Blythe campsite

[Echo]

Ok Soos, here goes. Just for you, well everybody else can look too if their interested!

just set up


Mom's tent


Kelly's tent


from the backside


my tent from the front, door is on the right


screen house with tarps up, looking lopsided as all heck


oh the joys of camping and communing with nature!


our lane looking right


our lane looking left, way at the end is where I take Shade to do her business and then run free off leash


So this is home until the 3rd week of April.

Was looking and drooling over tents online today. I did find one kinda like mine that I liked. Price was $329 and the vestibule that you have to buy separate was $80. Hope I don't have to ever buy another big tent!!! Gonna take really, really good care of this one so that I don't have to worry about it.

[mitch5252]

..

Man, Echo - you guys are made of sturdier stuff than I am!
Thanks for sharing your Home Base with us all.

..

[Cedar518]

Wow,.... looks like a lot of hard work. Gotta hand it to you two!

[avalen]

what a busy campground, looks packed. All those motorhomes around you give you
a little protection from the wind? and do you worry about their engines running and
fuming you out? You should tell the guy with the big noisy truck that your carbon
monoxide detector went off from his truck running, and that its all collecting inside
your tent, wonder if he'd believe you had one. just kidding, it would be best
to stay neighborly. I used to have a tent like the one Kelly has, but the one you have
is huge!

[VickieP]

There sure ain't much grass out there! Like Mitchy said, you sure are a lot tougher than I'd be.

[Echo]

Grass?? It's here but in winter mode!
Work? Yep but when it's done it's done. ? Well for the most part until the tornadoes come thru.
Yeah mine is bigger and it usually has the extra stuff stuffed in there to keep it out of the weather. Kelly helps me put it up as then it's faster.
It's full off and on. It might be full a couple of days then people leave and there's empty spots for a few days. And yeah the big rigs to cut down on the wind a little. The spot right behind us is empty so I sure do hope we don't get any more crazy winds.
Sturdier stuff?? Who me? Us? Seems to me I've been doing a bit of whining about being cold and then being grateful to finally get a heater!!!

I really do like tent camping and I'm kinda sorry in a way that we will be getting out of it whenever we manage to get an RV of our own. But it starts to get a little harder to get up off the inflatable mattress. I could buy a raised one but not right now. The very worst part is getting out of bed and out from under the warm cozy blankets in the morning. But we will keep our tents for just in case of a wild hair!!!

The tent I'm using came from England they don't sell them here. It's the one somebody left in the campground the Lodge manages for the Forestry Service. So it was a freebie that was given to me and I'm Loving it!!!

[BarbaraRose]

Are you the only ones in tents there? You two seem to have a good system that works well for you, in spite of all the work.

Barbie

[Echo]

Yep, were the only ones here living in tents. Everyone else has an RV. There are 2 other tents set up at different RV's, but have no idea what they are for or who uses them???

[dcricket]

Looks like you all have it dialed. Great set-up!

[Nasoosie]

WONDERFUL to see your site, Echo! And now I feel so much better after seeing your nice tent----the pics I saw of the tents before looked as if you both had to nearly crawl to get into them, but I can see that yours is a perfect size and that you can stand up in it. It also has all those great tie-down loops all over the fly to keep it in place, if your stakes are long enough. Kelly's tent is nice, too, but a bit shorter to the ground. Your screen room, the "main" room, as it were, seems to have a bit of everything you need to try to stay comfy.

Tent camping has been my life forever, since I was a tiny kid, and I STILL love to be outside somewhere in the wilderness (not so sure about a campground with a lot of people like you have)and have a fabric house all set up around me! I truly have had a tent addiction over the years, and, although I managed to sell a couple of my biggest ones that required help for me to set them up (and I no longer have any help)---I still have a few of my top favorites down in the basement, including a canvas wall tent which I guess is my TOP favorite. Now, with my new truck camper top and a tent that attaches to it (I hope it will, anyway, when I try it out in the spring) I can drive anywhere for a couple of days without having to haul my trailer and (shudder) back it up! My new short-term setup will have a 12 volt TV, radio, stove, pee bucket, heater (Big Buddy propane heater) real camping bed and shelves with drawers in the pickup, my laptop, (IF there is WiFI available) tables and chairs, and generator. And the tent can remain all set up while I drive the truck anywhere I wish to go wherever I am.

Thanks so much for making my imagination real now! I can 'see' where you are living for real!

[DesireGMC]

Oh my - you are so, so brave! I wouldn't even be able to get my tail off the ground. Although, I suppose the exercise would be a good thing. Glad you are loving it - it's best we love what life hands us - otherwise even the best can be torture.

Hmm - I know what I meant by the last part - but don't know how to say it anymore clearly. At any rate - I'm proud of you!

[Liz]

The screen room is nice...gives you a little more "living space." Using tarps to keep it warmer/dryer was a good idea. The campground does look crowded. Glad you have a place to walk Shade and let her run.

[Echo]

Soos, I too am a tent addict but hopefully the next tent I buy will have to buy will be a small one like Kelly's. Her's use to be mine but if doing extended camping hated the fact that I couldn't stand up in it. But her little one has the poles permanently attached to a center hub, then it has quick clips and is a super breeze to put up. If I could have found one just like it I would've bought it in a heartbeat! Looking and drooling at tents on line I did find one like my big one but don't know if they ship to the US. I did find another big one with a nice vestibule that you can totally zip close but the blasted thing cost ? I think $400. Ain't no way I'm ever gonna pay that. Will use a folded up tarp first!

Kerry, I understood what ya was saying! It's like that deal of "liking what you have". And we do.

Liz I use to set up a big ol'tarp for a canopy. Took some electrical conduit made a ridge pole out of 3 pieces using angle connectors, threw a tarp up over it then used the old fashioned heavy duty alum. tent poles out on the corners and ground tied them in place. I'll tell ya that thing would super for keeping the weather off and covering a lot of area. Used that thing at parties too. A 20x30 tarp is a whole lot cheaper than buying or renting a party tent! And best of all you can use it over and over. Really looking forward to getting that 14x14 e-z up type canopy!! That will give us so much more space, right now the screen house is really kinda cramped.

The campground isn't to awful bad as there is room between the rigs. Well depending on how they park them that is. When a end spot comes open tho there are those that do move to grab them as then you have the room to sprawl out. With our set up the way it is using tents and the screen house there's no way I want to be on the end. We would end up getting all the wind!

[avalen]

Echo, if you get that ez-up, Walmart has the ozark trail that goes into it to turn it
into a big one room tent. I thought those were pretty cool and setup is 5 to 10 min.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Ozark-Trail-H ... o/10986131

[Echo]

For now we will be using tarps to enclose it. But yep we will be looking for the screen walls for the 14x14 one. It'll be great when we find it and of course have the money.

I wont be giving this one away!!!