+1. The joy of camping (for me) is that your experience is directly related to your preparation. You plan your location, activities, meals, sleeping arrangements, and companions, doing all of the research and investment up front to make each of those work well, taking into account weather and conditions, and then you get to enjoy a trip where everything goes well with people you care about, with the satisfaction that the experience that you are having is the direct result of your actions.

Of course, the pain of camping is that any and all of the above can go wrong, and then, indeed, it’s probably gonna suck.