The Single Dad’s Guide to Camping: Grin & Bear It

Cooper Thornton
10 min readJul 27, 2021

If that wasn’t a bear it was a big-ass squirrel with emphysema.

The hosts had warned us. They should have said welcome to Burning Man, or Jellystone, but no, all we got were the three magic rules on the way in.

Each National Park campground comes with official hosts. Like camp counselors for adults. Rule-enforcers. Campground cops. A small-town police…

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Cooper Thornton

Parent, Actor, People Lover, Observer, Writer and Most Often Happy Depressive in NC by way of LA by way of UK by way of BC by way of TN, where it all started.