Camping?

Here is my take on the news, via Kelly and Rippa.

21st May 2020

The busy tinkerers of camping equipment are trying to make us even more lazier than we are as a species.

Camping out used to mean a real wood fire, the cold hard ground inside a smelly Army surplus pup tent, and plenty of mosquitos.

Now the talk shows are touting back yard camp outs with the kids, only the kids do not see the joy of the experience. Why wreck your back on a hard ground, even if it is the lawn, when you could be inside watching YouTube?

So the demo turned into a whine with the kids awake after midnight and the whole point of “roughing it” lost.

Instead we are treated to the joys of an artificial campfire that has flames produced by a gas canister and automatic fan.

No, the fan is not completely automatic, as there is a little button on the end to adjust the speed. If you are really lazy you don’t have to get up from your lawn chair to adjust it, just use your phone from 6 feet away to make it go higher or lower.

Really? Camping and toasting marshmallow by phone app?

Well, the world has been turned inside out and upside down, so I should not be surprised that someone would make the camping experience easier and more sanitized.

Large numbers of people using actual wood to burn outdoors leads to all sorts of problems, like carbon build up and wildfires, so must be regulated and even banned.

Even a fan driven fire in a box is better than the virtual fire which gives no heat and smells like nothing.