Roughing It

A couple days ago we had a discussion about camping. I was volunteering at an ESL class with a local teacher, a geologist from Poland, a young man from Mexico and a woman from Thailand. We walked about the definitions of motorhomes, camper vans, camping trailers, and sports utility vehicles. We also talked about tents. All of us had been camping and saw the value of being immersed in nature. The lady from Thailand enjoys camping at Devil Track Lake campground north of Grand Marais. She does not like tents but would use a camping trailer. The man from Poland enjoys camping in Poland along rivers but he is married to a woman who would not appreciate roughing it. She even told him that if they were stranded in the desert with only a liter of water, she would use the water to clean herself. The man from Mexico used to work on a ranch with cattle and he had to camp as part of his job. Now he would use a tent for 2 or 3 days but any more than that  he would prefer a camping trailer. The man from Poland was totally unfamiliar with marshmallows and might go to the grocery store to try them out. He knew much information about the storks that live in Poland atop the chimneys in the parts of the country that have the least pollution. The man from Mexico was telling us about scorpions that live in the desert. He said they prefer that shade so being a construction worker on a home in the desert is a very dangerous business. I was asked why I prefer roughing it to luxury. Spending more time fixing food or cleaning outside takes my mind off my troubles if I am outside listening to the birds sing and watching the clouds go by in the sky. Even the sound of rain is pleasant from inside a tent. Getting wet by the rain inside a tent has happened to me and that was not fun but the discomfort was temporary. The five of us were all from very different backgrounds and I really enjoyed hearing their opinions.