April 6th was the first weekend Gary and I went camping together.

It all started when we were watching an episode of ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ and two of the characters pretended to be dead to avoid from being found by one of the fathers who just got out of jail. So they were hiding on the roof of the building in a tent, and I casually mentioned how we should go camping sometime. Apparently Gary has been wanting to go for a while but I guess I wasn’t ready at the time.

The opportunity arose and now we have a new hobby. Which is nice to get out and away from the computers and work – hiking is good exercise, and camping is a nice way to be simplistic for a weekend.

The first weekend we went was fun. We started off with a small very inexpensive 4 person tent to see if we would even like camping. Of course we didn’t realize how cold it was going to be that night (32 degrees!). We were freezing and getting up in the middle of the night for a walk to the bathroom house – though fairly close, was not close enough. Some people were sitting in their cars since the gates lock at 8pm. I don’t think a lot of people realized how cold it was going to be.

We made our first meals over the fire and learned some things we should have brought, and what things we already bought that we were happy we did.

We walked on a 2 mile trail that was close to the camp site. Totally doable.

Two weekends later, we had since upgraded our tent to a 6 person tent which is also 6’2″ tall (no more hunching over like in the last tent), purchased hiking boots, a travel crate for Gus (so he can sleep in the tent as well), and a few other camping upgrades.

We went on a 3 mile hike on Saturday, and a 6 mile hike Sunday(!). And let me tell you, it was supposedly a “moderate” up hills, tree roots, rocks, etc. it wouldn’t have been so bad if Gary hadn’t needed to make it back by a certain time to make a flight that day. On top of a moderate 6 mile being a little more than we should have tackled having been our 3rd hike. It was a nice sense of accomplishment After we stopped being sore a few days later. Gus did just fine with his own backpack of water. Though definitely slept well (like we did) that night.