Tent Life

The first three nights of my trip, I camped at KOA campgrounds. (Or is that "kamped"?) I picked them because they were convenient to the Interstate, gave me a bunch of info on their web site, and had a uniform dogs-allowed policy. As I probably could have predicted, they were a mixed bag. The one in Ohio was OK...not many people were there, so I had a section of the campground to myself. Still, it was near a hospital or something, because I kept hearing ambulances all night. The one in Missouri was dreadful...I felt like I was right up against my fellow campers. And there was the aforementioned train crossing. In New Mexico, I had the best of the three. It wasn't very crowded, and the tent sites were set back from the road (Route 66) a bit.

Here you can see some key features of tent life...



I brought a bottle of Knob Creek along but did not get very far into it...getting in relatively late will do that.

I also brought a copy of John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley about his drive across the country with his French poodle. I'm really enjoying it, but I have not gotten much further into it than into the bottle of Knob Creek.

You can also see other crucial features such as my backpack, battery-powered lamp, breath mints, and of course, the cell phone I posted from.

In the foreground is part of the eggshell foam pad (very important...I wouldn't have been able to sleep on the unmediated ground) and my sleeping bag.



Teddy adapted to tent life fairly well...though soon after this picture was taken the first night, he discovered the comfort of the eggshell crate and insisted on bunking there the rest of the trip. He would look at me as if to say, "Hey, I'm almost 13, and you're dragging me across the country. Give me a break." Or perhaps I imagined it.