Friday 5

(Link in blogroll)
The Great Outdoors

1. When did you last sleep in a tent?

   It was 6 years ago this August, I think. Coldest MFing August ever, and rainy. I nearly froze.
   

   Never.          Ever.              Again.

2. What comes to mind when you think about relieving yourself in the great outdoors?

When I was 10, my parents bought a little house in the mountains. Technically, it was a garage, a shop, set on the highway but with a long 'backyard' with woods and with an IN-CRED-IBLE view of the mountains from anywhere on the property. We spent the next 7 years rehabbing it into a one-bedroom cabin with a bay window, plus a galley kitchen, and a full bathroom. The major problem was that the bathroom never drained quite right--or at all. So mostly we did the bears-in-the-woods thing, especially in winter. So, yeah, that's what comes to mind when I think of outdoor 'plumbing.' [aside: the summer after my freshman year in college, my dad and I dug a 12x12x12-foot septic pit in the side area of the house...by hand...lined it with concrete blocks cemented together, and laid out the septic field. Dad was 63 and I wasn't about to have him show me up, but I nearly died from lack of oxygen and sheer agony.]

3. Where’s the best place you ever went camping?

   I have never in my life enjoyed camping, but the most scenic was probably Yellowstone. My sister had just had a baby, so she and her family got a cabin. We camped. See first phrase in this answer.

4. What’s your favorite camp food?

   Hot. I just want my food properly cooked. In my experience, it is usually half-heated. And the parts that shouldn't be are usually soggy. Really, this is not my favorite activity at all. I don't even really like s'mores....

5. What’s your sleeping bag like?

   It is burgundy nylon on the outside and red/blue plaid on the inside. I believe it's the warmest one we've got. I use it--on an air mattress--on our youth mission trips. We sleep in Sunday School wings of churches, which is hardly roughing it.