Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for July 16, 2019

Some couples take separate vacations.

Why not both?

All that plus there may be a BBQ grill to cook hot dogs!

Democracy not at work.

Happy wife, happy life.

Dad apparently doesn’t recognise the 2/3 majority vote.

Sounds good to me

Calvin shares my aversion to camping.

Motel 6s don’t build character.

That wouldn’t build character.

Or stop at Bates Motel. I promise you an adventurous vacation Dad.

I was surprised that it took her that long to chime in.

My idea of roughing it is staying at Holiday Inn.

He probably just brought a bit of cash for gas, and doesn’t have the money for a weekend at a hotel (without extras, a 4 night stay can run you $500-600 at most hotels)

I went on vacation with a friend who had one of those trailers that you hook to the truck. That was rough enough for me.

When I was young, I would carry a light tent and a sleeping bag in the car on long trips, because camping was cheaper than motels. But I never enjoyed it for its own sake.

Still, it’s something every kid ought to experience, just so they know what it’s like.

My wife and I will often sit out by the pool or in our screened-in porch and wonder why we are paying for air conditioning.

Was there ever black and white cable TV?

You’re outvoted, Dad!

We had the same vacation every year. First week in August, New Jersey shore. There wasn’t voting, and my parents wouldn’t have voted differently anyway. No A/C and sand was pretty well everywhere. I have to say that as children we really liked it.

Yes, let’s.

or better yet leave the brat home!!!

Sometimes Dad learns a thing or two while he is teaching us a lesson.

Room service in a motel?

My family will go anywhere I ask them to — as long as they want to.

Room service is probably not going to be an option. And that’s enough roughing it!

Dad is going to find it tough to quell this uprising!

like camp in a HOLIDAY INN. :) OK, great. Done that.

My mom was okay with the camping for years because of the expenses. After things improved, she put her foot down. A beach house for vacation, and he could rough it all he wanted as a Boy Scout leader. As someone who is allergic or lunch for everything in the great outdoors, I was very happy to stay in the beach house.

In “The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book”, Watterson says of the camping trips:

“The stories are mostly invented, but they’re based on memories of trips my family took when I was a kid.”

Earlier on, when discussing Calvin’s parents, he says:

“Any strip about how suffering ‘builds character’ is usually a verbatim transcript of why we were all freezing, exhausted, hungry, and lost on camping trips. These things are a lot funnier after twenty-five years have passed.”

Another twenty-four years have passed after Calvin and Hobbes’ tenth anniversary. The strip finished its original run at the end of that year but the reprints remain LOL funny.

My family loves camping, and I am glad they do. We have a lot of fun, together.

I camp at the Hyatt®

Looks like rain…

With my wife and me, she’s the one who wants to camp. I can live without it, much to her dismay. We’ve stopped going.

“If you had been good even ONCE over the last year or so, I might consider it, Calvin. But as it is?!? Unless you can prove to me that it’s snowing in Hades, I’m NOT turning off the road here!!!”

Looks like Mom is on Calvin’s side, for once.

Room service in a motel?

Actually, room service anywhere is a bad idea—limited and overpriced menu, slow service, and once the food actually arrives, serving and eating it is awkward and inconvenient. Hard to imagine how it ever acquired any sort of cachet.

We’re going to have a fun family vacation even if it kills us.

Where’s Hobbes?

I’m with the kid on this one. I like the outdoors and light hiking and sightseeing, but camping and “roughing it”? No thanks!

Heh, a motel like that would sound even nicer than their own house! I love how the Mom enjoyed Calvin’s idea!

I took up backpacking and camping as an adult, and have always enjoyed it. Part of the cachet is the prep, and if it’s done right the trip will be a success.

I guess Calvin IS a genius.

If the family hates camping, you are doing it wrong.

I remember for my 12th birthday, my grandparents took me on a road trip for two weeks. We crossed through 4 states (Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma). I know we must’ve taken other vacations but that was the ONLY one I remember every detail of. :0)

I thoroughly enjoyed camping when I was younger, about three-quarters of a century ago. Now, my idea of roughing it is having to stay in a hotel where you can’t get a martini via room service. Maybe I’m just too close to going back to nature permanently.

Two out of those three people despise camping. But apparently Dad is the only one around there that gets a vote on what to do and where to go every year on their one lone vacation. Given that he’s the sole provider for his family, he most definitely deserves his well-earned and much-needed down time. However, I don’t think he should force his family into doing something they so obviously hate because it’s not fair to them ….. not to mention that it ruins things for him too.

But, hey, if he’s the type of person that HAS to have things his own way and everyone else has to go along with it because they’re not really given any choice or say in the matter, then he’d better prepare himself for the unhappy sh**storm of grousing and complaining that’s already coming his way — especially from his sometimes-irritating and very precocious 6-year-old son — because he’ll have “earned” that too ….. whether he likes it or not!

Yup! I remember a fine vacation like that, some 40 years ago. My wife was 6 months pregnant with our daughter to be and had been advised not to travel. So we just drove to the nearest nice motel about 45 minutes away and had a fine time, swimming, tennis, food, TV, walks in the forest, bike riding. The only downside was when we tried to put my 4-year-old son on a pony and he hated it, and still does. Still swims and plays tennis like a champ though.

Dad pays the bills. He mistakenly thinks he’s the decider.

I have a luggage tag that’s says, “I love not camping”. My idea of roughing it is a Motel 6 with no HBO.

I would of never thought of that

Does that sign say Boston?

Send dad camping alone. He needs character.

Catching fish is my favourite pastime. Looking for an oppurtunity.

i think mom is playing with dad. She knows what his reaction will be.