Taco Shell Camping

The internet is inspiring. Back when I was researching for camper shells for my truck I came across a lot of pictures from people who go into wilderness and have a storage/sleep setup inside their camper shell. I'm not as crafty as they all are and I decided to start my project at 9pm after work on Friday night, knowing I was planning on camping the very next day, so I made it simple. All it took was some sawing, gluing and nailing and I came up with roughly was you see below (I changed the foam cushions to eliminate road vibration). It costed $90 total and I have leftover wood and supplies. 

Things I said on Saturday between leaving the boat and getting to the campground:

"I forgot the pan for cooking and kettle for coffee" - "I forgot my sleeping bag" - "I forgot Ice" - "I forgot about wood" - fortunately solutions to my forgetfulness were all in reach. 

We drove to Blue Jay Campground in the Cleveland National Forest near Lake Elsinore on Saturday afternoon to find is almost empty. It works on a first come first serve basis so you drive around, pick a site, and go pay for it at the front entrance under the honor system. Camping out of the truck rather than a tent meant that we had our eyes set on a parking spot that was close to the fire, preferably in shade and as flat as possible. I used the extra wood from the project to level the truck so we could sleep comfortably. Mia helped to set up our inflatable sleeping mats as I started a fire and we were settling in for the night. The whole night around the campfire we just kept saying that we need to go camping more often, its a fun, cheap, and exciting way to spend a weekend. 

On Sunday we stopped by my favorite old sandwich shop in Fullerton where I went to college, it changed a bit and had a lot going on around it, but was filling. I kept thinking I would sail the dinghy today but there was absolutely no wind. This ended up great because I went to storage to drop off the camping gear, grabs surfboard and went surfing in the nice conditions. Bonus, now my surfboard fits it the covered storage under the sleeping platform I built in the bed of my truck. 

We got new pour over coffee filters (because I lost my French press filter to the sea) and used the morning fire to boil water.