How to Prevent Sliding Off Your Cot When Camped on the Side of a Hill

Last time I actually wrote a real post, I was camping. My dad and I were at Road Atlanta for the Petit LeMans Sports car race. We have been doing this almost ever year since 2001 and it's basically a week long event. The "real" race is actually a ten hour race on Saturday starting in the morning and ending at night. There are support races and practices throughout the week so we camp out for the week starting on about Tuesday. The camping is in the infield... but it's not the infield that some of your are picturing at Talladega or Daytona. It's basically the woods and hills overlooking the 2.54 mile road course. We always camp in the same general area but never seem to get in exactly the same spot.

We arrived this year on Tuesday night and started setting up our tent. It was dark by that point but we had a pretty good idea of where we were camping and thought we would be fine. We got the tent set up, set up our cots and put our sleeping bags on top of our respective cots. When it was time to go to bed, I crawled in my sleeping bag and immediately began sliding down my cot. Problem. It wasn't particularly cold at that point, so I got out of my sleeping bag, laid on the cot and just covered up with my sleeping bag. I still was not at a particularly comfortable angle... but at least I wasn't falling off the cot.

I woke up about 2 AM and I was once again hanging off the end of the cot and I was FREEZING!!! Note to self... it gets cold at night in North Georgia. (Yes Bryan and Wren, I realize this is nowhere close to as cold as the weather both of you have camped in.) :-) I curled into the fetal position in an attempt to stay on the end of my cot for the rest of the night. I woke up multiple times throughout the time falling off my cot and freezing. And about 6 AM I finally woke up and realized I could turn my cot at about a 30 degree angle... which helped.

When I finally got up for good and got out of bed I was not happy. I was not looking forward to falling out of my cot every night. So at some point later that day we went to Wal Mart and bought a rug pad. We also bought a pair of scissors and cut it in half... half for me and half for my dad. SUCCESS!! On Wednesday night, with a rug pad between my sleeping bag and my cot I did not slide off of my cot.

So if you ever find yourself camped on the side of a hill and sliding off your cot... find your nearest Wal Mart and buy a rug pad. Although... if you do find yourself in that situation, I am probably going to question your sanity. I certainly questioned ours.