While setting up for my camping adventure last week, I pulled out my trusty dusty EMS camping sleep pad.  It wasn’t ever the most comfortable pad in the world but certainly was a lot better than nothing.  I’ve had this thing for fifteen years and it had never failed me.  That was until last week.

As I began to blow it up (by mouth, the old fashioned way) the baffles inside that cause it to hold its form were apparently all shot.  The result is the pad blew up more like a balloon than a nice flat sleeping pad.

Off I went to the thrift store to find something to sleep on as the foam egg crate pad I brought with me was not going to be enough to cushion these old bones.  Fortune was on my side as I landed a nice fluffy comforter for $5.  It wasn’t perfect but it was good enough to get some sleep over the next two nights.

Technology was changed quite a bit since I bought that camping pad fifteen years ago.  Many models now are self-inflating which is very cool.  My son owns one of these things that he raves about and that I have slept on during visits to their small studio cottage in down state New York.  I called him to inquire of the make and model and armed with that information loaded up Amazon.

I found the model he has and went one better, buying the LightSpeed Flexiform 3.0 which is 3 inches of memory foam inside a new plush self-inflating camping pad.  When it arrived, the instructions said to leave it overnight to fully inflate the first time.   I did that and measured.  It looks like it is three inches thick in some places but not everywhere.  Close enough for government work. The 3.5 inch built-in pillow is a nice bonus.

I’ve laid on it on my nice hard tile kitchen floor and it seems to do a nice job keeping me off the tile.  I’ll let you know at some point how my new sleeping partner and I fair in the great outdoors.

Happy sleeping on the ground!