It’s the Little Things in Life …

No, I’m not talking about a 4-corner bed with a quilted mattress (my airbed feels just fine, thanks). I’m not talking about enjoying a sit-com while relaxing in a recliner. I’m not even talking about a loo that isn’t a football field away (although there have been times over the last 10 days I’ve secretly cursed the woman who led me to believe that all the buildings in the campsite had bathroom facilities).

The little thing I’m talking about is … a simple cup of really good coffee!

I love coffee. I wouldn’t consider myself a connoisseur. Sure I had been buying whole beans and grinding them, but it was just something I was doing to treat myself. It’s not like I’m a snob about it or anything.

When I made plans for my journey, I decided to bring the coffee grinder and the coffee I had lying in my freezer (I bought some online a while back and hadn’t gotten all the way through it). I also decided to bring a little appliance to heat water instead of a coffee pot. The little “logic” voice in my head said, “You’ll have other reasons to heat water … bring the appliance instead of a coffeemaker”. Well, that little voice evidently didn’t reside with the coffee-drinking part of my psyche, because if he did, he would’ve been tied and gagged and the coffee drinkers would have been screaming, “COFFEEMAKER! BRING A COFFEEMAKER!”

I had thought about … *gulp* … instant coffee and just couldn’t bring myself to that. Larry suggested coffee concentrate – he uses one from Trader Joes. Sounded like a great idea, except they all needed to be refrigerated and I was already tight on cooler space. Plus the shipping via Amazon Prime once I was one the road would have been slighly more than the coffee concentrate itself! Another reason that was a no-go.

I finally read two articles in succession. The first one talked about making your own concentrate. I thought about that for a while until I read the second one – making your own “coffee bags” using a coffee filter and dental floss, and using it the way you’d use a tea bag. I opted for the latter.

As I’m writing this, the coffee-drinking psyche is going off on me full bore again – “Coffee Bags??!!??!! Are you freaking kidding me????”

Simply put, it didn’t work. It didn’t work at all. First off, I need coffee just to become aware in the morning. There’s no way I can tie up a filter full of coffee using dental floss without first having a couple of cups of coffee. I wound up making 10 of them:

1 worked … and I used that term loosely. It worked, if you didn’t mind a bit of grind in your morning beverage
3 fell apart completely
4 wound up not having enough coffee in them to work
2 found themselves at the bottom of Lake Blackshear after I heaved them in anger, packed Frank in the car and drove the 8 miles one-way to Cordele and the nearest McDonalds. (Frank didn’t complain as he likes Egg McMuffins.)

So last Friday, I ordered a “Brew-A-Cup” single-cup coffee filter system off Amazon and had it shipped to me here at the State Park. It arrived yesterday. This morning, I had two of the most satisfying cups of coffee I’ve had probably in the last 20 years.

It’s the little things.

(Mental note to self – make sure you verify that the bathrooms are relatively close BEFORE you pitch your next camp, okay?)

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Edit:  Not 15 minutes after I finish writing this post, an old high school buddy, Mike in Houston, writes, “A coffee press might be your best bet.” on my Facebook feed.  Arrrgh!  Mr. Logic says, “We don’t have room for that.”  The Coffee Drinking Group are screaming, “Yes! Yes!  A Coffee Press! Yes! Yes!”

I think my head is going to explode.