Why We Do Not Stay In Campgrounds Much

There is a relatively common misconception that since we live in an RV most of the time that we are "camping" all the time. In fact, that is an oft-repeated romanticized view of what we do for a living and it gives us a chuckle on a regular basis.

It is also an easily understood misconception. Most people purchase campers to go camping. It is their hope to spend 6-8 weekends each summer at the lake or state park and maybe even a one or two week vacation.

There are more campers being purchased now than ever and more families camping than ever before. The campfires, hiking, fishing, swimming, boating and a thousand other activities brings a lot of relaxation and satisfaction to families all over the USA and in many other countries.

We park mostly at churches where we are preaching revival and usually only stay in campgrounds when there is no place to park at the church. When we must stay in campgrounds during revival it is always funny to see people's faces as they watch us come outside about 6:30 PM all dressed up like we are going to church.

The man is building a campfire and grilling outside, the woman is preparing food outside, the kids are riding bikes and they are all looking at us like we are crazy! Why are those kooks parked at the campground? They stay inside during the day, leave in their Sunday best every evening and get back to their RV at Midnight. Yep, crazy.😀😀

If we had a chance to explain our craziness to them we would tell them we park at campgrounds, we do not have time for conventional "camping". We parked for work and not fun.

When we had our fifth wheels, we would stay in campgrounds overnight between travel days. If we had 1000 miles to travel on Thursday and Friday, we would plan our first travel day according to the best campground to park in. We would often go in after dark and leave early in the morning.

We always dreaded that, because unless we knew the campground really well, going in at night was an adventure. Starting our diesel truck early the next morning was sure to disturb the neighbors and we always hated to do it.

Since we have had the bus, overnighting in a campground on travel days has mostly been eliminated. We can run the generator overnight if we need heat or air, so we do not need to pay for a campground in order to have electricity. We also do not have to dodge trees and other obstacles at night going in and we do not have to disturb anyone going out in the morning.

We needed to park somewhere a few days between Tulsa and Wichita and we could have easily pulled into a rest area, truck stop or WalMart or some combination of the three. However, I checked online and found a campground 2 miles off I-35 with 50 Amp electric, water and sewer for $25 a night.

It would cost us about 13 gallons of diesel a day to run the generator which is normally a bargain compared to the exorbitant price of campgrounds. With this place being cheap, $25 a night, it was six in one hand, half dozen in the other. 

This campground is nothing fancy, a gravel parking lot with pull through spots, but it works great for our needs. That is why even though we do not stay in campgrounds much, we have this week. It makes sense.

Today we move onto Wichita by God's grace. Thank you for stopping into Mile Markers today.

Davy