You love adventure! You love the outdoors! You love cooking hot dogs over an open campfire! We have just the vacation for you: camping! Yes, for the brave soul who’s not afraid of critters, bad weather, and bad food, this is another fun vacation choice. Camping requires a lot of very careful advance planning. You’ll need to have gear for hot weather and cold, for rain and sunshine, and for grassy fields and rocky riverbanks. If you’re in the middle of nowhere, you’ll need to carry your own food for all your meals, pots to cook it in, plates to serve it on, and utensils to eat it with. That means a big (and heavy) knapsack. You’ll also need to carry around your own little hotel—a tent—and the equipment to put it up. Don’t forget a sleeping bag. I’m exhausted just thinking about it! People who love camping say there’s nothing as wonderful as sleeping under the stars. We don’t know about you, but we’re thinking that would make us bear bait. No, thanks! We don’t want a bear to eat us for a snack before we can even eat our own trail mix! People tell us that camping can be fun, but we’d rather stay at a fancy hotel.

LIA: Our camping trip was sure a surprise.

ALAN: Uh-oh. What happened?

LIA: Well, it started out fine. We planned the trip carefully and found exactly the right snacks. We packed all our stuff, and we bought brand-new hiking boots. We pitched our tent right beside a small lake.

ALAN: That sounds good.

LIA: It sounded good to us, too . . . until we finished our hike the first day. We forgot to break in the new boots! Our feet were sore and blistered. Then we noticed the big black clouds, and disaster struck! It poured all night. When we woke up in the morning, the tent was collapsed around us, and we were lying in a huge puddle.

ALAN: Ha, ha! I guess next time you’ll stay in a hotel!