Originally Posted by
Sanlmar
I am going to get great mileage out of this when camping for vacation comes up during the pandemic. Love it.
Never camped a day in my life. I was a Boy Scout for a year or two... until it became apparent they were camping advocates. I had an intuition from an early age that camping was needless hardship.
I kind of agree with you.
I first camped as a 9-year-old. I was in the Cub Scouts and they had a camping trip in the southern CA mountains. Each kid had a parent take him, so my dad went with me. I was able to find the exact date because I remembered the Dodgers beating the Reds 16-4 while listening to the radio on the way home. I just deduced it was May 29-31, 1981.
I had a lot of fun there. However, looking back, most of the fun came from running around with the other kids and screwing around in the stream. I remember we were making dams in the stream, seeing how long we could hold it back, and would release our dams to destroy dams other kids made downstream. Fun shit like that when you're 9.
Anyway, as I got older, I noticed the downsides of camping -- namely the uncomfortable sleeping conditions, the wildly varying temperatures (seems you're always too cold or too hot in your tent), the disgusting bathroom situation, and the lack of things you can do for food. Kinda takes away from some of the enjoyment of being out in nature. I still like the idea of the campfire, looking at the stars, and the feeling that you're just out in the open.
There have been a few attempts to take Ben camping over the years, but something always failed and we didn't end up doing it (campsite full, bad weather, etc). I'll do it one of these days. But for me it just seems a lot more appealing to stay at a hotel nearby, see the nature during the day, and go back to the room at night.