A camping I will go...?

Talk about a waste of my time. I went to Birch Run to an RV and Camper show, just to find out that my car, which is supposed to tow 3500 lbs. Can't tow 3500 lbs. Which means I have to get a pop-up or smaller, something around 12-1500 lbs. I have a 2017 Ford Escape with a 2.0 EcoBoost engine. Geez..

To top it off the little girl who took money, at the door, short changed me by $5. I gave her a $20 and she gave me $9, the cost to get in was only $6.
I didn't notice until I got to the grocery store, 45 miles away. I know I am getting old, but I guess I put too 
much trust in humans.

A wonderful (active) year...

It has been another great year for me. I wanted to keep doing what I have been doing, this past year, in order to have a lifetime of being dis-ease free. As of the 12^th of December, I have been relaxing, just taking it easy for the rest of this year until January, where I will start up with all of the activities I enjoyed over the past year.

I am planning to join Planet Fitness, again, so I can get my legs in better shape for those long hikes and those long bike rides, 50+ miles at a time. My longest in 2016, 45 miles and I did that 4 times.

Anyway, here are my results for this past year:

ran – only 73.1 miles – (2015 - 235 miles, What a year a difference makes)

Walked – 425.4 miles – (2015-754 miles, ouch…)

Biked – 475.7 miles – (2015 - 410 miles)

Hiked – 294 miles – (2015 - 95.5 miles)  

Kayaked – 17 miles – (2015 - 4.2 miles)

For a grand total of – 1285.3 miles – (2015 1500.4 miles)

 Down a tiny bit, in some categories, and up a few in others, only because I either forgot to add the extra times to my recorder or my  GPS logs failed because the batteries on my phone died. But I did add a lot more other activities such as, Camping 6 times in 2016 (8 times in 2015), Laser tag, and going Zip lining.  

I ended up gaining about 15 pounds and maintained a weight of 200 lbs. for a large part 2016, considering I had lost 76 pounds in the prior years.  

I don’t know what I have doing for the end of this year, but I've gained 15 pounds since the end of November. I think it has to do with all that cake and Rum and Eggnog I have devoured in the last two week. Compounding the fact that I have done no other activities but sit and watch Movies on Netflix for the last two weeks.

In a few days I am going to have to get back on track and do what I have been doing for the last 2 and a half years. This year I plan to add more just to make sure that when I go to the doctor for my annual checkup all my numbers are lower than they were for 2016. 

Let's get ready tooooooo...backpack!

The last of my backpacking gear came into today. I packed everything into my 70+10L backpack. Total weight; 25 Lbs. (24.6). The only things missing, I only have partial food, (b'fast and 2 days of snacks.), water, (I ordered a water bladder, should be here in 5 days.) and I don't have any clothes in the pack. 
My next weekend trip is in 14 days. I should be totally ready by then.

Today marks the beginning of a new Adventure!

A camping I will go...

I love camping, well; I like it a lot, really. I just got home from my latest camping trip to Tawas State Park, for this past weekend.

It’s kind of funny; I always try to remember to bring the important things that I need to have a successful camping trip.  Most times I forget those things. Usually I will do something like, a blanket but forget the pillow. Or, forget a pan or spoons or something. This weekend I forgot my little pan, so I could make pancake for breakfast and I forgot my giant patio umbrella because I read that it was going to thunderstorm on Saturday night.

This weekend I remember to bring a pillow but I didn’t take a blanket, to completely cover me, because I was thinking on bringing a top sheet. I didn’t realize that it would get cool that first night or for that matter the second night. So, for the first night I blew up my sleeping pad and laid my sleeping bag on top of the pad. I was fine for a while, though.

Late into the night I started to get cold, considering that it only got into the 50s, it was too cold for shorts, no socks and a t-shirt. So, the little blanket I had, a throw blanket, 4’x 3’, which was only big enough to cover my feet and legs, but not my upper torso or vice-versa.

I remembered that I had bought a couple of towels. I got the largest towel, which is about six feet long and covered my legs and used the tiny blanked to cover my upper body.  It was a bad night, I just couldn’t keep either towel or blanket on me and the cold was overwhelming. I don’t remember sleeping much the first night.

On the second night, Saturday night, I was thinking that I would have to use the second towel because I took a shower and that big towel was wet. I had, earlier, looked at the weather report and it stated that the temperature was going to be in the 40s! It actually got to 48 degrees!

Then it hit me, like as if someone dropped an anvil on my thick head…I had a sleeping bag. Why didn’t I just use it? I got in my sleeping bag and was toasty the rest of the night; I was too warm, now that I think about it.

 I had realized a tiny bit, and a day late, that when I am sitting around the campfire with the gang, I should not have had two glasses of wine, and three beers. Those liquids seem to help me forget more than old age ever will.