Withrow - The best in tent camping, Texas: a guide for car campers who hate RVs, concrete slabs, and loud portable stereos

A ny author who takes on the writing of a camping guidebook for the state of Texas is asking for a serious challenge under the best of circumstances. Add in $4-per-gallon gas and two hurricanes worth of natural destruction and well, you get the picture. Fortunately, I received assistance from all over the state to narrow my search for those special tent-camping areas where RVs were either nonexistent or at least kept at a tolerable distance. As many of you readers know, finding such a place is becoming more of a challenge, but the good news is that our park authorities also treasure these hidden enclaves of solitude and understand the need for tent campers to have their own separate spaces to enjoy natures curative powers unencumbered by massive mobile homes complete with sewer systems and satellite dishes. However, I was pleased to see a few RVs with solar panels, so maybe there is hope maybe.

In choosing the 50 tent campgrounds included in this guide, the process was not only based on the criteria explained in the Introduction but also on that feeling we all get when we leave the cement jungle for an outdoor adventure and find something special. It may be a spectacular vista, a fiery sunset, a single flower bloom, or even the intoxicating smell of a campfire, but we all sense it as soon as we arrive. As you visit the places described in this simple book, I can only hope you will have the same sense of wonder and receive the gifts of peace only the natural world can instill.

You will also see a listing of diverse books (some hard to find) and selected quotes from various authors who have come before us and contemplated the eternal struggle between the seemingly unquenchable appetite of modern civilization and the very real need of the individual to leave that world and return to a simpler life, even if just for a short time. This section is entitled Voices from the Campfire and relates to one of the most important traditions of tent camping conversation! Whether its between childhood friends or new acquaintances, gathering around a crackling wood fire and sharing lifes experiences without a computer screen or cell phone to separate us from our fellow humans is the best type of escape. To assist in that escape is the essence of tent camping and the purpose of this book.