Trip of Destiny '09

[MrsPete]

Second, I can't stand sitting in a hotel room....I don't care if it's a 5-star resort or a Motel 6. Just can't stand it. But I thoroughly love sitting around my tent, with my lantern, reading a book, watching people, watching nature, watching the sunset, etc.

You can do the same thing at a hotel: You can take your book out to the pool while the kids swim. You can sit in the lobby or the breakfast room. Often hotels -- Hampton's particularly good about this -- offer manager's socials during the week, and that's free dinner and a great chance to chat with fellow guests.

I have timed myself numerous times and I can tell you that it takes me all of about 10 minutes to set-up camp and about 15 minutes to take-down camp the next day. To be honest, it doesn't take all that much longer than it does to take my stuff to my room and pack up in the morning. Just make sure you get a tent that goes up/comes down easy and after practicing a few times, you'll get a good routine.

I know tents like the back of my hand. I worked in a small, upscale camping store while I was in college, and the owner put us through our paces regularly -- he wanted the customers to have the idea that putting up the tents was effortless. Still, even with this expertise and even with my kids working too, I can't do it in 15 minutes.

I regularly leave items at my campsite if I'm going to explore for the day. While I don't leave anything really valuable behind, I will leave my stove, lantern, chair, etc. out.

I've never had anything taken, but I've seen people walking from campsite to campsite looking around while the occupants were gone. And I have bad memories of one campsite (with the worst fire rings I've ever seen) when a foolish camper left a campfire unattended, and we neighbors had to put out a fire that was spreading!

I maintain that tent camping is wonderful, but it isn't suited to road trips -- unless, of course, the whole purpose is to camp in a variety of areas.