Goin' Campin'

From my last post, “Since I’m not working yet I was hesitant to fork over big bucks for sporting equipment.” Aye, yi, yi…

So yeah, Mike got his fishing gear and now he just needs his fishing license so he can go fishing. But sometime recently Betty told us about “River Romp” – an annual family tradition, week-end long, camping party on the Columbia River (on the Washington side). This event originated with Ron’s sister and brother-in-law (it's held on their property) and has been going on for many years.

Now, I was in Camp Fire Girls all the way from 2nd grade through my senior year in high school. It was never really something I bragged about, but I can still start a campfire in the direst of circumstances. However, the truth is I have had my fill of camping – hotels with room service and swimming pools suit me better at this point in my life.

But alas, Mike loves camping. And we used to have all the middle-class American camping gear…we ended up giving it all to Jake who retextured the walls in our house before we sold the house last May. Do you know how much I wish we had kept all that stuff??

Sooooo, this week we decided we have to go to River Romp, but we need “stuff.” We still have our self-inflating mattress (the one we slept on for months in Duvall after we sold our bed and we even slept on it in Mexico City when we didn’t have a bed).
.
But we needed sleeping bags. On a whim, I bought cheap, pretty, pink polyester bags at Walmart. OMG – what was I thinking??? We tried them out one night in our apt and I just about died when a hot flash took over my body at 2AM and I had to crawl into our cotton-sheeted bed. Needless to say, we neatly rolled them into the original packaging and I returned them to Walmart the next day.

Sooooo, GI Joe’s, a beloved local sporting equipment store, is going out of business and we went there to check out the sleeping bags. Ahhh, when I saw the beautiful, flannel-lined bags at a good, discounted price I quickly threw 2 into our shopping cart. They fit perfectly on top of our self-inflating mattress.


Mike and I talked about putting our self-inflating mattress and sleeping bags in the truck canopy and sleeping in there at River Romp. I thought that was a good idea. But then he started talking tents...really, I’m still trying to not spend a lot of dough for this one weekend on the river...

But the next day - there I was. Alone on Lancaster Ave. in Salem when I spotted Big 5 Sporting Goods. I parked and the first thing I saw were 2 tents set up outside the door. I went in and found a perfect 3-person tent on sale. Gulp. It was purchased and in the truck before I knew it. We set it up in our apt and our self-inflating mattress and 2 new sleeping bags (zipped together, of course) fit perfectly in the tent.(Notice Mike's fishing pole too!)


Thursday night Mike and I watched Betty’s son, Tim’s, movie about River Romp 2008. It looks like a blast! Games, river, food, talent show – oh yeah, you need to sit on something to watch the talent show…

Sooooo, Friday morning Mike and I set out to check out camping chairs. I won’t go into all the shopping/price-checking details, but we settled on 2 great discounted chairs from Big 5 Sporting Goods. They fit perfectly with the other camping stuff.


Last night we spent the full night sleeping in the tent in our apt. Poor Sitka - Mike wouldn't let her in!

At his point, I can only laugh. My mission began with the fishing pole and we wound up with 2 poles, sleeping bags, tent and chairs. And I’m the one who was so happy to get rid of our “stuff” last year. Hmmm...River Romp is the weekend of July 31st...stay tuned for that adventure.

p.s. I just found out yesterday afternoon that I am eligible for the Emergency Unemployment Insurance benefits! This will really help while I continue my job search. If you think it might apply to you, check with your state unemployment office.