[Utah Girl]

I finally learned to take along a 4” piece of foam to sleep on, or I take my Aerobed along. It is like sleeping in my own bed with my own pillow. And I have a one person tent. I take off the rain fly on top and can gaze at the stars. There is nothing quite like camping under the stars.

I did try a cot one year. And froze. The air circulates under the cot and you can’t keep warm.

[Enosh]

Never try that in Texas without this stuff. Chiggers, I think, must be the Official State Predator.

Oy vey!

[colorcountry]

I did try a cot one year. And froze. The air circulates under the cot and you can’t keep warm.

That's for sure. I have a cot too. It's great for storing your stuff underneath, but in the mountains of Utah, you can freeze in July. {{{shiver}}} just thinking about it.

[MHGinTN]

Speaking of stars, my second wife's teenaged daughter went one nigth with us out onto the farm in my SUV. When I turned off the engine, I asked her to step outside for a second. She stepped out and my wife whispered, "Look up." It was a moonless night and the Milky Way stretched visibly from horizon to horizon. He only stammering response was, "What is that?!" She had reached the age of seventeen and never seen a sky full of stars!

On a weekend trip up to the observatory at Green Bank, West Vitginia, I stopped the vehicle in a secluded valley and asked my wife to step out with me. The stars were so bright in comparison to the landscape, you could literally seen a penny on the ground behind the Rodeo and the cattle far in the distance. A solitary light came over the horizon and we followed it all the way to the opposite horizon ... probably a satellite. America is getting so much light pollution, such places are now like hidden gems! There is no sensation to equal standing under a stralite sky with the Milky Way spanning from horizon to horizon. You truly feel the vastness of His creation then.