I survived! Mostly!
I started a fire on my own!! I cooked over a fire (badly). I slept on the ground (badly). I put up a tent and took it down(wonderfully). I have a standard kitchen box, now. I have a container with all the main stuff (minus the tent that doesn't fit into anything).
Things of note
The camping buddy
Love her to death, but she's high maintenance and very unprepared. She moves a lot slower than I do, so it was really frustrating watching her take 20-30 minutes to set up a fire before even lighting it. And she had to be the one in control of the fire. Constantly moving the logs. There was very little hiking done because she was so sore from sleeping.
BUT she had no supplies. If she knew she needed to sleep on something, why not bring it? If I hadn't brought all the stuff in my kitchen box, I don't know how she would've prepared breakfast or even eaten the food prepared. She ended up going to the store the second day to get food for breakfast today. Really???
That's when she went and got a dog (??) bed to sleep on last night.
I don't know how, but we barely ate (in my view), so all the food I brought kind of was a waste to buy. I have to eat it all myself and if I'dve known that, I wouldn'tve bought most of it.
I think she can stay a hiking buddy, but I think we're too different for camping buddies. I am hugely grateful to her for accompanying me, so I kept my mouth shut and let her putter. I was so fucking hungry though!!
Sleeping arrangements
I was in pain the whole time. I am a side sleeper and didn't even think of that when buying sleeping pads. What I have is ridiculously insufficient. I think I've found a thicker one to try. The sleeping bag was not bad. A mummy bag is weird, though. Only my nose was cold on the first night. I know the sleeping pad helped with that because in my tossing and turning, one leg was off the pad and one on. The temp difference was insane!
I found a 4 inch sleeping pad that is inflatable I may try. I want a hammock, so I may just go ahead and buy that, too. I thought I couldn't use them in the parks, but lots of people were. Apparently, that doesn't fall in the category of "don't damage the trees"
Food
If I go alone again, I think I'll need a cast iron pan to make the eggs in for breakfast. Or, I'll just make some breakfast burritos to reheat. I did enjoy having the fire as we were waking up, though, so cooking breakfast every day is good with me. I plan on doing a shit load more hiking than 5 total miles on my other camps, so I need something to eat that I can either take with me or eat back at camp. I could cook this at the same time as breakfast and take it with me. Or, if I come back to camp have something I can cook over my stove
Dinner is much better over the fire. I need to learn how to cook over a fire better. The chicken I made was ok, but it wasn't cooking right on the skewers. I think I was impatient and didn't wait for the right cooking fire before putting them on. I think I'll use the hobo packet cooking style more often for just me.
The cooler I bought worked GREAT! It didn't get below 55 degrees from Friday late afternoon until I unpacked it today around noon. I am happy I made the purchase
I was sadly lacking on the liquid part of the food. I think I assumed the camping buddy would have their own stuff, but they didn't. I brought 2 nalgenes for water. Luckily, there was fresh water, we just had to fill up a lot. I don't think that would have lasted just me very long, though. I almost brought tea bags, but I put them back when they didn't fit into a container. That would've been good, too. The lady at the campground next to us had big container for water that had a spigot on it. I want that.
Miscellaneous
Definitely need a dirty laundry bag
Want a water container
Want hand brush for wiping off the tent and tarps as I am packing
Need to hang a rope line next time
Need lantern
Want a regular phone charger
Want a sleep mask
Want a hatchet in case we can gather fire wood
Other than that, I think my first trip went pretty well. I over packed only slightly. We used almost all of the kitchen items. I had some extra clothes and food. There were just some things that made life easier, too. Like paper bags for fire, handkerchiefs for anything, a small basin to carry dirty dishes to/from the utility sinks, gloves for prepping meat so we didn't have to worry about washing hands. I didn't shower the whole time even though there was a quick trip back to the apt. It wasn't as gross as I thought, but not a pretty sight
Also, I found the settings on my camera that made for AWESOME fire photos. I'm posting those over on my pic thread. I'll update here with pics of the campsite.
I need a nap...now