Camping Vacations

Recently we went 'home' to East Hampton on vacation. What a vacation it was, too! Our time at our rental, overlooking the Harbor, was so relaxing. I think it was one of the most enjoyable of all the vacations I've ever had.

Many memories flood my mind as I write this. When we were a young family with children, our wallet didn't allow for much traveling. Our answer to that was to purchase a tent. That was the beginning of many years of camping vacations. Our first tent was a small, canvas cabin type, which housed us well until we outgrew it. After that, we bought a large, green canvas, two room one, which we still own, but have long-abandoned the use of. As two retired oldsters, we've gone from the work of construction that vacation home, to a smaller, nylon, easy-up dome tent. That, too, has been unused for some years.

Our more recent accommodations on camping trips has been the rental of a KOA cabin. The beds are hard, but far more comfortable than the ground is. We found that our normally aching bodies in morning were fiercely aggravated by the sleeping on a rocky, hard ground, no matter how much padding was placed beneath the sleeping bags. We even tried a blow up mattress. That doesn't work, as one of us is quite a bit heavier than the other, and when he rolls over, I bounce off the mattress! Besides, getting up in the morning after lying low on the ground is NOT pretty at our age. And so...it's the cabin.

We've always been among those who chuckle when we see a huge RV roll into the campsites. They have brought their whole house with them....AC, TV, computers. If they're going cross-country or on an extended trip, I can see the value of the comfort those 'mobile homes' offer.
However, if it's a week's 'camping', it's not much different than it is staying home. We always think, "that's NOT camping!"

I guess everyone has their own opinions and their own ways of enjoying a camping trip. None of the ideas are wrong...just different. Just because we have opted for a new, more comfortable approach, doesn't mean we don't miss the days of camping in a tent and sleeping on the ground.
Aging brings about changes...and this is our 'new' way of spending our camping vacation. We may, eventually, 'graduate' to a pop-up tent trailer, but I can almost guarantee you that we'll never be RV campers, no matter how old we get. It's just not in us.