Tumblewagon » campfires

Fire Ban

Nathan — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 01:50:45 +0000

We’ve been on the road not yet a year, but long enough to know that we’re sure fire fulltimers and this is the life for us. That said, there are quite a few things about on-the-roading that are different from what I’d expected.

For one, we have way fewer fires than I thought we would. Given our first fire, you might think that a good thing, but we’re actually the type who really just gets a big kick out of watching wood burn and cooking some shrimp skewers or a couple of head’s worth of ears of corn over the show. Marathon, TX afforded us a nightly, free fire, but other than that, Texas and the southwest are very anti-fire, mostly due to the fact that this whole part of the country is so easily set alight, and so very difficult to stop once it gets to blazing.

Secondly, we don’t find ourselves particularly doing anything that resembles “camping out.” Of course, when you live in an RV, you’re not camping, you’re just living in a literally mobile home. When we began, we stayed at quite a few state parks and other more naturally setted locations, but since heading south it’s been mostly big cities, small towns and the occasional roadside truck stop.

Finally, one thing we actually do way less of than I think I thought we’d be doing is the very thing you’d think we were always doing: travelling. I knew we wouldn’t be on the road every single day, but somehow I thought there would be more miles racked up on the old rig by now. We’ve only put about 6000 miles on her in the 8 months we’ve been roadtripping, and the majority of those came when we blew through the big part of the country known as “the South,” when we were covering 2 or 3 states a day and only staying put for a week at a time max. Once we hit Austin, and the wonders of Texas, we only left long enough to really get into Bisbee, AZ and now we’re on our way back.

The lifestyle, for us, isn’t particularly about being in the woods and “roughing it” of course, and while seeing the country is definitely a perk, it’s not a checklist of states that we have to get through or anything.

Civil War, a new card game

Tristan — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 02:24:07 +0000

I created a card game, it’s really fun, you should try it out sometime. It’s called Civil War, somewhat like war, but not completely. My dad wrote down the rules last night while we were playing.

Civil War

The game operates along the same principal as the classic game War, but the player has a hand and is able to control what card they place, therefore adding a dimension of skill to an otherwise game of luck.

Two or more players.
Divide cards evenly and place them face down in a stack. This is called the straight deck.
Each player takes 5 cards from top of straight deck and may look at them.
Each player chooses a card from their hand and places it face down on the table.
Highest card takes all.
In case of War (where two or more players put down the same value card), warring players place remainder of their hand down & take top card off deck.
Highest card takes all.
If a Joker is played, it automatically initiates war.
If joker is played last, choose 4 cards from straight pile to place down on the table and 5th card is war card.
In the event of double War, the winner of the 2nd round of War wins the game.
If one player doesn’t have enough cards at any time, they lose.
First player to have all cards wins.

A Campers Motto

Nathan — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 02:37:03 +0000

The night sounds in these Pennsylvania Wilds certainly live up to their name. The campsite we’re living in for the week is a wonderfully spacious place, and we’ve found a particularly out of the way spot that comes with more of a tent camping feeling to it than anything. In fact, aside from the faint glow of an outhouse’s lantern, there is no trace of fellow human life in sight of the naked eye.

A raging and truly “campfire style” blaze glows up and out of a well-rusted fire ring while my best gypsy music bumps through the high risen smoke.

It was a long day of work and a first day at school, but well worth the evening together, a boy, his dad, and hot dog conversation over GI Joe and bike riding. Give me campgrounds or give me death!