Entertainment

Having camped a lot in my life, both as a kid growing up and now as an adult, I've noticed there are many different ways people entertain themselves while camping.

As kids, my brother and I usually had our bikes, and would ride around exploring the campground.  We would check out the whole place the day we arrived, and would know our way around for the rest of the trip (usually 2wks).   As a family, we would also play cards sometimes (though I don't remember what we played).  Board games may be have been brought along too.  We had a pop-up camper, so getting in out of the rain was easy.  Besides that, we swam in the pool, played on the playground, tried fishing (lol), and explored.  I never remember being bored while camping as a kid.  We also used to go out from the campground at least every other day, usually sightseeing or an amusement park. 

As an adult, I find that I enjoy reading or playing cards for the most part.  When there are kids with us, it's fun to pick blueberries, take nature walks, swim, or just watch them invent games.  What I enjoy the most though, is escaping tv, video games (even hand-held), and phones.  None of it is allowed when I go camping, except the cell phone.  It's only turned on for emergencies, and once or twice to see if anyone needs me (espeically if I'm camping alone).  I also enjoy the occasional bike ride.

My most favorite though, has to be playing cards.  Specifically rummy.  Most rummy games are played to 5000 points or so.  A friend and I decided on one of our 7 day trips to play to 50,000.  Yes, you read that right, 50,000.  The day before we were leaving, we were only up to 20,000, and we played every afternoon, evening and night.  At around 10pm or so, we decided to 'adjust' the rules of rummy a bit, so that we'd get to 50k, lol.  We decided that all positive points were doubled, and there were no negative ones.  We made it to 50k.....at about 3am!  It is a game that neither one of us is ever going to forget, lol.

Another fun game to play is Skip-Bo.  It's very loosely based on the rules of rummy, but with a twist!  Phase 10 is also fun, and again, is based on the rules of rummy.  Thought these two can be played with regular decks of cards, it is much easier to use the special decks. 

Books..............always a necessary component of a camping trip - especially a solo one.  Nothing better than laying in the hammock, pillow under your head (or folded up towel), reading and napping all afternoon.  I went on a solo trip last summer and read 7 books in 4 days!  There are many different kinds of books I enjoy reading.  Some of my favorite authors are James Patterson, Debbie Macomber, Janet Evanovich and Sophie Kinsella. 

So what do you enjoy doing in your spare time?