I’m creeping up on a design deadline, which always gives me ants in my pants. I’m taking a wrist break (yes, I know, but typing muscles are different from knitting muscles), which gives me just enough time to complain about the stuff I’m dying to do that I don’t have time to do until I’m done with my knitting!
Target has some nice tents on sale this week. We couldn’t decide between these two (click if you want the info; I’m not really shilling for Target, but I am using their bandwith on the pictures, so the least I can do is link back):
It’s the Embark 6-person dome tent (sale $50) & the Kelty 4-person getaway (sale $110). The Embark is roomier and cuter, but the Kelty is super light. This is for the highly unlikely scenario that has us hiking in rather than car camping. There was also a huge 8 x 15″ Coleman on sale for $100. It caught my eye at first, but was too stingy with ventilation to be appealing. What it did have was a rigid door with a velcro closure so you could open & close it like a real door instead of unzipping and rezipping. I’m hoping I can rig up a similar situation.
My last tent was a giant 3-room affair that was awesome but kind of bulky (it got stolen out of my car in Austin), so these are both more sleeping tents than hanging-out tents by comparison, but both have lots of mesh for ventilation with the rain fly off, which I’m looking forward to for bug-free stargazing.
Anyway, we bought both. When I’ve turned in my current pattern, I’m going to set each one up with a timer (inside to keep them clean), and compare setup and general comfort/construction/features/quality and keep our favorite and return the other one.
We’re taking a vacation in Jellystone this fall. We’re going to camp a couple days and hopefully stay in Old Faithful Lodge one night. I’d like to start going to one national park every year. Of course, we’re starting with one I’ve already visited. But Yellowstone has more than enough to offer for another visit and it will be a different season, so I think I’ll be seeing it with fresh eyes. Grand Canyon will probably be next, but it’s so fracking expensive!
Other things that are tugging at my skirt? The new mower! I decided to return the one I hated. This one is fancier, and a little scary! It’s a zero-turn, so it’s got the crazy robot arm controls and it’s FAST. I’ll need to spend a good 20 minutes in the middle of the yard getting the hang of it, I expect, to avoid destruction to limb and property. But that’s going to have to wait a couple days, which is a shame, because I can tell it’s going to be FUN! At those prices, they’d better be as recreational as they are useful. The base price was almost double the other, though returning the expensive and useless accessories put a dent in the difference. This one also offered a 5-year in-home repair/service plan instead of a 3-year, which is fantastic since we’re out in the sticks & don’t have a trailer. Luckily, it also came with a longer financing period, so while we’ll be paying longer, it won’t be a bigger monthly charge. And the delivery/setup guy this time around was so much better than the other guy. He made sure I understood and felt comfortable with it, and didn’t rush me at all. If anything, I rushed because I could tell I’d have a learning curve & needed to get back to work. So while the first mower was balls, the exchange experience was solid, once I got past the sold date vs. delivery date snafu (they delivered a week after I bought it and the customer service person was trying to use the sold date rather than the delivery date as my grace period for returns). And after I asked, they did waive the “restocking fee.” The cynical side of me wonders how gracious the exchange would be if I were getting a cheaper mower instead of a fancier one, but since I live in the real world and not the alternate universe where I decide to quit mowing altogether, Sears is back on my good side.
Okay! Back to the needles!
So you’re coming to Yellowstone!!! Welcome to my neck of the woods…excuse the awful pun. ;)
I think you will love Old Faithful. My son had a Big Brother through the Big Brothers Program. This Big Brother was an architect and was part of the design team that redesigned the Inn.
Have a lovely trip!!
My only beef about Yellowstone? I’ve yet to see a bear! It’s beautiful, though, bears or no bears.
I saw a bear when I was there. He was a ways off, but clear as day because it was the tail end of winter and the trees were still bare. He was climbing a steep hillside. Really quickly.
I visited Old Faithful in or lodge or whatever it’s called, but we didn’t stay there. I think we were by Mammoth something or other, nice roomy cabins. But I loved all the logs and the big fireplace in the lobby and everything and vowed to go back.