Veterans’ Day weekend found my family and me at Trap Pond, a local state park campground, until yesterday (Nov. 11th). It was most definitely our last camping outing for the 2019 season.
Don’t get me wrong. We had a very nice time. Karlyn joined in with some games (she even won “Scrabble”! Yes, Karlyn!!). Thru the grace of Almighty God, the TV was working, giving us a selection of some dozen channels from which to choose, only one of which was Spanish.
God’s grace also extended to our heater, which performed flawlessly. I had the foresight to ask for the propane tank to be topped off before we left, so we had plenty of fuel. I also was conscientious about turning the thermostat down to 65 each night and keeping it no higher than 70 during the day. We used only half the tank of propane. Woo-hoo!!
I probably got out of the camper more than the women for no reason other than I was usually the one to walk Kianna, Evelyn’s service dog, although Evelyn did accompany me a coupla times on Kianna’s walks. On one occasion, we were able to wrangle Karlyn outside for a family stroll along the pond. Of course, she had her own agenda: “Daddy, will you take a picture of me here?” “And here?” “And here?” “And …?” That’s OK — it got her outside for a while and, as it happened, gave us a chance to meet a new friend, Jim, who was there to knock the rust off his old Nikon camera.
For the most part, however, if I’m going to be honest, we did spend our time inside the camper. The campground was filled to capacity. And, as I took note of who was around us, I noticed one difference between many of those folks and us: they were real campers, while we were mere “glampers.”
I can’t verify the etymology of “glamping,” but it seems fairly evident that it’s a mashup of “glamour” and “camping.” In other words, softies like us prefer the comforts that camping offers, as opposed to the more rugged types who enjoy “roughing it.” We noticed that a goodly number of our fellow Trap Ponders liked to build campfires and sit around them in their heavy winter coats and knit caps. We noticed one family cooking over their open fire, telling us their menu: chicken, corn, etc., wrapped in aluminum foil Other families (or whatever grouping they happened to be) actually sat outside under their awnings to eat their meals! We didn’t so much as even open our awning! What would be the point? We weren’t about to sit outside and freeze our antlers off (as a dear friend of the family used to say).
When it comes to camping, we’ve discovered that we are unabashedly “glampers.” Give us a heated space, a TV, an electric frying pan, a microwave, and plenty of warm clothes, and we’re ready to face the great outdoors.
From indoors.