Another comment regarding the camping vs motels: many, if not most, of the cheaper places for tent camping (such as BLM lands, national and state forest campgrounds) do not have shower facilities. My husband and I had a rule-of-thumb: no more than 3 nights in a row camping, then find a motel so that we could clean up in some way besides "over the dish tub".

I would also agree with the suggestion to take a few weekends to camp out (in the springtime) to see how you like camping. That's how we started - we'd get reservations at a local state park, rent some equipment (the first couple of times), and go for a weekend. After a couple of weekends, we had a good idea of how we'd like it (we did!) and what equipment that we would find essential.

Checklists -- I have one, but it's for US. Still, it's a start. I'll see if I can find it - if I can, I will post it in the Gear Up! forum. It could be copied, pasted, and then tweaked to meet YOUR needs.


Donna