What is it about camping that people love?

Is it the …

Fresh Air?

Being out in nature?

Hanging out with friends or family?

Traveling to new or favorite places?

Sitting around the campfire?

Roasting marshmallows?

Eating smore’s?

Making new friends?

or Meeting new people?

Personally, I vote for all of the above.

calling all campers

Growing up I camped one time with my grandparents and brothers. I remember yelling “bear” in the middle of the night and woke everyone up. I’m still scared of bears to this day. My family wasn’t the camping type. My grandparents though, camped a lot traveling around in a small camper van.

After getting married and starting a family, we tent camped. We blew up our air mattresses, slept in cozy sleeping bags and always had a flashlight nearby. When our girls were little they would play flashlight tag in their tent before they went to sleep. I’m happy no electronics were readily available for them to zone out on. That’s the way camping should be. No phones, tablets or TV’s (easier said than done though). When we graduated up to an RV it had two TV’s!! I’ll admit, when it’s raining, I do like to pop in a DVD and watch a movie.

I think that tent camping is the closest to “real” camping. You will wake up, start a fire, boil some water and make coffee. If you have a camp stove, that process will be a bit easier. Will you use a French Press or instant? Will creamer be in your ice chest? Your normal daily luxuries can still happen even when tent camping. The camp store might even sell coffee and donuts!

Dry camping is when you camp without hook-ups. No electricity, water or dump station. This can be in a tent, trailer or RV. This type of camping, I feel, tests your skills at rationing water and power. One of the funniest things I’ve seen while camping is a guy who was tent camping (in a hook-up site) and he had set up a table with a TV on it. He was watching a movie .. like a camping movie theater! People love their creature comforts.

From tent camping, we graduated to a Pop-Up camper. I loved that Pop-Up. It seemed like a glorified tent, was very open and airy but with more conveniences.

Here we are camping in Morro Bay California. Looks like I’m ready for a cozy campfire!

We traded in our Pop-Up for an RV about 12 years ago. No more lugging big coolers around as I now have a pretty good size refrigerator as well as a stove top and convection/microwave combo. And, let’s not forget about my two TV’s. Boy, I am so spoiled! The one thing I missed though, was the feeling of openness. The RV doesn’t have as many windows as the Pop-Up, but if you’re ready for a cup of coffee, I can make you one in a snap with my Keurig!

calling all campers
Camping and Glamping .. I feel I’m camping most of the time. To me glamping is when the RV park has a pool and other glammy amenities.

We think the KOA in Tucson has some sites that have the “glam”. Besides the KOA having a BBQ restaurant, full bar, live music and two pools, some sites have built-in-the-wall fireplaces. Also, check out that site behind ours. They have an upper deck in their patio area. Pretty Snazzy KOA.

It was around 80-90 degrees out, but we had to have a fire!


 

So what is glamping?

From the dictionary –

Glamp-ing

a form of camping involving accommodation and facilities more luxurious than those associated with traditional camping.

Things that make camping turn into glamping –

Camping in an RV

Camping in a Yurt or other structure

Pool on site

Pool with a Bar

Shuttle to the Casino (yes Casino RV Parks do that)

Restaurant on site

Nice Showers and Restrooms

If you’re camping on cement with manicured grass … you might just be glamping.

Are you a camper or glamper? What things draw you to camping? I’d love to hear all about it!

Karen

 

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