Camping a Great Experience Camping for me has been one of the greatest and most relaxing experiences in my life. My wife and I have been camping ever since we have been married and our boys grew up camping and now enjoy camping as adults. There is an old saying about camping. “Families, who camp together, stay together”. For my wife and me, camping is amazing. When we sit around the campfire at night, we can talk about sensitive subjects with neither of us putting up defensives. (Ruffling feathers) We are so relaxed, have no interruptions and we come to understand each other better because we are much more open with each other. I am not saying this is the way for everyone, but for us it has helped us work through many difficult problems that I believe that could have not been worked out elsewhere. Camping is a great experience for many different reasons and it doesn't matter if you are young or young at heart, camping is just a good way to get out of the old everyday routine. I hope that as time goes by, you will find campingforme.com a place that is informative and fun, where we all can share and learn all there is about camping together.

Camping with Critters Here is one of the things that new campers and weekend warriors often forget when camping. There are wild animals that come out after dark when all is quiet. Depending on what part of the country you are camping in, you may encounter different types of animals in different parts of the country and different tactics must be employed so you do not awake in the morning to find most of your food missing. Check with the park Ranger or campground host to find out about the types of nightly critters that could be drawn to your site by the smell of food and how to adequately secure those food items from them. Before you turn in for the night, or if you leave camp for any length of time, you should always secure all of your food items as suggested by the park Ranger or from your experience. Just because you got your food in a tightly sealed cooler or container, does not mean animals cannot get in to them. If you are tent camping, we suggest you keep the cooler or containers in your vehicle at all times until you are ready to use them. If you own an RV or camper, make sure your food items are not left outside during night time hours.

Raccoons Tale This is a true story, which took place a couple of years ago. My wife and I were camping at a State Park near St. Louis, Missouri. The park was what we have come to expect from State Parks and since we were staying for more than a week, we had a site with full hookup. (water, electric, sewer) I was impressed on just how well this park was maintained and the camping fees per night were outstanding. We had been there a few days when this younger couple pulled into a site with an older model of the Hi-Lo camper. I noticed it right away, because we own a 2001 model of the Hi-Lo and I am always curious to see other models. I could tell this young couple had not done much camping because of the amount of time it took for them to back into their lot and get set up. They could not figure out how to get the awning rolled out and it took this guy about 30 minutes to figure out how to hook up the water and run the sewer hose to the septic tank. After a couple of hours, they were finally set up and then took off in their vehicle. They came back about 3 hours later and pulled out six bags of groceries and two new fifty gallon Coleman coolers. They put the coolers next to the camper by the door which was near the front of the camper and proceeded to put groceries away. The rest of the day went along as normal right into the evening hours. I started our campfire and prepared for the evening meal. After we ate, both of us sat out at the fire relaxing and talking, enjoying the sounds of nature and the smell of campfire smoke. We were just about ready to get up and head into bed when we saw four glowing eyes just a short distance from us. We sat very still trying to figure out what it was when one of these creatures passed under a street light and we knew right away it was a 4 legged bandit (raccoon). We are no strangers in seeing raccoons, since Northern Indiana has plenty of them and found in all of their State Parks. These raccoons were so used to being around people they came up within feet of our campfire and just walked around without a worry searching for food. My wife just had to get pictures of them since they were so close. (That’s were the pictures came from) After the pictures, we headed for bed knowing that tomorrow we were going into St. Louis to visit their fantastic Zoo and knew, we would be doing a fair amount of walking.

Raccoons Tale Part 2 I am an early riser and love to watch the sun come up and this morning was no different. I restarted our campfire to get it ready for breakfast and was once again enjoying the sounds of nature as the daybreak began. I noticed that the young couple’s coolers were away from their camper with the flaps open. I thought this was a bit strange but then thought nothing more about it. About 45 minutes later, the young man came out of his camper took a look around saw me sitting at my fire and waved. He glanced towards the font of his camper, then he just started yelling, and swearing as he quickly went over to his coolers to check out what had happened. He yelled back to his wife and said somebody stole all of our meat. I remember him saying, “That’s $40.00 of meat gone that we didn’t have! They even took our beans and potato salad!” At that point, I knew exactly what had happened. Those four-legged bandits my wife and I saw the night before had gotten into those coolers sometime during the night and had a GREAT FEAST! I felt sorry for the couple because obviously they had no idea that they needed to make sure to secure the coolers either in their camper or in their vehicle at night. The young man did not know that the four-legged bandits can be Houdini's and can get into all most anything when not secured. The raccoons took all of his meat; most of their salad’s and took almost a whole loaf of bread leaving the wrapper and a few breadcrumbs. I went in too get my wife and explained to her what had happen. She immediately came out to see this sight then we turned around and looked at each other and had a good laugh, but we both knew it wasn't funny to the young couple a few sites away. We went over to their campsite feeling bad for them and invited them to have some of our bacon and eggs so they would have something to eat and offered them money so they could buy more meat. The young couple wouldn’t take any money, but did take us up on the offer of bacon and eggs. They thanked us for breakfast and for the kind offer of money then headed back to their camper. Later that day when we returned from our adventures in St. Louis, the young couple had packed up and left as their site had been vacated. I told you this true story just to remind you, that by leaving any type of fresh food out, even in tightly closed containers, some critters will find some way of getting into it and take the food. Always make sure that you secure your food storage containers by keeping them inside with you. If you are a tent camper, secure it by putting it in your in your vehicle at night. (If you take or store food inside your tent at night, some animals may rip through your tent to get to the food and could cause you bodily harm) Raccoons and other small animals may look harmless, but they are still wild animals, they can be dangerous and you should always have respect around them.