Some friends and I decided to go to the NHRA Winter Nationals in Pomona this year. The cost of food once you’re inside is worse than Disneyland, so we decided it would be cheaper to bring our own. My friend has a huge Ford truck with a crew cab and an awesome tent shell. We all fit in the truck for the ride there, and we packed a BBQ and lots of hot dogs, hamburgers, and drinks.

When lunch time arrived, we just walked out to the truck and started cooking. It was great because it was really hot and bright in Pomona that day, so the tent provided some shade. Also, it turns out that we brought way more food than we needed, so we were able to let others eat as well. Let’s just say that it turned out to be a great way to meet girls.

Flashlights come in so many different shapes and sizes nowadays. There’s big ones and small ones, LEDs and Krypton bulbs, solar powered and crank powered. Let me just tell you about the ones that I have used personally.

I keep a 4D big metal name brand flashlight in my pack. It provides plenty of light. It’s adjustable so I can make it a wide beam for seeing what’s in front of me while I’m walking or a narrow beam for distances to spot light objects or people. With the metal enclosure it’s very durable but with all the power it’s a bit heavy.
My wife prefers a little dual purpose light. It’s got a fluorescent buld on the side of the handle for a nice bright area light but a head like a typical flashlight for seeing a few feet in front of her. She loves it when she’s got to work on something with her hands because that fluorescent bulb works like a flood light!

I have also tried the crank up flashlights. I have to say, I didn’t like them. We had a lantern that we tried to use to play cards with. We could play for about 5 minutes before having to pull the lantern down, crank it, and rig it back up to hang. It was a major pain and not worth the savings of a few batteries.
These are only my personal experiences with flashlights. We have some others that we are trying too. I’m testing out a tactical light to replace my big metal one and so far I am loving it. I’ll keep you posted!

My family and I have been camping by our favorite lake every summer since our kids were old enough to walk. We have gone through many tents over the years, but our latest Family and Cabin tent is by far the best Tent we have ever owned. There is a pretty strong wind that comes off of the lake in the evenings and this Cabin Tent’s rigid frame really stands up well against it.

Another problem that we’d had with other tents is moisture from the lake managing to seep in throughout the night, but with this Cabin Tent this is no longer an issue. The door is well built and it’s easy to open and close which is very important when you have children coming in and out during the course of the day. I wish we had found out about Family & Cabin Tents years ago, we could have saved tons of money that we ended up spending on a series of inferior tents.

Lots of folks don’t like what passes for bathrooms on camping trips.  I’ve never had that problem myself.  I’ve had to dig my own trenches, I’ve used running water systems, I’ve used latrines, and I’ve had to carry my own waste out of certain areas.  There’s no sense in getting all hung up on something that’s going to be a pretty minor part of your day.  At least, that’s what I always thought until I had to use a latrine that screamed.

Being a brave soul, I marched off in the night with just my flashlight.  When I got to the latrine I realized that someone else was there as I could hear scuffling.  Which was fine, as it was a four-seat latrine.  But I soon realized that it wasn’t someone there, but something. And whatever it was was in the latrine!

Still being brave, I shone my flashlight down into the pit, only to see two eyes shining back at me.  Yikes!  The good news is that after I got over my scare, I could see that the owner of the eyes was a very bedraggled raccoon. And the park ranger got him out the next day by putting a log down for him to climb out on. But now I’ve decided – I don’t really like latrines.