Camping sin mujeres

I went camping in Shenandoah National Park last weekend with Sos and Sperati. We had a great time, serendipidously.

The serendipity came in because this was intended to be a larger trip, including seven people. But for various reasons, the others backed out, so it was just the three of us. Actually, though, this was quite a good thing, as I lost count of the number of times I thought, "I'm so glad Kerry isn't here. She would be miserable." Some of the things that we found perversely fun, which I doubt Kerry would have enjoyed:

• Driving 20 miles at night on twisting Skyline Drive, with at least two-thirds of the way socked in with fog
• Setting up camp in the dark, in the rain, in the wind
• After setting up camp, standing in the dark, in the rain, in the wind, drinking beer
• Gusts of wind on Saturday up to 50 mph
• Hiking in five layers of clothing, and still being a bit cold
  
• Cooking hot dogs on the uncleaned, un-foil-covered fireplace grill
  
• Saturday night, sleeping in long underwear, head-and-all in the sleeping bag, and still being a bit cold

There were bits that she might have appreciated (eg, a lovely trail along a couple of runs, seeing a bear), but on the whole, this was not a trip to make without packing a Y chromosome.