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Where Is This? (June 9, 2006) 
Part of my camping ritual is to snap a photo of the campsite. So here in all
its durable glory is our REI tent (and almost equally durable Honda Accord) sited in a
magnificent desert campground. Any guesses on the identity of the park?
Part of the fun of camping is the camaraderie established by close quarters and thin tent walls. (Note to European tourist playing guitar at midnight by the campfire: could you please practise for your "Bulgarian Idol" audition back home?) Most campgrounds have hosts, volunteers who provide some basic oversight and semi-official presence, and as you might expect, many if not most are very interesting, helpful folks. You meet people camping in a way that you don't staying in resorts, hotels or motels. The two young guys in my little novel I-State Lines meet a retired Marine Colonel while camping, and they visit him at home later in the book. There was a time, back in the Cold War era when the U.S. military was much larger, when practically every guy you met was a veteran; now it's becoming a rarity. That's a loss for the nation, for without this personal understanding, then it's all too easy to slip into a distorted Hollywood view of the military and veterans in general, and to then espouse facile sloganeering in place of an actual understanding of those who are serving in the war. I am troubled that veterans rarely appear in modern fiction (except in military thrillers), and so my book is peopled with vets of all types and ages. This reflects my own experience to be sure, but it also reflects my belief that the service and sacrifice of veterans are as essential to an understanding of our nation as the landscape itself. Camping also enables you to experience Nature in a more intimate light. For instance, you gain a new appreciation for the power of bears when you see an SUV door torn off its hinges, rather like we would open a can of sardines. (That was a pretty expensive Snickers bar you left on the front seat, pal.) Be the first to identify this mystery campground/park, and I'll send you a collector's copy of my book I-State Lines. So email me! For more on this subject and a wide array of other topics, please visit my weblog. 
copyright © 2006 Charles Hugh Smith. All rights reserved in all media. I would be honored if you linked this wEssay to your site, or printed a copy for your own use.
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