In some communities where there are no public facilities for motor campers schoolhouse yards are available or church grounds and sheds. Naturally the schoolhouse sites will be available only during vacation time, or outside of school hours.
The motor camper who is content to follow the beaten ways and the main highways need, as a rule, not go far to find a municipal camping park. The tabular list of these parks, given elsewhere, will indicate in the main the privileges and facilities offered by each of these parks. In the great majority of cases, even where no fee may be charged, the motor camper is required to register and secure permission to camp.
Most of the municipal motor-camping parks have facilities for cooking. Where there are no fireplaces other provision is likely to be made. Gas ranges with quarter meters are found provided at many camping parks. Sometimes wood stoves are at the service of the motor camper, and free fuel.
The question of water supply is very important. The municipal camping parks usually provide city water which is almost sure to be safe. The water from the wayside well with the old oaken bucket may seem safe, and may be cool and sparkling. But [[82]]farmers are entirely too careless about the location of the house or barn well with reference to the barnyard and the manure pile for such sources of water supply to be used without careful examination. Furthermore, the farmhouse itself may be a source of peril to health because the family well may receive the drainage of a leaky or overflowing cesspool. Or there may be no toilet within doors and the outdoor privy may stand on higher ground than the well with dangerous results.
Boil the Water
The wayside spring is by no means a safe source of water supply, as it often receives drainage from barnyards or from fields upon which manure has been spread. The same may be said of the small streams which abound in some sections of the country. The larger streams also are open to the suspicion of impurity. What then is the camper to do in case he wishes to camp elsewhere than in a public motor camping park? There is only one safe thing to do when you must use water that has not been tested and certified, and that is, boil all the water you drink. Of course, boiled water is not very tasty. It is apt to be flat and dead to the taste, but better drink flat and dead water than take poison which you will surely imbibe if you drink much of the water referred to above. One sure way to get good water is to drink only boiled drinks, or drinks, [[83]]such as tea and coffee, made with water that has been boiled. In fall, spring and winter boiled water, when cooled, really is not bad. Neither is it so in summer after it has been hung up to cool in a canvas bag or filter. This last has considerable value in purifying water, but it is not certain, as some bacterial impurities are so small that they will pass with the water through the ordinary filter.
Aside from the matter of contamination, water sometimes is unsuitable for drinking because of its being mineralized. In the western section of this country, particularly the Rocky Mountain and arid sections, there may be so much alkali in the water as to make it useless for drinking. Also, in some of the middle states the water from certain wells will contain enough sulphur to make it taste unpleasant to the stranger, and even when there is not enough sulphur to taste there may be enough to act rather severely upon the bowels of many people. This will often be so, even when the natives do not seem to mind the water or to get from its use any undesirable results. The alkaline water may be neutralized by the addition of a small amount of hydrochloric acid, but don’t put in enough to make the water taste sour. The addition of lime water to the water impregnated with sulphur would tend to eliminate the difficulty. That, however, is inconvenient, and about the only thing to do is either to find water that is free from sulphur or else motor away from the region where the water is bad. [[84]]