I know this started out as a sailing blog, and those of you who have followed our journey may be bored stiff because we are not sailing (sometimes we are, too!). As I explained in the last post, our family “sandwich” has required that we stay relatively stationary in recent years. Aside from an annual sailing trip or two, we are, sadly, tied to a dock instead of out cruising. That means the boat work is progressing nicely, with Sam nearly finished with the port side integrated water tank rebuild, and doing some deck work to address rot.
It also means we are caring for our parents, who need help with the activities of daily life, and supporting our teenagers and young adult kids, who are amazingly independent, but still come home on the weekends for pizza night and family fun.
Most recently, we drove to Pensacola to pick up Sam and Eli after they finished their 1,100-mile hike of the Florida Trail. We loaded our camping gear into the Suburban and drove to Santa Rosa Island, part of the Gulf Islands National Seashore, where there’s a beautiful campground near historic Fort Pickens, which was completed in 1834, and which marks the northern terminus of the Florida Trail.
We unloaded and started setting up camp, and Sam and Eli came marching through the underbrush with backpacks and trekking poles, tired but triumphant. While we unpacked our tent, bedding, groceries, cooler, table, stove, kitchen tubs, rigid water tanks, and even a portable kitchen sink, they set down their packs, put up their ultralight tent, then sat back with a snack and drink to watch and laugh at us.
We are, evidently, not properly “roughing it” and we bring too much stuff. I noticed no one complained about the food that came out of my elaborate outdoor kitchen, though. I have discovered that my chief joy while camping is waking up early, making coffee while everyone is still in their sleeping bags, and flipping pancakes in the great outdoors with a soundtrack of birdsong. If that means packing the car to the gills, so be it.
We camped another night in north Florida, at Mike Roess Gold Head Branch State Park, setting up under an oak hammock, just a short walk from a particularly pretty part of the Florida Trail the boys wanted to revisit on the way back south. Sam got the fire started while I set up the outdoor kitchen. Jay cooked up some of the best burgers we’ve ever had, and I experimented with a new dessert: foil packet apple crisp baked over the fire.
Sam showed me how jumping spiders’ eyes glitter in the light of a headlamp, and when I looked out into the woods, I discovered that the world is simply covered with spiders! Thankfully, they eat the ticks that Sam and Eli said were so prevalent in this part of Florida, and you cannot see them unless you’re really looking. We woke up to the calls of Sandhill Cranes, mockingbirds, red-bellied woodpeckers, chickadees, and jays. After another camp breakfast and a walk, we packed up and headed back toward Naples. We’ve now had a chance to use our gear a few times, and we are very pleased with the investment we made, and can recommend a few things. (Keep reading for gear review!)
We got our tent from Bass Pro Shops/Cabela’s “Outdoor World” in Ft. Myers. It’s a six-man dome tent with a screen porch ($130), which acts like a bug airlock and does a great job of keeping critters out of the sleeping area. We knew the whole camping experiment relied heavily on our being able to sleep well, so we spent the big bucks on comfy bedding: the REI Co-op Camp Dreamer Sleep system ($179 for the insulated double mattress, $299 custom fit quilt/sheets/hood), and no regrets about that.
We also bought a 10’x10’ shade tent to go over a picnic table while camping or to set up at airsoft games on the weekends, along with a table and chairs ($45 Lifetime folding table and $12 Ozark Trail camp chairs at Walmart). So far, it has provided good protection from the Florida sun, but the screens are not attached in such a way that actually keeps out bugs, so I will either have to modify the attachment (using Velcro) or we will have to buy a different screen tent for camping ($79 Ozark Trail Instant Canopy at Walmart, $40 clip-in screen walls).
We looked at coolers everywhere we went (Dick’s, Sportsman’s Warehouse, Bass Pro Shops, REI, and Walmart) and ended up with the Lifetime 55 qt cooler with wheels and seven-day ice retention ($139 at Walmart). We bought a camp stove with a combination of a grill and single burner which takes the Coleman mini-propane bottles (stove $104 at Bass Pro Shops, propane about $5/bottle at Walmart). It’s very easy to use, and our Lodge cast iron skillet and griddle fit perfectly. We can also cook directly over the campfire, which is fun. My favorite purchase by far was the OXO nesting kitchen sink—a wash, rinse, and drain system that doubles as storage for all our utensils and dishes (sink $59 at REI, dishes for four $59 at Bass Pro Shops ). I filled a plastic bin at Walmart with basic kitchen tools so I wouldn’t have to raid my boat galley every time we packed up to go camping, and I’ve been happy so far with the miniature version of my galley. Preparing real food is an important part of our family life, so it’s important that we have good gear when we camp.
We bought water storage jugs because not all campsites have water (especially the more remote ones) and living on the boat has made us very self-reliant. We started with flexible tanks and then replaced them with rigid ones because they are much easter to stack and carry, though they take up a lot of space when empty. We use about 5 gallons a day, so that helps us plan. We bought four Reliance BPA-free Aquatainers, 7-gallons each ($19 at Amazon).
Additionally, that means we also want to be able to have a private bathroom when there are no facilities, and enough water for a solar shower. We bought a privacy tent at Walmart (Ozark Trail $48) and ordered a solar shower bag (Advanced Elements Summer Shower $36). I watched a 75-minute video reviewing EVERY portable toilet available and ordered an OGO Nomad ($200 at Amazon) with a bottle for liquids and biodegradable bag lined with Feline Pine pellets for solids ($22 for 18lbs. at Amazon). We’ve tested all these items and can attest to the luxury of having your own private facilities while away from home, especially if you take your teenage daughter camping!
I realize all of this is overkill. If Eli and Sam can live for two months in the wilderness carrying only a 25-lb pack each, we don’t need all this gear. But we are not minimalists (yet) and we wanted to try everything before culling what we do not need. The whole experiment only cost us about $2000—a drop in the bucket compared to what we spent moving onto a sailboat, and a tiny fraction of what it would cost to buy a camper van or RV.
For us, the end goal of camping is the same as for cruising on our boat: to go on adventures in the natural world. Since we’re in a life stage where we can’t go sailing and disappear for months at a time, maybe we can still get away for a long weekend or a week or two between emergencies. And just like when we’re traveling by boat, we’re seeking the quiet, isolated places, the remote campsites off the beaten track, surrounded by natural beauty. There’s almost nothing better than being the only boat anchored off a palm-tree-clad island in crystal clear water, and I dream of the day we get to camp alone at the edge of the Grand Canyon.
When Jay became obsessed with off-road vehicles, he introduced me to the Toyota World Runner’s video (The Greatest Road Trip On Earth). I immediately understood the appeal, and we began plotting a course toward more inland and off-road adventures. We started looking for a vehicle that could manage our daily drives between the boat and town, take us on road trips, and manage rugged terrain and get us to cool off-road campsites. Our 2002 Suburban had served our family well, and while it can carry a lot of camping gear, it cannot take us to remote locations. So we sold it the week it hit 199,000 miles and bought a used Lexus LX570 (a fancier version of the Toyota Land Cruiser), something that can take Nana to the doctor AND be customized to go off-road camping. So far, we love the new car and can’t wait to modify it for the next adventure!
