The Makings of a Perfect Campground

Brendon and I were talking this morning on the way back from our morning trek to the restroom about places we’ve been this summer. He said, “Dad, this campground is the best one all summer.” That got me to thinking…we’ll have stayed in aprx. 10 different campgrounds by the time we return home, so that puts us, I think, in a place of being able to somewhat effectively evaluate what makes a perfect campground by Skor family standards. There’s a difference between a nice campground and a perfect campground:
• It has to have trees and foliage. It has to feel like you’re in the woods.
• It has to have a fire ring and nice picnic table close enough to the camper that it feels like an outdoor room extension of our camper.
• It has to have space to set up our awning/screen porch and no wind to force us to tear it down.
• It can’t be swarming with bugs. Some, we don’t mind, it’s part of camping, but we’ve stayed at places that have had so many bugs that I’ve wondered if we were in some Alfred Hitchcock movie.
• It has to give the boys a sense of adventure. Trails, stumps, mystery and other things to engage their imagination.
• Bathrooms that are close, quiet, and not feel like something in a 3rd world country. We don’t mind rustic, but gross is unacceptable.
• It has to have electricity. Call us comfortable campers, but we like our lights, heater, and fans.
• It has to have a parking pad that makes it possible to get the camper close to level. This doesn’t have to be the perfectly level cement pad of a Seniors’ RV Park (we’ve stayed in some of those), but it does have to make it possible to keep from rolling out of the bed at night.
• It has to have people who like to camp and not scream and yell all night. Call me picky, but I want to listen to the wind, birds and rain, not drunken screaming all night long.