third section, The Real Thing, covers your actual camping adventure. We start with the trip to the campground and how to keep the kids happy en route. We’ll set up your camp and go over the rules for life in camp. This section includes abundant details on what I learned from other families about good foods for camping. Another extensive section covers fun activities to keep you and the kids busy and entertained, with an emphasis on learning to love the outdoors.
Acknowledging that even the best plans sometimes go awry, the fourth section, Staying Safe, Sound, and Happy, covers what to do when things do not go as planned. One section covers contingency plans and emergencies. Safety on the road and in camp are primary concerns of mine, so I have created separate sections on safety on the road and in camp, dangers, first aid, and what to do if someone is lost.
The last section is Beyond Camping: Leaving the Car Behind. Here we assume that you have developed your car-camping skills in drive-in campgrounds, and you’re ready to take your family onto the next stage, backpacking, bike or canoe touring, or other outdoor adventures.
As you read through the sections, you will notice some recurring features. “Expert’s Advice” is an especially helpful hint or bit of wisdom from one of the experts who were interviewed for the book. “Helping Hands” indicates an activity in which your children can be involved. When you need to make a decision, a “Quick Quiz” will briefly lay out the alternatives. “Checklist” provides organizing tools to keep you on track. “Imaginary Camping” encourages you to think yourself into a camping situation. Also look for other sidebars throughout the book that highlight important ideas or information.
What Kind of Camper Am I?
Somewhere near a river, or a lake, or a seashore, in the Northwest, or the Southeast, or New England, at sunset: A light rain is falling. Parents are calling their children in for supper.
At a private campground, three kids are sitting around a table in their motorhome. They have just showered in their self-contained bathroom, and now they’re having lasagna, hot from the microwave oven, and a fresh green salad. After they eat, they might wander over to the clubhouse to play Ping-Pong, or they might watch television or a movie.
Down the road, at a public campground, three other kids are crowded around a table in their pop-up tent-trailer. They showered at the bathhouse down the road, and now they are having a thick stew that was prepared at home, carried in a cooler, and warmed on a propane stove. After they eat, they might wander down to the ranger’s nightly talk, or they might just stay in their bunks and read by the light of the wall lamps.
Nearby, at the same public campground, three more kids are sitting at a picnic table under a rain fly, eating hot dogs roasted on the fire pit at their campsite. They skipped their shower. After they eat, they, too, might attend the ranger’s talk, or they might crawl into the sleeping bags in their tent, where one of their parents will read to them by the light of a headlamp.
If you were to ask any of these children how they spent their vacations, they would all give the same answer: “We were camping.”
What is camping? Here’s my definition: spending the night up close to nature within a beautiful natural setting. Is staying in a tent in a state or national park camping? Definitely. Is hiking in that same park and going home to sleep camping? No, because you’re not staying overnight. Is staying in a hotel or resort within that park or right next to it camping? Not if you have to go down a flight of stairs or cross a lobby to get from your bed to the park. Is sleeping in a yurt, a cabin, or an RV considered camping? If you can step from your temporary home directly out to nature, then yes, you are camping.
So, what kind of camper are you? What can you tolerate? If you need a really comfortable bed to sleep in every night, you should opt for an RV. If you can sleep on an inflated mattress or even on a tarp on the ground, you could camp in a tent. If you must start every day with a hot morning shower and a clean set of clothes, go for the RV. If it doesn’t bother you to skip your shower for a day or two or even three, and if you can happily turn your shirt inside out or backward to create a clean shirt front, you can be a tent camper or even a backpacker.
What about meals? Does cooking over an open, smoky fire bring out the caveman or cavewoman in you, the connection to our earliest ancestors, or do you prefer your built-in burners, oven, microwave, and exhaust fan? In the evening, do you eat or dine?
To discover what kind of camper you are, consider the amenities you might find in an RV versus the features of tent camping, and then take an imaginary journey in your mind to decide where you and your family fit best.
IMAGINARY CAMPING
What Kind of Camping is Best for You?
To find out what kind of camper you are, practice imaginary camping. As you go through the activities of daily living, brushing your teeth and combing your hair, for example, or getting the kids ready for bed, or preparing meals and then cleaning up afterward, think about how you would carry out those activities in a camp setting. Are you willing to discreetly brush your teeth at a campsite? Could you dress the kids in their pajamas while you were kneeling on the floor of a tent? Imagine yourself carrying out those tasks in the open air with a picnic table and a tent as your only furnishings. Ask yourself:How long would my family be able to live under those circumstances. One night? A week?
Next, try to imagine performing those same tasks, at the same campsite, but with a van or a trailer that provided you with beds and a solid roof overhead. Imagine the same tasks in an RV with a sitting room and a separate bedroom.
Now move your imaginary tent or van or RV from a primitive state park with a lake but no indoor plumbing or hookups, to a plush private campground with a heated swimming pool, a playground, and a recreation center with a game room and movies every night. Ask yourself the same questions:How long would we be able to live under those circumstances. One night? A week?
Which scenario do you see yourself in? Don’t answer immediately. Take several days to think about it.
RV Amenities
An RV can come with all the appointments of your home kitchen—a refrigerator, freezer, stove, oven, microwave, and exhaust fan. RV campers can dine on gourmet foods, cooked and eaten indoors at a beautifully set table. An RV has built-in couches and a dinette table with benches or chairs. There are lots of cupboards and drawers so you can bring along books and games and other toys. The dinette and some of the couches convert into beds, and there is often another bed in a room of its own, which gives parents a measure of privacy.
RVs usually have kitchen and bathroom sinks, a toilet, a shower (or sometimes a bathtub), and one or more television sets. On long drives, the kids can watch their favorite videos. Some motorhomes have washers and dryers, although many campgrounds do not allow guests to run these appliances because they draw too much current.
Quick Quiz
What’s Your Camp Style?
1. How many clean fronts does a T-shirt have? Circle the right answer: 1 2 3 4
2. A campfire is:
a. a place to cook dinner.
b. the center of a social circle.
3. At minimum, a comfortable bed must have:
a. an inner-spring mattress.
