Perpetual Ruminations

October Camping; Third Campout of The Year

Having a mobile tent is working out great for us. We love camping, and we love using a tent, but with age, it's been getting more difficult. Sleeping on the ground was replaced with air mattresses, then we upgraded to a portable frame so we could get off the bed more easily, and our small tent gave way to bigger tents and more equipment. It was time to get a camper. Because we enjoy tenting, we eventually purchased a used, in pretty good shape, pop-up camper (a mobile tent).

We can keep most of our camping equipment in the camper, we have a small fridge, a  sink, a stove, and ten gallons of water complete with a water heater. It has a pull-out dining area, a couch, and two pull-out queen-size (closer to king-sized) beds as well as a furnace. But, since we purchased it and fixed it up, we have only used it a handful of times. We took it out twice last year and twice so far this year. And, we have only been able to get a campsite with an electric hook-up once. That was in June of this year and we really didn't use electricity much at all.

Even though we enjoy roughing it, we would also like to enjoy the accessories we have with our mobile tent. We will finally get the opportunity to do just that, over the weekend of October sixth through the ninth. Yes, we are going camping in October, in northern Minnesota!

We will be camping at La Salle State Park north of Itasca State Park for four glorious days. The forecast calls for some rain throughout the weekend, with daily highs of about sixty degrees, and lows dropping near freezing. Of course, the weather forecast around here is about as accurate as asking the Magic Eight-Ball, so we will see what comes. We may get some rain, and it's possible, but kind of unlikely, to even get a bit of snow.

So, with the forecast, you would likely think we are a bit bummed. But, it's actually really exciting to think about camping in October, having some rain, the possibility of snow, and being able to weather it out in a mobile tent. We have a furnace, and the campsite has electric hook-ups, water hook-ups, and even sewage hook-ups. We don't have a bathroom or shower in the mobile tent, but we do have the means of running our gray water into the sewer. They also have very nice bathrooms and showers at the campground, as well as a washer and dryer (coin-operated) and firewood.

This may be the last campout of the year, but it's looking like it may be the best one since we purchased a mobile tent. Snuggled in a hoodie, sitting around a fire, or sitting in shirt sleeves in a warm and toasty mobile tent, what ever the weather brings, we'll enjoy our October Campout,