I understand when people camp they like to have some luxuries from home that make camping more comfortable and convenient.

That makes generators attractive to some campers; especially those with large travel trailers, 5th wheels, or Class A motor homes.

What I don’t understand is why some people feel the need to bring every possible convenience instead of using the camping trip to simplify their lives and use less instead of more.

Last year we spent an entire week camped right across the road from another camping family. They had a generator that they did only use during allowed daylight hours at the campground. The problem was they used it during nearly every allowed hour which meant we heard the sound of a motor from 8 am to 6 pm everyday instead of the sounds of birds chirping and leaves rustling in the wind. It definitely wasn’t relaxing. I didn’t spend any leisurely days sitting at my campsite in a chair reading a book. Instead, by the third day my husband and I made a point of taking long walks, hanging out at the beach, and cooking our lunch on the park provided grills by the beach area to get away from the constant noise. The generator wasn’t horribly loud, but any engine sounds loud in a secluded campground.

I was reminded of this a couple of days ago as I was reading a camping magazine and came across an ad for a generator. It was a case of a “picture being worth a thousand words.” The big benefit of this company’s generator was that it could power all a person’s electronic needs while camping and showed pictures of a family outside their motorhome with their “necessary” equipment: a flat screen television, electric guitar, laptop computer, hairdryer, and treadmill.

If I ever pulled into a campground and found my site was next to someone with that much stuff I would seriously consider leaving immediately and going somewhere else.

I understand that a lot of the generators made today are considered quiet because they are a lot less noisy than older generators; but most of them still make more noise than I want to listen to.

I don’t have anything against people who use a generator when camping. But it’s not for me so I have learned to camp in the areas of campgrounds where the sites are more secluded and where entire sections of campsites where larger camping units don’t fit because I like to camp where I hear the sounds of nature rather than the noise of man-made machines - even when it is a noise that freaks me out like a coyote howling at night.