What follows is a list of tips garnered from our family camping experiences.
Try to match travel time with your children's ability to sit still. Refresh
yourself with as many car games as possible. And if you're lucky your kids
will drift off to sleep (but never at the same time).
On longer trips we prefer not to camp "one nighters" but instead opt for
a motel, you save time by not having to pack up all your gear in the morning.
Try to find a motel with a swimming pool. The swimming pool helps the kids
burn up all that energy they stored up during the day.
SEAL THOSE SEAMS, SEAL THOSE SEAMS, SEAL THOSE SEAMS! We have been caught
more than once in sudden rainstorms. There's nothing worse than having to
be confined to a tent that leaks. It's amazing how much water a sleeping
bag will absorb. This dampens your spirits as well as your gear.
Always put up the rain fly! ALWAYS. If it doesn't rain, that nice shady tree
you set up under will be dropping pollen all over your nice new tent.
Cook fresh food the first night out. �Usually you have access to a normal
grocery store (as opposed to a camp store, often with frozen meat) before
the first day. Save the spaghetti and chili for the subsequent nights. Nothing
like teriyaki shish-kebobs that first night. �If
your kids are old enough they can help skewering the shish-kebobs, they can
make 'em "their way". A little table top gas barbeque comes in handy here.
A word about stoves and lanterns. Coleman, by far, is the most popular
manufacturer. If you have problems, most camp stores carry parts and accessories
for Coleman products. If you're a garage sale shopper you can get some good
deals on older equipment. We got our stove off the clearance isle. If you
do pick up a stove that doesn't have electronic ignition, a long neck butane
lighter makes lighting the stove easier. For the lighter to work on a lantern
the neck needs to be very narrow.
Most mornings start out chilly. If you heat up some water the night before
and keep it in a hot pot or thermos you can have a warm cup of cocoa while
you prep for breakfast.
A checklist is a must. Organize the list into logical categories. Do not
remove anything from the list unless you're sure you'll never need that item
ever again. If we know that we won't need something we merely line that item
out of the checklist we printed for this trip.
A bungee cord or a large elastic band (used to hold trash bags to trash cans)
works great to hold down a table cloth. And you do need a tablecloth. There's
millions of birds out there and they've all left their mark.
If at all possible take a tune up trip. This can be to a local lake or similiar
facility. A weekender will do nicely. This allows you to check out your gear,
practice packing your car and fine tune your checklist.
You can save a little space if you roll your beach towel with your sleeping
bag.
If you're in bear country and are going to store your food in a bear locker,
keep it closed all the time. We found evidence of squirrels or some other
rodent sampling our food.
A campfire in the morning is great. (Check with local authorities first.)
Split your wood the day before, your neighbors will appreciate it.
A hammock is kind of neat, it sure entertains the kids. Doesn't need to be
a fancy one, just one you string up between two trees. Take some extra rope
just in case you can't find two trees set at the regulation hammock spacing.
Don't use nails or anything like that to hold up the rope.