They way I see it, when you are going on a camping trip, you are going out to experience nature. Why then, do so many campers cancel out when rain is predicted? Isn't rain part of nature? Don't they know that the parks take on a whole other beauty when it rains?

I can understand the tent campers. I've been on disastrously rainy trips. One time my college roommate and I were awakened in the night as our tent slid down a hill during a horrific thunder storm. Another time, my tent post broke from the wind. But people in trailers have no excuse in my eyes.

This weekend I went to Guadalupe River State Park. It was fully booked. I had to settle for a site in a new area which was not really meant for my trailer. When I hiked through the camping loops during my 16 miles of hiking (hey, I have some obsessive/compulsive issues), I saw that less than half of the sites were occupied. The fair-weather fools cancelled their trips, causing the park to lose a lot of revenue.

I, for one, will not let a little thing like the weather interfere with my camping plans. I camp in the Colby T year round. I have camped in 16 degrees, frightening thunderstorms, and in winds so strong, the camper felt like a stagecoach bouncing across the prairies.