Spoiler: There’s a contest at the bottom of this post 🙂
[twitter]I have two bucket of camping gear in our garage. They are big plastic bins filled with camp stoves, dishes, utensils, propane, sleeping bags, tents, hammer, hatchets, and flashlights. If the boys and I decide we want to go camping, all I have to do is drop those two buckets in the trunk and head out the door.
It’s that easy.
Well, it’s supposed to be that easy.
Last year, with a particularly warm late spring weekend coming our way, Zacharie suggested we pack up and head out to the mountains for some smores. Really that’s what camping is about for the boys; roasting marshmallows and squishing them between chocolate and graham crackers. Sure, they like staying up late, watching Star Wars and frolicking in nature too, but really? It’s about the s’mores.
I agreed it would be fun, and dumped the two bins with everything we needed in the trunk. I even keep smores kits, breakfast cereal, and other snacks in the bins. All I had to do was fill a cooler and we were out the door.
We arrived at our campsite, set up the tent, made a fire, had our ‘smores, explored the grounds, watched Star Wars, and went to bed later than we would have if we were at home. It was the perfect camping night.
Now, when I skip the usual routine of potty, bath, and teeth, that can sometimes come back and bite me. Say, around 1 in the morning, when my son wakes up and has to go to the bathroom.
No worries, I grabbed the flashlight from the tent, unzipped the flap and pressed the flashlight button to guide our way to the outhouse.
Nothing happened. This being our first camping trip of the season, I hadn’t done a complete inventory of everything in the buckets to make sure they were in working order. This is quite reminiscent of the time I thought I forgot the tent poles, drove 3 hrs back home to get them only to find them in the bottom of a different bin in the trunk the whole time. This time the batteries in the flashlight were dead and Zacharie still had to go potty.
Being in the middle of nowhere has its privileges. By the light of a mostly full moon and we could shuffle our way to a nearby bush instead of all the way to pit toilets at the other end of the campground and Zacharie did his business.
When we got home, I did an inventory of the buckets and made some adjustments. The flashlights now have Energizer’s longest lasting alkaline batteries in them so I’m never caught with my son’s pants down in the dark, in the woods, again.
Contest Time!
When you’re stocking up your own camping buckets, grab the Energizer® EcoAdvancedtm, the world’s first battery made with 4% recycled batteries, and Energizer’s longest lasting alkaline battery, at participating stores and go to EnergizerWinSmart.com to enter your product UPC and will be entered for your chance to win a smart fortwo ($26,000 value!). There’s also 10 secondary prizes of $100 President’s Choice Gift Cards.
Participating stores include Loblaws, Maxi, Maxi & Cie, Atlantic Superstore, Real Canadian Superstore, Zehrs and Dominion. The contest period is February 1, 2015 – March 16th, 2015.
You can also win from DadCAMP! Learn from my mistake and win a prize package containing the new Energizer® EcoAdvancedtm, an Energizer flashlight and a Loblaw’s gift card valued at $25. Just enter with the form below:
This contest is open to Canadian residents only. Prize will be drawn at random and winner will be sent their prize directly by Energizer or its agencies. Prize must be accepted as awarded.
This branded content appears courtesy a donation to Team Diabetes Canada
We have a couple of back up flashlights that you charge by cranking the handle. They come in very handy for when the batteries die!
my daughter has a toy monkey that plays white noise which helps to put my daughter to sleep and on Christmas when we went to visit the in laws of course the batteries in it died! no backs ups
It was my daughter’s 5th birthday and she got an electronic dog. It was about 9:00pm and in our small town the stores were closed. She was crying. We haven’t forgotten batteries since:)
We seem to find dead batteries in our flashlights just when we need them and the power is out!
Dead batteries in my camera flash at an important event.