I grew up in Tennessee as a child. I used to love it there & I often think about going back. I lived in a few places there. It is not like I have one place I think of above the rest. I love the whole place. I remember my parents used to take us camping. I am not talking about camping like most people know it either, you know the type where you are located near a portable potty and a shower. We used to rough it in the deep woods. I had siblings, 1 brother & 2 sisters. We were all in the same boat when it came to camping, like it or not, going either way. You see my folks loved it. They would take us out on Friday night and we would not come back until Sunday evening, weekend after weekend.
My parents did not seem to care if it were cold or not. They were always packing up their supplies, tents, sleeping bags, foodstuffs, propane gas lamp, flashlights, backpacks, hiking shoes etc etc and going camping very early in the year as well as late into the fall when other people would never consider being out there. We never saw anybody out in the wilderness camping except in the very nicest/ warmest of seasons. People are strange that way, they don’t like to be out in nature. They feel more at home in their home.
Of course there are those folks who have enough property and time on their hands to really get into gardening. A perfect example of this type of person is my aunt. Just take a look at the picture on the link. This lady is known as Australia’s gardening princess, no less. For her, gardening is relaxing and thoroughly enjoyable. Her property just outside Sydney is a stunning and maybe even extreme example of gardening. My Aunt Faye Kotsis relies on only organic methods when working on her gardens, which are open to the public once a year. Perhaps if we were able to camp in my aunt’s garden every now and then, camping would have not been so traumatic.
And then there are those folks like myself, who enjoy unwinding at night in front of the old boob tube even though I admit, there is something about being outside. Spending time with mother nature and the family. I never minded being out when it was cold because we could always light a fire and toast marshmallows. Then it was time for bed. We’d climb into our sleeping bags which kept us toasty every night and were inside the tent, which was also nice and warm because of the propane heater.
If you have spent much time camping, love it or hate it, you have got to admit that there is nothing like it in the world. We would have pretty much all of the amenities of home, thanks to my parents, when it comes down to it. We had great food every day- thanks to my Mom. And if I really want to be fair, We probably had more fun on those wholesome family camping trips than most other kids did with their own distractions every year. Our folks never had to worry about us falling in with the wrong crown. Or roaming the streets because we were with them camping. There was no way we would be out to late on a Friday night date if we were camping with them. You get the point. They knew where we were and what we were doing. The last thing that anyone would say is that they were not involved enough in their children’s lives, which was nice. So looking at camping this way, it was pretty cool.