The Defender lives!
Well, I got the truck all put back together and on the road. We were supposed to go a Boy Scout campout with the kid so we packed it up and headed out. It was a beautiful weekend and it was nice to get out in the Defender again. I did somehow manage to crack my exhaust manifold flange so I have a small exhaust leak there. It makes the 90 sound like it’s got an huge engine under the hood now. I need to get it fixed because I hate sounding like I’ve ‘riced out’ my truck.
As for the campout, it went okay. I normally go camping to get away from people, like at Padre Island. At Padre Island you can find a spot and literally be miles from anyone. This weekend I had to camp mere feet from others and it wasn’t pleasant. If I’m going to put up with sleeping on the ground and pissing in the trees I better get the trade-off of having peace and quiet. My wife finally realized what I’ve been telling her all my life. I hate people. More specifically, I hate crowds. Anything more than 6-8 people I don’t know is a crowd. I put up with DisneyWorld but only because we go in the off seasons and never have to wait in line much. We were sitting around the campfire and my wife noticed that I was tensed up, rubbing my temples, and grinding my teeth and I think it dawned on her.
The weather was nice and I was able to sleep outside. I also get a kick out of watching people who have no right being outdoors trying to set up camp. They get these huge multi-room tents and take an hour getting them set up. They put on rain flys and all. They don’t seem to understand that unless the temp is under 50 degrees or so a rain fly is going to make that tent a broiler. Our entire campsite was setup in under 10 minutes. Personally, unless it’s raining, I sleep under the stars and that’s what I did this time. If it is going to rain I’ll setup a tarp and crawl under that. My wife and kid slept in our little three man tent because they are paranoid of bugs but that’s fine. I was the most comfortable person in camp sleeping out in the nice cool breezes.