Minstrel Boy claimed that MRE's taste "like sawdust". MRE's are actually quite tasty, I ate several of them this trip and they were pretty yummy. He likely was thinking of freeze-dried food, which is pretty awful. But MRE's are quite heavy as well, so my trail food does not include them.
Unfortunately I make the decision to leave town with about five hours' notice, so I was not going to cook hardtack or carry hard salt bacon or do anything like that prior to leaving. I was hard pressed enough getting all my camping gear out of the plastic bins that I'd hauled back from storage the previous evening (I'd hauled it to storage when I thought I was going to move, as one less thing to move on moving day). So I tossed some MRE's into the big black bear canister for car camping, and tossed some freeze-dried and some tuna (pouch) and ramen noodles into the small bear canister for backpacking, and headed out. Luckily I like tuna and noodles. And while freeze dried is nasty, there's a few freeze-dried that taste okay either with MRE crackers (sorta hard-tackish) or with enough Tabasco. Still, if I were planning a long trip, this is not what I'd do for food.
But, alas, that is what happens when you are a penguin pining for snow and suddenly realize that there is still snow in the Sierras...
Hmm. Between the MRE's and what little freeze-dried I have left and the stuff in my pantry, I have enough food for several weeks. And the white gas, propane, and isobutane to cook it. Not bad for disaster preparedness, even if it's accidental...
-- Badtux the Camping Penguin
Sounds like you had a loverly time.
ReplyDeleteDisastor Preparedness! You know something we don't?
ReplyDeleteLooks like you will be all set for when the Rage Virus hits. (BTW I love MREs)
ReplyDeleteMy camping consists of room service and the only wildlife I tend to run into are drunk cougars.
ReplyDeleteDarling Spock, you only wish you ran into drunk cougers. We all know that the last couger you ran into had her very burly bodyguards evict you from Her royal presence. Anyhow, I guess camping just isn't "logical" enough for Vulcans. I mean, why go someplace where there's no room service?!
ReplyDeleteNick - Yes, I know something you don't. I live on a bowl of jelly between the San Andreas Fault and the Hayward Fault. One teensy slip of either fault, and it'll be days before the Governator has the situation under control (not that he is incompetent -- to the contrary, when a local main freeway got destroyed, utterly melted down to goblets of molten steel by a huge fuel truck wreck, he got it fixed within three weeks when everybody said it'd take three months just for CalDOT to issue a request for bids -- it would just be a big mess even for the Governator). Anyhow, like I said, I live on this big bowl of jelly, and while my apartment building is rated to take all the shaking of a major earthquake, the mess would still be big enough to disrupt things drastically...
-Badtux the Disaster Penguin
OK so first I had to google MRE. Had never heard of that.
ReplyDeleteRamen noodles. My students eat that stuff without putting water on them. Beurkkkk there is so much salt and additives in that, you shouldn't eat too much, unless you want to kill your kidneys.
I have to say that I'm not a fan of roughing it! What's the point?
All the better if you enjoyed yourself, just not my idea of a fun time. ;-)