First Camping Trip of 2010

It feels like Christmas morning. Ray and I are gearing up for our first camping trip of 2010. We are not going far, just to Port Susan to stay with a dear friend. It looks to be a good trip for late winter birding.

Our first trip of the year is our shake-down trip. We are eager to get out and breathe the air that rests under the cedars. We want to get our boots muddy. But we pillaged the trailer over the winter and need to replace blankets that went to the guest room, herb tins that came to dinner, the lemon zester I saw in my kitchen tool drawer, towels washed after a trip and never put back. I know I saw the travel Yatizee and Scrabble games on a dresser. We like to know what we need before longer trips.

If we are going on a long trip I am more dogmatic about making a menu and worry there will not be enough real food, way too many snacks if I try to shoot from the hip. We will not need roadside lunch because Port Susan is only two hours from our house. I know what I'm doing for Valentines dinner. The first asparagus of the year, fat and perfect the way Costco likes them, will be grilled and wrapped in thin layers of soul, baked and set on a bed of multicolored rice or maybe whole grain corkscrew pasta. Connie said she was making a salad. For dessert, because you need a dessert on Valentine's, I have already been seduced at Trader Joe's by a dark chocolate cake all shiny with filling, glazed with rich chocolate and the first huge strawberries of the year (thank you California!).

It looks to be a rainy night, but like Eddie Rabbit (do you remember Eddie Rabbit?), "I love a rainy night". There isn't a more romantic sound to me than the song of rain on a metal roof. Rainy mornings? You can keep your wet mornings, but at night they are welcome.

I grin like the Cheshire cat when I think about days gone by. Everything had to survive a stuff sac in my pack. Weight was a big deal. A memorable treat might have been chocolate sauce to disguise the poor strawberries that were carefully packed to survive the trip. Rain at night sounded pleasant but sure did not make me feel cozy. I never thought I could enjoy camping in a trailer. I love this gypsy life.