The First Night Camping

Getting to our first overnight camping spot and finding that the reservation/concession/ranger station was vacant and boarded up for the winter was temporarily disconcerting. Piper was ready to be out of the car and I was looking forward to timing my first camp set-up. The rest is a story for pictures:

Geneva State Park in Ohio had beautiful wooded sites in multiple loops. Electricity on-site and potable water up at the main station (sites were turned off for winter).

Trusty Beck got us through three states and to the campsite, ready to rest.

Piper was supervising the entire operation from her run. Tent set-up < 11 minutes.

I was so excited that I beat my anticipated set-up time that I scrounged around in the woods to build a fire. Meanwhile, back in the tent, Piper discouraged the self-inflating mattress from doing its job by laying on it in intervals.

As the sky darkened, I prepared for first-night nerves. All I felt was hunger. Which, was just about the time I realized the campfire was putting off so much smoke the only thing that might have tasted good on it was some salmon. Alas, peanut butter toast for dinner.

There was a lot to learn from this experience. Major notes included:

1. Cook dinner first, then build the campfire for fun.
2. Do not build a campfire unless you also want to do laundry because everything then smells like burnt leaves.
3. Basically, do not build a campfire.
4. Keep Piper out of the tent while the mattress inflates unless you want to sleep fairly level with the acorns under your tent.
5. Have a tent bag with just the things needed for overnight ready and or empty and available.
6. Have a second extension cord or you can only either plug in your computer in the tent or the fridge outside the tent (no food in the tent!)
7. Piper has magic skills in coaxing open partially-zipped doors. Her bright eyes staring at you when you are returning from nature calling will scare you silly. Fully zip or just bring her out with you.

Keep coming back for more pro-tips on camping with your friendly pooches.