UPDATE: Tent?, Drying out, Shopping, Packing

Before I hear anything sarcastic, yes I am posting twice in the same day . Lots of good stuff going on and I will update below sticking with the bullet update format for now.

But before I do that, I just want to give a big thank you to my Dad, who gave me a crash course on fishing basics this past Monday. He was awesome, showed me how to tie on leaders , use lures, spinners and some other fishing related info that will be put to good use on the trip. When I was a kid, I remember going fishing with my Dad to catch rainbow trout while we lived in Labrador, NFLD. It was one of those moments that even now makes me smile. As we stood in my driveway this week, reviewing fishing tactics, I had that feeling again and for a few moments, I felt like a kid again. Thanks Dad!

• Tent?- True to his word, Andrew met me and we have our MSR Hubba Hubba tent!(I take back everything I said Andrew). The tent is brand new, unused and tags still attached. I was so excited that I could hardly wait to set it up. Gerry came over and we put it up together (of course). Keeping in mind this was the first time either of us had put an MSR tent up, it was assembled in 3 minutes and is truly a thing of beauty! It is a self supporting, simple design yet, deceivingly sturdy. One the coolest features; the one piece pole system is wild and had Gerry and I standing in awe of those MSR engineers once again! The tent has a removable fly, that would allow for stargazing...something we hope to have the right weather to use!
• Dehydration Round 2- The lessons learned the first time we tried to make jerky will be put to good use as we try again tonight, Gerry picked up the meat from a butcher friend of his today and from what he has said...this should make some very good jerky! I will update with the results. I have also dehydrated some spicy tomato sauce and successfully reconstituted a test sample. It was great and will add some great flavors for the trip.
• Final Grocery Shopping- If anything, this makes the fact that the trip is almost here the most real and tomorrow we will pick up the food that will make the journey with us...part of the way.
• The Pack Up- Now that we have everything we need, this weekend Gerry and I will assemble all the food/equipment and decide who will pack in what, in the hopes of keeping it even. At this time I would like to lay down a personal challenge to Gerry...lets see how much you could carry buddy, I am sure you could carry like twice as much as me? Let me know...