Which provides for a better camping experience: RVs or tent

Boy what a big difference forty years makes in the thinking of people. Back when I was in Boy Scouts we nad never heard of an RV other than a few of the blob looking Air Stream and they were pretty rare. Camping was done in tent and you either slept in a sleeping bag on the ground or maybe on a cot. Some of the rich kids had inflatable air mattresses to put on the ground of their cots. Some of the real up to date Scout camps had a chow hall where all of us ate but in real camping you cooked your food in a big cast iron pot over a campfire or in the coals. Stew was a big camp meal because it was fairly easy to fix and it could cook all day if necessary. You washed your dishes in the nearest creek and you bathed in the creek too. A lot of times you drank out of the creek too and nobody ever seemed to get sick. That was what we thought of as camping.

Most of the places we camped, you got as close as you could with a car or four wheel drive pickup and then you backpacked to the lake or campsite along a creek or river somewhere. There was no such thing as an RV with and indoor shower and a heater. The heater was a campfire and I don’t remember ever having a problem with forest fires and things like they seem to have now days. We swam in the lakes and rivers that were ice cold and loved it.. When you got all the stuff packed in, you set up your tent and got everything all set up. Then you went on a search for some good firewood for the campfire to cook on and keep warm at night. We used to set Indian style around the campfire and sing songs and tell stories. Depending on the stream or river, sometimes we would catch fish for our supper and pick cactus and pack it in mud and throw it in the coals to bake. When you got it out of the fire and cracked the mud off it pulled out all the stickers and all you had left was a nice cactus meat that was good with a little salt and pepper. Usually we would take turns staying up and watching and keeping the campfire going. We always had a few buckets of water to put out the fire if it started to get out of control from a sudden wind gust or something.

RVing is nice and fun but it is not camping. You don’t see many RVs at campground. RVs go to RV parks and then you take your jeep or small car and go to the cafe to eat or maybe cook in your RV.. Oh yes they are nice and convenient but that is not camping folks. You crawl in a regular bed after your shower. Yes they are nice if you get a rain or a snow