[Ansteorra] OT: Bedding dilemma

[Sluggy!]

On Wed, 2007-05-16 at 11:58 -0500, Morgan Blackdragon wrote:

> My lady and I are sick of air mattresses and would like to move to
> something a bit more dependable. What is the best bedding in terms of
> set up / break down, amount of truck space it would take up, etc.

The bedding solution we have applied that has the highest comfort vs
compact ratio seems to be a pair of twin size rollaway beds. They pack
in about the same volume as an equivalent number of cots, sleeping bags,
etc and it's hard to beat for a week-long camp such as Gulf Wars.
Comfort is great enhanced (for us, anyway) by placing a 2' x 6' sheet of
plywood (chipboard, really) between the springs of the bedframe and the
innerspring mattress. This helps keep one's back in much better
alignment, the non-braced bed tending to fold the occupant a few degrees
at the waist. The biggest drawback of these beds is that, as two twin
size beds, they deny one reasonable access to your snuggle buddy.

At Dragonsfire Tor's most recent Guardian, we experimented with using
two cots as the framework, the mattresses from the rollaways on top of
them and on top of the whole assembly, a foam mattress salvaged from our
camper (may it R.I.P.). The sleeping surface was very comfy. The two cot
frames made for slightly high center and edges, which tended to roll us
onto our separate sides of the bed, but rest was very good. This
solution is also rather bulky to pack, mostly due to the volume of the
mattresses.

I think a platform bed with a foam or futon mattress, or even an air
bed, would be very comfy and would pack nicely. Also, anything that gets
one off the ground will greatly help keep the sleeper warm. I have a
futon that at least a couple of events and at least one Gulf War served
as very comfortable sleeping directly on the floor of the tent, but even
an 8 or 10 inch thick futon mattress loses a fair amount of heat to the
ground. Besides, one little tent leak and you've got a terrible mess.
That does not address that it's not as easy for an overweight
40-something fighter with a bunch of new bruises to get up off a
ground-mounted futon mattress as it is to alight from atop a raised bed
of virtually any design. Add to that leg cramps, full bladder and Sunday
morning 'dizziness' and any bed on the ground loses just about all
appeal!

Sluggy!