Ahhhhh... I need a bigger car!

Camping has always been a favorite childhood memory of mine. Playing childhood games among the trees, listening to campfire stories, tasting food with the unmistakably unique flavor it has after cooking on a campfire and sleeping to the sounds of the forest at night. I've always loved the feeling of being in the forest. It's calming and peaceful.

Rediscovering all the fond childhood memories with Alraune, along with his childlike silliness, has become a true joy in my life. If we could have our way, we'd never leave the forest. We are slowly learning what we need for our trips into our recharging retreat. Although our list has grown to a size that no longer fits into my car, we are coming up with ideas to shorten that list.

We like our trips to be fun, comfortable, relaxing and full of good food. Planning out all of these things and fitting them into my car has become an enjoyable chore for both of us. We both have ideas in mind for our camping trips and try to fit in as much of it as we can.

Alraune can not be separated from his music. I've come to understand and love this about him. It doesn't matter if he's just sitting around the house, in the car, camping, hiking or enjoying a quiet evening on the porch, there is always music. He brings a radio on every trip and I have an ipod with a speaker that I bring along hiking.

From time to time we also bring along a laptop and a movie. It isn't easy to watch a movie in the forest but we have figured out how to enjoy the oddly modern-rustic feel of a good movie by campfire.

Alraune has always been an unending source of amusement for me. I will never forget waking up one morning to find him singing, dancing, and cooking breakfast all the while with my bra on his head. It was so comical I couldn't stop laughing. He looked like a World War II bombardier.

One of the first things we are trying to shorten is the list of bedding. Blankets and pillows take up entirely too much of our packing space. In the middle of summer it won't be so bad but in the early spring and late fall it becomes a real issue. Alraune has a good sleeping bag but I lack one so far. Once I have my own sleeping bag and we get our camping cots I think most of that problem will be solved... except his over abundance of pillows, but that is a topic for later.

Anyone who knows Alraune knows his motto, “If faced with the choice between pants or no pants, go with no pants.” Or nothing at all if he can help it. I have much the same attitude when camping. The only problem with this is we haven't found a camp site far enough from a road to be totally comfortable doing this. We are still looking and would LOVE ideas.

Shower time has become much easier since we got our solar shower and tarps. Our last camping trip Alraune built us a wonderful showering area close to the stream. He put tarps up to block us from the road and hung the solar shower up to catch the sun and make it easier for him to shower. Our trip was cut short so we didn't get to try it out but I'm looking forward to it next time.

Good camp chairs are a must. Picnic tables are provided most of the time in the camp sites we use but sitting next to a nice campfire on a camp chair is preferred. I finally have one of my own and Alraune has a new one. One of us will have to share the story of why he needed a new one in a later post.

Alraune is a big guy with a big appetite. Luckily for him I love to cook, much the same as him. We have a normal list of meals for camping. How many days we will be camping decides which ones we cook. Our breakfasts are normally some kind of egg, potato and meat mixture with plenty of cheese. We try to eat well for breakfast because we never know what the day will bring. Gathering firewood, doing normal camp clean-up, carrying buckets of water, or just taking a hike uses up lots of energy.

Lunch varies from time-to-time. If we have extra money saved it will also be hearty and healthy but we tend to cut corners here. Lunch meat sandwiches are typical or just left overs from the night before. I always have a store of zip lock bags along for just such a thing.

Beef stew with cornbread is typically on the dinner list and is the one I normally make. I made it for us on our first camping trip and pretty much every one since. Pork tenderloin is one that he's had on his list long before I came along, which he makes. Chicken Alfredo is another normal meal that I've figured out how to make on a campfire. It's not as hard as you'd think and campfire grilled chicken has the best flavor.

We always have munchies to snack on throughout the day. I made granola for us before, Alraune loves to bring along cheese curls and we try to find other things that are quick and tasty for in between meals.

Bringing along all of these things is sometimes hard to find space for. I have a rather large trunk and we tend to fill up the backseat too but we have ideas on making this list more compact for future trips. We'll share our ideas and welcome more.

Dreaming of Butterflies,
Chrysanthemum