why i love my tent
I am two nights into my three night return to tentland. This is primarily due to weekend accommodation being particularly expensive and hard-to-find this weekend, as the summer holiday rush heats up. There was definitely something to be said for the heat dome and forest fires keeping wealthy city dwellers out of the countryside last year.
Things i love about my tent. It's exactly the right size for me and everything i own. There is no wasted space. I can feel fresh air blowing in from outside, i can hear the birds in the trees and everything happening around me. The ground is nice and hard and doesn't hurt my back like a squishy mattress. It's cozy. It's my little home.
Things i do not love about my tent include not having electricity. I don't need much to be happy - just enough to charge my laptop and phone - but without electricity it can never be a place where i can happily spend all day. Also, it becomes very hot after a few hours under direct sunlight.
I am attempting to spend more of my day in my tent today than i normally would, because the mosquitoes here are utterly insane. I am back on Splatsin land near Enderby, in the place where last year the skies turned a hellish shade of orange from the smoke. This year there is flooding instead, and the Shuswap River is oozing along with swollen, muddy banks. The thunderstorms exploded in their probably last gasp this week, so the earth is still damp and there are plenty of soggy pools for the mosquitoes to hatch in.
And there are clouds of them. Clouds! Open your mouth, you'll eat a skeeter. Breath in, snort a skeeter. Every patch of my skin is covered in bites, despite the DEET. Normally i do not kill animals - including insects - but the mosquitoes have declared war and the blood stains all over my body show the costs of that decision.
But, you know, i am quite enjoying camping again. It really does feel like a happy little hut. 30 bucks a night is still a lot to pay for a no services spot, but when it's 10% the cost of a motel and walking distance from a bus stop, it's worth it. It even leaves cash left over for eating out.
I will make a picture post later on, when i have access to both electricity and wifi in the same place again, but for now i wanted to capture this moment of quiet contentedness with not very much. I wish society was structured in such a way that it could provide for those of us who really don't ask for a lot.
Things i love about my tent. It's exactly the right size for me and everything i own. There is no wasted space. I can feel fresh air blowing in from outside, i can hear the birds in the trees and everything happening around me. The ground is nice and hard and doesn't hurt my back like a squishy mattress. It's cozy. It's my little home.
Things i do not love about my tent include not having electricity. I don't need much to be happy - just enough to charge my laptop and phone - but without electricity it can never be a place where i can happily spend all day. Also, it becomes very hot after a few hours under direct sunlight.
I am attempting to spend more of my day in my tent today than i normally would, because the mosquitoes here are utterly insane. I am back on Splatsin land near Enderby, in the place where last year the skies turned a hellish shade of orange from the smoke. This year there is flooding instead, and the Shuswap River is oozing along with swollen, muddy banks. The thunderstorms exploded in their probably last gasp this week, so the earth is still damp and there are plenty of soggy pools for the mosquitoes to hatch in.
And there are clouds of them. Clouds! Open your mouth, you'll eat a skeeter. Breath in, snort a skeeter. Every patch of my skin is covered in bites, despite the DEET. Normally i do not kill animals - including insects - but the mosquitoes have declared war and the blood stains all over my body show the costs of that decision.
But, you know, i am quite enjoying camping again. It really does feel like a happy little hut. 30 bucks a night is still a lot to pay for a no services spot, but when it's 10% the cost of a motel and walking distance from a bus stop, it's worth it. It even leaves cash left over for eating out.
I will make a picture post later on, when i have access to both electricity and wifi in the same place again, but for now i wanted to capture this moment of quiet contentedness with not very much. I wish society was structured in such a way that it could provide for those of us who really don't ask for a lot.