Tent Shopping!

Okay get ready for this...I'm going to start camping again!  I say AGAIN but truth be known I've only gone camping twice in my whole life unless you count those few times I slept in my backyard with a sheet draped over the clothesline in place of a real tent...I guess you could include those.  My grandmother had a shit fit thinking we were going to get killed but hey we were kids and were invincible and unkillable, right?

The last time I went camping was at Kickapoo Park near Rantoul, Illinois when my ex was attending Air Force training at the tech school there.  Kickapoo Park was oh gosh this was a long time ago but it was probably a half hour or so away.  The thing about Kickapoo Park is that there is a rule we didn't think about.  You. Can't Camp. In. The. Park.  One of the ex's school mates knew of the park but failed to let us know that camping in the park was prohibited.  There was a campground there, but we never saw that nor did we even know about it.

It was 1976.  The year of the Bicentennial.  We drove into the park and found a perfect place to throw down our blankets.  We didn't have tents.  Boones Farm was flowing and one of us started a fire.  Big. Mistake.  This alerted the park rangers who weren't happy with us one bit.  They escorted us to the campground and we were to mingle in with the other campers there.  No big deal I guess.  But everyone there hated us.  We were loud.  You know how kids on Boones Farm are.  Well we were of age but you couldn't tell it. 

At midnight, we all broke out in a Happy Birthday to America and all the people around us were telling us to shut the hell up, they were trying to get some sleep.

Some patriotic people, I'll tell you.

But that was the very last time.  Many years have passed and ever since I had my gall bladder out, I've been on a mission to do things that I love to do.  I had forgotten I loved camping actually.  I love sleeping in the forest and breathing in that pine scent while I slept.  I had forgotten how cool it was to get up in the morning in the woods.  And talk about roughing it.  I want to rough it.

So what I was thinking was...since it will be a month before we start our camping adventures, I need a few things.  Like a tent.

I was thinking about this one:

Nice, huh?  I watched a video about it and looking at every other tent in the world, I think I have narrowed it down to this one because of the room and the zippered porch or whatever that room is called.  I'm a newbie at this I'm telling you.  Ronnie and I are going to Ganders tomorrow to get some ideas on what else is out there and this way we can tell whether this is the one we want.  I have already bought an air bed and a toilet - two of the most important things!  I can see myself leaving the tent in the middle of the night and getting raped at the porta-potties or whatever they are calling them at the campgrounds.

So the plan is we're going to check out every campground we can and I'm going to rate them so you can kinda sorta know what you're getting into if you're a newbie like myself.  I'll let you know!