Night one had been one with little sleep. We learned the thin mattresses at each end of our pop-up camper were not very comfortable. In fact, it was like sleeping on a board. We were up at Cathedral Pines Campground in Eustis, Maine for a gathering of geocachers. I should geocache then, right?

Well, I tried. We had breakfast which was easy enough on the two-burner propane stove in the camper. It was a bit of a learning curve because we have an electric stove at home (the first batch burned). After clean-up, I headed out on some logging roads on the scent of a bunch of geocaches that formed a picture known as “geo-art.”

Unfortunately, it was not to be. It took me more than an hour to drive to the furthest spot off of the main road on the logging roads and find that geocache. The idea was to work my way back out to the road. However, I was just so damn tired from a lack of sleep I had no motivation. After a little over an hour and finding 15 geocaches, I called it quits. At least the near-peak foliage made for a beautiful drive.

I drove back to the campground just after lunch. Now, when we were home, my spouse had never opened up the awning on the side of our camper. I had asked him to several times and make sure that was in working condition, but it never happened. He said it had to be done when we were first setting up the camper. When we were setting up, he didn’t bother to open up the awning either. I said nothing. While I was gone, it had started raining a bit, so he scrambled to set it up then. It’s got a lot of mildew stains on it and really needs a good cleaning. He still didn’t zipper on the screen room, so we have no idea how or if that works. Luckily, it seemed to be a pretty bug-free weekend.

I had a hot dog and read on my kindle for most of the afternoon. Dinner that night was Chicken Ranch Foil Packets. I prepared them while my spouse napped. They came out really good. I should have made more.

We are missing one set of camping items I once had because I had a set of red plates/cups/utensils that weren’t here. That meant I had nothing other than my travel coffee mug to have a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers after dinner in front of the fire while my son made s’mores.

Sansa, our Treeing Walker Coonhound, was loving camping. I had been worried about the way she barks at home, but she was surprisingly quiet at the campground the first two days. I don’t think she quite felt like this was “her property” and didn’t feel the need to bark at everyone going by. She enjoyed having “her humans” outside with her all the time too. At night she usually sleeps on the couch in the living room and here she moved back and forth between myself and my spouse during the night.

This would prove to be a colder night than the first one and it started getting chilly early. We were very thankful for the heater in the camper. Before going to bed I made sure I took 2 Tylenol PM and that helped me sleep much better, but I still wouldn’t get a really good night’s sleep until we got home. My hips kept hurting when I lay on my side, especially my right side.

We added a few more things to the camping list. My spouse and son like bagels in the morning so would like a basic toaster. We need a tarp or rug for outside the camper so we don’t track so much dirt in. A basic set of measuring spoons, measuring cups, hand can opener, and dish drain would all be helpful as well as a cutting mat.

And non-breakable wine glasses……