In which Sarah decides what camping means to her...

I have written and rewritten this blog in my head every night of my recent camping trip... and every night my thoughts were different.

I will start with some truths about camping. Things that, no matter what, just come with the territory and must be accepted, Starting first with the negative: Dirt, dust, mud, community bathrooms, waiting for a shower, shower heads that hit me in the belly button, bathrooms being closed for cleaning when you have to go, sleeping on lumps, other people's dogs, other people's kids, other people's radios, snakes, frogs, bugs

Here are the good things: always being outside, lawn chairs, campfires, cooking over campfires, sitting at the beach, reading, laughing, coffee in a lawn chair with a book... no make up, being dirty and not caring, nature...

Here are some things that could go either way... Walking, people watching, late nights or early mornings, neighbors.

So now that that is defined, here is the next step: What camping means to me. Private grassy sites with a tent or a pop up. NO air conditioners, NO t.v.s, electricity is negotiable.

RV's are not a problem and I hope someday to take a vacation around North American for about a year in one, but to me, RV's are NOT camping. You can go RVing if you want, but they should not share the same land as the pop ups and tenters. I do not go out into nature to stare at a bunch of huge white trailers blocking my view of trees, lakes and other natural objects.

So this is what happened on this vacation to make me want to give up altogether on camping. The campground (South Higgens Lake) had about 400 sites... about 380 had large RV's. The "playground" was a slide. That is right, one, old, small slide. (to give it credit the kids had a lot of fun on that lone slide". The neighbors we had decided it was completely acceptable to blast Ozzie Osburn all night long even after I politely asked them to stop. The neighbor's next to my in-laws site thought it was acceptable to yell frantically and inappropriately at their children all day. There was a site on the way to the beach had 8 pugs. That is right, 8. So we got to listen to 8 pugs barking every time we walked by and then of course we got to listen to 2 adults yell at 8 pugs to stop barking.


After 2 horrible nights of sleep thanks to humming air conditioners, Ozzie Osburn, and spot lights on RV's, I was ready to go home. Then something happened. The campground cleared out. At least 1/2 the sites were empty and I actually saw trees. I actually fell asleep to the sound of nature. Now the people with the 8 foot tall Christmas scene (Santa, Frosty and a Christmas tree) were still there, but they did only leave it up for a few hours a day).

When I could enjoy my quiet campfire, a cup off coffee with a book that was not disturbed by yelling parents or barking dogs I remembered why I liked camping. So now I am torn... Do I camp? Do I give up? Do I invest in a vacation that I may enjoy about 50% of the time

Well, faithful readers I have come to no conclusions, so I will continue to ponder these life issues as I finished my 8 loads of laundry from my latest camping trip... Sigh.