outdoor camping, camping hikingToday when I was looking for something unusual to give my friend for Christmas, I ran across this shemagh which is nothing more than a cotton scarf used in deserts around the world to cover one's mouth, ears, and nose during the sand storms that are not infrequent in those areas. Since my friend and I both live in the desert, although we are many miles apart, I thought this would be a great gift for outdoor camping. She's a world traveler and has probably seen these in use, although she only visits countries with deserts during the winter because of the searing heat in the summer. Usually the worst sand storms are in the summer during the monsoon season, not a good time to be outdoor camping because of potential floods and the hot daytime temperatures.

She and I love to go outdoor camping and I thought that this red and white shemagh would make a nice gift for her to use as a table cloth or even a scarf. Once I was outdoor camping with my family on a late winter day out on the desert and the wind suddenly picked up out of nowhere and the sand was blowing incredibly. No wonder scarves like this are used in desert climates! We could barely see anything and breathing the air was dreadful. We all piled into the tents and campers we had with us to wait it out.

The wind was too strong to break camp and there was no visibility for driving, so as we sat in our shelters, we caught up on the events of our lives. Outdoor camping is a good way to catch up with others' lives, and we took full advantage of the weather event to do just that. Of course, that was before there were wi-fi signals all over the desert, so now we'd probably just whip out our cell phones or laptops and catch up with the outside world.

Outdoor camping is still a wonderful way to recharge our mental and physical batteries without spending a lot of money. Speaking of money, this scarf is really affordable. I found it at Route 66 Mega Mall located at www.route66megamall.com, a site with a lot of cool things for outdoor camping and camping hiking, something that we spend a lot of time doing, especially when I visit my friend to whom I'm giving this gift. She and I both share a passion for the authentic, especially at discount prices. When we're not camping hiking, we're sitting on her outdoor patio reading or preparing for a big dinner for our mutual friends.