It goes back to the oldest way of living for human beings. People sleeping out under the stars is as old a thing to do as there have been stars in the sky and people to lie down and look at them. With more people moving into the cities and more smaller towns getting bigger, it is sometimes surprisingly easy to forget that simply living a life outdoors is now what we call camping.
As far as the outdoor recreational activities are judged, camping is one of the most popular. Whether you are camping in tents, cabins, RVs, or simply throwing a couple of sleeping bags down on the ground in the backyard, camping with family and friends is a great American pastime. It was estimated in 2013 that the revenue of RV parks and campgrounds was roughly five billion U. S. Dollars. An RV campground can be a destination in and of itself for long summer outings or just a weekend away.
The beautiful thing about the United States is how diverse, sprawling, and beautiful the countryside can be. Many people don’t even realize that they don’t have to go far away from home to enjoy a camping outing. When polled, 63% of campers said that they often stay no more than 150 miles from their homes. Camping can be enjoyed anywhere.
Many different people enjoy many different kinds of camping. Some love to rough it and sleep outside with no more than a lean-to or a small tent. Others like the feeling of being in a cabin. Cabins provide great shelter but still might not have the conveniences of home. Still, others want to spend as much time as they can in the RVs. RVing is a culture all unto itself. It is wonderful fun to put your house in drive, see the country like never before, and plug in at another campground, staying for a while there.
While there are many retired folks taking to the open road to live out their dreams of seeing the country in their Golden Years, there are also many families who enjoy camping together. They camp in tents, cabins, and RVs of their own. In fact, adults with children went camping more often on the whole than adults who do not have any children. Parents with children ages six to twelve participated in camping the most.
No matter how advanced we get technologically, no matter how much work we feel we need to do to support your lifestyle if we can continue to make camping a part of our lives, we will be forever better off. Camping is the way to connect ourselves back to the Earth in ways we never can by living in our paved neighborhoods.
When we take ourselves camping, we connect with the planet, but we also connect with each other in ways we can not do with our phones and computers.