A cute joke:

"An old cowboy sat down at the bar and ordered a drink. As he sat sipping his whiskey, a hot young woman sat down next to him. She turned to the cowboy and asked, "Are you a real cowboy?" He replied, "Well, I've spent my whole life on the ranch, herding horses, mending fences and branding cattle, so I guess I am." She said, "I'm a lesbian. I spend my whole day thinking about women. As soon as I get up in the morning, I think about women; when I shower I think about women. When I watch TV I think about women. I even think about women when I eat. It seems that everything makes me think of women." The two sat sipping in silence. A little while later, a man sat down on the other side of the old cowboy and asked, "Are you a real cowboy?" He replied, "I always thought I was, but I just found out I'm a lesbian."

My Lost Coast backpack trip was awesome. We had great weather, great wild flowers, great conversations, and interesting things to look at.

We had a nice lunch at the Mateel Cafe before we started our trip. After lunch we drove to Shelter Cove to the Black Sands beach parking lot and the start of the Lost Coast trail. The sun was shining and we were all in good spirits. That day's hike was over mostly sand. It was tough hiking through sand with a heavy backpack. We also had to do a couple of challenging stream crossings that challenged our rock hopping skill or challenged the water proofness of our boots! We saw a beached boat on the way to our first campsite. A woman informed us that her boy friend had to beach it due to bad weather and she was there to keep an eye on it. They hoped at high tide to get it off the beach. It was pretty darn full of sand though so it looked like it wouldn't budge even with high tide. After leaving the boat we saw a sad site. A little baby sea lion was sitting on a rock looking sick. It did not move when we edged forward to look at it. There wasn't much we could do so we just continued on. We arrived at Buck Creek at 6:30 p.m. and decided to camp there rather than try to get to Shipman Creek as planned. The tide was getting high and the next section of trail was impassable at high tide. Also we were all pretty tired. We had to share the site with four teenagers who decided to skip their prom and camp out at Lost Coast instead. We all thought that was way cool! We got camp set up and dinners cooked before dark. While we were cooking we were visited by a couple of deers. They were about 30 yards away from us. They were getting their dinner too! We all headed to our separate tents as it got dark. I slept like a rock that night.

Day two we got up around 7 a.m. We ate breakfast and broke camp and were on our way by 9 a.m. J. and I (co-leaders) were a bit concerned that we hadn't left early enough to hike on the trail as the tide was rising. It turned out we were fine but we did have a few cases where we had to scurry around a big rock as the waves receded. The rising tide did give us incentive to set a fast pace. At around 10:30 a.m. we reached the part of the beach where the trail climbed up a hill to weave along a bluff looking over the beach -- no more tide worries! It was also nice to be hiking on solid ground for a while. We did have to start watching for poison oak at this point. It had smaller leaves than I'm used to and blended in with other plants rather well. You had to keep a sharp eye out to stay out of it. So far it looks like I avoided getting it. P. did end up with some poison oak (on her ankles and, shudder, on her left eyelid). We reached Big Flat at noon and J. suggested that we camp at Big Flat rather than Big Creek (another 3 miles north up the beach). This was so we wouldn't have to get up super early to beat the tide the next day. We set up our tents. Mine was quite exposed but on nice soft sand. I was careful to put rocks inside my tent and to put heavy rocks over the tent stakes also. This worked out great and my tent stayed in place even when the late afternoon winds blew up. After we set up camp and had some lunch we day hiked to Big Creek. It was a pleasure to get rid of the packs. Big Creek was beautiful. I was curious to see if the camp site I camped in with W. and K. last summer. I was amazed to discover that the site had been totally filled with big bits of drift wood and essentially no longer existed. I took a picture of it so I can compare it to last year's picture of the camp. We had a nice rest break at Big Creek. J. went off to explore Big Creek while the rest of us headed back to camp. We reached camp around 5 p.m. and started our dinners. It was a bit tricky getting the stoves to light because of the wind. I finally gave up on my blue tip matches and used one of my wind proof matches to get my stove lit. Everyone else got their stoves lit one way or another. While P. and I were starting to cook we saw C.P.'s tent be picked up and flipped over by the wind. We ran over to it to make sure it didn't blow away. C.P. saw the ruckus and ran over to restake the tent and put rocks inside of it. Then a half hour later, C.S.'s tent blew over. She decided to just put the tent away and sleep out in the open. After the excitement of the tents we settled down to enjoy dinner and good conversation. I got in my tent at 8 p.m. as I was getting chilly. I got in my warm sleeping bag and pulled out my book "Daughters of the Amber Noon" by Katherine Forest. I had a wonderful half hour of reading. Then I looked up and saw the sun setting. It was a great sun set. The sun was a big red ball in the sky and sunk down below the ocean. It was awesome.

Day three we got up around 7 a.m. again. This time we were ready by 8:30ish. Worries about the tide made us keep a fast pace again. We were now retracing our steps from the day before. We reached our last campsite, Shipman Creek, at 10 a.m. We got the site to ourselves. That was cool. We took the site with the driftwood shelter. We made it our commisary. It also turned out to be a great place to hang out in and read or talk as it created a nice bit of shade and Sunday was a hot day on the Lost Coast. We set up camp real slow and then ate lunch. Everyone but me then went to explore upstream on Shipman Creek. I was feeling tired from still fighting off my cold. I took a nice nap while they explored. They returned by 3:30 p.m. Then we had a very mellow late afternoon of conversations, reading, meditating (just C.P.), and ambling down the beach to look at the sea lions on Sea Lion rock. We all cooked dinner together around 6 p.m. Then more relaxing into the evening. We didn't get an awesome sunset this time as we were in a canyon and the sun popped under the canyon wall before we knew it. I think J. might have hiked down the beach a bit to see if he could see the sun set over the ocean. The chill in the air after the sun set again seemed to drive us to our warm sleeping bags. I had another wonderful night's sleep. I loved hearing the waves crash all night and looking at the stars when I stirred a few times during the night.

Day four was our hike back to the cars. We were all up by 6:30 a.m. and we headed south towards Black Sands Beach by 8:30 a.m. We had a very pleasant walk on the wet sand as the tide was low and there was lots of firmer wet sand to hike on. We passed by the sick sea lion cub again and were saddened that it hadn't moved since we last saw it. We also passed by the beached boat again. It was even fuller of sand and no one was around watching it. It looked like the couple gave up on trying to extract it at high tide. The stream crossings on the last day were easier because of low tide giving us a shorter crossing option and not a lot of rock hopping. We got to Black Sands beach at Shelter Cove at noon. We hiked up to the trail head parking lot and happily used the restrooms there and changed into clean cloths we had left in the cars. Then we finished off our trip by having lunch at the Mateel Cafe again. The hamburger I had tasted so good after three days of backpack food! It was a great trip.

Check out pictures from the trip at my webshots page in the lostcost2003 album.

Took 5 pictures of my garden this afternoon. Check them out at my webshots page in the "My Garden" album.

I made it to Trader Joes on Monday. I got 8 cliff bars. They have a new one called Black Cherry almond that I had on the Fall Creek hike a couple weekends ago. It was good enough to get myself two of them for this trip. I also got these deadly good dark chocolate covered caramels for desert. I'll get two after each dinner. I got some granola, non-fat organic milk, wheat crackers, and peanut butter while I was there. Lest you are worried -- the milk is not for the backpack trip.

A random thought "just because I'm not at my desk doesn't mean I'm not at my computer"

Congrats to Dr. Wen or should we say Professor Minkoff

The big pile of equipment on the floor is now in my pack. I just need to get my camp shoes and attach them to the outside of the pack with a carbiner and find a light paperback book to squeeze in there somewhere.

My cold is STILL clinging. I am so water logged because of drinking lots and lots of flluids. I have spent the weekend resting and doing chores. I passed on the Henry Coe hike which was probably a good thing. I think the cold would have made me really tired and grumpy on the hike.

I have watched lots of women's softball on TV. It is the college softball world series time. I watched about 4 different games. Today is the championship game: Cal vs UCLA. It starts in about 10 minutes.

I created and finished a new chore on Saturday. I was getting tired of sifting through maps in a box to find the one I wanted. I decided to move the supplies in the desk top file cabinent drawer to the left hand drawer and then file the maps in hanging folders. It worked out pretty well in the end. We'll see how it goes next time I need a map!

I got the usual clear the paper work off my desk chore done yesterday and I did laundry.

Bad news ... the refrigerator is acting up again. I put it on the highest cold setting and it still is only about 50 degree F in there. That's too warm for milk etc. Arg. I transfered my milk, juice, etc. to the little refrigerator I bought. I need to finish emptying the big fridge so I can drag it out of its cubby hole and unplug it. I'm thinking I'll buy a new refrigerator eventually. In the meantime, the tiny fridge will do.

I went to REI on Saturday. It was crowded since there is a sale going on this weekend. I was hoping I could buy a part for my backpack stove to fix the electric ignition, but they didn't sell the part. So I am going to have to light the stove with a match on the Lost Coast backpack trip. I bought a new filter for my water filter. And I bought a book on hiking in the Trinity Alps and a couple of maps of Trinity Alps and the vicinity. I hadn't planned to buy backpack food but it was on sale for 20% off and the kind I like was there: single serving Mountain House meals. I bought two: chicken and rice and pasta primavera.

Today I need to get myself over to Trader Joes to buy some Cliff Bars for the backpack trip and some crackers and peanut butter for lunches. I have a big pile of equipment sitting on my living room floor ready to be put in my backpack.

My cold is still clinging on. Its moved down into my chest. I have a cloggy chest but not a very useful cough. It did help when I took some cough medicine this morning. I'll redose later on today.

I got my Montara Mountain Hike pictures up on my webshots page.

I had a fun weekend but was slammed with a cold yesterday. I woke up with an ultra sore throat and a bad sinus headache. I stayed home from work all day and took aspirin, decongestion medicine, drank oodles of fluids, and took many cat naps. Today, thank goodness, the sore throat is gone and the sinus headache is gone. I feel much better. I have a mild cough and a mildly stuffy nose today but felt well enough to make it in to work.

I went on a couple of hikes on the weekend. On Saturday I was at Fall Creek where I did a 10 mile hike. We took a wrong turn at a trail junction and ended up having to bushwack through the woods and cross a stream to find an official trail. It was fun once we assured ourselves we knew where we were and how to get out of this mess! The one thing we wanted to avoid was backtracking to that junction as it would have been 1.5 miles up a steep trail. No one wanted to go up the hill we just came down!

Saturday night I went to a Gay and Lesbian Sierra club hike leader party in Santa Cruz. It was a good party. Many silly pictures were taken with Wen's digital camera. If any turn out good hopefully Wen will send them to me.

Sunday I scouted a hike with Linda. We hiked from San Pedro County Park to Montara mountain. It was a gorgeous day. I have pictures which I'll post later today. The wild flowers are still impressive and it was so clear. The sunshine sparkled off of the Pacific ocean. We had many wonderful views of the ocean. We also saw many rabbits. They were very cute little bunnies too not the bigger hares I have seen elsewhere in the bay area. Linda found one wild strawberry to eat, but there were no more so I didn't get a wild strawberry.

After the hike we stopped at Baskin Robbins. I got a chocolate milk shake while Linda got a Peach smoothie. I loved my shake while Linda was disappointed in the smoothie. She wanted a smoothie with chunks of peach in it and this one was mostly artificial peach taste -- no real peaches to be found. I had a taste of her smoothie and I liked it but I hope she hasn't caught my cold now. She is off to Greece today. I'm taking her to the airport in about one and a half hours. She'll be gone for 10 day or so. I'll miss my last minute hiking friend. Linda is great about be willing to go hiking at a moment's notice. Oh well. While she is gone I'm leading a four day backpack trip so I'll get plenty of hiking in!!

Here is a picture of Wendy Waters, a Rescue Hero toy I got myself because I grew fond of her when visiting my cute little 4 year old nephew. ;-)

I'm in a bad mood today. I woke up with a headache, ug. I just plain feel out of sorts. At least Aunt Flo is only here for a little bit longer. She is not nearly as annoying at the finish of her visits than at the start.

I think I have hit another wall in therapy and that is what is getting me down. I have this hopeless feeling that I am never going to have a significant other or learn how to just be really intimate with someone. I feel so much resistance to my therapist's suggestions lately. Something is bugging me and I think I'm afraid to look it in the face. Sigh. I'm hoping the GLS hike and GLS leader party will perk me up a bit tomorrow.

Linda and I have changed plans and decided not to go to Colorado but to go to the Trinity Alps. Linda decided not to take the industrial hygiene profressional test in Denver and that was really the motivating factor for going to Colorado. She didn't want to drive to Colorado and didn't want to pay for an airplane ticket when we would only be staying a couple days. So I suggested the Trinity Alps in Northern California. Linda liked that suggestion. We can drive there and not have to pay air fare. I thought about backpacking but suggested camping and day hiking instead. We can explore around the Trinity Alps and plan a future backpack trip.

I saw the Moon eclipse last night. I tried to take a picture of it but the digital camera just wasn't powerful enough and my view of it was right above all these field flood lights so the lighting was abismal. The picture looked like just a blob of light not the cool red colored moon it was. I could see it while lying on my couch so I was watching the TV and admiring the eclipse alternately.

My Seattle friends A. and E. were in town Wednesday and we went out to dinner at Frankie Johnnie and Luigi's. Its an Italian restaurant. A. and E. liked it. I had been there before and I have always liked it. I had a nice dish of Lasagne. A. and E. had calzones. They were huge so we ended up taking the left overs to my home and so I got a free dinner for last night. It was a veggie calzone and was quite good. I was a bit worried it had mushrooms in it but I think it was eggplant not mushroom. It didn't have that rubbery consistency mushrooms have that make me dislike them. We had a nice talk at dinner and caught up with our respective news. I was pleased to hear that A.'s cancer treatments seem to be working. She had radiation therapy and that seemed to really help. She looked fine and seemed happy that she was feeling well again. The cancer had been giving her back pain and that was pretty much all gone after the radiation. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that she continues to get better. I talked about all my hiking and about my latests bouts of therapy and taking anti-depressants. It was a nice cozy visit. They headed back to Seattle yesterday and said it was about time for me to come north and visit them. Maybe I will but not any time soon. My summer is rapidly filling up with outdoor trips. I need some weekends to just hang out at home!

Its graduation time. I have been invited to two graduation celebrations: W's and my niece's, SK. I won't be attending my nieces graduation from Swarthmore in Pennyslvania. Its just too far away. I will give her a graduation present though. SK's official graduation day is June 1. I will be going to W's celebration.

My eyes have been dry and itchy the past several days. I would hazard a guess that is it a mild allergic reaction to all the new green stuff growing around because of all the rain. I might bring some eye drops to work tomorrow.

Last week my therapist, C., told me she has been treating me for avoidant personaility disorder. I went web surfing to check out APD. Here is the official DSM description.

A pervasive pattern of social inhibition, feelings of inadequacy & hypersensitivity to negative evaluation, beginning by early adulthood & present ín a variety of contexts, as indicated by 4 (or more) of the following:

1. avoids occupational activities that involve significant interpersonal contact because of fears of criticism, disapproval or rejection
   
2. ís unwilling to get involved with people unless certain of being liked
   
3. shows restraint within intimate relationships because of the fear of being shamed or ridiculed
   
4. ís preoccupied with being criticized or rejected ín social situations
   
5. ís inhibited ín new interpersonal situations because of feelings of inadequacy
   
6. views self as socially inept, personally unappealing or inferior to others
   
7. ís unusually reluctant to take personal risks or to engage ín any new activities because they may prove embarrassing
   

Well I must say that over my life time all of these have been true at various times but not all of them at the same time. And C.'s treatment has been working on me. So maybe I do or did have APD.

Yay. Mom got her computer set up in Canada. So I can send my Mom's day letter via email and it will get there in time!

I found out yesterday (after spending a half hour signing soooo many papers for the loan) that my townhouse was appraised at $328,000. Holy Cow! I bought it for $212,500. Its location scored me some big points. Its near a major freeway. Its near downtown Mountain View. Its near shopping. The home owners association board members would be pleased to hear that the appraiser felt the common grounds were well taken care of. He also measured the square feet of my abode. I knew it was somewhere less than 1000 square feet. He measured it as being 972 square feet.

My loan is due to close next Wednesday. My first payment will be in July. June's was covered in the initial loan set up and charges. As soon as I know what company has my loan I'll arrange for my mortgage to be withdrawn automatically from my bank account.

I'm leading a hike tomorrow for OAW to Sunol. I'm experimenting with a new car pool meeting location. Its the Moffett Park Light Rail station park-n-ride. Yesterday afternoon I drove over to find it and look at it. Its a nice place to meet except for the fact that the directions are a little tricky. We'll see how people do tomorrow in finding it. It is really convenient for me and for the particular park we are car pooling to this week. Its just down 101 about 7.5 miles from my town house.

Anatomy of Cathy's May 8th Aries horoscope

Though your mind may have felt a bit clouded over the past few days, today the fog might clear, and you might be feeling more focused.
This one doesn't really ring true. I'm not really feeling more focused.

Money matters might need to be handled, dear Aries, and you're in just the right space to dig in and take care of them.
This one is eerily smack on today. How did they know that today I sign my loan papers. Te. He. And that I got my cost of living raise today too!

Once practical matters are settled, however, this is a great day for spiritual studies or meditation.
Seems to me every day is a great day for spiritual studies or meditation. I don't plan on doing any spritual studies or meditation after I sign my loan papers.

Creative projects can also benefit from your increased concentration
Hmmm. Perhaps tonight is the time to write my Mom's day letter (it won't get there in time, but she'll still enjoy it).

Funny List that e-friend Vicki. sent me
How To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity

1. At lunch time, sit in your parked car with sunglasses on and point a hair dryer at passing cars. See if they slow down.


2. Page yourself over the intercom. Don't disguise your voice.


3. Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.


4. Put your garbage can on your desk and label it "in"


5. Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has Gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.


6. In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors".


7. Finish all your sentences with "in accordance with the prophecy."


8. Dont use any punctuation marks


9. As often as possible, skip rather than walk.


10. Ask people what they are. Laugh hysterically after they answer.


11. Specify that your drive-through order is "to go".


12. Sing along at the opera.


13. Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don't rhyme.


14. Put mosquito netting around your work area. Play a tape of jungle sounds all day.


15. Five days in advance, tell your friends you can't attend their party because you're not in the mood.


16. Have your coworkers address you by your wrestling name, Rock Hard Kim.


17. When the money comes out the ATM, scream "I won!", "I won!" "3rd time this week!!!!!"


18. When leaving the zoo, start running towards the parking lot, yelling "run for your lives, they're loose!!"


19. Tell your children over dinner. "due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go."

And the final way to keep a healthy level of insanity.......

20. Send this e-mail to everyone in your address book, even if they sent it to you or asked you not to send them stuff like this

Ah ... that helps! I just took a nice long sniff of the coffee in my coffee jar. The icky smell is also fading away finally.

Yuk. Someone brought in a dish whose smell I find vile. It smells like a dish with way too much soya sauce. It almost makes me gag. Bleck!! This is the second time whoever it is has brought it to the our little cube pod. I'm doing my best to breath through my mouth so I don't have to smell it. Send good smells my way: roasting coffee, cooking brownies, etc. Oh geez ... please eat it fast whoever you are!!

Linda and I went on a nice hike yesterday. We hiked a 6 mile route at Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. The hike started at the base of the Santa Cruz mountain range (or maybe I should say the foothills). It followed a fire road and the entire hike was all uphill. It was very green all over because of all the rain we have had recently. There were many sticky monkey flowers and lots of healthy poison oak growing next to the road. It was a very drizzly misty day for the hike. We got sprinkled on several times but no heavy rain. It was very cool to see the clouds wandering in among the moutain tops and across the Silicon Valley. We saw a few patches of blue sky but they flew by quickly. We had one section of mud to skirt our way around. This fire road as very popular with mountain bikers. The muddy section was made worse by all the bikes making their way through the mud. We were amused with a group of bikers who got off their bikes and pushed them around the mud. We were inclined to think that part of mountain biking is getting muddy and the challenge of riding through the mud. We over heard them saying that they wanted to stay clean as they were heading to a coffee shop (Peets) after the ride. I guess that excuse will do.

Saturday was a very stormy rainy day around most of the bay area, but my little corner of the world in Mtn. View didn't get much rain. I spent a couple of hours outside weeding my garden and got rained on once just a little bit -- not enough to get me very wet. I went out on some errands and did not get rained on. However there were very impressive dark clouds over the mountains and down towards San Francisco. The rain clouds seemed to have skirted around Mtn. View all day long but down poured on other places. Linda told me it poured in San Jose. And the report from Wen was it was very rainy and windy in Santa Cruz. On the news they had pictures of funnel clouds in the sky seen from the East Bay.

I spent most of Saturday doing chores. I got out my home repair handbook to figure out how to repair the leak in my pop up stopper mechanism on the sink in my half bath. The book advised to put in a new washer and gasket. So off I went to the hardware store and I bought a washer and a gasket. I got home and popped the new stuff on and hurray, no more leaky sink! I spent a couple hours weeding my garden that afternoon. And finally I drove to the grocery store to get some milk and pick up a pizza I ordered from Round Table. I spent the rest of the day sleeping (I slept till 11ish) and watching TV. It was a very relaxing day.

Purring contentedly because I finally finshed off the icky Kona coffee yesterday and have my favorite Espresso Roast coffee back this morning!

Passing along the buck ... from Cynthia's live journal -->

Gay Bear


Which Dysfunctional Care Bear Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

Sending healing vibes Cynthia's way and sending genius vibes to Dr. Wen. Degree or no degree, you will be Dr. Wen to me from now on!!!

Alas no Poppy Reserve or camping this weekend. Linda and I decided to bag it because we didn't want to camp in the rain and wind. Rain is predicted for the area on Saturday and wind on Sunday. Instead we are going to go on an 8 mile hike on Sunday if its nice out. I suggested going to Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve. I have never been there before and the description in my South Bay Trails book sounds good. I might subject Linda to geocaching on the hike!

I'm wishy washy about the Garapatta hike on Saturday that Tina and Celeste are leading. I loved the hike when I did it with Wen and Tina leading, but it does mean getting up early on Saturday and a long drive. I'll check the weather report Friday night and then decide. If it looks rainy I'll probably sleep in. Or if I feel particularly exhausted tomorrow night I'll sleep in!! Its good to not be the leader and be able to decide whether to hike or not at the last minute.

I got my best tent camping in Northern California book this week. I poured over it the other night and ended up staying up too late. There are lots of enticing sites listed that I would like to visit. Grover Hot Springs State Park in particular caught my attention. It sounded like there was decent hiking nearby and of course the hot springs are nearby. It would be nice to take a long day hike and then go soak at the hot springs. It is a very child friendly camp ground according to the book (and hot springs) but I could deal with kids being around. The hot springs require a bathing suit. I would have to drag mine from the depths of my exercise cloths drawer.

I managed to do some lifting at the fitness center on Tuesday and today of this week. I did the crunch machine and had sore ab muscles on Wednesday. They will probably be a little sore tomorrow too since I did the crunch machine again this morning. I also have been stretching my lower legs well to help prevent achilles tendonitis and doing weight lifting that will make my calf muscles stronger. Pretty soon I'll start walking to work on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays again.

Oooo ... I like this Arie's horoscope for today:

Life is an adventure; at least, that's the attitude you're likely to take today, Cathy. Flush with past successes and basking in the affection of your friends, you're feeling especially confident and enthusiastic, and likely to consider, if not totally adopt, any possible option for your future - even if it involves taking off to an exotic land! More likely, however, it'll involve learning, and meeting new people who share your interests. Enjoy!

Found some cool web sites while surfing today:

• Elder Wisdom Circle


• Volunteer Match


• Webby Awards

I am beginning to wonder if I will ever find a bookcrossing book. I hurried over to the Safeway on Shoreline to see if the book dropped there the day before yesterday was still there. It wasn't. I have wandered over to downtown to check a phone booth and had no luck. One was dropped at the Mtn. View library the day before yesterday but its a romance novel and I'm not interested in reading romance. Some day I'm going to find a book! In the meantime, I'll keep releasing the occassional book to the wild.

iVillage gave me a $15.00 Amazon.com gift certificate as thanks for my volunteer work and because I showed up at the community leader chat. Cool huh? I ordered the book "Best in Tent Camping: Northern California: A Guide for Car Campers Who Hate Rvs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos." What a good idea for a book! I can't wait till it arrives so I can check out what campsites they recommend.