Kupilka Cup - Gear Review and Giveaway

Some time ago, we were sent a Kupilka Cup by Sport Hansa to review on our blog. This is a sweet little cup. It actually reminds me of one of those ladles you see in in movies scenes that take place in a Russian Gulag. Perfect for dipping into gruel or in our case stew. You could actually put stew into this cup or my personal favorite, coffee.

The Kupilka Cup is made of a thermoplastic natural fiber composite biomaterial consisting of 50% pine wood fibers and 50% plastic materials. This makes for a durable and engraveable cup that doesn't absorb smells and is insensitive to humidity. Additionally, it has a higher heat endurance which I find quite useful as I can hold the cup in my palms after it's been filled with pipping hot coffee or warm soup without it burning my hands.

Gear Giveaway - Space Bag® Dual-Use Bags

Remember the little P.S. at the end of yesterday's post (The Space Bag® Dual-Use Bags review)? Well here it is, in the...hrm, I don't suppose it would be appropriate to say "in the flesh" considering this is just a blog post. So here it is, the giveaway, as promised. One lucky winner will receive 1 large and 1 medium Space Bag® Dual-Use Bag. Here are the details.

Space Bag® Dual-Use Bags - Gear Review

Have you ever heard of or even owned a set of Space Bag®? You know the "As Seen On TV" space saving bags that you load up with your clothes, zip close, hook up your vacuum cleaner and suck the air out of them? Yeah, we had a set of those for quite some time. They came in handy too. Every time the weather changed from cold to hot and vice-versa, we'd swap out our wardrobes. We'd place the clothes we weren't going to wear in the Space Bag®s, suck the air out to compress them as small as possible, and store them in what is now Dinah's closet. This practice occurred for around 3 years before the bags either ended up with holes (thanks to our cats) or the zipper (much like a Zip Lock bag zipper) failed.

Never once did it ever occur to us to use these things for backpacking or camping. They came in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Of course you'd have the whole challenge of getting it compressed again once it was open. You know, there aren't any vacuum cleaners out in the woods, unless of course you've happened to bring one with you. HAHAHAHAHA.

Dinah's First Camping Trip

For Labor Day weekend, Robin and I decided to escape and go camping. It was a last minute decision really, an impromptu trip so to speak. Friday was the last half work day that work was giving us (part of the new summer working hours they were trying out this year). We had discussed going camping earlier in the week but never really decided on anything for certain, but the idea was still buzzing in our heads.

When I got home from work, we discussed it further. Kiddo was going to a friend's house for the weekend  so we had to be around to take her over there after school (life of a teenager's parent = taxi driver). So we figured it wouldn't hurt to throw the tent and canopy in the back of the SUV, load Bug into her car seat, let our trusty side kick Clover hop in, and head out to Frozen Head State Park to see if we would even be lucky enough to secure a campsite. It was Labor Day weekend after all but with the remnants of Hurricane Issac threatening to drench the weekend here, we figured it was a toss up.

A Blue Ridge Road Trip (Pt. 2)

It was our second full day on our Blue Ridge Parkway trip and we (rather I) woke early once again before the girls did. For some reason, this whole trip I was always the first one up. I guess knowing that I had Robin and Ashby to contend with for the bathroom, my subconscious decided it was best to be first before anyone else was up and avoid fights over the bathroom.

It wasn't long after I was done and ready, that Robin was up and at 'em. Not long after Ashby and Dinah were both up and going, we were packed up, loaded up, and ready to check out of the Hidden Valley Motel by 9am. Our first task was to sequester breakfast. It wasn't hard, as we had eyeballed a Cracker Barrel in the heart of Boone the day previous to this.