My favorite memory of our long trip, was when I awoke to a frosty fall morning in Colorado and mentioned to no one in particular how cold I felt. Gathering my clothing and toiletries inside the tent, our son toddled outside on his own. We had chosen a camp site with an obvious borderline of trees and shrubs, which our son understood as his exploration boundary and I rarely worried that he would wander away. But I heard loud scraping noises and I rushed out to see what he was up to. I found him piling wood and newspaper into the firepit and he said to my husband, in possibly his first complete sentence, "Mommy's cold, I need to make a fire."

We had 2 main tricks for our trip. 1) We camped just outside the city. We were always within a five minute drive of the regular city services, so I was never without the little things I'd become accustomed to using with my son-including a laundromat. 2)We purchased quality gear, such as: a roomy tent, deluxe sleep bags, self inflating sleeping mats, camp kitchen and baby backpack for hiking. Also we chose an extended trip, so that our son really had a chance to settle into his new surroundings and the rthymn of a camping lifestyle; he really blossomed.