My wife is a camping card and board game player in search of an opponent. No sooner is the RV hooked up and the awning out, than she’s suggesting we set up the cornhole board. Later, after dinner is cleaned up and the fire has burned low, she’s rattling off board or card games to pass the evening.
This is deeply ingrained in her camping DNA. Many of the same games we carry today – Sorry, Uno, Rummykub – are the same ones, I mean the same actual games, her family carried across Ontario, Canada, in their RV five decades ago. We added Yahtzee, a few decks of cards, and National Parks Monopoly.
Four adults, one dog, and 1,500 miles over two weeks. With each trip – even the most successful, uneventful excursions – we learn something new. Stuff to pack, bring, buy along the way, or some hack we’ve always done or learned for the first time can make the difference between and good trip and an adventure with moments that make you enthuse, “what a cool hack. I have to remember that next time.”
When I told my wife I would be traveling solo and camping alone at the Suwannee Roots Revival Music Festival in Live Oak, Fla., more than 350 miles and a six-hour tow from home, she wondered why I’d go alone. Wouldn’t the solitude and seclusion be unsettling? No one to talk to or hang with or enjoy the music beside? Wouldn’t I be… Lonely?