The Happy Camper Van

A while back I said I would do a post on"The Happy Camper Van". 

Cal & I love to go camping.  Our favorite place to go is Glacier National Park in Montanna.   We like the freedom the van provides for us when it comes to where we can camp.  There are many campgrounds around GNP, but we prefer to pull the van into a quiet place and set up "camp" whenever and where-ever we want.  Most of the time we head to Montanna after work on Friday evening and by the time we pass through the border and make our way to St. Mary it can be very late...or we might not make it to the border before it closes, so having the van as our camper really comes in handy.  Many times we have pulled into a secluded area with only the trees and stars to witness our arrival.

The sleeping arrangements are very cozy.  We have a piece of plywood as the base and on top of that is a self inflating mattress, and then on top of that is a really good quality foam mattress. I take a full size fitted sheet and make sure to keep both mattresses held together by the sheet, that helps keep the two mattresses from sliding around and seperating.  Nights can get cold up in the mountains, so I always put the goose down comforter in my Rose Duvet that I purchased from IKEA in Houston years ago.  A thin quilt lays at the foot of the "bed" just in case it is extra cold, or it is used as a replacement for covers if the comforter or weather is too hot.  Cal rigged up a curtain rod for me and I use these pretty curtains that were given to me by my Aunt Angie.  Pillow cases were gifted to me by Annette.  I think despite the fact that it's just the back of a van, it looks cozy and welcoming.

 Cal had already installed these shelves in the van for his tools when he had his carpentry business.  We have ideas for improving on them in the future, but for now they work just fine.

I put everything we need in baskets or bags and stuff the shelves to keep things out of the way of the bed.

This is our kitchen.  I bring regular dishes, glasses, and silverware.  The cooler is just big enough for us and keeps the food cold for the weekend as long as you keep the ice replenished on a regular basis/  Cal uses a Coleman cookstove for making all our meals.  I like how when we camp he becomes the cook!!

Cal has had this perculator for quite a while and with Starbucks coffee grounds in the filter camp coffee never tasted better!!

Now, these are the two items I would be lost without on a camping trip!  I use these bowls for many things, and washing dishes is just one of those things.  One to wash the dishes, one to rinse.

When you are camping the way Cal & I do, (not using a campground; or staying in a primitive campground that does not offer showers,)  keeping clean can seem problematic.  After a few times out I finally figured out how to solve that problem.

See the big bowl again?  It works great for washing your hair too, and as a "wash basin".

Two big bed sheets draped over the open side doors of the van offer privacy!  Or if we want to take an afternoon nap and still feel "tucked" in this allows for cool mountain air to flow through the van.

So, now you see how we manage as we go camping on our get away trips to GNP. 

I absolutely LOVE our times up in the mountains and we plan to go as much as we can every summer and hope to make many happy memories in the years to come.

Happy Camping!!!



Curly Girl

I am a serious library nerd.  On a recent trip I found a book called Curly Girl, The handbook.

I didn't really think much about it as I added it to my stack of books to check out.  But as I was flipping through the pages and I began to read the testimonials about having curly hair,it really caught my interest so I started at page one and read the book cover to cover.

If you have naturally curly hair you will find yourself reading this book and nodding your head.  You might even say  "That's right" out loud in agreement to what it talks about.

If you have straight hair, you will probably not even bother to get past the introduction; but if you do you may learn some hair care information that will help you too.  Or at the very least you'll understand curly haired people better than you did before.

It talks about how when a curly girl goes to a salon for a haircut, she never knows what she is gonna get.  Always, and I mean always, the hair stylist washes your hair and cuts it WET. Well, do you wear your hair wet?  A curly girl needs it cut dry because as her hair drys the curls shrink up, and the results of a bad haricut can be awful.  I've had "just an inch" look alot shorter when the hair dried and shrank up about 3". Now it comes time for them to "style" it and they usually want to blow it dry straight....you know, just to see how it will look.  You leave the salon, and feel pretty good about the haircut....until you get home and style it yourself the next day.  Most of the time you wear your hair curly, since that is the way it is naturally and it's easier and quicker to do that way....but when you blow it dry the way your normally do, you see that your curls won't really curl, they might even look kinda like cotton candy....sigh.  I've had more bad hair cuts than good ones to be sure.  I always hear the stylist say "Oh, don't worry, I know how to cut curly hair."  They thin it, razor it, texture it, layer it, oh my, I even had one take my hair in small amounts, twist it it as tight as she could get it, lifted it straight up and then cut into the twists.  It looked cool while she was doing it, but the results were NOT so cool.  My hair was messed up big time.  sigh, sigh, sigh.

I learned alot while reading this book.  I will blog what I read, and share what the author recommends and what I am putting into practice, and how things are going.

I can tell you this, she recommends, no blow dryers, no curling irons, and no straighteners, no combs or brushes. 

 All these items damage curly hair and the curl will not look healthy, and actually causes frizz

I've been following that part now for 4 days, and I can tell you, it's been interesting.....my hair right now looks like a bad perm from the 1970's.  LOL   

After washing my hair, (more details on how to do that in another post) I dry it with a t-shirt by carefully scrunching the ends into the T-shirt in an upward motion.  Then you carefully shake your head, then apply gel all over your hair, gently squish it or scrunch it, and let it air dry.  I think it's just gonna take some time to get the hang of how to style it...

Part of me wants to give up, but it's only been a few days now.

Here is how my curls look today.

BUT...I am curious to see how long it will take till they look like the author promises they will:  Healthy and Beautiful ....I'll check back with you soon on this.

Frank's Slide - Part 1

Hello, 

What did you do over the long weekend?

We went camping  near Frank's Slide. 

Here are some pictures for you to take a look at.

Hope you enjoy them.

We invited Ben's friend Dominic to come with us.  The guys had a great time climbing around the huge rocks that overwhelm the landscape near the small town of Frank.

Ben and I just hanging around, and the 3 of us goofing around.

The weather during the day was really nice; but at night...not so much.  The first night was freezing!  I slept in my clothing, a jacket with the hood over my head and a pair of gloves.  The next morning we woke up with frost all over everything...no wonder we were so cold that night!!!

These oversized cocoons are really two teenage boys wrapped up in down comforters trying to keep warm.

One of the locals told us about a "BIG ROCK" that people dive off in the river.  So....being absolutely crazy, er, I mean adventurous, we decided to check it out.  The jump is about 20 feet into an extremely and I mean extremely cold river.  How do I know it was that cold?  I did the jump myself.  There will be more about that in Post #2.

The picture on the left is of the river that runs under Turtle Mountain, you can see the BIG ROCK way in the back ground.  Picture on the right is of Dominic on top of a huge chunk of rock that tumbled down the mountain.

Some of the gorgeous scenary in the area.

Below are a couple videos of the guys jumping into the river from the BIG ROCK.

The first one is Dominic....

This one is Ben.....

 

Stay tuned for Part 2 soon.