The February camping Trip absolutely had some magic.  Some really special things happened for me in incredibly personal and moving ways.  I've so far kept them pretty close to my chest.  Jason knows about them, he either witnessed them or heard about them at the time or that night or on the drive home or in the weeks after.  I've hand written about them and would like to talk about them here but I'm letting these two trips tell themselves how they want to be told, so we'll see how that unfolds.

The February Trip was my first Winter camping trip and I did just fine.  I was cold sometimes, sure, but Jason spent a lot of time looking for used gear and found me a cold-rated mummy bag that the amazing previous owner had taken to Everest (yes, literally! twice!!!) so he was confident that worst case I'd be warm at night and I had to trust in that as last trip he'd given me his bag once mine got soaked and he jokingly said he wanted to have his back.  But I also know he really wanted me to be ok and I trust his research and well he bought it for me, so that was lovely and kind (and might have made me sob the first night I used it, knowing he had gotten it just for me as a gift and that it had travelled all the way to Mount Everest with a lovely adventure seeking gentleman who wanted it to go to someone who knew what it meant and would take care of it.)

We did get soaked one of the days on the February trip, and did spend some time in the vehicle.  (Note: not my car, Jason bought a used 4x4 which meant more room, yay!)  In fact, Jason spent time in the vehicle while I stood in the rain under my purpose bought umbrella before I decided I was probably being stubborn and joined him in the toasty warm vehicle for a while.  

We also, before jumping in the truck, substantially improved the trenching we'd done, including making multiple holes for the water to drain into and then from there into again.  It was a lot of rain.  But holy crap my new jacket kept me dry (and legit too warm when trenching!)

But the February trip was night and day difference in terms of comfort and success vs the 2018 trip.  My new gear (jacket, pants, mummy bag) made such a difference.

The biggest thing that didn't work for me that trip was the sleeping situation.  I was using Jason's good sleeping mats but my body didn't do ok.  I took the muscle relaxers (Robaxacet) each night and still was sore and didn't really sleep well.  I was warm though (the mummy bag takes a while to do its thing and doesn't "work" well with pjs on, so it took some trial and error on my part) so at least I could not sleep while warm.  In February.  But I knew if I wanted to camp again, I'd have to figure out an improved sleeping situation.  As well as getting the bottom of Jason's tent re-waterproofed (he admitted after we got some water in, despite tarps and trenches that he hadn't sprayed the tent down in... er... he couldn't actually remember... decade(s)?)