Gear Shopping

I just spent $450 at the REI sporting goods store in St. Louis. That's a lot of money, especially when I'm trying to save up for Norway next semester. But this stuff is for Norway, and for post-Norway as well! I took the time to think about each purchase and I think I ended up with some good stuff. This is what I got -

A.) A lifetime membership to REI stores - the savings for this already paid for themselves three times over today.

B.) A sleeping bag - one that's rated 20F/-6.5C for 'comfort' all the way down to -26F/-32C for 'survival'. It's down, compresses very small and was also one of the lighter ones available - definitely in the 'backpacking' category. There were surprisingly much warmer ones,  but this was a good mixture I thought between quite warm/very light and not insanely expensive.

Also - A self-inflating 1.5 inch sleeping pad, a waterproof compression sack, and a liner that adds 14F/8C to the comfort rating of the sleeping bag.

C.) A backpack - a barely, barely big enough one, but it's lightweight, it fits great, and it was on clearance and I had a coupon for additional $$ of a clearances item.... so it was 1/4-1/3 the price I expected to pay for the backpack. With some creativity I figured out a way to tie my sleeping back onto the outside, leaving enough room inside for some clothing, etc. It's not overly spacious but it should just do, its a huge upgrade over what I've used in the past anyway.

Also - A waterproof cover big enough to fit over the bag even when I have the sleeping bag tied onto the outside.

So yeah, lots of money but also lots of nice things I'm sure to be using for a long time! :)