Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Tue May 26, 2015, 09:44 PM
Camping Questions
Hi. I'll be going camping for the first time in August.
Can you recommend a good and inexpensive (oxymoron?) 4-man tent? What is the best source for tents?
Do I need a sleeping pad if I have a cot?
There will be communal dinners, but I don't know anything about camp cooking. I'll probably take a cooler full of sandwiches for myself. But if I should need to contribute, what should I take to make and share? What's easy but good? And what kinds of pots & pans & utensils will I need? And how will I boil water for tea? Gotta have my tea.
I am looking up answers to these questions as well as posting here. If you can offer any advice besides answers to my questions, I'd welcome it.
Thanks!
No Vested Interest (2,449 posts) Tue May 26, 2015, 09:54 PM
1. I am not a camper - but here's my answer to 2 of your questions -
Tents can be rented. Since you may never go camping again, you might want to look into that. (We rented a tent ca 40 yrs ago).
What to take and share? Since I no longer cook, when asked to contribute, my first choice is grapes. Everybody likes grapes and they are usually well received. Other fruit, cookies, baked beans are also universally welcomed.
Now we'll let the real campers give you answers.
Hope you have a good time.
Brickbat (17,245 posts) Tue May 26, 2015, 09:58 PM
2. Are you hiking in or driving in?
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 05:32 AM
10. Driving, thank goodness.
canoeist52 (2,132 posts) Tue May 26, 2015, 10:11 PM
3. This is the four-person tent model we've been using and recommending for about 40 years.
after which a picture of a tent
Recommended for ease of set-up in a storm. and it's durability.
http://store.eurekatent.com/timberline-4-tent
?1432692068
This is the cook kit I would buy today as the one we're using is no long made; http://www.campmor.com/Product___86752
after which a picture of cheap flimsy aluminum camp cookware
d_r (4,377 posts) Tue May 26, 2015, 10:41 PM
5. I second the eureka too
We have one and it is great. It to s a midrange ten. If you want cheaper because you may not go much, I also have a Coleman that made it through 5 years of cub and partner. I have the three person not here is the four.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004J2GUOU/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?qid=1432694294&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&keywords=coleman+sundome&dpPl=1&dpID=412Nr-Xo09L&ref=plSrch
Cot? How big is this cot, what about the other 3 people?
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 06:15 AM
12. Hi, d_r.
I'm a big woman, and I found a big cot. X-large, rated to 300 pounds. I feel lucky to have found it.
Unless someone doesn't have a tent, in which case I'd welcome them, it will be only me. I'm big and I'm clumsy; I don't move around well. I want to be able to step around the space a little, and to be able to stand up sometimes (I'm 64" tall). What do you think?
ManiacJoe (7,824 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 07:10 AM
17. Standing will be a problem with the Eureka.
It is only 4 feet tall. Inside, you would be always on your knees.
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Thu May 28, 2015, 01:17 AM
22. Ooh. Kneeling isn't an option.
With severe arthritis in both knees, I'd better get a taller tent.
Star Member d_r (4,377 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 08:32 AM
19. standing
With all be a problem with the Coleman too.
Will you be able the drive to the campsite? I mean, will you he able to unload your stuff right there? You are probably going to get a bigger than four person to Stand in. So it would be heavier. Maybe something like this?
http://smile.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B004E4ERHA/ref=mp_s_a_1_11?qid=1432729811&sr=8-11&pi=AC_SX110_SY165&keywords=family+tent
Wilms (22,808 posts) Tue May 26, 2015, 11:45 PM
7. I'll third the Eureka suggestion.
And thanks for the memories that image brought.
ManiacJoe (7,824 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 01:34 AM
8. As great as the Eureka tent is,
its height assumes that you are sleeping on the ground, not on a cot. Otherwise, you are not going to fit four people in it.
For camping coffee and tea:
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Stansport-Campers-Coffee-Pot/20920957
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 06:16 AM
13. Just me, ManiacJoe.
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 05:34 AM
11. Thank you, canoeist.
I'll look for a Eureka tent that's taller. I'm going to use a cot, and I would really like to be able to reach something near a standing position inside the tent. I want a 4-man tent because I am large and clumsy, and want to be able to move around.
canoeist52 (2,132 posts) Tue May 26, 2015, 10:16 PM
4. Coffee pots
after which a picture of a cheap flimsy aluminum coffee pot
This is the coffee pot I would buy today if our vintage one crapped out, as it has a glass percolator top so it can be used over a campfire.
http://www.campmor.com/Product___26028
If you're camping in cool or cold weather, you need a foam or closed cell mat on a cot to protect you from the cold air circulating underneath you.
Cracklin Charlie (877 posts) Tue May 26, 2015, 10:51 PM
6. Four words
Biscuits on a stick
Get one of those cans of biscuits, roll the disc shaped biscuit between your hands into a snakey shape, and wind that biscuit snake around the end of a straight, sturdy stick. Kind of like a corkscrew around the stick.
Hold the biscuit on a stick over the campfire, not too close, rotate occasionally, until it is golden brown. Takes 15 minutes or so. Prop on a fork stick if you don't want to hold it. Slide the biscuit off the stick, roll it in some butter.
Yum.
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 06:17 AM
15. Sounds tasty.
I thought the only food you could cook over a campfire were hot dogs and marshmallows.
oneshooter (7,229 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 07:14 AM
18. I am a Chuck Wagon cook.
after which a photograph of food
after which another photograph of food
after which a photograph of primitives "roughing it" [quotation marks sarcastic]
And anything you can cook on your stove or in your oven you can cook with a campfire.
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Thu May 28, 2015, 01:15 AM
20. Peach cobbler and cornbread?
That's a very impressive setup.
oneshooter (7,229 posts) Thu May 28, 2015, 08:21 AM
24. Thank you.
I also cook buttermilk biscuits w/ peppered sausage gravy, Chicken and dumplings and many other foods. Anything you can cook in an oven,or on a stove, can be cooked on an open fire.
ManiacJoe (7,824 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 01:41 AM
9. Everything a beginner needs to know about camping:
The Boy Scout Handbook
written such that an 11-year-old can understand it.
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 06:21 AM
16. What a great idea.
meathead (49 posts) Thu May 28, 2015, 04:46 PM
26. That's how i learned.
For car camping, I'd borrow the tent and then use household equivalents for your other necessities. Most camping gear is only specialized (extra lite or small) for backpacking. For your purpose small and light doesn't really apply.
HooptieWagon (10,928 posts) Sun May 31, 2015, 08:19 PM
27. I have a Eureka tent also.
They're good, but your first time camping you may find you don't enjoy it. Rent or borrow a tent, or buy a cheap new or used one.
A pad on a cot makes it a little more comfortable, but it's not 100% necessary. Sleeping on the ground you need a pad as a minimum, an air bed is better.
Good food to share is fruits, nuts, popcorn, cheese and crackers...any kind of nibbly stuff. Bring plenty of water. Handi-wipes are good too, you can even use them for a crude shower if no facilities.
Anything you can boil water in is fine for making tea. A teapot is the handiest. You'll need an oven mitt. If someone else is doing cooking, you don't need to buy a camping cookset. They aren't even useful anyway (too small, too flimsy, and tend to burn food). Much better is cast iron skillet and Dutch oven (which are also useful at home). But wait and see if you like camping first.
eta: one more tip. Whether cooking over a fire or camp stove, the bottom of the pans will get really sooty. Rub a bar of soap on the bottom and lower sides. Not the insides of course. That will make scrubbing the soot off much easier.
Oy! 5'4" and somewhere between 250 and 300 lbs. ... camping. That's probably not going to be (have been) very easy. Hope the site is reasonably flat.
ManiacJoe (7,824 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 01:41 AM
9. Everything a beginner needs to know about camping:
The Boy Scout Handbook
written such that an 11-year-old can understand it.
In case one's not aware, the best mosquito repellent is simply drinking a cup of vinegar in the morning. That's what they did, and it worked.
Big Bertha is going to need more than a cup of it. 5'4 and 300 lb, at a nudist camp, she has about an acre of landing space for mosquitoes.
ManiacJoe (7,824 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 01:41 AM
9. Everything a beginner needs to know about camping:
The Boy Scout Handbook
written such that an 11-year-old can understand it.
:lol:
Tent trailer. Big enough, tow it in, no stakes, no bending...perfect.
Not counting the increased surface area afforded by her various folds, rolls, mounds, and wrinkles. :puke:
Question: If she has an allergic reaction to "something in the wild" and experiences "excessive swelling", how could you tell, and would anyone notice? :rotf:
Big Bertha is going to need more than a cup of it. 5'4 and 300 lb, at a nudist camp, she has about an acre of landing space for mosquitoes.
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 06:15 AM
12. Hi, d_r.
I'm a big woman, and I found a big cot. X-large, rated to 300 pounds. I feel lucky to have found it.
Unless someone doesn't have a tent, in which case I'd welcome them, it will be only me. I'm big and I'm clumsy; I don't move around well. I want to be able to step around the space a little, and to be able to stand up sometimes (I'm 64" tall). What do you think?
Her fellow campers should take note of this, you know just in case of a bear encounter. :-) They would probably have enough time to pack up the tent, food, equipment and just walk away.
Bertha Venation (21,313 posts) Wed May 27, 2015, 06:15 AM
12. Hi, d_r.
I'm a big woman, and I found a big cot. X-large, rated to 300 pounds. I feel lucky to have found it.
Unless someone doesn't have a tent, in which case I'd welcome them, it will be only me. I'm big and I'm clumsy; I don't move around well. I want to be able to step around the space a little, and to be able to stand up sometimes (I'm 64" tall). What do you think?
Most naked hippies didn't even look good in the 60's....now 50 years later there's no way I want to see that....please don't post pictures Big Bertha.
They cooked, although the memory fails me on what they used.....other than that it wasn't cheap flimsy aluminum pots and pans. These pots and pans had weight; so much that they were usually left where we "camped," rather than being carried back home.
It seems to me they were also incredibly old and dirty.
Why do these people ask for advice and then always argue every one.
I think "can`t" is the first word out of a DUmbasses mouth when they begin to talk.
After punishing her Segway(and her arthritic knees) on the camping trails with her 300 plus pound body, she will be punishing her cot all night and a good part of the day.
Up until my younger brother and I came along, long after all the older brothers and sisters, the family used to stay in motels and hotels on their way to Pennsylvania from Nebraska, but then in 1962, that all changed, when the family for the first time camped on the way to and from the parents’ birth-state.
I was w-a-a-a-a-y too young to know anything about that, but records show that a tent-trailer was rented out of an agency in Grand Island, Nebraska, and photographs show it to have been some sort of blue-and-grey trailer where the top was cranked up, the sides being canvas, after it was parked for the night. No extensions or wings; just a box where the lid was raised.
But beginning with summer vacation in 1965, and for the next ten years or so, the family rented Starcraft trailers only, and always the same model.(http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g419/Eferrari/may2015/1970vacation-1_zpsl9erlp1g.jpg) (http://s1100.photobucket.com/user/Eferrari/media/may2015/1970vacation-1_zpsl9erlp1g.jpg.html)
(http://i1100.photobucket.com/albums/g419/Eferrari/may2015/1970vacation-2_zpslh5qhls6.jpg) (http://s1100.photobucket.com/user/Eferrari/media/may2015/1970vacation-2_zpslh5qhls6.jpg.html)
By the time my younger brother and I were the last ones still home, the parents, having aged considerably because of their hippie older children, acceded to my pressure that we stay in motels and hotels instead; it was a lot cleaner, easier, and more convenient.
When growing up, I used to bitch and whine and moan and gripe about “roughing it†all the time; I saw absolutely no sense in it, and it was more of an ordeal than any adventure.
I suppose I should feel badly, a twinge of conscience, having been that way, because the parents and all the brothers and sisters truly enjoyed camping; they wouldn’t want to do anything different. We were a very social family, and it happened every night that other campers from other parts of the country congregated around our site; my parents especially had some sort of magnetism that attracted other people their direction.
But I don’t feel badly about it, because despite all my carping, nobody paid attention to me anyway. They liked camping and went about with determination, enjoying it. It was as if I’d never said anything at all.
TROGLODYTE (CAVE MAN)
The Jimmy Castor Bunch
What we're gonna do right here is go back, way back, back into time
When the only people that existed were troglodytes
Cave men, cave women, Neanderthal, troglodytes
Let's take the average cave man at home, listening to his stereo
Sometimes he'd get up, try to do his thing
He'd begin to move, something like this: 'dance...dance'
When he got tired of dancing alone, he'd look in the mirror:
Gotta find a woman, gotta find a woman
Gotta find a woman gotta find a woman
...
He said: move...move, she got up, she was a big woman
Big woman, her name was Bertha, Bertha Butt
She was one of the Butt sisters, he didn't care
He looked up at her and said:
Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me
Sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me, sock it to me!
She looked down on him
She was ready to crush him, but she began to like him
Sounds like cast iron dutch oven cooking, Coach.
Hell she will be punishing the log she sits on near the campfire. :rofl:
Bertha is going to be the sort of camper that sets up camp and doesn't really do a lot that doesn't involve a lot more than sitting around drinking, paying a visit to the local swimming hole (or pool) and chowing down. As others have posted, her best bet is to rent a trailer of some sort. Otherwise, she is going to be hellishly uncomfortable.
I can't really imagine dummies giving really useful advice when it comes to camping.
As others have posted, her best bet is to rent a trailer of some sort.
Bertha is going to be the sort of camper that sets up camp and doesn't really do a lot that doesn't involve a lot more than sitting around drinking, paying a visit to the local swimming hole (or pool) and chowing down. As others have posted, her best bet is to rent a trailer of some sort. Otherwise, she is going to be hellishly uncomfortable.
I can't really imagine dummies giving really useful advice when it comes to camping.
(http://cdn.equinemediaworld.com/htw/u/p/0632500/632566-23058f9a.jpg)
'Nuff said.
(http://www.paradisepinesrvpark.com/sitebuilder/images/gate_sign-600x450.jpg)This looks like a job for Nadin, nude reporter!
Paradise Pines Nudist RV Park. Lutz, FL
This looks like a job for Nadin, nude reporter!
This looks like a job for Nadin, nude reporter!
Hopefully it's not a seaside camping ground. If she were to go relax on the beach she might be mistaken for a grounded cetacean! :bolt:
The ramp should work well for her scooter or Segway. :bolt:
This looks like a job for Nadin, nude reporter!
You're looking to up your bitchslap count, aren't you?moi? I'm just a little angel.......see?
Waiting for the news report: Three Boy Scouts drown trying to roll her back into the ocean.
They could use that toward the Personal Fitness Merit Badge, which is a requirement for Eagle rank.
It would be like log rolling. Did you do that at Scout camp? We did.
OK, it wouldn't really be like log rolling. More like "sleeping bag full of pudding rolling".
That reminds of the old joke about how an audience would react to a less than attractive stripper: "Put it back on! "Put it back on!"
I always imagine ugly strippers using one of these jobs here:
(http://www.kardwell.com/images/belt_coin_changer.jpg)
For when that buck is just a little too much.
There is a nudist resort in my fire district. Usually they pay us to standby with an engine when they have fireworks so a couple of years ago I went when no one else wanted to go. All I can say is the place is creepy. As of today, not a single brave soul has their name on the sign-up board for this years fireworks.Truth in Life 101: the people most likely to get naked are the ones who never should.
The actual resort is fairly big with numerous homes and public buildings. So over the years we have been there for fires, medical emergencies and weather related calls. I repeat myself, the place is simply creepy. Over the last few years the management has been trying to attract a younger crowd by advertising on local classic rock radio stations but still I hate it when we get a call at that place. Not much there you really want to see naked.
Truth in Life 101: the people most likely to get naked are the ones who never should.
Just keep the hog out of the water.
The oil slick would be heavy enough to catch fire.