Conversion Camping Tips

from: http://ecotourism.etravelnetpro.com/benefits-of-ecotourism/conversion-van-cam...

Conversion van tenting does not give you the luxury of life in an RV, nor the discomfort of sleeping in a tent. It can be robust to soundly warmth a van at night, but it’s low-cost compared to an RV, and you’ll go places they cannot. We spent greater than 25 nights sleeping in our conversion van final year.

Life In A Conversion Van

Make your van into something that’s useable for you, particularly if it should be your residence for days or even weeks at a time. For my spouse and I, this meant having house to maneuver around. We took out the 2 center seats which, I satisfied Ana, would be good armchairs for the dwelling room. Then we had sufficient space for dressing or cooking. The bench-seat in back folds out into a comfortable bed, so we had been all set for camping.

When touring, you need a system of group to keep your space contained in the van livable. After our first long journey, we noticed the various things we never used. We bought more efficient after that. We’re also able to maintain the space open, regardless of carrying many things, by using plastic storage tubs you should purchase nearly anywhere. They stack well, and for those who want extra room at night time, you can put them on the roof. They’re rainproof with the lids snapped on.

Heating A Conversion Van

Camping in a van can be cold at instances, because it was for us in the deserts of Arizona final winter. We began the van and cranked up the heater from time to time, however just for transient periods. The danger of carbon monoxide poisoning is just too great to leave the car working while you’re sleeping.

We also cooked to heat up the van. Our propane camp range burned very clean. Any time it was cold, it was time to prepare dinner dinner, breakfast, or tea. This heated up the van nicely. Again, because of carbon monoxide, I wouldn’t recommend ever sleeping with a propane burner going. Still, typically a quick warm-up is all you need earlier than you crawl underneath the blankets for the night.

The secret to heating a conversion van when tenting is to provide up. Enjoy dinner time heat-ups, however until you’ve got electric energy, I don’t know of a protected way to heat a van all night. Instead, you may warmth yourselves. Put on heat clothing. Carry more blankets than you suppose you’ll need. Prepare a thermos bottle stuffed with sizzling coffee each night time, so it is going to be waitng for you in the morning. You get to warm the van while you make it, and heat up yourselves ingesting it for breakfast.

Advantages Of Conversion Van Camping

Touring and tenting in a conversion van costs less than in an RV. The preliminary price is quite a bit much less if you buy used, as we did, and the price of driving it is substantialy less. We averaged 18 miles per gallon on our final cross-country trip. Most leisure autos are lucky to get half of that, and they’re very costly to maintain.

In contrast with tent camping, a van is far more comfortable. Even if you backpack, you’re probably going to drive some sort of automotive to wherever you go. With a van, you may come inside if it starts to rain. If you happen to’re backpacking a great distance from residence, it can save you on motels on the drive to and from the trailhead.

Tenting will be extra snug in an RV, but not in all ways. It is nice, for instance, to park anywhere. We have taken naps in parking lots, and no one was the wiser, due to tinted home windows, curtains, and the inconspicuousness of a van. At a free campground in Florida we acquired one of the best spot, on a bank overlooking Lake Talquin, as a result of our van was small enough to suit there, unlike most of the RVs.

It’s nice to have the ability to drive anywhere. Within the conversion van, tenting wherever we’re when it will get darkish is not any problem. Lastly, some bigger RVs drag a automotive around because the massive rig simply isn’t sensible for daily driving. Our coversion van is a second residence AND our main automobile for shopping or going to work. That’s flexibilty.

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Cold Sores... Down There

from; http://www.csindy.com/colorado/advice-goddess/Content?oid=2412299

Blister wonderful

I'm starting to have feelings for this guy friend I've been fooling around with, but I'm worried he isn't feeling the same way. He's stopped short of having full-blown intercourse with me, which I find odd, although I don't want to have sex yet because I have genital herpes and I'm not ready to tell him. (I take an antiviral drug for this daily, and I'd have him wear protection during intercourse.) Do you think he knows I have herpes? Maybe he just isn't interested in me romantically and doesn't want me getting too attached. — Puzzled

When you start to care about somebody, it's nice to give him little romantic gifts — flowers, a gourmet cupcake, a sweet card, weeping genital sores.

Surely you'd tell the guy pronto if you had a cold: "Hey, don't get too close, because you could catch this and have an unpleasant few days." But colds go away. Herpes is forever. Yeah, I know, so are diamonds. But, unlike a mammoth rock on a girl's finger, a big genital pustule isn't anything you want to be showing off to the crew at the office: "Look at it gleam under the fluorescents!"

Genital herpes hasn't always been such a big stigmatized deal — to the point where it's led to the tanking of countless potential relationships. Until the late '70s, it was seen as "cold sores down there" and often not even worthy of a visit to the doctor. Except in rare cases, the physical symptoms are relatively minor. At the first outbreak, especially, it feels a bit like the flu, with fever, headache and muscle aches. There's also tingling and itching, and there can be pain, burning during urination (and don't forget the yucky sores!).

So, what led to all the stigma? The sexual revolution, for starters. In the mid-'70s, with lots of people having lots of sex, genital herpes spread (as probably did the common cold). In 1979, the CDC, seeing the herpes stats rising, got a little hysterical and announced an "epidemic" (of cold sores!), and the media ran with it. In 1980, Time magazine declared herpes "The New Sexual Leprosy," and in 1982, the Miami Herald called it a "cruel disease." "Cruel disease"? Multiple sclerosis is a cruel disease. But, an infection that gives you the itchies and makes you walk funny for a few days? As herpes simplex expert Dr. Adrian Mindel told the Independent in 1987, "For the majority of people herpes is ... nothing more than an occasional nuisance."

The thing is, if you're having an outbreak of your "occasional nuisance" and your naked parts are rubbing against somebody else's naked parts, you could infect him. The risk of transmission may be reduced by daily antiviral treatment and condom use — provided there are no contagious areas outside the condom zone. But, you can be in a contagious stage and not know it. Of the approximately 1 in 6 U.S. adults ages 14 to 48 who have genital herpes, 80 percent don't show visible symptoms, says herpes researcher Dr. Anna Wald. Research by Wald and her colleagues found that even when herpes carriers showed no symptoms, they were contagious 10 percent of the time. Of course, that's on average. Wald explained to me that there's a range: "Some people may be contagious 1 percent of the time, and others 30 percent, but we don't have a good way to predict who is who."

Putting this guy at risk for herpes without giving him any choice in the matter was not only unfair but pretty dumb. For many people, the betrayal is the biggest problem. If you tell somebody before he fools around with you and maybe pull a fact sheet off the Internet to allay his fears, he'll be less likely to ditch you, and he won't have the rage he would at being unwittingly exposed. To launch the conversation, maybe say something like "Ever gotten a cold sore? I get them sometimes ... but not on my lip!" And then, as datingwithherpes.org advises, don't say "I have herpes," which makes you sound like you're having an outbreak right then. Instead, say "I carry the virus for herpes" and explain how often you have outbreaks ... which should make it sound more like a manageable annoyance than the guy's ticket to a lifetime of Crusty Pustules Anonymous meetings.

NOTE: There are press reports, tracing back to the respected Herpes Viruses Association of the U.K., that drug company Burroughs Wellcome caused the initial stigmatization of people with herpes by marketing the stigma to sell its drug. The association could provide me no evidence supporting its accusation, nor could I find any in 51 years of newspaper and journal articles (from 1960 to 2011). I'm very much for going after drug companies for malfeasance, but not in the absence of evidence they've committed any.

Got a problem? Write Amy Alkon, 171 Pier Ave, #280, Santa Monica, CA 90405, or e-mail adviceamy@aol.com (advicegoddess.com). Alkon is the author of I See Rude People: One Woman's Battle To Beat Some Manners Into Impolite Society.

Hiding Cold Sores Until They Are Gone

from: http://m.theglobeandmail.com/life/fashion-and-beauty/beauty/ask-a-beauty-expe...

The question
Every winter I get hit with attack after attack of cold sores that take forever to heal and are hideous. What can I do to minimize the healing time while covering them up?

The answer
Cold sores are not only painful but also embarrassing, so I can understand wanting to cover them up. You should know, however, that they will take longer to heal that way. Reducing daily stress and eating a healthy, balanced diet will help the healing process (and prevent frequent breakouts generally), but if you’re looking to heal and cover one up immediately, try the Polysporin Cold Sore Healing Patch.

These transparent patches have hydrocolloid to treat the sore and adhere to the skin invisibly, so you won’t have a glob of shiny medicated balm hanging off your face. Big bonus with these: You can wear makeup over them without disrupting the healing cycle, so you can cover up the cold sore with a little foundation and/ or lipstick.

Bahar Niramwalla is a celebrity makeup artist and beauty specialist on The Marilyn Denis Show on CTV. Have a beauty question? E-mail style@globeandmail.com.

Is There A Cold Sore Gene?

I was very interested to see this medical report.. I have always thought that I must have a cold sore gene since I often get these ugly blisters whereas my husband never gets them. Is this fair? Why are some people pre-disposed to having cold sores?

I found the report here: http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/news/20111118/gene-may-be-l...
By Denise Mann WebMD Health News Reviewed by Laura J. Martin, MD

Gene May Be Linked to Frequent Cold Sores Study Suggests Some People May Have a Genetic Predisposition to Repeated Cold Sores

Nov. 18, 2011 -- Most of us have had an occasional cold sore, but some people get the painful, unsightly sores over and over again. These cold sores, which tend to appear on or around the lips, are caused by herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1).

Exactly why they occur more frequently in some people was not known, but now new research suggests some of us may have a genetic predisposition to frequent, severe cold sores.

The study is published in the Journal of Infectious Disease.

If the new findings are validated in other groups of people and researchers can zero in on exactly how a gene increases cold sore risk, new treatments won't be far behind, says study researcher John D. Kriesel, MD. He is an infectious disease specialist at the University of Utah School of Medicine in Salt Lake City.

Cold Sore Gene

Kriesel and colleagues narrowed down their search to one specific gene called C21orf91, which the researchers also call the cold sore susceptibility gene 1.

But "genes only account for 21% of susceptibility to cold sores, the rest of the risk is environmental," Kriesel says. Outbreak triggers may include sun, wind, trauma, or stress.

As of now, many people who get frequent cold sores are treated with antiviral medication that targets HSV-1. These can be taken to prevent an outbreak or to shorten an existing one. Oral antiviral medications include acyclovir (Zovirax), famciclovir (Famvir), and valacyclovir (Valtrex).

"This research may help us predict who is vulnerable to getting cold sores frequently. And the hope is that it will lead directly to new therapies," says infectious disease specialist Bruce Hirsch, MD.

"Anywhere from 50% to 100% of us have this virus and only a third get cold sores frequently. That is intriguing," he says. Hirsch is an attending physician at North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, N.Y.

Read the rest of this article here: http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-and-treatments/news/20111118/gene-may-be-l...