If you have been following me for even a short amount of time, you probably know that camping takes up a big part of my summer. Given the fact that we have a travel trailer, many might consider what we do "glamping", but I assure you, we spend very little time actually in our trailer. Also, @mrsbozz and I earned our stripes camping from a very early age with our parents, then tent camping for two years together before finally upgrading to a used 18 foot trailer and now our current 26 foot model.
I don't know if we would appreciate our trailer as much as we do if we hadn't spent that time tent camping. There are some intrinsic benefits that you just can't deny having hard sides surrounding you and a little bit of buffering from the other campers near you.
That's not really what this post is about though.
Given the fact that my wife and I have been camping for over 15 years together and many more before that when we were younger, we have picked up certain skills along the way. Skills that help us be more efficient and quite possible look like some form of magic to unskilled or untrained campers.
It's no secret that among long time campers, one of their favorite things to do is watch other non-seasoned campers try to set up their campsite. The relative "openness" of campgrounds in general make this a pretty easy thing to do.
Whether it is watching a couple try to back a trailer into their site, get it situated in just the right spot, set up their brand new tent, or start a campfire, there is plenty of entertainment available on any given day at your local state park.
It's pretty much a given that when a new trailer pulls in, everyone in a ten site radius is going to stop what they are doing and watch the person try to back it in. I'll be the first to admit that I don't always get it right the first time. When I do though, you can see a collective head nod from all the surrounding campers.
This guy knows what he's doing.
Which brings me to a recent camping trip and the actual subject of this post. We were camping just across the Mackinac Bridge in the upper peninsula of Michigan and a young couple pulled into the site next to us.
We were sitting under our awning trying to appreciate the shade while they started setting up their camp. When you are that close, you make an effort not to sit and stare, but you can't help but glance every now and then.
We could tell they were a young couple and pretty much all of their equipment was new in the box. If you look in the photo above, you can just see the corner of their red canopy that they had over their picnic table and that canopy is the inspiration for this post.
We watched them struggle with it for what seemed to be close to an hour. @mrsbozz and her friend kept urging me to go over and help, and while I am happy to offer help in most cases, there are a few where I become a bit hesitant.
Here's my thinking:
As a young couple, I would expect the guy wants to prove to his wife that he can be a good provider and husband. Maybe I am being old fashioned, but I feel like stepping in and offering help would be like taking the guys man card away. I mean, if he asked for help that's one thing, but the whole "let me step in and show you how it's done" feels a bit wrong to me.
I did eventually offer help, but by then they pretty had it sorted out. The fact is, I carry around certain tools that I have learned over the years are useful to have. First time campers probably wouldn't have thought of them.
Then it was time for them to start their fire and we watched them struggle for what seemed like another hour to get it going. Again, my wife and her friend prompted me to go help. I said "let's just give them a little longer". The young couple were working together trying to get the thing lit and keep it going.
Now, I was never a boy scout, but I don't mind tooting my own horn that I do know how to make a pretty dang good fire. As much as I wanted to help them, I still had that nagging feeling that I was robbing them of something if I took away the experience.
There have been times where I offered kindling or tips to a person, but you just never know 1. how they are going to recieve it, and 2. whether they even need the help in the first place.
We camped next to an older lady in a motorhome this past weekend who was all by herself and she had her fire going and warming her campsite in about 1 minute flat.
What do you think? How do you know when to offer help and is the idea of stealing someone's man card as big of a deal as I think it is? I'm pretty lucky that @mrsbozz wouldn't think any less of me if I accepted help from someone else, but not everyone has the same relationship as us, so you just never know.
It's a fine line between offering too much help, being that dick that just watched us and didn't offer any help, being the guy who just needs to mind his own business and let me do my thing, and being that awesome guy who camped next to us and helped make our trip more enjoyable.
Let me hear your thoughts! I'm sure @raymondspeaks might have some good input here as the leader of the Bro Community on Hive.
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