A computer-free weekend

I actually managed to relax and stay away from the computer all weekend. I thought about email, thought about blogging, but managed to not log on, not even turn on a computer until right before I'm climbing in bed tonight.

Fiance and I decided to take on a new hobby/recreation. As you can see from my profile and am a country girl temporarily stuck in the city, but slowly getting out. I moved out of the near center of the city to a more suburban area. I just need to keep moving out, even though I do like the neighborhood I'm in now it's not the same as having no neighbors and no traffic sounds.

Back to the hobby - it's camping. Camping is something I've never done but always wanted to. Don't ask me how a country girl made it all her life without camping but I did. I just wasn't something my family did on the farm. We lived in the countryside, so why did we need to go out into it at night. Also a major contributing factor - my mom hates it. Fiance and I thought that it would be a relatively cheap thing to do on the weekends to get away from things. Yes, there are initial expenses that we splurged on for the gear, but at this time of year we got almost everything for over 50% off. And after the initial purchases the most common expense is food and batteries.

In a week I'm going camping with my sister and her boyfriend. In the past year it is something my sister has taken up and she is actually excited about camping with us. This means a lot to me because her and I are two years apart, she's younger. And we never really got along. However, we get a long much better that we live in separate houses. We may have actually found something that we both can do together.

This weekend Fiance and I decided to test the new equipment in a more 'controlled' environment. I wanted to make sure everything worked before we went out into the middle of the woods. I envisioned the tent collapsing or something. So we camped in my parents' backyard, that way if anything happened we could go inside. I know what you're thinking, it's not really camping if you're in a backyard, but you don't know our backyard. There is a small woods lining the property and acres of farmland, and no other houses are visible from the back. And all sorts of wildlife traverses through it. We commonly have raccoons, deer, skunks, sometimes opossums. Bears have even been spotted, not just wandering through the yard but tearing down bird feeders attached to the house. So even though it's in a yard it's still an experience. And what's nice about it is that we get to visit with my parents and still have time to ourselves outside.

So after watching the first half of the Steeler game we went outside. Fiance had a nice fire going with wood that my dad got from my uncle. We must have spent an hour just sitting there, listening to the sounds of the forest, staring at the fire. Looking into the flames is very hypnotizing. Though I must admit that a few times lab popped into my head and I had to force it out. It was so nice in the tent all night because it was like being in the center of a sound spa. I have a sound spa by my bed that I listen to every night to try and distract me from the noises outside, and also to drown out ringing in my ears. It was just fabulous to have it in stereo!

Everything worked fairly well except it rained pretty good during the night. Which actually turned out to be a good thing. The tent leaked. It wasn't a bad leak, it's not like we were swimming in water when we woke up, but there were small drops of water that had collected in tiny puddles. Water had leaked in through the seam above the leak guard on the door. I'm going to see if I can take it back since it's the first time we've used it, if not, it's a Coleman guaranteed for 5 years and they will either fix it or replace it.

What matters is we had a good time, relaxed, and got out of the city. I can't wait to go again!