<p>What is so great about camping in a national park anyway? You have to work hard to set everything up and then break it down. You have to go to the bathroom outdoors in gross places. There are freaky bugs, and maybe even bears. You have to cook your own food. And then you have to interact with potentially undesirable people. In the woods. Far, perhaps, from others who could come to your aid (like hotel security, the police, or room service).</p>
<p>^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Why indeed, spidey—LOL! Though, son (The Eagle Scout, and now Venture Scout) actually enjoys it. To each his own, I guess:rolleyes:</p>
<p>I camped a lot when I was younger and loved it. Once I hit my teens I insisted on camping only at places with flush toilets and hot showers. Yes, most campgrounds have these amenities. I too now prefer hotels and beds after spending a day hiking but I am so glad that I went camping as a child and that my kids got to enjoy that too. Both of my older kids are avid hikers and campers. Did you know that it’s possible to rent cabins in many parks?</p>
<p>But why is camping associated with National Parks? I am like spidey on camping. But one can always find hotels in or near park. Recently we stayed at a lodge with common bathroom. I hated it. The bathrooms were smelly, but the place was paradise.</p>
<p>Other penetrating questions simba might ask: Why don’t black people play ice hockey?</p>
<p>We also camp in state parks and private campgrounds.
If we can, we avoid the campgrounds that are dominated by trailers and motorhomes.
Many guides available to help us do just that.
[Adventure</a> Travel and Outdoor Recreation - GORP.com](<a href=“http://gorp.away.com/index.html]Adventure”>http://gorp.away.com/index.html)
[U.S</a>. National Park Service - Experience Your America](<a href=“http://www.nps.gov/index.htm]U.S”>NPS.gov Homepage (U.S. National Park Service))</p>
<p>It is also true that there are cabins and lodges in many parks, my sister stays often in lodges and I hear the lodges around Yosemite are very popular but I haven’t been to any parks outside my state.</p>
<p>In our state we have camped at Mt. Rainier ( where my brother met his first wife & where we took my youngest when she was two months old), Olympic Peninsula in the rainforest, but we mostly camp in the North Cascades, although we haven’t gone camping for a few years as no one can get off work at the same time. :(</p>
<p>I have done restoration work at the nations first historical reserve, Ebey’s Landing and at Moran State park on Orcas in the San Juan Islands, while my fellow volunteers are often Asian and Hispanic, it is true that it is unusual to see African Americans.</p>
<p>I don’t expect all families to be interested in the same things that I am- but I don’t like to hear them feeling discouraged because they are afraid they aren’t welcome, just as I don’t like to be discouraged to use my local city parks that are full of loud music and people that don’t pick up their garbage.</p>
<p>“What is so great about camping in a national park anyway? You have to work hard to set everything up and then break it down. You have to go to the bathroom outdoors in gross places. There are freaky bugs, and maybe even bears. You have to cook your own food. And then you have to interact with potentially undesirable people. In the woods. Far, perhaps, from others who could come to your aid (like hotel security, the police, or room service).”</p>
<p>I feel the same way. I look askance at a white woman I know who has chosen to live a simple life after growing up in a wealthy family. She has told me that her teen daughter loves camping, but refuses to stay in hotels because of the “gross” things her daughter has found in hotel rooms: “gross” things like a hair on the sheets.</p>
<p>I think, “The girl thinks it’s fun to squat in the bushes and sleep with bugs, dirt and various insects and other creatures like bears, but she’s freaked out by a hair on the sheets!” </p>
<p>My idea of roughing it is Motel 6. My idea of heaven is staying in a luxury hotel. I also bless the day that laws were passed prohibiting racial discrimination in accommodations. I’m grateful that I don’t have to sleep in my car, sit in a squalid train car or and squat in fields during long bus rides like black people had to do until the mid 1960s.</p>
<p>A few years ago, I heard the director of a black youth group that was planning a trip tell the kids, “And we’ll stay in nice hotels just like white people do.” I was appalled to hear those words because it seemed he ways indicating that black people don’t normally get good accommodations. However, he grew up in the South, and he may have had good reason to be thrilled at being able to stay in those kind of places.</p>
<p>I’m chuckeling at the thought of him saying something like, “We’ll get to camp in the woods, sleep on the ground and squat in the woods just like white people do!” I don’t think the kids would have been eager about that trip!</p>
<p>As for national parks, I’d love to stay in a resort in a national park.</p>
<p>^ And there it is.</p>
<p>Went to summer camp as a kid and we roughed it. Not my idea of a good time. Lugging your life around, digging a pit for the fire and for the toilet. Beans from a can. Sticking a peppermint stick in an orange (?? what the heck ??) Some odd stew in foil. Sounds like fun (sure).</p>
<p>Give me a nice trip with a resort hotel any day. I can enjoy the wonders of nature during the day and relax in a climate controlled environment in the evening.</p>
<p>This discussion is a bit like an exchange about life in the country between Woody Allen and then-girlfriend Mia Farrow. She loved the quiet and the fresh air; all he could think about was bugs and cricket noises that kept him up at night. </p>
<p>And speaking of the great outdoors, friends considered getting a cabin in the Colorado mountains. After renting for a bit, and looking into many options, they canned the idea because they kept running into two types of people who lived up there: rich tourist types - and rednecks/stoners with guns and, yes, confederate flags. Since they neither belonged to either category, nor wanted to hang out with either crowd, they chose to rent ski-side condos instead.</p>
<p>;) Katliamom, perhaps if he had gotten used to another environment Woody would have been able to loosen up a little.
I guess it depends on our preconceived notions about what a vacation is and what we want out of it.</p>
<p>It is hard for me to think about spending hundreds of dollars to sleep in a bed that thousands of others have slept in( the other stuff they have done on the bedspread I do not * even* want to think about.) :p</p>
<p>Finding a hair on the sheets indicates that they haven’t been doing that good a job of cleaning in between guests, I also would find that much more disgusting than being in the woods and watching bugs burrow into the soil.</p>
<p>I would rather sleep in my own sleeping bag and smell fir trees than pay $50 for parking for a room where the window doesn’t open, and eat breakfast while I listen to the birds on the beach rather than have to listen to the table next to me hiss at each other or argue loudly about last nights baseball game while I eat stale toast and drink bad coffee while I wait for them to bring my check.</p>
<p>I do stay in hotels sometimes, camping isn’t always convenient , but I do have a hard time justifying the expense.</p>
<p>
What about swimming, that seems like a more interesting question. Or drinking less alcohol than whites.</p>
<p>kathiep
</p>
<p>It was a cabin that our family had reserved during the incident I described in a prior post. I thought it would be something I would be OK with - it SO wasn’t! A dear friend, with ample knowledge of my tastes, highly recommended it (I forgave her). Based on her description, I somehow envisioned (wishful thinking?) that I would be staying in a situation something like this:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.worlds-luxury-guide.com/Glamorous-Camping/Abercrombie-and-Kent[/url]”>http://www.worlds-luxury-guide.com/Glamorous-Camping/Abercrombie-and-Kent</a></p>
<p>Now THAT is the kind of camping I would like.</p>
<p>NSM, I’m with you on the luxury hotels. I grew up in NYC, and to quote Woody Allen: “I am at two with nature.” </p>
<p>spideygirl, I could see myself doing that kind of camping!</p>
<p>Camping in San Diego - with a twist:</p>
<p>[California</a> resort offers $19 ‘survivor’ package](<a href=“http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090817/od_nm/us_usa_economy_hotel]California”>http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090817/od_nm/us_usa_economy_hotel)</p>
<p>LOL!</p>
<p>I got it
[You</a> wanna camp in Santa Barbara](<a href=“http://www.sunset.com/travel/outdoor-adventure/go-into-wild-in-style-00400000011308/]You”>Best Luxury Camping)
;)</p>
<p>BB-- $19 motel camping–I saw that one, too. I would so do that!</p>
<p>My parents grew up poor in the city.<br>
My dad’s thoughts on camping:
“I spend my whole life working to keep a roof over my head. . .why the heck would I want to sleep outside?!”</p>
<p>Before I joined the Peace Corps, I asked someone what it was like. She said, “It’s kinda like camping out for two years. You like camping, don’t you?”</p>
<p>“Uh, sure,” I said. (I’d slept on the screened porch a couple times when I was a kid).</p>
<p>BTW, Ice hockey is a very $$$ sport.</p>
<p>I actually think it has little or nothing to do with money for black people. Parks, nature and camping are just boring to me. I’ve been before and thought it was pointless to sleep out in the dirt with mosquitos if I have a house. They’re great for conservation purposes but I see no reason for me to interfere with all of that. I’ll let my tax dollars take care of it lol.</p>
<p>Ibleed, I understand that some people are too impatient with the outdoors, they see no appeal in hiking up a ridge to see a view or paddling for miles on a river.</p>
<p>However- when people don’t see the need for access or protection of the environment, and those who don’t enjoy the outdoors are more likely to have that opinion, that is when we have people in office who are only interested in green if it is on paper money.
[Report:</a> Bush admin’s gas leases too close to parks](<a href=“http://www.physorg.com/news163990357.html]Report:”>Report: Bush admin's gas leases too close to parks)</p>
<p>With 2 weeks vacations, Caribean is my choice. With current economy, no vacation this year. I do not know about black families.</p>
<p>To correct a misconception, there are 18 states with at least a million African-Americans. 10 of them are Southern, including Texas in the southwest. California is also on the list. Distribution doesn’t explain much.</p>