Yeah, yeah. Late again. Story of my life.

A group of us went camping this past weekend—and no, I’m NOT still recovering, thankyouverymuch—and we had a blast!

We set up camp on Friday afternoon; slight glitch with a stuck tailgate on the truck, but nothing we couldn’t work around. Setting up the tent in 25 mph winds was interesting. Then the RV arrived, for the “city folk.”

Had a great dinner: campfire stew, cornbread, and Dutch oven blueberry pie. And beer. Of course. Temps in the 60s, in spite of that wind . . .

Saturday morning, the temp had dropped to 37. Hey, I might be roughing it, but I still had my IPhone! So I set up my little stove to start the coffee water while I built up the fire, watching the sunrise. Beautiful! It warmed up pretty quickly, but I was still thinking I should have worn those long johns to bed . . . and I missed sleeping with the lid off. Er, the fly on the tent. Lid. Fly. Whatever.

Since we couldn’t decide between hashbrowns and bacon or oatmeal and bacon, we cooked both. Oatmeal—with dried cherries—was done first. Second breakfast, hashbrowns and bacon. And then the “city folk” wandered over to the fire and made breakfast burritos!

Mostly we hung out around the fire, or close by, played with a parachute—and turned it into a drinking game because, hey, we could! So much for hiking, whiffle ball, Frisbee, etc. But it was great just being outside under all the trees . . .

Dutch oven roast with all the trimmings for dinner—and a pizza for an afternoon snack—and a late-ish night with friends around the fire. AWESOME!

The wind had died down and the temps stayed in the mid-50s until about 3:00 a.m. Until.

Good thing I wore the long johns.

At 3:00 a.m. I woke up to 30 degrees and howling winds, about 35 mph. Those lovely trees were swaying and bending—which I thankfully didn’t notice until I finally got up around 4:00 a.m. And yes, I was freezing. And yes, I climbed into my truck and ran the heat for about ten minutes. Don’t judge me!

In between warm-ups, I hauled stuff from my tent to the truck. VERY thankful we’d pre-loaded the kitchen and cooking stuff the night before! Finally, around 6:00 or so when it was light enough to see, I decided to de-tent.

And it started sleeting.

Lovely.

My point?

I do not like the cold. Not. Like.

So, once again, I’m really hoping that SHTF doesn’t hit until say, spring. Or early summer. Or something like that. Of course, then I’ll be griping about the heat . . .

My second point, the main one even, is that you MUST be prepared. Layers. Blankets. Shelter. Don’t skimp on any of these. You’ll not only be miserable, but cold can wear you out and use up all your energy. Don’t take that chance.