Have you ever tried out a new sleeping bag while wearing a shortish skirt at the outdoor goods store? Well, now I have. (Fortunately I left my wedge heels in the car and opted for the flip-flops for easier maneuverability while power-shopping during my last\u00a0big gear-up trip.)<\/p>\n
After climbing into two bags, rolling over and feeling\u00a0pretty ridiculous\u00a0‘lounging’ on the platform in the store, and\u00a0one man\u00a0pretending to offer me my morning coffee,\u00a0I\u00a0decided on my ‘luxury’ bedding–some sort of down contraption and a self-inlfating mat to go beneath it. The last sleeping bag I\u00a0selected for myself featured Snoopy and Charlie Brown. And that was probably 29 years ago. I can’t remember what I used the 2 or 3 times I camped in college, but my needs then were likely a little different. Now I’m preparing for sleeping in a mega tent with about 120 new friends (not to mention to 13,000 + in the other tents surrounding ours) after\u00a0biking 93 miles and before biking about 85 more\u00a0the next day. Needless to say, I decided to go for the cushiest self-inflating mat REI had to offer. I have a feeling my body is going to be pretty sore and I’m hoping for the best night’s sleep, taking all into consideration.<\/p>\n
I have a lot of questions about this whole camping experience. How long will the lines for the shower be? And will I get so sweaty riding the yellow school bus back to the campground after my shower that I will erase all the good of the shower? Where will I brush my teeth in the morning? And how will I get dressed and apply chamois butt’r without flashing everyone? (If you’re not a cyclist, c.b. is used to reduce chaffing. I’m sure you can figure it out.) What will they serve for breakfast and what will the porta potties be like in the morning? What do I bring to wear to sleep so I’m comfy not too cold, not too hot… you get the picture.<\/p>\n
My husband, on the other hand, is so low maintentance he could sleep anywhere… and\/ or survive on no sleep. So, even though he did this ride last year, he is of little help when it comes to my unending questions. I’m a girl who likes a good sleep before biking up and down major mountains for almost 100 miles and I like to know what to expect so I can prepare.\u00a0(Okay so they are hills…but they are pretty big and\u00a0I live in Houston where it is FLAT!) But I guess the camping (and not knowing everything ahead of time) is part of the experience, so camp I will. And I’ll take tons of pictures, journal about it and scrapbook it when I return, sweaty or not sweaty, a little sore or barely-moving sore and no matter what the porta pottie conditions turn out to be.\u00a0 And I’ll probably do it with a lot of giggling. I’m in for the whole adventure because as of yet, it has all been so incredibly amazing. My body has done things I never\u00a0dreamed it would be capable\u00a0of and I’ve heard God speaking to me more than I ever thought I would. He has blessed me with excellent health and He inspires me on every ride. I can’t wait to see what\u00a0He has to show me during these two days and yes, even during the big camp out. What an adventure!<\/p>\n
And now, I’m geared up and ready to go. In addition to the sleeping bag, I\u00a0also\u00a0bought energy goos, energy jelly beans, recovery drink mix, shorts, gloves and a flashlight I can wear on my forehead. When you add that to what I already had before the shopping trip, I think I’m ready to go. No… it’s still two weeks away. I’m sure I’ll come up with a few things to buy before then!!<\/p>\n
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Have you ever tried out a new sleeping bag while wearing a shortish skirt at the outdoor goods store? Well, now I have. (Fortunately I left my wedge heels in the car and opted for the flip-flops for easier maneuverability while power-shopping during my last\u00a0big gear-up trip.) After climbing into two bags, rolling over and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33,20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cycling-inspiration-joy","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2357,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163\/revisions\/2357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.momstoolbox.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}