Coleman 2-burner camping cook stove

    I still cook over an open campfire. I always have and I always will. Until the last few years my camping philosophy had always held that if you weren't cooking over an actual flame when you went camping - you weren't really camping. By rights, a good campsite keeps a fire, or at least coals, going 24 hours a day except in the worst of rains, and in spite of all the best planning in the world, it will rain on you every now and then. That's one of the reasons I bought this stove ($34.84), but not the only one.

    So what's up with the modern technology anyway?

    That's the trouble when you start selling out... it get's easier each time you do it. First it's propane lanterns, next it's inflatable air mattresses, then electric power generators, followed by battery powered AM/FM Mp3 players and, -gasping-, a portable, battery powered DVD player to watch movies, gas cooking stoves, chainsaws and what amounts to probably the biggest insult of all - a fume spewing motorhome. Say what you will because I don't care anymore. If the fire has burned low overnight and all that's left in the morning when you wake up is a handful of coals, that first cup of coffee will never seem further away than it is at that moment. Somewhere around the time I hit forty I started making a concerted effort to eliminate moments like these from my life. In a sort of metaphysical sense, you could say that this cook stove represents my coming to terms with my limitations. I hate waiting for a cup of coffee. It's a limitation I've conceded to.

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