Ever watch that old show called Green Acres? The husband wanted to move to the country and his high-society wife wanted to stay in New York City. The man won the battle and out to the country they moved.
That show sort of describes how Hubby and I decided how to go camping the next few weeks. First of all, we don’t usually go camping for a weekend or a week. We go for weeks and weeks. Okay, that’s fine. Then, the question becomes how do we camp? Primitively or with some modern comforts?
Hubby loves to camp in the woods with no one else around. He doesn’t need niceties like electricity and water. He can sleep in the truck or on the ground. He can dig a hole for a toilet. Cheetos, chocolate, and Clif bars are his only nutrition and it satisfies him. He loves the solitude and quiet and is perfectly happy with that sort of thing. I, on the other hand, am not.
I like solitude and quiet, just not all night long. I like it during the day, then at night I like camping in a campground with water and electricity. I like having flush toilets and showers nearby. And I especially like being close to town for eating out or going to the grocery store for food. I love a balanced diet with veggies and meat and breads. I’m perfectly happy having an outlet to charge my laptop and phone. He, back to the other hand, can live without those things.
So how do we decide where to stay when we go camping? We compromise. The first two weeks will be in a primitive campground. The pit toilet will serve its purpose and a water tap is nearby. The scenery is gorgeous because it’s next to Bismarck Lake. Lovely setting. The best part will be the campfires every night and the friends and family gathered around them.
After that, we’ll stay in state park campgrounds that have electricity, showers, and water. Hubby calls them slums that are too crowded and noisy. I call them convenient. In this grand experiment, we will find out which is true or not. So stay tuned for the results of this grand experiment of camping. During times of no electricity, I’ll be writing and making notes and will update you when I can. We have solar panels for recharging phones, but I’m not sure it will recharge the computer. At the same time, I’ll be working on a paper version of a young reader’s novel I wrote many years ago. It’s time to get it out of my computer and bound in a book. My next novel that is underway and I’m excited about it, but I need electricity for it. I’ll also be reading a lot of books in the shade of a pine tree. Now that’s camping!