my opinion must be done for my own peace of mind.

So I’ve been working in the garden, trying to get the new drip system finished before the trip, packed away the winter clothes, and I’m still waiting on a bid for some exterior painting that really needs to be done before the July monsoon’s start. Every week when I go grocery shopping I pick up a few camping foods that aren’t on my usual list. That all got taken out to the trailer already.

I went through all the closets and cupboards in the trailer to take inventory. I’ve already added paper plates, paper towel and a fresh roll of tin foil.

The one job that I was dreading, but turned out not to be too bad, was seasoning my new Dutch oven. I ‘m trying Cornish game hens and I found what looks like a pretty easy recipe for Dutch oven biscuits. The Outdoor Princess (Kim) will let you know how those turn out.

I don’t plan a daily menu for our trips, but we do decide ahead of time what we want to eat. I mean what’s a camping trip without hamburgers! I always take a bag of frozen shrimp, if we get back to camp too late to cook, I just quick thaw some shrimp and make a salad and call it dinner. I’m also making some smoothies this year, pouring a serving into a Ziploc bag and freezing it flat. That should taste good after a day of hiking or fishing.

Tomorrow I’ll start packing our duffel bags. Northern AZ is still very cold at night in June so I’ll need sweat shirts. Since those are so bulky I have a great cubby in the trailer for them.

The Queen Mother loading the cubby with warm clothes.

I love working from lists, I love seeing the task scratched off the list, but most of all I love the feeling of working toward a good thing when I look back on my day.

I really don’t even care if I’ve forgotten anything, because the whole idea is to get outside, and appreciating my camping experience.

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