Preparing For Our Annual Camping Trip

We’ve been waiting all year for this. Tomorrow we’re going camping in the desert to see the Perseids meteor shower. We’ve been doing this camping trip, myself and my close friend and our kids, for the past 6 years, often with other people coming along such as friends and their kids, but this year it is back to just me, my friend, and our combined kids… only one kid, Lee, is in the army and isn’t able to take off for a camping trip, so Ike’s girlfriend is taking his place.

Until this year, figuring out how to take everything wasn’t such a hassle. The first year we went camping, when I was newly separated, it was before I had a car of my own, so I rented one with a big trunk where we fit everything we had bought for the trip. Then our gear expanded as we learned more and became more experienced campers and figured out what we needed (and my body told me what things I couldn’t go without) and then I had purchased a seven seater minivan for our family of 5, so we had plenty of room to bring everything.

Last year was the first year with my newer smaller 5 seater car without a large trunk that we went camping, but my son, Lee, also has a car of his own, and he came in his own car and we divided the gear between the two cars so we didn’t have an issue.

This year, with him being in the army, I knew we’d have an issue being able to bring everything to the desert.

I decided that a rooftop cargo storage container was necessary, and first looked to see if I could find one being sold second hand, but struck out in all the places where I searched. When looking at prices for new, I saw that the hard plastic cargo cases all cost hundreds of dollars at least, but found a fold up 400 liter one for 55 dollars. This sounded cool, if a bit intimidating, because I wasn’t sure how secure a soft fold up one would be, but my kids told me that they had experience using one when camping with their grandmother, that they called “the blob” which gave me more confidence. And since it is foldable, I’ll be able to store it much more easily when it’s not in use.

My friend and I made a packing list for our trip and divided it up between ourselves. I decided to share this list here, maybe it’ll help those of you new to camping, and additionally, in future years I can come back and look at this list and remind myself to make sure I didn’t forget anything. (For amounts I’m writing how many I’m bringing; my friend is bringing her own.)

So here’s what is on the packing list.

First off is what is in the rooftop cargo bag, since that is already packed. I packed it already now since we’re leaving early in the morning since we have a long drive ahead of us, and we want to make sure to get there early enough to snag a good camping spot, since suddenly this year the whole world and their mother seem to be coming to see the Perseids in the desert, even though this is a phenomenon that happens every summer…

• 2 tents. [We have pop-up tents that we got from Temu. We tested them beforehand and they work beautifully. They pop up in about 1 second (closing them is the hard part.) We had other tents but they weren’t in the greatest condition by now so I decided to buy these cheaply. They’re 2 large tents, each would be able to fit 4 people, but we like to give room when sleeping, so each tent will be for 2 people, and I sleep under the open sky.]
• 4 inflatable mattresses.
• 1 camping cot. (My back hurts with the inflatable mattress no matter how much I blow it up.)
• 5 sleeping bags.
• 5 collapsible chairs
• 1 collapsible table
• 1 camping toilet seat (after I dislocated my hips one camping trip from squatting, it’s camping toilet seat from here on out for me)
• 1 large barbecue grill.
• Charcoal.
• Water. My friend is bringing water since we have space at a premium, but 3 liters per person.
• Headlamps and flashlights, charged/with batteries
• Pump for inflating mattresses
• Adapter to use regular plugs in car
• Toilet paper
• Cleaning wipes.
• Disposable plates, bowls, cups (hot and cold), forks, knives and spoons
• Aluminum pans
• Skewers
• Ziplock bags for bringing home leftovers
• Tongs, spatulas, grilling fork
• Lighter fluid
• Knives for whatever is needed
• Garbage bags
• Portable burner and gas balloon
• Pot/kettle for heating water for coffee
• Wood for camp fire (this needs to be purchased close to the camp site)
• Computer with movie downloaded on it so we can watch offline (first time we’re doing this; We’re watching Ocean’s Eleven)
• Projector to watch movie
• White sheet on which to project movie
• Games- Taboo and Splurt
• First aid kit (anyhow in the car but important to put on this list)
• Sunscreen
• Dog food and container for dog water

For food, we need lunch, supper, breakfast, and snacks.

Lunch:

• Sandwiches- tuna with lettuce and tomato and salami with lettuce and tomato. Gluten free and regular.
• Veggie sticks. Cucumbers, peppers, carrots.
• Canned pickles, baby corn, hearts of palm
• Watermelon

Supper:

• Hot dogs
• Burgers
• Kebabs
• Chicken wings
• Zucchini 
• Corn on the cob
• Onion
• Garlic powder
• Salt
• Buns, gluten free and regular

Snacks:

• Potato chips
• Rice chips
• Marshmallows
• Shandy
• Cider

Breakfast:

• Gluten free cereal
• Coffee
• Shelf stable milk
• Shelf stable soy milk
• Sugar
• Fake sugar

• Cooler to put all the food into…

And then there’s everyone’s personal bags, which need to include:

• Change of clothing
• Pajamas
• Medicine
• Sweatshirt
• Shoes that can be slipped on easily/slippers
• Contact solution/case

It’s getting late and it’s time for me to actually put the food together so I’m going to end this here, but I’m really excited, and can’t wait to share pictures with you from our trip and let you know how it went!