Tag Archives: camping

Nostalgia in a Digital World

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It never seems to fail that whenever families gather for special occasions or Sunday dinners, someone digs out the old photo albums.  It’s a time for reminiscing of fond memories and certainly for sharing a few good laughs.  One of the downsides of the advances in technology, many would say, is the declining hobby of making old school photo albums.  Scores of photos sit on cameras or computers, never to even be printed – let alone organized in an album. We do have camping friends that are diligent with scrapbooking and we have created photo books of some of our trips with Shutterfly, but one great thing about our blog is that it serves as a digital “footprint” of all of our adventures while camping.

Having a blog encourages us to frequently upload photos, and share in some of the experiences we have had.  By publishing campground reviews, it also challenges us to visit new places instead of returning to the same places over and over.  While we may never fully reproduce the sensory nostalgia of a decades old photo album, with its faded and worn pages, our hope is that we will continue to look back at this blog with equally fond memories for many years to come. We have even returned to places we visited with our families as kids like Frankenmuth, Leelanau, and Higgins Lake in Michigan.

We are also trying to challenge ourselves to embrace new things along the way such as instagram and the art of the “selfie”. I am currently challenging myself to come up with fun ways to incorporate selfies into our travel photography routine.  I was looking through our photos and found a few that we have taken-whether intended or not.

Heck, if you really want you can give your photos instant nostalgia with an instagram filter:

Another recent trend is to recreate those old photos taken in our youth by returning to and recreating the same photos as adults.  What do you say, Spencer?  Do you think mom still has the little wagon somewhere in the garage?  🙂

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Speaking of the little guy in the photo, you can check out some of his adventures in nature here.

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And we would like to extend this challenge to our followers.  If you have fun, creative, selfies ,instagram photos, or throwback photo recreations taken while camping – we would love to include them in an upcoming blog post.  Send us your photos with name and location to crazy4camping1@gmail.com

Can Fish Hear?

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Submitted by Joe Panfalone

When I was visiting a supplier in Japan, our host was extremely proud of their koi pond and wanted to demonstrate something. He took us to the pond’s edge and clapped his hands. From the murky depths of the pond emerged huge koi breaking the surface with mouths open. As their reward, he tossed them a handful of fish food.

While everyone else was enamored with his ability to have trained the fish, I was awestruck with the fact that they could hear the sound of clapping deep down into the pond. No wonder dad kept telling me to be quiet or I’d scare the fish away. I just thought it was his way of getting some peace and quiet.

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 According to the National Wildlife Federation, fish don’t have ears that we can see, but they do have ear parts inside their heads. They pick up sounds in the water through the lateral lines that run down each side of its body and is transmitted to their internal ear. The lateral line also acts like a sonar. Most bodies of water have limited range of sight so the lateral line enables the fish to sense movement around them. Some fishing lures have small BB’s inside to make noise and supposedly attract fish.

So the next time you are fishing, remember Dad’s words…be quiet or you will scare the fish away.

The Camper’s Journal

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Camper’s Journal

by Joe Panfalone (Guest Contributor)

Thirty five years ago we met a retired couple in an Airstream camper trailer. As we had just a pop up camper, we were interested in a hard sided one so we struck up a conversation with them. The both of them were retired Air Force and were traveling the country side living out of their trailer. I was fascinated with the concept and was something that I wanted to do when I retired. Things have changed since then. For one, gasoline was only 35 cents a gallon back then!

We were on a vacation tour of Michigan and kept running across this couple. We shared where we have been and recommended things to do and see. The one thing I found most significant about this encounter is that they asked if we would sign their guest book. It was filled with names of people they had encountered along their journey with notes about them. I thought it to be a novel idea. They suggested we keep one with the goal of socializing with campers around us and come back with at least one entry for each day.

In todays digital age keeping a journal has never been easier. Here is a Camper’s journal template. If you are old school, you can print a few pages and fill them in by hand and keep them in a binder. Preferably, load it to your touch pad or lap top and take it with you. With the digital version you can do a search by pressing CTRL F and then enter a key word.

 

MONTH/YEAR___________

CAMPGROUND

ACTIVITIES /   NOTES / PEOPLE MET
Check-In    Day/Time
Check-Out Day/Time
Name
Address
City, State Zip
Phone Number
Website
Rating

 

 

MONTH/YEAR___________

CAMPGROUND

ACTIVITIES /   NOTES / PEOPLE MET
Check-In    Day/Time
Check-Out Day/Time
Name
Address
City, State Zip
Phone Number
Website
Rating

 

-Enjoy and HAPPY CAMPING!

The Bucket List For the Avid Camper

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So, turning 39 back in December made me start thinking about what life is going to be like during my 40’s. I think it is normal that those approaching their 40’s begin to worry about how age is going to slow them down, how life is fragile, and how life is short so live life to the fullest. So, call it a mid-life crisis or call it a bucket list, I have been thinking a lot about what I want to accomplish in the next decade. Some of my aspirations do not involve camping. However, many do include travel/camping. As I was thinking the other night, over a tall, cold beer, I was attempting to put together a bucket list of places I want to travel to/camp. I came up with a top ten list. In the next decade, my hope is to…

1. Travel to Italy with my wife and visit the land where our ancestors came from. We have both been to Italy but not together.

2. Try a 2-3 night backpack camping trip in a national forest or state park. I think Cloudland State Park in northern Georgia would be a great place to try backpack camping. Or Shawnee State Park in Southern Ohio.

3. Camp in South Dakota/North Dakota/Montana and explore some of the terrain that Lewis and Clark traversed over two centuries ago.

4. Camp in Acadia National Park (Bar Harbor, Maine) and enjoy the beauty of its wildlife and the ocean scenery.

5. Tent camp on an actual beach, less than 100 yards from the water. This could be in Florida, North Carolina, or better yet….Hawaii.

6. Camp and hike the state parks of the Upper Peninsula (Michigan).

7. Camp at every state park in Ohio (our home state) just to be able to say I have done it.

8. Be a camp host for an entire summer and enjoy the life of campground living.

9. Camp in Canada, specifically Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

10. Camp at a place like Kelly’s Island (Lake Erie, Ohio) or Outer Banks (North Carolina) where it requires you to take your vehicle and camper over to the campground by ferry.

Maybe you can relate to some of my ideas. Maybe not. So, what’s your bucket list when it comes to traveling or camping? I would love to hear your ideas!

HAPPY CAMPING!