Camping with Guitar

I recently wrote about my travel guitar, and now I've had a chance to actually travel with it. Last week was my annual boys' hiking/camping trip, this year to the High Peaks region of New York State's Adirondacks. Five of us crammed our food, gear, and beer into a rental minivan and hit the highway, headed for four days and four nights at the Wilderness Campground at Heart Lake.

Now that the trip is over, I have to say that the guitar met every hope I had for it, and was exactly what I envisioned it to be. It was always handy - I would grab it during post-hike afternoon downtime, or around the campfire at night. It wasn't my intention to play "for" anyone - I didn't want to annoy the guys with it, and thought I would probably take it and go down to the lake and find a quiet spot by myself to play. To my surprise, the guys wanted to hear songs, and tried to sing along. The problem was I didn't have lyrics. Next time I'll make a point to bring my binder of songs from the acoustic jam - at this point I have a sizable collection of printed tabs (chords and lyrics.)

I continue to be very pleased with the guitar itself. I can't recommend the Washburn WMJ 10S Mini Jumbo highly enough. It sounds good, feels good, and looks good - and at a budget price.

My baby's first outing was a complete success. I will be taking her with me everywhere it's possible to bring her. And for the next camping trip, maybe some other guys will also bring a guitar, and we can really have some fun!