Camping and Roadtrips

Ok. First and foremost I must apologize for going a week without posting. I will try not to let it happen again. Now on to my latest random rant.

Camping and family road trips are a must for family communication and unity. Usually they are like exercise... Darn had to get motivated for but wow do you feel great afterward. We didn't do much camping as a family when I was growing up. We did, however, go on the most amazing road trips. I have awesome memories of feeding buffalo in Colorado, seeing a bear in Michigan, a moose in Maine and a bobcat in Florida (on a golf course of all places).
Many of the trips we took were with another family. Never the same family twice. Hmm, I wonder if that was intentional or just coincidence? I don't know, but I can tell you that we were much closer as a family and much closer to the families that we went on the trips with, after the trip concluded. Today, people tend to go on vacations to be entertained and set records for the amount of money spent. Why go into debt to take a vacation that finds you more tired when you return than when you left? Dumb but all to common. My dad was the master at coming home from work on Friday and announcing "Pack your bags, we're going on a road trip!" It was awesome. Most of our trips were pretty well planned out if my mom had anything to do with it but a few I remember were spontaneous.
I remember driving our conversion van out to Colorado. We went with another young family and stayed in a ski resort in the middle of the summer. It was very cheap and almost totally vacant. We had the pool to ourselves and were able to ride the chairlifts up the mountain for wonderful hikes. Let me tell you, it is much more enjoyable to hike when it is ALL downhill! Can you imagine taking a vacation without your cell phone, laptop, TV/DVDs, video games, MP3 players or anything else electronic? It is amazing to actually have someones undivided attention and at the same time, give them your undivided attention. For days on end! You really learn a lot about the people you are with.
Camping is an awesome art that has been perverted over the years. Sorry Coleman but you aren't helping. There is something really beautiful in roughing it. Hiking out into the middle of nowhere with your closest love ones helps everyone involved embrace honest vulnerability. When you strip away the makeup, fancy name-brand clothes and other creature comforts (read as distractions) of home you will find it it becomes wonderful fodder for openness. Try it. It is hard but oh so rewarding. Pitch a tent. Sleep wedged in between parents and siblings. Dig a fire pit. Find rocks to line it with. Scavenge for firewood. Start a fire without matches or a lighter. Look up at the stars. Breathe fresh night air. Bathe in a frigid river. When you return from a trip like that, you will have such a feeling of accomplishment.
I remember sleeping out in Pictured Rocks, Michigan in the U.P. with kids from my youth group in junior high school. I don't remember listening to the radio in the van on the way up there. Yes, the drive up felt like an eternity but it gave me several hours to talk with the other boys. How many kids today actually get to talk with their friends offline, without text messaging or the use of a cell phone? You learn to read peoples body language from looking at them! Imagine that! Try it with your kids. It is unbelievable.
I think I will write posts on each of my road trips starting when I first got my drivers license. Comment back if you think reading those stories would be interesting. Also, feel free to ask general questions and I will do my best to answer them (if I know the answer).