Shoe by Gary Brookins and Susie MacNelly for September 30, 2021

My son told me back in the spring that his kids didn’t have a typical camping experience. The teacher had shown a picture of a tent and asked what it was. Easy answer, tent. Then the teacher asked what’s inside. 4 year old answered, a TV. Camping in the backyard, you’ve got to have a TV

And at his age, it’s the bathroom.

Don’t know that I’d want to taste Cosmo’s cooking.

Have a friend who had a hunting cabin in the middle of the PA wilderness. That was great fun.

Cosmo never did. But he used to send Skyler to a US Marine boot camp every summer (ALRIGHT, YEW MAGGOTS!!).

Cosmo’s experience with the great outdoors is on the Golf Course.

Quoting Prince Harry?

This strip is a low point for me today.

anyone who’s never been camping has led a severely deprived life – no bugs up your nose an in your ears, no wet sleeping bag, no burned food, no bugs in your food and drink, no trying to take a dump in the great outdoors while bugs buzz you, did i mention bugs?…

If you backpack the right way you don’t have to see even one other person for days at a time. I was never cold, hungry, or exhausted when I went out. I did see the tops of quite a few mountains, saw miles of beautiful country at sunrise, and did not miss the everyday hum-drum one little bit.

On a 7 mile hike to a mountain chalet.. a very long time ago. I was bugging husband to stop and take a rest until dark clouds gathered and then thunder and lightning. Husband could barely keep up with me on the last 3 miles.

I haven’t been camping in ages. I used to grab the pup tent and some vittles and head for my granddad’s estate. One time I awoke the next morning to find I had been sleeping near to a big fat snake. I didn’t stick around to get to know it. Years later, I got a piece of the estate and built a cabin on it. It even has a 12 volt TV in it, but I rarely use the cabin as having the house to myself is peaceful enough.

i like the ALF episode where he camped out in the tanner’s backyard.he had a TV and VCR! that was funny! it would be a lot of fun watching a horror movie like friday the 13th in the woods.especially with a pretty girl!

this is why we gave up camping in a tent and now travel in an RV

These days camping to most people is having a luxury camper the size of a greyhound bus at a campgound with electricity, sanitation hookups and cable tv.

I took my wife camping many years ago. I made it as easy as I could. She said on the way home that the next time she was going to spend more than one night in Yosemite, it would be in the Ahwahnee Hotel. So, we spent about 10 Christmases there. Her, and our girls’, idea of roughing it is waiting 30 minutes for room serivce, not feeding a hungry jadgstaffel of hungry mosquitoes.

Hay fever. You could say Mother Nature’s “perfume” doesn’t agree with me.

As I’ve gotten older my camping equipment has changed from backpacking in the Rockies to an RV in the Southwest dessert.