I have much to catch up on, but the short story is that Covid and a desire to get away from home safely had Al and I pulling out the camping gear. Fortunately a few years ago we went through all our stuff and figured out what we wouldn’t need anymore since there are only two of us.

Our first trip to Zion NP ended a night early due to insane winds that caused our tent to blow up like an air balloon and then implode upon us at regular intervals throughout the night. This was somewhat annoying but it was the freight train noise when the wind would gear up to try to blow us away that ruined our sleep. Also, we are not as young as we used to be and altho the foam pad worked for me, it is too bulky to cram into the Prius. It did not work for Al.

Second trip to Sequoia was much better. Al still had a little trouble with his two thermarests sliding off each other but that was solved on this trip with some non slip rug stuff. I had a new Big Agnes air mattress. Also I was a bit worried about skeeters so stopped at last minute to get a screen dining tent which was my smartest move this year. Lots of yellowjackets.

So what could have possibly gone wrong with our trip to Joshua Tree NP (3 hours away, tops) to take advantage of dark skies and watch meteor showers. I will list them, not necessarily in this order:

I decided that low of 50 degrees was not indicative that I’d need my ski jacket. Wrong.

It won’t matter that it gets pitch dark at six. Wrong. It got cold early and stayed cold and our wood lasted til 8. It was too cold to stay outside or get up in the middle of the night to see the deep dark.

The sleeping pad situation was fine. The trial of sheet, blanket and sleeping bag on top did not work. Sleeping bags are slippery. Why is it no longer on top of me and where the hell is it. Also sheet did not stay put. No sleep after Al came to bed (he had his ski jacket and stayed out a little longer.) Finally I rearranged things so we were sorta sleeping together and that helped.

We woke up in a.m. mutually deciding to break camp, spend the day enjoying the park and go home to bed.

Didn’t ANYTHING go right on this 24 hour adventure?

The stars were gorgeous. I saw one lonely shooting star. The Milky Way was faint but definitely there.

The next day we hiked all over and to my surprise I found myself hiking up hills without my poles and without difficulty. In a previous blog you will find I had made a declaration that I was done hiking. I guess swimming 3x/week has paid off in unexpected ways.

So. Aside from still considering a camper van or VERY small trailer, we learned a few things that we will take forward. Don’t put the damn warm stuff back at the last minute. The ski jacket WAS SITTING BY THE DOOR when I decided to put it back. Sheets don’t work. Maybe we should zip that double sleeping bag back together on cold nights and cuddle up. Duh. We know that JTNP is very close and until the time changes it is day trips. And then, because I am so forward thinking, don’t plan on hiking when it’s 100 degrees there and just hang loose until 2 am when it will still be warmish and still starry.

Last night our bed never felt better.