HomeSweetRoam.com

So, one of the biggest things we had to think about going into the camping adventure was, food.  Of course.  It’s just one of those things that if you forget it, well… you die.  We decided early on to avoid that, and opt for a tastier fate.

Our menu consisted of a few things we typically have at home like grilled chicken and vegetables to start.  Easy fix.  I picked up a campfire grill which was pretty much one of the best items we had in our whole gear list! A quick spray down with some non-stick spray and we were off to the races cooking up meat, veggies or potatos in foil, toast, and even putting the kettle on to boil water over and over. I had a little doubt in it the first night when it started to look like the middle (hottest) part was starting to drop quite a bit. It did slightly, but barely enough to notice by the end of the weekend unless you’re looking for it. It held up pretty great over all, and is easy to clean too!

Campfire grilled dinner

Other than the obvious basics you can do with a grill, we also had a few breakfast items on the menu and a portable propane stove to test out. We picked up this little guy for those times when we wouldn’t be able to have a campfire, which apparently happens alot in California state camping areas. Toss in a cast iron skillet and pot, and we were able to put together eggs, bacon, and sausage with no trouble at all. From here on out though we are really hoping to have campfires as they just cook things up so much faster, with less fuel expense, and are a heck of a lot more fun to boot! But all said and done, the portable grill is a life saver for those areas that won’t let you put some coals and logs to work for cooking.

Bacon and Sausages for breakfast

And the final cookware purchase was probably the star of the weekend and currently our favorite piece of gear overall: Pie Irons. Now, I won’t toss up a link to the place we bought ours, or the brand they are, because even though they were an insanely cheap $5 each … well, we got what we paid for. Quality control is not a term the manufacturer is familiar with, and the website selling them botched the order and sent us a mismatched set of various shapes when we specified 4 square ones in the order. Twice.

Now that I have that out of the way, yes, these things ROCK. I was really hesitant when Gena start going on and on about the bazillions of recipes for them. I just didn’t get it I guess, or couldn’t imagine something so small being so versatile. I was SO wrong! We tossed them into the mix and ended up having a breakfast, a desert, and some lunch foods too. Simply tossing in 2 pieces of bread, and anything you want in between is all it takes apparently! Use some pie filling and boom, desert. Or use chocolate and marshmallows. Early mornings are nice times to pour in some raw scrambled eggs, chopped ham and onion, and some cheese. Got some ground beef, onion, cheese, and salsa or hot sauce? Taco pockets! Put in what you want, hold it over the fire, and flip it from side to side every 30 seconds or so to keep it cooked evenly on both sides. Open and check to see if the bread is toasted from time to time, to avoid burning it. Seriously, it’s that simple. These are going to be on our to-do list for every outing from no on. In fact, we even sat on our patio after getting home, and made dinner in them on our backyard grill.

Pie Irons cooling off after alot of use!

We’ll have PLENTY more reviews of our pie iron cooking, and the new styles and sizes (and brands) we’ll be getting in the near future! Until those posts though, if you want to know more you can check out www.PieIron.com for more about the cookware, and even some recipes!

So, potentially THE most important peice of camping gear finally arrived the other night.  Without it, we just had no idea what we would do!  We’re now happy to say though, that both of our Italian Greyhounds will be sporting very fashionable, and oh so functional Camofrog jammies!

Since we’re gearing up mainly for our Yellowstone trip which will be the first “big” trip we take, jammies and coats for the boys are very important to us and we thought these would just be the tops.  These should keep them pretty snuggly warm at night, combined with the inevitable burrowing down to the bottoms of our sleeping bags!

 We’re also going to be picking up with some luck, some camouflage jackets with body suits under them for the hiking portions of the trip.

You can of course see more photos of the Camofrog jammies, and the Camouflage jackets when they arrive, over at Hazen and Mike’s own website: http://www.ImNotAWhippet.com

You can also find handy links to the maker of their jammies and other such accessories there as well!

We just bought new shoes. I guess it was a matter of time before we had to admit to ourselves that slip on Vans might not be the best option for nature walks and hikes when we’re out on our travels. Oh well.

We happened to be in our new favorite store last week picking up a few camping supplies, and came across a wall of shoes that we just had to take a look through. Hiking boots, hunting boots, crocs, and lots of sandals. Nothing seemed to be exactly what we were in the market for, as we were looking for something a bit more sturdy than a croc, yet light enough to wear just walking around a new small town, or even just a camp site. The shin high super SWAT edition hiking/hunting/tactical-operations boots just seemed like a little much.

Right in the middle ground though, we found a few shoes by Keen. This wasn’t the first time we’d seen this maker’s shoes. In fact my brother showed off his pair when he came out for our wedding and I was pretty convinced with a quick 10 step test walk back then. Putting on a pair and walking around the store that day though, completely sold every last part of me on them.

I picked up a pair, and Gena found some she liked as well! Next day, we returned with the kids and grabbed a pair for each of them. Tyler thinks his (same as mine) make him look more like the Spartan from Halo 3. You have to love an active imagination. And yes, they do look like you’re ready for some serious trekking, but have such a comfortable and light feel to them, that I’ve decided to just wear mine pretty much day to day. Such an improvement.

You can check out their whole line of shoes and bags at http://www.KeenFootWear.com

So, we ordered a tent from CampingStation.com, a site we whole heartedly recommend you AVOID at any cost. Which is a shame, it was a very very sweet tent. It was a very large, family “town home” style tent, with 4 separate rooms, each with their own exterior doorways. Was a great price for such a large tent too. But as I said, run, don’t walk away from that site!

The tent was ordered back in April. Our credit card was hit to reserve the funds, which means not charged, just an “approval” amount that is basically the same thing as it takes my money out of the ‘spendable’ column and puts it in the ‘belongs to someone else even though I do not have any new items’ column! The next day we get an email saying they have unexpectedly sold out of this particular tent, and expect their next stock delivery mid May. Figuring we have plenty of time before our Yellowstone trip, we might as well wait. It was a really nice tent, and perfect for our plans.

Mid May comes, no tent or order status update available. Phone messages are left. I should note also that the answering machine for the company is hardly understandable through the chinese accent, and I’m now made aware they are not only a camping supplies store, but also a fashion accessory outlet, and travel agency. Now I’m a little worried, but offering the benefit of the doubt.

We found a lot of things, other than just the tent on their site we needed (okay, wanted in some cases but close enough) for our camping trips we are hoping to take. Rounding up a good list of items we haven’t already found locally in stores, I put together a shopping cart, checked out, and got a confirmation of my order.

A few days after, we’re on a trip to Costco to get some food items and of course we come across quite a few camping goodies we’d love to have. Filling up 2 carts, not much food after all is said and done, we’ve included 2 tents! Great deal at $99 ea., they are 15ft by 12ft 4 person tents, with a front covered area. Thinking that if the CampingStation.com tent order ever does show up, we can just return these. If it doesn’t, hey, at least we’ll have tents right?

My new order of various items shows up. Of course, a few items we received are the wrong ones, and a number of them do not match their descriptions online in the least. Or should I say, the descriptions leave out quite a bit of information one would deem useful in making purchasing decisions… like the fact that the towels are the size of a kleenex, not a normal kitchen sized towel one would expect from a “kitchen camp towel” item name. Whatever. We can find a use for them and I really don’t want to have to deal with these people again.

Finally we get them on the telephone, and my wife discusses our options for receiving our tent we want so badly, and have already been held up for nearly $200 for. They expect a shipment any day now, and promised to mark our order as a priority to get one of the few they expect to receive. We have a glimmer of hope for about an hour until they call back. Why call back? To confirm we’re at the top of the list? To let us know they just checked and voila, they found a tent to send us today? No, just to tell us the manufacturer decided not to send them anymore.

Canceling the order was not the easiest, or hardest process. I guess you have to expect a retail business to try and turn a possible lost sale into something else, but they recommend a tent that is substantially different than the one we chose, but make sure to point out it’s in stock. No thanks. I already have tents by now anyway.

So, all said and done we’re going to go ahead and venture out with 2 tents. One for the boys, and one for me and the wife (and the dogs). Should give us plenty of room in each, and allow for lots of campsite layouts depending on site size and shapes. Unfortunately we still have to find some suitable towels for the camp kitchen, and get some pie-irons that are the right size and shape and don’t look like they’re going to melt if we make s’mores. But hey … we have tents.