Camping Success

If there is one thing that I am not, it's a camper. I've tried camping in the past and something always seems to go wrong. Also, I'd rather sleep in a nice warm room and wake up to a nice hot shower in the morning. However, several years ago, I purchased a complete set of touring-friendly camping gear to carry on a trip route of Florida>Yukon>Alaska>BC>Moab>Florida. The gear was more backup for when I couldn't find lodging, which I thought was a highly likely possibility given the remoteness of some of the areas to be traveled. I purchased a tent, pad, sleeping bag an a couple fleece sleeping bags. During that trip, I traveled 12,500 miles over 36 days ... and never broke out the camping gear once.

For the First Leg of the AMA Dual Sport Series at Devils Creek this past weekend, I decided to give camping another try ... and with all that same gear that's been sitting new and unused in my garage for years.

The event started Friday so I lugged my gear up to the Sertoma Youth Ranch in Brooksville, Florida where the event was HQ'd on Thursday and camped for three nights. Decent place. Lots of room, private showers. Too close to the Interstate and noisy from traffic though. I actually wore my Hearos ear plugs every night. It was pretty cold most nights...mid 40s. That may not seem low to most, but in Florida, that's cold!

Irrespective of the cold and noise, all went well. Actually, I could have stayed another night (Sunday) but most of my gear was so gunked up with mud that I just rolled on home.

Other riders who also camped asked me how I carried all the stuff I had on my motorcycle. Truth of the matter is, I didn't. Sertoma is only 25 miles from my home, so I ran all the camping gear up in my car on Thursday, drove home and then rode my bike back up. Reverse that on Monday. :)

Report to follow on the AMA Dual Sport Series Event when I get all my pictures together. Stay tuned.