This is a tent.

This tent is positioned in a campsite and is serving its intended purpose.  Tents are, if of sufficient quality and construction, quite pleasant and can provide very comfortable weekend quarters for one or more persons no matter the weather.  The tent pictured here weathered storms, heatwaves, and wind all in the same trip.  Also visible in this picture are the staples of camping – a campfire, chairs, picnic table, food from a cooler, etc.

This is not camping.  This is a hotel room on wheels.

There is nothing wrong with RVs.  My parents have one parked at an RV park and it makes for a great weekend retreat.  They are quite pleasant for older folks for whom sleeping on the ground is not a viable option or those with large families or a couple making a long cross country trip.

But do not pretend that it is camping.  Here’s some tips on how to determine if you are camping or not*:

• If your outdoors experience requires a generator to power equipment, you are not camping.
• If your outdoors experience includes a DirectTV Satellite dish mounted on your picnic table, you are not camping.
• If you use the phrases ‘I will get that from the fridge’ or ‘Let’s just microwave that’, you are not camping.
• If your lodging requires not one, but two air conditioners … just admit it.  You’re so far from camping you might as well have stayed home and turned on the Nature channel.

If you meet any of the above criteria, you are not camping and you are not permitted to use the phrases ‘communing with nature’ or ‘getting back to nature’ or ‘roughing it’.  If you so much as attempt to utter those phrases, I will introduce nature via a tree branch across your backside.

Clear?  Great.  Have fun out there.  It’s a great world to see – even better when camping.

* All these examples were taken from a brief trip through the campground this morning while accompanying Steph on a run. No, I am not exaggerating anything.  Not even the air conditioners.