CHAPTER IX
CAMP HEALTH AND RECREATION
Making a Pleasure Rather Than a Business of Camping—Coöperation in the Camp—Rightly Selecting the Camp Site—Playing by the Way—Basket-ball, Quoits, etc.—Exercise—Emergencies, First Aid—Prone Pressure Method of Restoring the Unconscious—Poisons and Antidotes—Position of Tent—Supposed Hardships of Camping Mostly Illusory—Keeping Dry—Keeping Out Insects—Sample List for a Medicine Kit—Care of the Car—Evening Sports.
A motor-camping trip is not a business trip, but a journey whose object is recreation and rejuvenation. Consequently the pace should be easy and the intervals of rest frequent. Those who push on relentlessly, driving forward from morning until evening, and then camp for the night only to journey on again the next day, miss much of the good that may be gained from a camping tour.
The trip should be by easy stages, without definite objectives for each day. The aim should be enjoyment and leisure rather than “to get there.” If a place proves unattractive tarry but for a night, but otherwise camp for several days, or until the local attractions have been sufficiently explored for satisfaction. [[123]]
Organize the Work
Whether the party be large or small, it will be wise to have it pretty carefully organized. Divide up the chores, so that each one will have his part to perform in connection with the common enterprise. When the stop is made for the night have it understood in advance just what each one is to do in arranging for the camp and the preparation of the evening meal. Even each small boy who may be along should have his appointed task to perform. He will enjoy the outing all the more and instead of being a burden will prove a valuable help. As in the evening, so in the morning light, everything should be ordered and every one should have a part in the day’s order.
The motor camper who coöperates with his fellow campers on the basis of “self-service” will get the real fun and enjoyment which a camping trip can supply. The camper who is unwilling to “help out” had best arrange his trip with those who patronize the hotels and travel on the ten dollar a day per capita basis.
The camping site should be as carefully selected as may be. If the stop is made at one of the camping parks, there will be small choice save in the matter of the park, because in most of these public parks there will be some one who will assign each camper his appointed place. Where the park is large, and some of them include many acres, there may be considerable choice of location. This will [[124]]be more likely to be true early or late in the usual camping season of summertime, for then the parks are not likely to be crowded. At the height of the season, however, some of the more popular parks along the main cross-continent motor-ways are obliged from lack of accommodations to turn many cars away.