Name of Your Camping Blog
Your Blog URL
What do you write about in your camping blog?
RVing, California Camping, California National Parks, California County Parks, California State Parks, Camping with Teens, Camping with Middleschoolers, Cooking and Camping, Camping Activities for Middleschoolers, Camping Activities for Teens, Camping Planning, Camping Packing
What gave you the idea to start a camping blog?
Hi I’m Suzanne Delzio, the Mad Camper.
When, a year after we separated, my ex spent a small fortune going to Russia to acquire a bride (no joke), I decided it was time I picked up a lust-object of my own: a rough and ready, sleek and sexy Fleetwood Sequoia, one of the biggest tent trailers you can buy. "You didn’t even think about this!" my friend scolded from the front step of my 24-foot, 5,400-pound fun-factory that—even completely collapsed—stretched higher than my hairline. "You just went out and bought it! Didn’t you!" Yeah? So? "How are you going to hook this thing up and pull it with a minivan? A MINIVAN!" I reassured her that I’d talked the numbers and weights over with the salesperson and everything would be just fine. "And which numbers and weights are those?" she asked. The big ones? She rolled her eyes. "How you’re going to pull this off by yourself is beyond me. Camping is hard work!" I cringed. What had I gotten myself into? As a single mother with no immediate family nearby, I felt an urgent need to congregate with other families so that my son, then 9, and daughter, then 6, could see good men in action: changing diapers, wiping noses and—okay—playing basketball and heaving the bikes onto the bike racks.
Where initially I was concerned that as a single, I wouldn’t be prime target for inclusion in others’ family camping, I quickly had my phone ringing. And the people I began camping with were cool: they let their kids face plant in the sand and scream into the woods, throw rocks, get filthy and even eat the baked potato that rolled under the picnic table. In other words, they let their kids express their wild natures, something frowned upon in our increasingly button-downed world. Hallelujah!
Filled with tips and suggestions, this blog will provide strategies for getting kids outside as often and easily as possible. We’d also like to go into the fascinating topics of child development (e.g. how can the teenage quest for identity merge with the outdoor life?), technology and camping, political movements like No Child Left Indoors act inspired by Richard Louv’s Last Child in the Woods and the mental and physical health risks of a sedentary, indoor life disconnected from our natural roots.
Advice
- Stay at Toulumne if you have middleschoolers and teens. The natural waterslides there will keep them busy all day!
- Stay at Big Sur Campgrounds and Cabins at Big Sur. You can rent inner tubes and float down to the Big Sur River Inn for Lunch. Great fun!
- Take a friend for each child. Friends change the dynamics and add novelty.
- Death Valley rocks for middleschoolers and teens. The sand dunes and other natural wonders are amazing. Plus there's a pool you can use at Furnace Creek.
- The only way to game reserveamerica.com is to have two computers going at once with two different logins (husband and wife).
