{"id":137,"date":"2016-06-07T06:30:08","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T22:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/?p=137"},"modified":"2016-06-07T12:33:03","modified_gmt":"2016-06-07T04:33:03","slug":"camping-to-do-or-not-to-do","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/2016\/06\/07\/camping-to-do-or-not-to-do\/","title":{"rendered":"Camping, to do or not to do!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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First off I am just getting back from a beautiful vacation in Big Bear, California were my wife and I discovered that we are still able to camp.\u00a0 This was our very first trip in four years.\u00a0 We had both suffered many health problems that took away from us doing one of our favorite things.\u00a0 We even camped in our tent, just like the old days.\u00a0 Of course now we do kinda go the luxury route of a big spacious tent with cots and our power pack and a heater.\u00a0 Now I know there are some of you shaking your heads telling yourself that, that is not true camping.\u00a0 So to you who are still shaking your head I got one word – Age.\u00a0 Yes I could probably do without all those conveniences but I choose not too.\u00a0 I have had my share of sleeping on the ground freezing my ass off.\u00a0 I did my time of crawling in a tent lying down just to put my jeans on.\u00a0 My bones\u00a0do not work the way they used to and if I want a few little\u00a0luxuries to make my nights more tolerable then dammit I will.\u00a0 I still light my campfire without ever using a match, how many of\u00a0you can say the same?<\/p>\n

I used to belong to a group here in California called Camping Women.\u00a0 It was an excellent group and we all shared the love of the great outdoors.\u00a0 We had women from all walks of life in our group.\u00a0 Many of these women have camped longer then many of you are alive.\u00a0 Yes they also did there time, so when they now pull up in RV’s who can blame them.\u00a0\u00a0At least they are still getting outdoors and enjoying the company of self minded people.\u00a0 We had a very diverse mix from college professors to the unemployed.\u00a0 We would play board games together (remember those, no electronics needed), sit and tell stories by the campfire at night.\u00a0 We had those who would pull out guitars, harmonicas, bongo drums and we would sing and dance and enjoy life.\u00a0 Unfortunately after over 35 years the group could no longer sustain its membership.\u00a0 Younger girls had no interest in camping and the rest of us, yes we are getting along in years, and each one becomes a little harder to make that long drive up a mountain.\u00a0 So the group folded a couple of years ago.\u00a0 It really is a sad thing, but most of us do keep in touch and we still try to get together trips here and there.<\/p>\n

I learned many things by being a part of that group and I will forever be grateful to all the ladies who made it all possible.\u00a0 Now to my question – To camp or not to camp.\u00a0 For you parents who have children that are younger and you want to teach them there is life beyond computer games, go right now and buy a tent.\u00a0 Make reservations at some of our great national parks.\u00a0 Spend time with your kids that involves showing them respect for our great planet.\u00a0 Remember if you don’t take this time your kids are being deprived of being kids.\u00a0\u00a0To often I see parents that just shove there little ones in front of a TV and\u00a0say, well its and educational program and they are learning from it.\u00a0 That may be but don’t you want to be the one\u00a0teaching them that same thing.\u00a0 Your children are going to grow up fast and what kind of memories are you going to leave them with.\u00a0 Are you going to be that parent who’s kid says I don’t remember a lot of my childhood but I do remember watching\u00a0TV and I can quote you almost every commercial (oh wait kids can now fast forward through those).\u00a0\u00a0Or are you going to be that parent that kid says we went here and there and we cooked over a campfire and watched the stars, we learned how to hike and learned the different animals that live there.\u00a0 That is the kind of memory I have given many of my nieces and nephews as I used to take them whenever possible.\u00a0 I guarantee they still hold them memories dear\u00a0because whenever I see them, we still talk about them.<\/p>\n

Camping is a great activity and it is not expensive when you consider the cost of a hotel room these days.\u00a0 Camping brings a family close and helps us all to learn more about our planet.\u00a0 If you really want to leave a kid with a feeling of self worth take them away from there electronics for one week and spend that precious time outdoors.\u00a0 Some day as humans we will eventually destroy all of mother nature, will you know how to survive when the lights go out, will your kids?\u00a0 I am not trying to be cynical but everyday you see more and more land being lost to what we call progress, get out and just see the beauty that is still mother nature before its to late.<\/p>\n

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\"DSC_0044\"<\/p>\n

Our campsite<\/p>\n

\"tent\"<\/p>\n

Our tent, as you can see it is nice and roomy.<\/p>\n

\"CSC_0075\"<\/p>\n

Always some Steller Jays to amuse us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  First off I am just getting back from a beautiful vacation in Big Bear, California were my wife and I discovered that we are still able to camp.\u00a0 This was our very first trip in four years.\u00a0 We had both suffered many health problems that took away from us doing one of our favorite […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7zFf6-2d","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":146,"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brainimplosion.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}