I don't understand

Why do people go camping?

I don't see the logic involved. Why would you forego technological advancements like beds, walls, screened windows and doors, indoor plumbing, electrical appliances, and general comfort to engage in barbarian practices like sleeping on the cold, hard (and sometimes wet) ground with bugs and rodents crawling all over you, gathering wood and scraps to start fires with flint, eating soggy food, being attacked by swarms of mosquitos and biting flies, all in the name of "fun" or "experience"? Especially in the rain. Uck.

Is it some kind of primal desire to relate to cavemen? Is there a measure of "toughness" to prove? It's not like this is Outward Bound.

I've camped before, since you ask. In a tent. On the ground. In the rain.

I prefer to do my camping in a cabin with indoor plumbing and screened windows and doors, and cook in a kitchen or kitchenette with a stove/oven, sink, and fridge. Sure, let's take a nature hike, go fishing, canoeing, horseback riding, skip some stones in the lake, make s'mores over the campfire, but at the end of the day (and sometimes in the middle, too), I like to sleep in a bed with walls separating me from the bears, wolves, and mountain lions that frequent most of the rural US; take a shower in a place with walls and a door that locks; prepare food without gathering fuel for the fire and waiting for it to light, then flare up, then settle down to cook; and get away from flying insects who think I'm their next meal.

I don't mind experiencing nature; heck, "nature" is about five feet from our back porch out here. I like fishing, swimming, canoeing, horseback riding and nature hikes. We've got woods, flowers, plants, deer, squirrels, chipmunks, birds, frogs, and all manner of insects right out the window. Which can be quite charming, as long as I can come inside and get away from it whenever I want. I guess that's the main issue I have with camping: I don't mind being outside and "nature-y" as long as I don't have to STAY outside. I like to have the option.

I was a Camp Fire Girl. I went to day camp and resident (overnight) camp every year til high school. But Camp Fire girls, in the midst of communing with nature, realized that the great indoors is where most humans like to sleep, cook, eat, and bathe, so we stayed in cabins with indoor plumbing and ate in a lodge with a commercial kitchen. It worked out nicely. I loved going to camp. No peeing in the woods...or worse yet, porta-potties. No, we took care of our business in bathrooms with doors that locked and toilets that flushed. We ate with plates and forks and napkins, on tables, sitting in chairs. We slept in bunk beds with real mattresses, in buidings with wood floors and indoor fireplaces. Camp Fire girls know how to camp. We do it right.

My boys are going camping this weekend for scouts for the first time. Luckily, Soldier is staying overnight with the older two outside while the baby and I come back home to sleep. (The lake is not too far from our house, so it's not that far for me to drive back and forth.) If my boys stay in scouts though, i think it's not a bad investment for me to buy a camper with its own bathroom and kitchenette. Maybe other people are suckers for punishment, but I see no reason to rough it if I don't have to. I'm a Camp Fire girl.