by Karen Templeton
Ah…hiking through the wilderness and setting up camp where the mood strikes, sleeping under the stars, peeing in the woods…
That sound you hear would be the screech of the needle being rudely yanked across the record (and if any of you are too young to know what that is, don’t tell me!). But my point is, I’m one of those people for whom “roughing” it means a Motel 6. Or at least a cabin with indoor plumbing. The few times I got sent to camp as a kid I thought I’d been consigned to hell (city girl, here. ‘Nuff said.)
And yet…if I don’t get outside at least once a day, I go nuts. (Also, I get fat. Since if I want to move, I need space in which to do that. And there is being precious little of that in my house, since clearly my kids are never leaving.) But when I go for my walks and gaze up into the vast New Mexico sky, I can feel everything in me sigh with relief, and release, at being able to escape my physical confines for a while. I get infinity at those times, embrace it, give my mental self permission to run around like an excited puppy, exploring and sniffing and simply…being. And as I walk, stress retreats, scenes unsnarl, solutions present themselves. Bliss.
Of course, in the summer if I don’t wish to be fried to a crisp I can only walk before sunrise or after sunset, but that’s okay. I love the stillness of predawn, the chilly breath of juniper bushes as I pass them at night. Most of all, I love that the outdoors is just that — right outside my door, always there, just waiting for me.
Just as I love that indoor plumbing is waiting for me when I get back. 
So how about you? Are you an inside or outside person? Or a bit of both? And is anybody else looking forward to fall as much as I am? (Or, in the case of the Aussies among us, spring?)
Karen–
I’m a bit of both. I do enjoy walking my dogs around the neighborhood, but I also love hiking in more of a wilderness setting. I like the challenge (relatively speaking, I’m hardly hanging from guidelines or whatever those ropes and pullies are called!) and also the newness of exploring places I’ve never been before.
But I am so much the ‘day-tripper’ as in I want a hotel/motel/cabin waiting for me when I return from the jaunt into the wilderness! No tents for me. I’m not even sure a camper/trailer would be enough unless it’s a really well-equipped one!
Stacey, I’m with you. I love *being* outdoors, just not *living* there.
But I would like to see more of our national parks, etc. One day…
Karen, I like to be outside (for a limited time) as long as the temperature is between 60 and 82 degrees, the humidity isn’t too high, and there are no bugs. You and I agree on Motel 6. I don’t have an interest in camping more than one night and the only reason I would do that is to see something amazing… then go to a hotel and take a shower.:) It’s cloudy and humid today, so I’m not dying to go outside.
Yeah, in the east you get steamed, out here in the Southwest you get fried. As a very pale person I don’t *do* sun…or heat. My limit is 75, because it feels so much hotter at this altitude!
We travel in a 5th wheel which is the best of both worlds. I have hot and cold running water which includes a shower. We have been known to camp in national parks (Yellowstone). We have hiked in the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone National Parks. That is so much fun even if I’m not an outdoorsy type person.
I have to say, the idea of a 5th wheel or RV intrigues me greatly — take my motel room with me! Now if only gas prices would come down (I can dream, right?
)
Hi Karen – I love to walk, and I prefer to do it alone. I freak out when I think about how much time I spend indoors these days, so a long walk around my neighborhood is the perfect antedote.
I used to be a big tent camper. Took the kids out every year. As time went by, I suggested we get a tent-trailer, and once we rented an RV. As more years went by, I suggested we do B&B’s (Just hubby and me). The kids are all grown up and doing their own camping now, so I say to hubby – let’s go to a resort!
Yeah, I like those resorts.
Last year our longtime camping friends came along for a weekend camping trip – for olds time’s sake. That’s when I discovered – I’M DEFINITELY OVER CAMPING!
Lynne — becoming too sedentary is definitely a problem for writers, so I try to get out for a two mile walk at least 4 times a week. And I prefer walking alone, too — for one thing, I can set my own pace. And for another, that’s my jostling-loose-the-ideas time. One of my fave times to walk is during one of our rare snowfalls, when everything is absolutely silent. Mmmm…
Karen, I’m from a family of outdoorsy folks. I like a nice hike. But camping? The bugs, the difficulty bathing, the lack of facility for my lengthy primping rituals…no, thank you! And about Motel 6. Never again. We stayed in a couple on our trek across the country to move here to Oregon. I’m a LaQuinta fan now.
And nope, not ready for fall. Here on the Northwest, it’s just barely starting to look like summer. Maybe. A little….
Yeah, I’m not a roll-out-of-the-sleeping-bag-and-I’m-good-to-go kind of gal. Never have been. Which is my way of saying I’m a teeeensy bit high maintenance. But this hair, she needs tender loving care before I inflict her on the public. Otherwise I scare people!
We just took a family road trip. My husband would have preferred more camping. I can do it for a day or two, but I need water. If I can swim every day to clear off the layers of sunscreen/bug spray, I’m game.
My ideal camping trip woudl be a three or four day whitewater trip. We’d spend our days on the river, paddling and enjoying the scenery, and our evnings on the shore, where we cook tasty meals and relax under the stars. My husband was a raft guide in high school and college, so he has it down. Our boys are finally old enough that it’s doable. But they have too many activities that we haven’t been able to schedule a trip like that. Unless we pay for a commercial trip, but that’s hard for my husband to even consider.
Paddling down a CALM river sounds wonderful! Or just sitting on the river bank behind a five-star resort, watching the water roll by, would be okay, too.
Karen, I’m and inside person by default. I live in Florida and it’s so darned hot here for about eight months of the year that I opt for the writing cave rather than the great outdoors. However, when the weather is nice – under 80 degrees with little humidity – I do love being outside. I love to hike and walk all over the place, but only when it’s cool out.
Nancy, my son-who’s-getting-married-this-weekend fell in love with a gal whose whole family lives in and around Phoenix! Talk about HOT! I’ll come visit in the winter, thanks. At least the wedding’s in Flagstaff, which runs 30 degrees cooler, or all the guests would turn into a puddle of goo! I love air conditioning, don’t get me wrong, but after too long I begin to feel trapped inside.
good afternoon ladies! i used to love the outdoors but now i’ve become a indoor/home body. im more afraid of the bugs that are out there now because i am so scared of spiders……and on a side note karen i just finished FORTUNES CINDERELLA!!!! loved it….and gumbo
what is the next fortune book??
Thanks so much, Amy! I think the next one is Marie Ferrarella’s FORTUNE’S VALENTINE’S BRIDE. The other authors for that series are Judy Duarte, Nancy Robards Thompson, Susan Crosby and Alison Leigh.
And my son’s dog Petey inspired Gumbo — goofball’s favorite thing to do is lie across my lap (upside down!) while I watch TV. Hot, LOL!
I am an indoors person because I cannot stand the heat this time of year nor the bugs. Wish the crickets would stop coming in doors but grateful my cats kill them. I need at least 20 minutes of sunshine a day but hate outdoors except in Spring and Summer. Winter is too hard on my arthritis. On the other hand my husband loves to camp. So he takes our grandson.
Jane, fortunately bugs aren’t much of an issue in Albuquerque, although we did have a miller moth “invasion” a few weeks ago. Critters would sneak in whenever the door opened…and my Boycat had a ball catching them! They never stood a chance, LOL!
Camping…well, with any number of the worlds deadliest creatures just waiting to share a tent in an Aussie campsite (Eastern Brown snakes, scorpions, numerous brands of arachnids, hostile mosquitoes and flies that are nortoriously resistant to bug spray) I think I shall leave it to the tourists
But I love being outside. I live in a small town at the most southern point of the Great Barrier Reef and never fail to marvel at the ocean, the beach, the sunsets and the scent of sugarcane that lingers in the air during cutting season. Each season has its own rewards, even with such moderate weather.
Great post
Helen — My sole “experience” with the Great Barrier reef is courtesy of scenes from The Thornbirds miniseries several years ago — absolutely gorgeous! And you live there? Wow. I may have to come visit…
Oh, my. (whisper) I love my tent, my sleeping bag, the cool mountain nights in pristine fresh air. Reading stacks of books on hot sunny afternoons on my blanket in the shade of an ancient pine beside a creek. And when the sun sets a gentle stroll around the lake before lighting the campfire. Not so much when it rains.
I’m a bit of both. We used to tent camp all the time, but now everyone has an RV or travel trailer. I camp with a big group, and everyone has a license plate holder that says, “Pasttents.” I do like to camp. I just like a bed under me now.
Susan
I love the outdoors, for walks and gardening and bike riding, etc. When I was a kid I loved camping, but not so much anymore…I really love indoor plumbing and air conditioning! And I really dislike Bugs of any kind, so if its buggy out I go in!
i’m the inside person, not that i hate outside. cuz i have issue with bugs,frogs,reptile n peeing in the woods… but i least im willing to try,well i don’t know when!! lol
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