My Review of Alps Mountaineering Meramac 6 Tent - Special Buy

REI

The Alps Mountaineering Meramac is a freestanding 6-person, 2-door tent for fun family camping trips.

Alps Mountaineering Meramac 6 Tent - Special Buy

Survived a Pacific Northwest Road Trip!

Jewyl San Diego, CA 7/6/2009

 

5 5

Gift: No

Pros: Great Carry Bag, Fly Works Well, Easy To Set Up, Minimal Poles, Comfortable, 2 doors, Lots of head room, Sturdy, Waterproof

Cons: No window covers, Must use fly for privacy

Best Uses: Beach, Road Trip, Car Camping

Describe Yourself: Casual Adventurer

What Is Your Gear Style: Comfort Driven

We did a 3 week road trip and we camped about 9 nights... the tent was easy to set up. only 2 poles for the tent and one more for the rain fly. It rained a few nights, and we didn't get wet at all... in fact one night I stood up in the tent and felt a giant puddle underneath, but we were dry inside. There aren't zip up covers for the windows, but the rain fly covers them, so you'll need the fly if you want privacy, but we needed it anyways so it wasn't a problem. It's roomy, tall, and comfy. The 2 door feature meant we each had a door and didn't have to crawl over one another for midnight bathroom runs. It's a great tent.

Sweet campout in Russian Gulch near mendocino, ca

: Using Product, Picture of Product

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we're on the road and

we're on the road and making great time... just passed magic mountain and it's not quite 10 yet.

the countdown begins

with only one more week of school I am so ready to be finished. we're about to go on a thee week expedition in the pacific northwest, and I know it will be completely amazing and at the same time one of the toughest things to do. three weeks of spending 24 hours a day together will either kill us or make us stronger, so hopefully we come back alive. i can't wait...6 days to lift off.

only one more week until

only one more week until my next break and I can hardly wait. my students are getting squerrelly, school politics are wearing me out and

A bittersweet return

Well, I'm enjoying the internet Kiosk in London once again. It's been amazing to spend a month with my mom, experiencing the Sierra Leonian culture even more that I already have, but I'm very happy to be heading home to my fiance, my own bed, my own kitchen and proper grocery stores. It has definitely been an experience to remember.

As always, travel from africa is never easy. The plane didn't leave until 11:50pm last night, but you have to be at the airport terribly early even though this is the only plane leaving. It takes an extreme amount of time for Sierra Leonians to do ANYTHING and checking people in at the airport is no exception. I took the 7pm hovercraft over to Lungi, was in line by 8... about 4 hours early... .let me remind you this was the ONLY flight leaving the country that night, so...really... how on earth does it take 4 hours to check in one plane that's not even 2/3 full??? Well, it does take some effort to be that inefficient, but they've got that covered.

Anyways, it's about time for me to go find my gate here in London... then an 11 hour flight to LAX, finished with a quick hopper flight on to San Diego. I can't wait!

Signing off...

Brushing Sholders with Fame

Tonight we joined a group of Americans for dinner. They are a group that comes out every year to run clinics for a week here in Sierra Leone, and my mom has joined them three times in the past before she moved here.

Since she knows so many people in the group, we went and crashed their party. They were incredibly welcoming and they were so excited to hear about what my mom has done here in Sierra Leone, and I think they're just amazed at the fact that she gave up her life in the states to be here and change people's lives so positively.

Tonight was their kickoff, since they will be heading upline tomorrow afternoon, so they had a big banquet. The American Ambassador to Sierra Leone and the First Lady of Sierra Leone were there.

Also, on the team itself were a couple of somewhat celebrity people
Patricia Heaton (the wife in Everybody Loves Raymond)
Mark Steins who works for Entertainment Tonight
And I got a chance to talk with both of them somewhat, so that was a fun thing... and realistically it's great to help make sure they're aware of the issues and what can be done to help here in Sierra Leone.

Here we are talking with Patricia Heaton

On the Left is the 1st lady of Sierra Leone, on the Left is the American Ambassador.

Turns out it's a bit fuzzy, but here is my mom talking to the 1st lady.

Only in Africa...

Today we got out of Freetown. We were headed to New Steps, which was a Mercy Ships center to help handicapped children. Sadly, it is not currently the trendy thing to give money towards, so the center had to close down.

Since it is closing down, the Mercy Ships clinic is facilitating the entire New Steps facility to be handed over to another organization… for FREE… which is great because otherwise it would be turned over to the government and would no longer serve people. But… the clinic here could use a few things from First Steps, since they still own it, and will be expanding some of their work in Freetown. So today we drove the hour and a half out to Waterloo, started packing some tables, chairs and bookshelves up, and then the people who are acquiring the land (for FREE, mind you), called and said we were trespassing, stealing and that everything belongs to them. Turns out that one of the guys with us was now working for them and must have called them. Anyways, no papers have even been signed (for the FREE center, mind you), but we ended up having to unload everything and head back into town.

Since we had just wasted all that time, we decided to take a detour on our way back and check out an old Mercy Ship project. There was a clinic that was off the beaten path, and it was actually really interesting to see. They had all the numbers from the past years pasted to the walls… each month, how many they treated for AIDS, Malaria, STDs and all kinds of things. There were lots of posters to educate anyone stopping by. They do deliveries for the local women. Basically, it seemed to be working quite well. It’s completely run by Sierra Leonians, and it’s so great to see them being successful.

Anyways, here are some pics from our adventures… enjoy!

TSA would have a heart attack

One more interesting note on Traveling in Africa… when we were at the airport in Senegal, on our way back to Sierra Leone, we were very impressed. The local people were running the airport, things were clean, they were efficient for the most part, and they gave the impression of high security.

I say, they gave the impression of high security, it's because when we went through security they actually had a metal detector and an x-ray machine (something they don’t have in Sierra Leone), but as we put our stuff into the x-ray machine, the three security guards didn’t even glance up at us from their newspapers. So they can say that ever bag that goes on the plane went through the metal detector, but I could have brought ANYTHING in the world on that plane and no one would ever have known. We just had to cross our fingers that we would be safe…but that’s Africa for you.

Gladi Gladi

When a woman goes home after her fistula surgery, she has usually been at the clinic for three weeks. The Gladi Gladi is like a going away event for the women before they go home. On Wednesday mornings, all of the women who are slated to go home over the next week are given a brand new nice dress, and a pair of shoes and a necklace. The women are prayed for, then they lead the group in singing as they dance around the entire courtyard together, singing with a drum. It is a great way to send off the women into their new life back at home.

Fabulous Fabrics

Since returning to Freetown I've had a chance to do a few exciting things. One thing was to take a trip to the Fabric Market. Now, there are two kinds of fabric... African prints (which are apparently made in china, but they're only $1.50-$3 per yard) or Handmade African Fabrics, such as batik and tye dye (which can be quite costly depending on the time they spent making them). The market where I went was primarily full of prints, but I'll have a chance to see the handmade fabrics on saturday.

I picked three different fabrics for myself, one of which Sydney Lyn, the clinic seamstress, will make into a shirt tomorrow. They have a really great system here, because Sydney Lyn gets her regular salary, but on fridays she sews for the people at the clinic for money. All of that money goes towards buying the fabric for the Gladi Gladi dresses and other fabric needs for the clinic.

Mom's on the front page!

We're back in Sierra Leone, and there's exciting news. My mom was on the front page of the Modesto Bee yesterday!
http://www.modbee.com/featured/story/647024.html
They featured her story about coming to Sierra Leone to help out. She's pretty darn amazing.

Today I've had a calm morning, and I'm planning to spend the afternoon getting started on the inventory. We had a pretty smooth trip back... no crazy african stories to tell about this journey.

Day Break

Today was a nice relaxing day here in Dakar, Senegal. We woke up late, Marla McLane made delicious scones and smoothies for breakfast, then we went out shopping... which meant a few different things... shopping in Africa is quite a different story than anywhere else.

First we went to pick up some Nems... an egg roll type thing that this lady makes. We drove up to a random, unmarked house down a dirt road, and knocked on their gate. When we went inside there were tables full of these Nems. We bought 120 of them for about $36 (18CFA), and went on our way.

Then, as we waited in traffic, we decided to get some melons... which meant that I got out of the car while we waited for traffic, then tried to haggle with a local who only knows french...which I know none of. I got the price I wanted, and I went on my way.

After a quick fill up (at a Shell station if you can believe it), we went to this Amazing market...when you walked in you felt like you had just walked into a european shopping center. There were very nice stores...they even had a Guess jeans store and a dry cleaners... and there was a big, European style, grocery store. We walked up and down every aisle, in awe that these products made it here. My mom picked up a few things she can't get in Sierra Leone, like spinich pasta, broccoli, BBQ potato chips and heavy cream. We enjoyed a freshly made pizza in the car on our way home.

Before making it home, we stopped by this other random place... it was on a corner down another dirt road, a bit out of the way, but inside there were about 8-10 men sewing, and there was a little store with the most beautiful bags. I got quite a few of them... they were all kinds of fabric sewn together. Many pieces were very bright. I am very excited about a few purchases, but I won't go into detail since a few of my readers may be receiving some of these beauties.

Tonight was nice... I made cupcakes with Chloe (the McLane's 8 year old), and I played Settlers of Catan with Tom, Drew and Alex, along with their friend James. It's been a while since I've gotten to play, so it was nice to play again.

For now it's almost midnight, so I'd better get some sleep.

I miss all of my friends at home! I hope you are all having a wonderful weekend.

Swinging from the Baobab

On friday we went on a total adventure. We headed out of town (which always takes forever in Africa...because there are few roads going into or out of any given place), and eventually ended up at Accrobaobab. This is a ropes course in the baobab trees. We had a truly fantastic time doing this.




After our adventure we went to Lac Rose, a pink colored lake. It's a very salty lake, which means it has a certain bacteria that gives the lake a pink tint.

Goree Island

Here we are on the ferry to Goree Island
A beautiful sight from the top of Goree Island

Mom and I with the gorgeous flowers

Goree Island

Slave quarters

Traveling the African Way...

Here's the plane we traveled on.
This is the hovercraft we used to get from freetown to Lungi
My mom and I on the hovercraft.

African Transportation

Traveling is a total part of the adventure in Africa. Our flight out on Wednesday was at 3pm, but the Airport is on Lungi, across a body of water from Freetown. There are 4 ways to cross the water. The locals use the ferry, which takes an hour and a half...but you need to get to the landing which is far away from the clinic, and on the other side you have to get up to the airport. It's a big hassle. The other options are the Pelican Water Taxi ($40) which is a small speed boat that takes about 45 minutes, the Hovercraft ($50) which only takes about 15 minutes and is nice and big and safe feeling, or the helicopter (the only method I have left to try), which is a quick 7 minutes of terror, or so I've heard, since it regularly looses power and nearly crashes ($70).

So, our flight left on wednesday at 3, but since the only flight out of Sierra Leone that day was to another african country, the only transport across was the ferry. Rather than a whole day of travel to get across, we decided to cross on tuesday night with people who were headed for a London flight, and stay at the Lungi Airport hotel. We headed down to the Pelican Water Taxi, which we thought was scheduled to leave at 6:30. Only after the whole group of Africans watched us unload all of our luggage did they ask... "are you travelling?" Um, no... we just wanted to bring 2 big suitcases down to the dock and then carry them back home. So, they then said the water taxi left 2 hours earlier and there would be no more for the next few days.

Plan B... we rushed over to see if the helicopter or hovercraft was going... and we arrived after the hovercraft had already started going. But they waited, hauled us all onto the hovercraft over the big pontoons, and off we went. It's pretty cool...hovering over the water with a giant fan to propel us forward. This thing could fit probably 70+ people, but there were only 4 paying customers. No wonder they stopped for us...we doubled their payload!

The next day we got to the airport, where they didn't even look in my bag, and there aren't even x-ray machines. Good thing I'm not a terrorist. It was open seating on the plane, which was fine since it wasn't full. My mom and I were the only non-africans aboard the flight, and the fear on any flight within africa is that the standards for safety aren't exactly the same as else where in the world. When the pilot was ready to taxi, we went from zero to sixty in 10 seconds and once we were in the air the pilot got up to altitude as fast as possible. The turns were fast (sometimes you could feel the g-force like on a roller coaster), and when we descended and landed it was all done in a matter of minutes.

We had a stopover in The Gambia...which is actually a Nasa emergency landing center...although you would never know it if it wasn't for google. When we were on the ground a group of boys who were continuing on to Senegal got up and said they needed to use the bathroom. Everyone knows you cannot use the bathroom while the plane is on the ground. They didn't care...they HAD to go. Finally the flight attendant said that we'd all have to deplane if they went to the bathroom, and they rushed off to use the bathroom in the airport. So we had to load up all of our stuff and get ready to get off the plane... finally she said we could all stay on board, but this is the kind of thing that just would never happen in the states. I mean, really...just hold it for 20 minutes until we get back in the air, rather than making the whole plane wait for you to go to the bathroom.

Anyways, we were absolutely lucky to have Tom and Alex McLane pick us up at the airport...making for a great and easy escape from the african transportations that we had travailed.

A day in Senegal

Today we had our first real Senegalese adventures. We went to Goree Island, the most Western part of Africa, where the slaves were kept before they were shipped off. The story of the slave, and their treatment is always so horrible. We toured a place that was a slave house, and saw the small rooms where they would keep many slaves.

I did learn a few new things today. It is interesting because they wouldn't ship off anyone under 60kilograms (thats 132lbs)...so they either fattened them up or enslaved them here in africa. They kept the virgin girls separate so the men could take them, but if one got pregnant they were let go. They would not enslave the half white children. Very sad, but at least they recognized these children were of their own men, and wouldn't enslave them.

On a better note, the island has grown to be a beautiful place, so it is no longer an oppressive land. The colors of the buildings and the plants are amazing. We picked up a few trinkets on this trip, and the pictures are so beautiful. (see them all on facebook).

Afterwards we were in downtown Senegal to go to Ali Babas. We had hamburger complete... a hamburger with a fried egg and french fries and ketchup and mustard all on the burger. Crazy, delicious, and I think I need to exersise every day for a week to make up for it.

It's amazing because there are times here where you don't even realize you're in Africa. We went into a sporting goods shop that looked as nice as any in america, and we stopped in a beautiful bakery with all kinds of delicacies... since Senegal was a french colony, that is the national language. There are also a lot of french tourists, so there are restaurants that cater to them. This makes for a much more international feel to the city... much nicer than Sierra Leone.

Tonight we're going to have a local dish called ceebu jin (sounds like chubba gin), a wolof name. Wolof is the local ethnic language... don't use the term tribal here, they don't like that. Smells very yummy, so I'll let you know how it turns out!

Hi from Senegal!

This might give you a view into how bad Sierra Leone is. We looked out the window on our way into Senegal today, and our first comment was "wow! Streets! and even street lamps!" Sierra Leone rarely has an actual paved road...I mean a lot of the roads were once paved (before the war in the 70's) but now it would be better to have a dirt road than these potholes and holes in the road that people make in order to tap into the water pipes below. Senegal's roads are nicely paved and there was a traffic guy who actually directed traffic.

Now, a street lamp would be truly ridiculous in Sierra Leone because they don't have power regularly, so the fact that Senegal had street lamps was a sign of development. The airport is very nice and calm, which is just fantastic. There were no people mobbing us to get tips for touching the luggage, because...imagine this... only people who used the airport were allowed in. All of our luggage made it there. wow.

Anyways, I'm being anti-social right now since I'm blogging in a room full of people. Hasta luego!

The dance crew

Across the street from Mercy Ships clinic the government sponsors a cultural area. The people there dance and play music, so when the government has events they call on these people to provide the local entertainment. Today they are practicing, and I can currently hear them in the background. The music is amazing...pretty much just drums and a marimba. The dancers are also amazing...

So I was standing outside their compound listening, and they invited me in to watch, so I was watching, and then I asked to take a picture. "I must ask the boss" he says, and dissapears. That's fine, so I just stand and watch and enjoy. He comes back and says it is fine for me to take pictures. They come over with a cup they won in a soccer tournament, and ask me to add to the donations, so I put in 1000leones (about 35cents).

I take a few pics, then someone comes and says I must stop or the boss will be angry...who knows why they said I could in the first place then. So I put away the camera, and I left soon after...although one man tried to get a phone number from me first.

Anyways, here's one of the few pics I was able to get...

Weekend pics