We have been camping for years. At least 25 I would say. Our camping friends have changed throughout the years. Our campers have changed throughout the years. But still we camp. We got our first camper after Joe roofed a house for a friend. In payment, they gave him a camper. An old, dilapidated little camper actually. All the water lines were ruined and the refrigerator didn’t work. It was pretty much falling apart. But, we were young and thought we had hit the mother load! And we had so much fun in that little falling apart camper. We had friends who also had a little old camper, although it was in much better shape than ours, and we spent the weekends at one campground or another with them and their daughters. Their two girls and our two kids were so close in age and had so much fun together. They were from a neighboring community and the kids would never had gotten to be friends if we hadn’t spent so much time camping together.
That’s why we camp. We have made friends throughout the years with people we probably would have known as acquaintances but that would be it. Instead, when you spend weekends camping together you really get to know each other. In a whole different way! We have developed lifelong connections with these people and our kids have developed connections with others that they wouldn’t have in any other way.
It’s different now that we only have one little to take along. And times have changed too. At one time there would no less than four kids and usually many more and those kids would take off in a “pack” and hit the playground or go hiking or ride their bikes all over the campground. They had to check in so we knew they were okay but otherwise were free to roam. They would inevitably make new friends from around the campground. Friends they probably would never see again but they still touched each other’s lives for a day or two. They also spent most nights in a tent and not in the camper. They had way more fun together in the tent away from parents! Camping was a whole different world for them and they loved it. Even as they got older they would want to come with us and camp.
Today is not quite the same. All of our camping friends are our age and so their kids are either teenagers or are gone and so Drew doesn’t get the same experience as our older kids did. And times have changed. You don’t just let kids roam today and check in once in awhile. It Drew wants to play at the playground or ride his bike, an adult goes along. There is no letting him take off on his own and explore. But he still makes new friends. The last time we camped he met the little girl who was staying next door with her grandparents. They would ride their bikes and play with chalk and had a great time. Over the weekend we visited my sister who was camping and Drew spent the evening playing on the play equipment set up where we could sit and watch. He loved playing with a group of kids he’d never met before. Kids don’t get to do that much anymore. We have to be too much on guard at all times to let them make friends with strangers.
But the best part of camping is being together. When it’s just you and your kids at a campground for the weekend there is nothing else to do but spend time together. There is no house to clean or yard to mow or any other day to day chores. It’s just family and sitting around the campfire or playing a game of cards or riding bikes together or going on a hike. For us, camping has been the best activity we could have ever done together as a family. We didn’t go on big vacations, instead we spent our weekends together camping. And I wouldn’t change that for anything. I asked my daughter why her and her husband decided to buy a camper and she said some of her best memories of growing up are of us camping and she wants that for her children too. That’s why we camp.