Another COVID era outdoor enthusiast is born

I turned into a camping fan during the Pandemic. Bored with quarantining, I purchased a cheap pop up tent and some basic camping supplies intent on getting out of the house. My first destination was camping on the beach at Mustang Island State Park on the Texas Gulf Coast in October of 2021. I’ve been hooked ever since. No one was more surprised than me, as I’ve never had any interest in camping or outdoor activities. There was something mystical about camping on the beach. The constant roar of the waves and ocean breeze made it easy to sleep, the sunrise over the ocean was amazing in the morning, and the ghost crabs crawling everywhere on the beach were interesting neighbors. The stars were quite visible and after a few days I knew about what time of night it was by the positions of a couple planets and bright stars I’d identified with the help of a phone app. There’s something distinctly different about swimming in the salt water of the vast ocean over a local swimming hole. Probably in large part because I’d never done it before and it was so outside my life experiences I found it fascinating.

I did trips throughout the winter and found tent camping in the cold relatively easy to deal with. A stout sleeping bag and a lot of winter clothes go a long way. I also found a small portable heater that lasted a long while on 1 pound propane bottles when at camp outside the tent. The best simple tip I picked up was to dump boiling water into Nalgene bottles and stuff them in your sleeping bag for many hours of additional warmth.

The dilemma of tent camping in Texas

When the Texas summer began I realized mornings were the only time for any type of hiking, and that I’d need more than a couple battery powered fans to survive the peak heat in a tent during the afternoon in the Texas sun.

I experimented with sticking a fan on a portable cooler and putting ice in it and realized it was not going to combat 105°F temperatures in a tent. While people take it even further and lug along a portable or window AC unit and rig it up into a tent, it’s only viable with electricity available. Taking the thought further, there are very large and heavy power stations available that have enough power to keep a small AC unit running for awhile, but combined with solar panels to recharge it was a lot of gear to stick in the back of my hatchback. While I was comfortable leaving my pop up tent on the Mustang Island beach driving off to see sights like the nearby Padre Island National Seashore, leaving thousands of dollars worth of gear sitting next to a tent wasn’t a reasonable idea.

You’re going to need a bigger boat

I realized I wanted an RV of some sort. I then began a very long, extended process of researching what I wanted, what was going to fit in all the places I wanted to go, and what it was going to cost. At a later date I might post about everything I considered and all the pros and cons but for the moment I’ll just say I ended up with a Ford F-350 Diesel and a small Winnebago fifth wheel. I have nicknamed it TON 618 after one of the largest Black Holes discovered so far. I think it has a nice ring to it, and if I buy CB radio, may double as my handle.

I purchased the truck in May of 2024 and had thought the trailer would come shortly after but a series of life events didn’t cooperate financially.

Saving the cat puts a dent in finances

The most consequential was that my 15 year old cat Ricky developed Diabetic Ketoacidosis. Given 50/50 odds he survived after a 5 day hospital stay. In further testing it was discovered he also has cancer in his small intestine. Fortunately I had pet insurance on him which helped with some of the bills, but not all of them, which set my RV plans back considerably.

Thankfully his afflictions are easily and affordably treatable, and he has a reasonable shot at several more quality years of life. However his combination of problems resulted in a decreased appetite, and he has had a feeding tube installed to supplement his diet. This is especially important with diabetes, as he needs a full meal to safely dose him with insulin. The feeding tube was required to buy enough time to see if oral chemotherapy would successfully combat his cancer and all treatment in combination would bring back his appetite. Hopefully that’s how it plays out.

Receiving an ad hoc honorary vet tech degree and some needles

In the meantime I’m his nurse and his care is fairly demanding. He requires 2 shots of insulin a day spaced evenly 12 hours apart, along with supplemental feedings of liquid diet. His diabetes has been incredibly dynamic in a short period requiring a variety of on the fly adjustments to stop insulin, restart, and adjust dosage and the frequency of administering it. To boot the feeding tube annoyed him enough he scratched himself badly enough on the neck he wounded himself, which got infected, and I’m currently treating him with twice a day antibiotics.

For the foreseeable future I’m going to need to be around Ricky daily. I haven’t fully explored it, but I would expect any pet sitter or boarding option with the level of attention he needs would be very expensive. My only option to get out of the house otherwise is if Ricky comes with me.

Time to buy a MASH unit

This lead to pulling the trigger on buying a trailer. Long before Ricky’s ailments were known I had joked to friends I could justify the expense of a rig by all the pet sitting fees it would save me. Now that statement might actually pass a smell test.

I have two other cats that are going to join me on my forward journeys, Quetzalcoatl (Quetz) and Artemis.

I’ve long considered creating a blog to journal my camping adventures but never bothered anything other than posts on my personal social media account. I’ve decided this is an opportune time as with Starlink on board I expect my travels to be more frequent. In researching camping, destinations, and later RVs, I’ve read a ton of blogs and watched a lot of YouTube videos by amateurs which has been extremely valuable. I figure I’ll throw my grain of sand into the vast wasteland that is the internet. If nothing else it’ll be a personal memento that’s not tied to a social media entity. As time allows I’ll likely recount some of my more interesting tent camping trips.