# Signs that you're camping. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 4, 2015, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929 "2015-01-04T06:34:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Hopeful\_Crow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/da6949/32.png) [@Hopeful\_Crow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hopeful_Crow)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2015, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/21 "2015-01-04T21:40:31Z")
The “campers” in the three spots nearest you have their generators going in all but the wee-est hours of the morning to keep their RVs cool and the lights and TV on. Collecting firewood means going down to the beach with empty 50-pound dog food bags for driftwood. Good times, those. We’d probably get in trouble for that today, but way back when, nobody batted an eye. We usually had the beach to ourselves anyway. Taking pictures of the siblings when they came out of the outhouse. For some reason, we thought that was hilarious, back in the day. Going into town for a treat, smelling of grime, sweat and the great outdoors. Mostly the great outdoors. I hope. ---
**Author:** ![romansperson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/romansperson/32/17100_2.png) [@romansperson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/romansperson)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/22 "2015-01-05T01:08:33Z")
Swarms of mosquitoes and biting black flies, along with the distinctive and pervasive outhouse scent wafting through the air. Also: baths in the stream which was ice-cold even in August. This explains why my definition of ‘roughing it’ these days is slow room service. ---
**Author:** ![Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slow_moving_vehicle/32/291_2.png) [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/23 "2015-01-05T03:21:00Z")
A gradual and dawning awareness that the whole course of human civilization has been an attempt to get _away_ from nature. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/24 "2015-01-05T03:39:15Z")
The wheeeeeeeeeeeeeee! of the air mattress pump at 2 am. (I don’t do hard camping, either.) The scent of campfire in your hair on the car ride home is vaguely annoying, but by the time you get there, you’re trying to figure out how to shower without washing it out. Two weeks later, finding the sweatshirt that still smells like campfire and burying your face in it and huffing. > [@Ethilrist](#): > > Then there’s that whole question of having sex… It’s fucking in tents. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/25 "2015-01-05T03:43:58Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Yeah, yeah, sue me. New changes to the fees in National Parks in Australia now mean it’s sometimes cheaper to go to a ‘primitive’ camping/caravan park…which we did. It had flush dunnies, showers and washing machines. With two littlies, it was heavenly to have the mod cons. > > In three weeks we’re going true bush…but only for the long weekend. 😃 God, that’s a lot of Aussie lingo crammed into one post. > [@JerrySTL](#): > > 1. Waking up to the sound of zippers… I LOLd. So true. Such a unmistakeable sound, especially in stereo. Plus you know that now everyone’s looking for a bush to poop behind. > [@Boogly](#): > > #) Feeding kids beans before they go to sleep in sleeping bags (in their own tent) is funny stuff. Ok, I well and truly LOLd at that one. ---
**Author:** ![Dag\_Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@Dag\_Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dag_Otto)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/26 "2015-01-05T05:08:57Z")
14+) Ice has become a prized possession. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/27 "2015-01-05T05:16:37Z")
1. You don’t bother changing underware after 8 days because they are still cleaner than you. 2. Easier to cut your hair than wash it. 3. Spaghetti, _Again?_ Oh, and Damn, its good! ---
**Author:** ![Urbanredneck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ea5d25/32.png) [@Urbanredneck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Urbanredneck)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/28 "2015-01-05T05:59:34Z")
Then their is “Stealth Camping” which means camping where nobody know you are there: [URL=“[http://www.stealthcamp.com/](http://www.stealthcamp.com/)”] Then their is a whole niche where people will design vans or old trailers as campers so one can sleep in a parking lot for free. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 7:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/29 "2015-01-05T07:45:53Z")
> [@Dag\_Otto](#): > > 14+) Ice has become a prized possession. Oh preach it! We calculated that over the two weeks we’d spent $150+ on ice. Having less-than-efficient coolers, we’ve now decided to invest in a three-way fridge. Whilst they retail here for over $1000, it’ll pay for itself in no time in ice-cost let alone all the food that got spoiled by sitting in icy water for a few hours. 25: Two days after returning home from camping, you’re still blowing black stuff into your tissue from your nose. 26: You write a list of all the things that were less than satisfactory on your trip, and head to the camping superstore to buy more shit. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/30 "2015-01-05T08:00:15Z")
Oh, and while it’s not exactly a ‘sign’ that you’re camping, in Australia the old adage… **“don’t camp underneath a gum tree”** came almost tragically true on our last day. As we were packing up our camp early in the morning, we heard an ominous crack about 50m away…and watched in horror as a thumping great bough crashed down onto another campsite, crushing a tent and doing some major damage to a SUV. Thankfully there was no-one in the tent at the time…just a few minutes earlier and the outcome would have been disastrous. Gumtrees drop boughs without warning. A few days previously we’d had some storm-force winds for a couple of hours, and the tree was fine. On the morning we left there was not a breath of wind, and still the branch sheared off the trunk. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/31 "2015-01-05T08:28:27Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > 26: You write a list of all the things that were less than satisfactory on your trip, and head to the camping superstore to buy more shit. Next trip you will be writing a list of all the shit you have brought along that you didn’t really need because you are sick of packing it all, dealing with it all, unpacking it all, etc. There is no happy medium. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/32 "2015-01-05T08:31:38Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > Next trip you will be writing a list of all the shit you have brought along that you didn’t really need because you are sick of packing it all, dealing with it all, unpacking it all, etc. Done that list already! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 10:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/33 "2015-01-05T10:36:45Z")
D00dz keep appearing near you and you keep killing them. ---
**Author:** ![tapu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@tapu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tapu)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/34 "2015-01-05T14:00:58Z")
Some guy in an old MGB with NY plates drives up in the evening and parks in an empty space. Does not set up a tent. Later you see him ghosting around the perimeter of the campground, wearing night-vision goggles. ---
**Author:** ![Bumbershoot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bumbershoot/32/3428_2.png) [@Bumbershoot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bumbershoot)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/35 "2015-01-05T14:27:30Z")
It’s raining. When I lived in the Midwest, I think it rained every single time I went camping (it seemed like it anyway). Now I live in the Southwest and I’ve been on lots of camping trips where it never rained at all! What a treat. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/36 "2015-01-05T20:16:20Z")
Jeez, I guess I was expecting something else out of this thread. My contribution – you shit on dirt. I guess I’m too coarse. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/37 "2015-01-05T21:13:50Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > Jeez, I guess I was expecting something else out of this thread. My contribution – you shit on dirt. I guess I’m too coarse. Taking a dump in the great outdoors with the wind ruffling your hair & carrying off the scent of ones’ unwashed body is one of the great pleasures of camping. As is saying “Hi” & “Good morning” to all your fellow soldiers walking by while doing so. Those are some of my fondest memories of much time spent in the field with the US Army. US Army: Ruining camping since 1788. At least I didn’t have to cook or clean. Had to do a few other unpleasant things though. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/38 "2015-01-05T22:37:39Z")
> [@kambuckta](#): > > Done that list already! 😃 The problem is that the two lists tend to overlap. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2015, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/39 "2015-01-05T23:50:38Z")
I seriously question #5. For my group, when we camp beer is breakfast. It’s the unofficial Reveille. This weekend we considered ourselves to be “roughing it” when we did room service rather than walking downstairs to Bouchon for breakfast. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929/40 "2015-01-06T00:34:10Z")
people taking shifts on dingo watch. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/signs-that-youre-camping/708929.md?page=3)