Sorry about posting in different parts of this forum! but I am so afraid of having to ride alone!! Not safe!! I'v been posting in every forum! Every club!! within 8 states away!! ''with not much luck''! It seems that, not many guys, want to ride with guys older, then themselves!! I can ride, with the best of them, young and old, for long halls....all day long, and night rides, too!! For days on end!! Or with dudes w/ kids....been there, done that, too!! ''proud to say''....still doing that! Too many guys would prefer to talk about riding/camping, but would rather sit on internet, boasting of what others ''are doing''!!

 

Damn I am full just reading about all that food! I have to say, since retiring I have reduced my appetite quite a bit...had to as I was faininf to much weight! After my bypass surgery I really have to watch my diet. Very little red meat, but have gotten used to that, now just need to start catching more fish! While I like chicken, if I eat much more I might start clucking!

 

7f this morning up north....so you ready, for pitching them tents for overnight camp out? aw fresh air, clear starry sky's, no need for cooler, never a dull moment, building huge bonfires....all night long! Hell, we won't even need that tent lol weenie roast at 3 in the morning! Pass around that hot coco! You ready? these perfect weather conditions won't last forever! You snooze you loose!

 

When I retired, I decided it was time to enjoy life. So...no more tents and sleeping on the ground. I would never get any sleep if I had to stay up all night tending a fire. If I did that I might fall asleep on the trail and I dont have auto-pilot! Can see it now...having autopilot so you can nap during the ride, set up a camera to record the ride so I could watch it later and see what I missed. If you follow me close, we might even ride right into one of the many lakes up there, wouldnt that qake you up in a hurry! Now that I think about it, guess I will wait a little longer until the weather is more stabile. Until then I can dream and watch videos of places I want to try. Hot dogs at 3am....better bring the rolaids!

 

I'm not ready to shovel snow to clear a spot for my tent. It looks like I accidentally gave away both of my propane heaters instead of just one. I can't remember if I ever used one in my tents anyway. Burning propane while surrounded by flammable fabric makes me nervous. It sure sounded good when it was 40 degrees or less at night and my sleeping bag is only good to about 55-60 degrees, but I left my heaters at home because we had such warm weather. I just put my insulated blanket on top of my sleeping bag and warmed up enough to fall asleep.

I survived 17 degrees below zero actual temperature in a pup tent with no heat in basic training, but surviving was all I did. Anytime I almost fell asleep the full body shivers made sure I was awake. Us guys all burned enough calories just keeping our body temperature up that we were all starving by breakfast. The women were okay since they were all in a bigger tent with 2 glowing red stoves burning coal all night. I'll never sleep in an unheated tent in winter again. Stripping naked and lying in the snow to die from exposure would probably be better. You wouldn't suffer as long. I lived in a tent for 6 months out of each year I was stationed in Germany but in the winter we had an insulated tent, and a tent stove we turned all the way down so our Jerry can of diesel fuel lasted all night.

I started to wonder if I made a mistake finally taking my ice scraper and winter gloves out of the truck Sunday or Monday then it got down in the 20s at night. Today the sun shining through the windows got it so warm in my truck I thought I might need the A/C when it was only 45 degrees outside. It's time to put the sun shade back in my truck.

 

In our much younger days the wife and I tent camped, went out on a chilly November weekend with tent and small propane heater. Ended up freezing out butts off, no sleep and could not warm up the next day. Ended up spending the rest of the weekend in the truck with the heater on. That was our last cold weather camping trip in a tent. Following year we moved into a popup camper. While that was better, it was still cold on cold nights under 40. Then moved into a travel trailer and we found home, we easily stayed warm at temps to 25 and lower. Went back to tent camping when the boys started riding quads for a few years. Life happened and we stopped camping for some time and did the hotel/motel thing. Dirty rooms and poor restaurant food spoiled that after a few years, then we retired and needed something to do. Moved into a small motor home and the rest is history, will never tent camp again, can always stay warm and the bed is so much better as is the hot shower. I like the outdoors and like to be in it, but the old arthritis just cant take sleeping on the ground or the cold chill from a tent. Might as well enjoy the journey so no we go in comfort. Will gladly spend the money for extra gas to be comfortable.

 

Those cameras are on their way, and just in case we do happen to doze off and end up in the lake, there good for depth's of 30', so maybe we better also get snorkels 30' high, might also be a good idea to wear diving suits, too! With all the flooding that's about to start happening next week up there, we just might need all that stuff! I'm hoping to mount the cameras on both our rides, so we can hopefully catch every bump in the road, and maybe even Franks kangaroo lol

 

I haven't seen a kangaroo, not yet anyway, but my uncle did. He didn't drink or do drugs and he wasn't a liar. Maybe he went crazy and nobody ever noticed. Or maybe he really did see one. We'll never know for sure.

When I was a kid we had a travel trailer my dad parked different places in the middle of Huron National Forest and never in a campground. The last one was a great place until someone cut down all the oak trees in the area and planted pine trees everywhere, including the wide open spot where we and our friends parked our trucks and trailers. We had one trailer for a long time then ended up getting a bigger one that sleeps 7. But it doesn't comfortably sleep 7 people my size. I think it's 27' long and the other one was 23'. It has a table in the front that folds down into a bed and another table toward the back that converts into a bed. Right next to it is a narrow space you can squeeze through to get to the bunk beds. 2 are against the back wall and one is above the rear table/bed. That one was mine. It was the only bed that didn't have a wall of some kind on one end. My feet hung out over the end and it was the only bed I fit in. My brothers got the other 2 bunks and my parents were short enough to fit in the bed below me. The only good thing about that arrangement was that we didn't have to fold down the table in the front. So it slept 7 but only if 6 weren't very tall, or lay on their sides with their knees bent. My bunk was also very narrow, about half the width of my air mattress. I have room in my tent for my bed on one side and have a nightstand and my suitcases on the other with room to move around in between. If I had a better sleeping bag I'd be all set but none of the good ones I've seen come in big sizes like the one I have now.

 

Don't need sleeping bags, too hard to get in and out of, get a nice warm comforter, or 2 with blankets if needed, since layering works great, in fact you'll be kicking them off, after you get in there and start warming up!
I'm still thinking about building a hut out of 1'' foam board, cutting out door/windows and using those cutouts to regulate venting, heat in, cold out! with hinges w/ pins to attach walls and roof sections together, that would easily install, tear down quickly with just pin attachment, stacking panels together during transportation, taking up less space than most large tents and way much quicker to put up and take down! could be build on our sm trailer, or just stake it down to the camp ground. At 4' high walls and another foot n half gable roof would be high enough to stand up in, to help getting in out. I bought the sheets last fall but ended up using them to enclose our patio, for playing winter ping pong games. lol Only $75 at Menards during their 11% sale.

 

A motorhome is much easier! Dont have anything to put together, especially when its raining! Better be able to anchor that foam building down or you might end up in OZ one day, I dont think they have riding trails there!