First check out what is close to where you live. We happen to live close to several state parks -- Cedars of Lebanon, Edgar Evins, Henry Horton, Old Stone Fort, well, the list goes on. To add to their attraction all the Tennessee state parks were updated with WiFi access. It seems my daughter, Savannah, can't go anywhere without that (and I don't like to be without either), so the state parks became prime camping destinations. After we sold our last camping vehicle, a lovely class C, I thought my camping days were over, but my daughter said, "Let's buy a tent." I really thought she was kidding. Who wants to sleep in a tent? I know some people think camping in a tent is the only way to camp, but I am not one of those. I've seen the photo of the happy looking bear and the message, tent camping the bear's soft taco, or something along those lines. And I agree. But really, how many bears are there in Tennessee state parks? Add to this the ability to book up to a year in advance on line and I'm really liking the Tennessee state parks.
Now let's consider cost. Primitive camping sites, no water and no electricity, are only $8 and surprising usually booked solid. Really? I don't see the draw. The other sites which have water and electricity and are varying distances from the bathhouses, are from $15 to $20 a night. If you are disabled, elderly, a veteran, a state employee, or a retired state employee, then there is a discount. These discounts get deeper during the off season. Check them out.
Recently we booked a site a Edgar Evins State Park out in Silver Point, TN. Where's that? you ask. Look it up, I'm not Rand McNally. All I needed to know was that it was within an hour's drive of my home and it had platforms for camping. All the campsites at Edgar Evins are large deck-like platforms that hang out over the side of a hill around Center Hill Lake. Why are these platforms so important? I didn't have to sleep on the ground. And I didn't have to pitch my tent on the ground. I've never slept on the ground before and I wasn't really sure how that would be so I wanted to avoid it if I could. At Edgar Evins I could avoid ground sleeping.
Now let's analyze the tent. We have a large cabin-like tent which means it has a large foot print, I think it's 10 feet by 12 feet. It's tall. I believe over 6 feet at the center. I don't want to crawl around on the ground to enter and leave the tent or to get into bed. We have an air mattress that is low to the ground and one that is tall. I used the tall one. My daughter, with complaint, used the lower mattress.
Having never used a tent before I did some research on line and discovered that "in the old days" tents were made of canvas and didn't have floors. If it rained, the tent remained water tight via water tension which kept water from leaking in unless something touched the side of the tent, therefore breaking the water tension, and causing a leak. Also, I discovered that the windows should always remain open when the temperature outside was lower than the temperature inside the tent to keep condensation from forming and raining down during the night.
Well, all this was old news and completely useless to me and my tent camping experience. My tent is made of nylon and waterproof. No water was coming into my tent unless a window was open. No condensation is going to occur because the roof is completely open under the rain fly making it impossible for the inside to be hotter than the outside, as we discovered to our shivering dismay.
Here is a brief run down of the tent camping experience. The first evening and night was warm, but not hot and several times during the night I was awakened by pounding rain. That's right POUNDING RAIN. Not a gentle rain, pounding rain with lightening, thunder and 15 mph winds. I didn't talk to my daughter during the storm in case she was still sleeping, but I would have had I known she was on the other side of the tent checking her weather app to see if we were in the middle of a tornado. Fifteen mile an hour winds seem like 50 mph winds in a tent. Since I had the windows slightly unzipped to avoid condensation, I did get a little bit wet from the open window, but no rain came into the tent from leaking seams or roof. We have a "bathtub" floor which means the seam that joins the walls to the floor are about 4 inches up the wall to avoid leaking.
The day after the storm was damp and drippy until the afternoon when things dried up but the temperature was great. A wonderful day to sit outside reading This Old House magazine, drinking coffee, while Savannah slept late and then watched movies on her computer. I walked around the camp and talked with the host who had a large sofa on her platform outside her camper surrounded by several tarps. Her husband drove around the camp on a golf cart looking very sour. I never talked to him.
The second night the temperature dropped to 48 degrees. I was prepared but Savannah was not. I told her to bring more covers but she didn't. I woke up with a great need to run across the street to the bathhouse. I pulled on my sweat pants and sweat shirt to keep warm and ran to the toilet. When I returned I found Savannah huddled under her cover so I threw my sleeping bag over her and went to make coffee. After a couple of hours freezing outside, hoping it would warm up, I told Savannah she had to get up so we could go somewhere and get warm. "I'm warm," she said, not realizing she was under a cover and a sleeping bag. She thought she'd gotten warm from the sun shining on the tent. We went to Wal Mart and Pizza Hut.
The next night we both slept well since we'd gone to the local Wal Mart (yes, all great camp sites are next to a Wal Mart) and purchased for her a decent sleeping bag that would withstand the cold. My weather app, which wasn't wrong, predicted the next night to be 38 degrees. The next day was also warmer and quite pleasant.
What else did we do beside survive a raging thunderstorm and the freezing cold? We went to a ranger scary story telling about the Bell Witch. We went out every day to get some hot food since I didn't bring anything but snack foods. I don't cook at home and I'm not going to start some horrible precedent during camping. The only hot food I brought to prepare was coffee. We walked around the camp ground so much that every muscle in my body was sore but walking kept me limber as well as in pain. We also watched movies and enjoyed nature. I had hoped for a better lake view from my site but the necessity of having solid walls to keep campers from falling to their deaths from the camping platforms meant my main view was of the protective walls.
The next trip is scheduled for Henry Horton State Park early in November. If it's warm enough and not raining, we'll go. I have booked a handicapped site which is completely flat and paved and right across from the bathhouse. Another good budget item about state parks, if you have to cancel your reservation there is only a $3 charge which is well worth it. Another plus for Henry Horton -- it has a restaurant. Edgar Evins also has a restaurant but it was closed for the season. Henry Horton has no lake but it does have a river. And did I mention the restaurant? No driving 22 miles round trip to get some hot food. Here's hoping for a warm dry November.
Check out a state park near you. You won't be disappointed.
