By Adam Kaplan
As many of you know, I am currently on a whirlwind tour of the country, in an RV, to take advantage of the fall weather and meet with new families in their backyards. The loop around the nation will cover over 11,000 miles and about seven weeks. It’s been a lot of time away from my family so I feel really guilty about telling you all that IT HAS BEEN REALLY FUN!!! I have gotten to meet with many interested new families and, on a personal level, have gotten to visit some places I have never been. In fact, as of last week, when I spent a night in Vermont, I have now officially visited all 50 states in my lifetime!
Of the nearly four weeks that I have been on the road so far, many memories have been made, but my nights at Proud Lake State Recreation Area outside of Detroit stands out as perhaps the best of these memories.
For most of this trip I have been staying at commercial RV parks. The amenities (internet, electric, water, and places to dump the nasty tanks that get filled during RV life…yes as gross as it sounds!) make things much easier for an RVer. But, I have also tried, whenever the situation permits, to camp in some state and county parks.
On the recommendation of a camp alumnus and friend, I spent two nights at Proud Lake. After reading the reviews of the RV area, I was a bit nervous since many reviews focused on the fact that the sites at the park were not level. They were certainly right…my site made me feel like I was living in a villain’s lair from the old Batman TV series! I practically needed a rope to pull myself up the incline to my bed at night!
But, the slanty nature of my site did nothing to diminish my overall experience at Proud Lake.
I pulled into the park at about 3PM on a Friday afternoon and was met with a lineup of about eight other RVs waiting to check in. I figured I was just unlucky with my timing. It made no sense to me that on a chilly Friday in the middle of October that the campground would be crowded. I was very wrong. As it turned out, every single campsite was taken. Now, since this trip began, I have consistently been surprised at the care RVers take in their campsite setups. Whether it be strings of lights hung carefully around the site, or lawn ornaments placed at the campsite entrances, or pink flamingos planted in the ground around the RV, people really take pride in their setups. But Proud Lake in October took this to a whole new level. It seemed that I missed the memo about Halloween decorations being de rigueur! Nearly every campsite was decked out with Halloween lights, pumpkins, blow up witches, skeletons, and tons of other Halloween-y stuff. It looked amazing!
And the park was absolutely full of kids…being kids. Despite the cold, I opened up all of the windows in my RV just to listen to them. The sound of kids screaming and laughing and playing were absolutely music to my long neglected ears. It sounded like camp.
For the first hour or so, I had some work to do, so I just stayed in my rig and tried to work as I soaked in the beautiful noise outside. Needless to say, I was very unproductive!
When darkness fell, I decided to walk the campground. This was the best decision I have made on this trip yet (though getting an entire slab of ribs and a whole smoked chicken for my tiny RV fridge at Joe’s Kansas City Barbeque is a close second!). It was the campfires…nearly every campsite (and I believe there are over 80) had a campfire and folks sitting around them. There were noisy campfires with families loudly laughing and playing games. There were quieter campfires with grandparents and grandchildren, that clearly had not seen each other in a long time, catching up with each other. There were romantic campfires with older couples armed with their fold-up loveseat-style camping chairs, cuddled up close and staring at the fires in silence. And then there were the musical fires. There were some campsites playing southern classic rock, some playing ‘60s music, some playing Taylor Swift (nonstop!!), some playing rap, and some even playing spooky Halloween sounds.
Walking the entire campground made me realize the variety of folks that had come to spend the weekend getting outdoors and connecting with each other. Old and young, singles (ok…maybe I was the only single!) and families, couples and larger groups, hippies and good ol’ boys (not sure if that is ok to say!)…they were all there.
As I walked around, it was clear to me that one of the things that I tell our staff on the very first day of staff training every year is just so true. If you take people and put them in a beautiful setting, then beautiful things happen…and a campfire doubles the effect. I had always thought that this observation was a keen Kaplan insight, one that I could enlighten the staff with. But, as usual, the world is several steps ahead of me. Everyone at Proud Lake knew this already and had planned an excursion to make something beautiful happen. And it was indeed very beautiful. I was lucky to be there and to absorb so much of the beauty that all of these people had created.
So…get out there folks! Grab your family and go to some place outdoors and beautiful, whether it be taking a camping trip, lighting a campfire in your backyard or at a local park (as long as fires are allowed!), or just taking a beautiful fall walk in the woods together.
Beautiful things will happen.
Adam is vlogging his way across the country — you can watch all his video updates here on our Facebook page and here on our Instagram page!