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Never Trust a Person who Doesn't Like Vacation

I’m just back from enjoying a few days away with my family. During our little sojourn away from the confines of our home, some things occurred to me. My apologies for the randomness of the following thoughts, but if you’re looking for something to tie them all together, then we can say that they all came to me while on vacation.

--We began our trip with a night of camping at a state park. It’s the first night that all six people in our family camped together, and overall I think we had a good time. It’s only the second time in almost twelve years that I’ve been camping, and it’s the first time that I noticed how much RVs have taken over campgrounds. Ever since my first camping experience with my dad at a Cub Scout camp when I was nine years old, I’ve always thought of camping as sleeping in a tent. But at some point that changed. There were about 290 campsites at the state park where we stayed, and since it was a Wednesday night, only about half were taken. But out of those 145 campsites, at least half had no tents, but rather RVs or campers of some sort! My first inclination was to vilify those who claim to be camping while bringing along comforts of home such as a soft bed, a kitchen, a bathroom, and even satellite television! I noticed a significant lack of socializing. Camping reminds me of people staying in tents, and being surrounded by other people in tents, and since everyone has a tent, everyone’s outside and strangers end up talking to each other, exchanging Where-are-you-froms and just enjoying a communal experience. A good deal of that is lost when people hole up in their RV. However, I’ll try not to scorn the RVers too much. At least they’re out enjoying nature. Maybe they like canoeing, fishing, bicycling, hiking and all things outdoors, but just don’t like sleeping in a tent. Better to sleep in an RV than to never leave your home in the first place, right?

--After camping we went to a town on the shore of Lake Michigan. My wife’s family owns a house right on the beach, and we reserved it for a few days. It’s a very nice place that’s old, but that is being gorgeously refurbished over the past few years, and the view and location are priceless. But it’s dwarfed by the other many-thousand square foot, and multi-million dollars houses that surround it. We spent three or four days and nights on the beach, enjoying the sun, sand and surf. And although there are dozens of houses along the same stretch of beach, there were rarely other people on the beach. What’s the point of having a house on the beach if you never go down to the beach? They might as well have built their mega-mansions in front of a large mural.

--It’s nice being in the western most part of the time zone to your east. I’m used to the sun setting around eight-thirty in the summer, and dusk lasting until almost nine. However, the eastern shore of Lake Michigan is in a different time zone. Daylight lasting until ten o’clock is fantastic!  

--Sunscreen is one of those products whose benefits are best understood when it’s not used. We don’t appreciate skin that isn’t sunburned until we have skin that is.

--Fishing is considered a hobby. Someone who’s sitting around doing nothing is said to be wasting time. Often there’s no difference between the two.

--Satellite radio is a fun service. I like being able to listen to all sorts of music and interesting news and talk shows. It’s also convenient for long trips because there’s no limit to the signal’s range like there is with radio. Satellite radio works when ground stations send a signal up to satellites orbiting 22,000 miles above the earth, which then send scrambled signals back down to the car radio, which then unscrambles the signals and plays sound. It’s awesomely impressive technology. Still it boggles my mind how I can receive a signal in the middle of nowhere, dozens of miles from the nearest town, yet the signal can’t overcome the roof overhang on a McDonald’s drive-thru. Yep, only static while waiting for my large Diet Coke.