In this brief post, the author observes a man camping out for Black Friday deals on camping gear and it gets her giggling.

Actually, I get the deep-seated need to get deals on camping equipment– though as an internet marketer (see our online affiliate store, http://www.picturecamping-goods-and-gear.com) it strikes me as unnecessary to worry about brick-and-mortar stores! And when comes to people actually camping out in tents in front of stores over Thanksgiving, I wonder two things: first, what do they say to family and friends who might expect to see them for the traditional Thanksgiving meal– “Sorry, the discounts at the mall are more important than you…”– and second, what do they do with all their gear when the doors open and people start to trample each other to get in? I read about a man camping out from Wednesday the 25th til o’dark-thirty on Friday morning in front of  Best Buy and he had a generator with him– now you know you can’t schlep that thing through the store. I guess you’d have to have troops with you to stay in the tent and (be trampled) guard everything while you did some shopping.

Just skip Black Friday and go with Cyber Monday!

This post includes a slide show of photos, some of which are really beautiful (like the one of the raindrops on the spider’s web) and some of which are interesting (like the one of the walking stick on one of the seminarian’s arms). I love photos from a camping trip!

Crisp, beautiful photos accompany the brief text here about  a camping trip to Unicoi State Park in northwest Georgia. I’ve stayed there, too, although many years ago, and enjoyed every second of it, including a side trip to the tourist trap of Helen, GA (years ago the town decided to turn itself into a Bavarian village to attract traffic, and it’s worked). Anna Ruby Falls are gorgeous, and worth the hike, and the lake is serene. I enjoyed this post and the memories it brought back!

This post is a bit of a departure from our regular fare, because it’s an essay about camping. No pictures here, Dear Reader, but mental ones– and plenty of those, as the author takes us from his first car camping trips with his family of seven through to his current lone (by choice) backpacking trips. It is well worth reading in its own right, and a nice change of pace from the captions-only reading we tend to encounter here at Picture Camping.