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August 2, 2011

Going to hell in an (outdoors) handbasket

Can't help but marvel at the USA Today story about people willing to spend bundles for upscale hotel accomodations that feature outdoors sleeping arrangements.

Clearly the rich have too much money and too few brain cells clanging around the the brain pain.

According to the newspaper found on thousands of motel doorsteps, folks really dig pretending to "rough it" as long as they have turn-down service and mints on their pillows.

Some of the examples cited:

AKA Central Park in New York has a $3,000 a night deal that includes a penthouse suite and luxury outdoor beds and al fresco cocktails.

If that seems a little too rustic, Affinia Chicago's Inside Out Suite, includes a bed on the hotel roof for $10,000 a night. It's Manhattan location "offers tents and S'more-making kits to garden suite guests who want to camp out on their brick terraces," according to the newspaper.

"Imagine having your own backyard in Manhattan. That's a really special thing. And then taking it to the next level," John Moser, Affinia's chief brand and marketing officer told USA Today. "Think about when you were a kid and had a backyard and set up a tent and had S'mores and had fun with it. … People love the idea of camping out in the middle of New York City."

Let's see, for $21.75 a night, you can stay in Swallow Falls State Park and sleep under the same stars Henry Ford and Thomas Edison did. For less than $30 a night, you can listen to the Atlantic Ocean from your campsite at Assateague State Park.

And for a mere $200 a night, I'll let you camp in my "inside the Beltway" backyard in Silver Spring, which also serves as home to foxes, deer, red-tailed hawks and bunnies. I'll even throw in a shower and you can watch our TV through the window, as long as you don't mind watching Red Sox baseball and Stanley Cup finals re-runs.

No discounts and some blackout dates apply. Operators are standing by.

Posted by Candus Thomson at 12:23 PM | | Comments (3)
        

Comments

Shhhhh,. on Swallow Falls. We must not let out the secret of such a splendid place. Just about my favorite place in Maryland.

Great post! It's so absurd that people with such wealth don't know what to do with it. On the plus side, I'm thinking of going camping!

Thanks for your honesty and candor, Candus!

Wendy Stewart
http://teenfaithandbeauty.com

Great column. Irony on irony is that Swallows Falls was were wealthy titans of industry used to go to get away from it all and actually rough it.

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About Candus Thomson
In a world of paper vs. plastic and candy mint vs. breath mint, my early memories involved a debate about the merits of freshwater vs. saltwater.

On the one hand, a great uncle’s fishing cabin on the Susquehanna River beckoned, but so did family gatherings on the Jersey Shore.

The correct answer, thankfully, was, “both.”

As The Sun’s outdoors writer for more than a decade, I’ve fished across Maryland in one day, hiked the width of the state in one hour, camped overnight in the median of I-95 to experience the wildlife between the fast lanes and chased mountain bikers in a 24-hour marathon race.

Those are some of the highlights. I’ve also fallen in a raging Gunpowder River during a trout survey (photo available upon request), had a shark spill its guts on my clothes and been stuck in a sub-freezing Vermont wilderness with men armed with flintlocks and hatchets, shuffling along on ancient wooden snowshoes.

And, in my travels I’ve met lots of you, who share a love of the outdoors and the good times and mishaps that go along with it.
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