Recent Purchases

So I think all my readers know that Justin and I are traveling to Africa this December to climb Mount Kilimanjaro and go on a safari (number 48 on my 101 List). Our guides, IMG, have a gear list showing all items that are needed for each person doing the trip. Most of this stuff, luckily, are things that Justin and I already have due to the other winter climbs we've done. Others, however, are rather big purchases and we haven't gotten them yet. One of these bigger purchases was synthetic sleeping bags. One wouldn't think sleeping bags would be considered a "big purchase", but when you have to buy a sleeping bag that will keep you warm in 0-10 degree weather, it can be pricey.

Luckily, Justin and I are REI members. If you are an outdoorsy person and have never heard of REI, you live under a rock. The plus side of me living in Nashville was that there was an REI in Brentwood. Every time Justin came in town to see me, we usually always stopped by REI and made some kind of purchase. The closest REI to us now is in Atlanta, so we don't have the advantage of shopping frequently, but lets face it, that's probably a good thing :)

We have ordered our sleeping bags from REI and they will be shipped this week. Feast your eyes upon our beds for two weeks:



This is Justin's sleeping bag



And this is Marcie's sleeping bag

Kind of looks like a coffin doesn't it?? We are planning a trip to go camping in Cades Cove (number 35 on my 101 List) on the May 7th weekend, so we'll get to use these bad boys for the first time then. I'm so excited about our camping trip. Justin and I will be camping in Cades Cove the entire time and we're taking the mountain bikes to bike the Cades Cove loop in the morning before the road is opened up to car traffic. This will also complete number 87 on my 101 List. Yes I know I'm about to start knocking things off like crazy. I haven't been able to complete very many lately because of busy season. Now that April 15th is right around the corner, I can start checking things off again!!!

Not only are we biking while in Gatlinburg, but we're also hiking. Such a shocker, I know. Get ready for the romantic part...because I'm not a very romantic person. We've decided that instead of hiking a new trail or mountain that we've never done, we're going to go back and hike Mount LeConte. You may or may not remember, probably not because I didn't have the blog until after we did this, but hiking Mount LeConte was the VERY FIRST mountain that Justin and I hiked together and it was that hike that sparked my interest in mountain climbing. Not only was it our first mountain to climb together, but it was our first ever trip together as a couple. We did this back in May 2008, so as an attempt to reminisce about our first trip and first climb together, we will go to the same spot exactly two years later. Here's some pics from that trip:



It started raining about halfway up the mountain



The mountain in the back is LeConte (6,593 feet in elevation)



One of our first pictures together on that trip



This is STILL one of my favorite pictures of us