Starling Travel

Families that Stick has a great comprehensive list of things to bring when you go camping. Some of it I agreed with and some of it wasn’t enough information. For example, suggesting that you bring age appropriate activities for your children isn’t really an item on a list. It’s just not specific enough.

The MUST pack list, however was spot on:

• Sanitizing wipes – For hands, spills and hotel rooms, pack travel size packs in each of your children’s backpacks.
• Sponge – Take a sponge and cut it into 2-inch strips then moisten and place in a Ziplock. These will be handy for quick washing of water bottles, children’s cups, faces and more.  Toss each one in the garbage after use.
• Earphones – Pack one set per person. Use with the electronics they bring along or for airplane entertainment.
• Gum – Take along several packages of gum to help prevent ear pain. Chewing gum helps to pop plugged ears as well as keep them from plugging during takeoff and landing.
• First aid – Create or buy a mini first aid kit complete with bandages, antiseptic wipes and children’s pain relievers.
• Ziploc – Pack extra, empty Ziploc in the various sizes they come in for dividing snacks, storing liquids items and more.
• Reusable shopping bag – Great to use as a beach bag or laundry bag and for day trips and bringing home souvenirs in if you run out of space in your suitcase.
• Plastic grocery bags – Stuff a couple in your carry-on bag just in case you need them for garbage or clothes that get spilled on.

The gum is great for when you’re not flying as well when you are driving through mountainous regions, and the earphones are a godsend when you have more than one person in the car who wants to listen to music, video games or movies. Those plastic grocery bags are a life saver if you have a nauseous person in the car, as well.

The next time you plan to travel, give that big list a glance and make sure you have activities, supplies and meals planned. It will save you time and money when you’re out on the road.

HeraldNet.com reports that the Forest Service is looking at adding trails and campgrounds to the Mount St. Helens National Monument.

The Forest Service is studying the possibility of adding one or two campgrounds and two trails at Mount St. Helens, including a new climbing route on the north side of the volcano. Plans call for starting the environmental review this summer on a trail that departs from Loowit trail No. 216 and climbs to the Sugar Bowl, a rim at about 6,800-feet elevation on the northeast side of Mount St. Helens. Although the trail would not go to the summit, “you’d be able to look right into the crater,” said Gary Walker, lead climbing and trails ranger, for the monument. Climbing on Mount St. Helens has been done only from the south side since the summit reopened in 1982. The number of climbers is limited during summer. A northern route high on the mountain would need to become part of the permit system.

The second trail would begin near the Ape Cave on the south side of the peak and use a former logging road to climb about a mile to a viewpoint of Mount St. Helens. “There’s no view of Mount St. Helens from the Ape Cave,” Romano said. “This would give a fuller experience.”

Locations are being analyzed for two proposed campgrounds near the Science and Learning Center at Coldwater, the new name for the former Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center. The Forest Service wants an overnight facility near the Science and Learning Center as a means for visitors to extend their stays and for research and education groups participating in multi-day programs. Romano said the terrain does not make locating campground sites easy. “There’s not a whole lot of flat ground out there,” she said. “We’ve identified a few places where a small campground might fit.” The sites would be small, with no electricity, toilets without running water and no campfires. Both campgrounds would be within easy walking distance of the center. “We’re still working on the feasibility study,” Romano said. “We’ll know more in a few months.”

Right now, the closest camping to Mount St. Helens is the Beaver Bay Campground, 11 miles (25 minute drive) away. That site is hosted by Pacificorp and is not a state or federal campground, but it has water, showers and a swimming beach. It’s not that far of a drive from Beaver Bay to Mount St. Helens, but I can understand why the Forest Service might want to keep visitors at their site instead of watching them leave the mountain every day.

Via:

• Beaver Bay Campground – Photo Gallery – LewisRiver.com
• RV Life Magazine – New Mount St. Helens Campgrounds | RV Life Magazine

This is an excellent video about how to RV at a Walmart.

There are a lot of Walmarts that don’t allow overnight parking. It’s easy to see which ones allow it and which ones don’t using the Allstays iPhone App [iTunes link]. They show all the RV parks, but the also list the Walmarts in your area. The ones in red are the ones where they definitely do NOT allow overnight parking. The others, you need to ask the manager for permission.

The next time you are exhausted and can’t find room at an RV park or a state park, try napping at the closest Walmart. They just might be the best camping experience of your trip.

Via: 3 Excellent advice…

Update 09-10-13

Here is another video describing the proper etiquette when staying overnight at Walmart:

Mike and I have found ourselves with child… A ten year old child who will be coming along on all our camping adventures. No matter what we could do, we just couldn’t figure out how to take him in the teardrop trailer. Most RV resorts won’t let us put up a tent next to our trailer, and we couldn’t find a way to squish him in the cabin of the teardrop with us.

So, we bought a tent trailer…

We’re still driving the Prius, so we were really restricted as far as what we could tow, but we found a Palomino Pony tent trailer that weighs only 855 pounds. It pulls even better than the teardrop (probably because the tires are slightly bigger) and our gas mileage was the same, despite the extra weight.

I am currently in the process of cleaning everything and making it camp-worthy before our maiden voyage this weekend. This camper is in MUCH better shape than my Teardrop American Outbacker, so it will need hardly any work to get it up to par.

Our garage is packed FULL of trailers right now, and I need to decide if I’m willing to let the teardrop go. My sister is considering buying it, and I would be so happy if it could stay in the family. Otherwise, we’ll have to sell it on eBay.

I was able to find the Owners Manual for the trailer, so that should come in handy.

• 1988 Palomino Pony Tent Trailer Owners Manual at Pop Up Portal

I love this trailer because it has an exterior lifting mechanism instead of a crank. It will be a lot easier to fix the lift if it breaks than if the cord snaps on a crank tent trailer. I also love it because there is no sink, stove, or any plumbing in the trailer. Those features being missing makes it light and they’re things that I don’t really want, so they would be in the way if they were there.

I used to think, why would anyone want a tent trailer? I now know. So many RV parks and resorts don’t allow tents, but they’re perfectly willing to let you have a tent trailer. There are so many places on our Epic Journey last season that we wouldn’t have been able to stay at if we hadn’t had the teardrop. The Palomino Pony will do the same for us.

My biggest worry is camping in the mountains when it’s cold. We might not be able to test that this weekend, since the temperatures are pretty high this summer, but when September rolls around, we will be able to see how warm the tent trailer can be. I’m pretty sure it’s just not going to cut it.

We got this tent trailer for only $500, so it really falls into the Redneck Trailer category for me. It’s ugly as sin with a Sears Cartop Storage container riveted to the roof, but it was cheap and it will be good enough to get us into any trailer park from here to Florida.

I can’t wait to take it on an epic journey!

Update 08-29-12: Here are some photos of it from our campout at Wasatch Mountain State Park.

My sister DID buy my teardrop trailer, so that freed up my garage a bit and felt good to keep my beloved little teardrop in the family. When we camped at Bear Lake last weekend, the temperatures got down to 46 degrees, but our little heater kept the tent plenty warm enough for us. I’m so excited to have many adventures in this trailer!

At the Salt Lake Farmers Market a couple of weeks ago, I saw this old canned ham trailer.

The girls who owned it used it for their catering service. They had converted one of the windows to serve food.

I was so happy to see the new life in such an old trailer and they had done such a good job converting it. Lovely!

Lowe’s has a project for your campsite garbage. It is made out of PVC and easily collapses for storage and transport:

• Tailgating 2010: Projects 8-10 – Lowe’s Creative Ideas

Directions

Step 1: Using a hacksaw, cut the PVC into the following lengths:

• 4 (6-inch) pieces
• 1 (17 3/4-inch) piece
• 4 (30-inch) pieces
• 4 (3-inch) pieces
• 2 (17 1/2-inch) pieces

Step 2: Assemble the PVC parts as shown in the photo.

Step 3: Use the PVC cement to glue the base and sides together. Do not glue the caps, which are meant to be taken off and placed over the bag to hold it in place. You now have three parts to transport and assemble on site.

Step 4: Clean the words and numbers off the pipes with PVC pipe cleaner. Repeat these steps to make two more trash bins. Write “aluminum,” “paper,” and “trash” on the pipes with a permanent marker to distinguish the three receptacles.

This short little video is so relaxing that for a second, I felt as if I were in Colorado, instead of a state away.

It looks best when it’s full screen, so click on over to YouTube and enjoy it there:

• Camping in Pike National Forest Colorado – YouTube

It’s so idyllic and beautiful that it feels like a Bob Ross painting come alive. Many times, I hate vertical videos, but this one is framed so perfectly that I can’t argue with the form factor.

If you are trapped in the office, wishing you could be in the great outdoors right now, watch this video and take a deep breath, imagining that you are right there, at the bank of the cold stream and in the shade of that perfect mountain.

via: Camping / Camping in Pike National Forest Colorado

I love this photo of a couple in their tent perched atop of their classic car.

I really like the awning they have set up UNDER the tent, but to the side of the car. It looks like it’s a great place to change clothes in privacy, just like I put on my teardrop trailer.

It’s hard for me to believe that this kind of car top tent isn’t available EVERYWHERE. So many cars have roof racks that it seems like an easy addition to any car. They are available, but they’re a lot more expensive than a normal tent. Take this one for example:

• CarTopCamper 3-person private entry tent – sleeps up to 7 people

The cost for this tent is $1302! Now, they make smaller tents like the one from the Fifties that cost less, but my Springbar was less than half the cost of that tent. If you are interested in it, however, here’s a video showing it in more detail.

It’s nice to know that it’s possible to recreate the camping experience of the Fifties on your very own vehicle, but at that cost, a cheap Redneck Trailer might be a better option.

Photo via: Camping… / totally awesome

I’ve found a bunch of websites that suggest many things that you can do with glow sticks. I dismissed them at first because I thought glow sticks were expensive, but it turns out you can get a bunch of them for CHEAP from Amazon.

• 25 Lumistick 6″ Premium Glowsticks – Assorted Colors at Amazon.com
• 8″ LumiStick Brand Glowsticks Glow Stick Bracelets Mixed Colors (Tube of 100) at Amazon.com

Knowing that we could get glowsticks for only 50 cents apiece, opened up my willingness to look at these glowing ideas.

Glowstick Bowling

This idea from Sit a Spell: Aint No Party Like A Glow-Stick Party suggests putting a glowstick in each of ten plastic bottles filled with water. Then with a ball, try to knock them down, bowling style.

This idea seemed to be the best idea for glowsticks. There is no cutting apart of the sticks and you use the light to guide your ball. Sounds like fun and the only problem is bringing ten plastic bottles and a ball with you.

Glow Bubbles

Glowing bubbles?! Yes! …but no. « blog.kriegsman.org bought a special bottle of glow bubbles, but they didn’t work out for them. They could barely tell that the bubbles were glowing and they didn’t show up on film at all.

Someone on Pinterest suggested cutting apart a couple of glow sticks and dumping them into your bubbles to create the same effect, but considering that the effect wasn’t that interesting, I think I’ll pass on this one.

Mountain Dew Glow Sticks

This activity doesn’t require glow sticks, but it does require a bit of chemistry.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 bottle of Mountain Dew
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 3 teaspoons hydrogen peroxide

Directions:

• Take the bottle of Mountain Dew and drink 3/4 of it, leaving 1/4 of it there.
• Add a tiny bit of baking soda (approximately 1/4 teaspoon).
• Add 3 teaspoons of hydrogen peroxide.
• Shake the bottle well and enjoy the glow.

Here’s a video showing you how to do it:

Of all the ideas, this one sounds the best. You get a refreshing soda AND a lesson in chemistry.

Glowstick Photography

The funnest thing to do with glowsticks is move them around quickly when someone takes a picture of you.

It’s so interesting to see the path you traced with the glowstick while the camera watched.

Glow Stick Ring Toss

Momma Did It decided to create a holiday tradition for Independence Day that didn’t have a huge fire hazard like fireworks, so she created Glow Stick Ring Toss.

Take two of the glowstick bracelets and fit them together to make large rings. Then toss them at a horseshoe target (or set up one of the camping chairs for the target). Brilliant!

Glow Sticks in Balloons

I love these glow sticks in balloons.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t say HOW to get the glow sticks inside the balloons and the link to the original site is faulty. It looks good, though.

Creepy Eyes in the Bushes

Thrifty Crafty Girl had an Eyes in the Bushes Project that she did with Christmas lights, but glow sticks would work just as well. Save some toilet paper tubes and cut out different shapes of eyes in each one.

Insert a glow stick into each one and hide them in the bushes for a creepy “watching you” effect.

Next time you go on a camping trip, plan some fun activities for the after dark times using these ideas.

Via:

• Starling Travel / Clear 2 liter bottle + water + glow sticks + ball = night time bowling.
• Starling Travel / Camping! Cut open glow sticks & pour them into bubble solution. Glow in the dark bubbles. I like the idea for summer nights & camping 🙂
• Starling Travel / For camping or late nights at the beach? Homemade glow stick (bottle) solution.
• Fun with photography
• All 5 entries tagged Meta 13, Nath’s PhotoBlog
• Camping / Camping
• Camping help & ideas / Glow sticks in balloons. Camping fun</a
• Starling Travel / Eyes in the Bushes, Put glow sticks in them. #camping

I found this great recipe for Campurritos here:

• Campurritos! // Because Camping Should Be Fun! | Ninth and Bird

I can’t eat flour tortillas, so I’m wondering how they would turn out if I just put the mixture into a foil wrapper and ate it out of the foil. Click through for ingredients and instructions: (Continue Reading…)