One hour’s drive north of Houston, Lake Conroe awaits this weekend — or more precisely, the Kampgrounds of America there offering a special deal for Mother’s Day weekend. Pay for Friday night and you get your Saturday night stay for free.
The obvious question — why would a mother want to spend Mother’s Day in a tent, cooking breakfast over a campfire? — is easily dispensed with by KOA’s events manager at the site, Jody Piggott: “It focuses more on family time. That’s what camping is all about.”
Besides, you don’t have to stay in a tent. You can bring an RV, popup or stay in one of their cottages.
Piggot says in today’s economy, there’s been a mini-boom in camping
locally. Instead of families flying all the way to Colorado to indulge
in the out-of-doors, they can get to it quicker locally.
The
special deal this weekend is part of the annual national effort started
by KOA in 1984 to raise money to send children with cancer to camp
themselves sometime this summer, Piggott says. There will be a raffle
Saturday night to raise money and the proceeds for the weekend all go
to the “Come Camp and Care program.”
Can’t make it on short
notice this year? Piggott says they’ll do it again next year. In the
meantime, she invites anyone up to her campground whose spots run
between $30 to $38/night. The campground has 239 sites, a six-acre lake
and an indoor swimming pool if things head south outside.
But what about snakes? Piggot says they are a fact of life around water in Texas, but should be of little concern.
“Let
me tell you about snakes. I’m an old Girl Scout. Snakes do not like a
lot of activity. So when you have activity and you have children and
RVs pulling in, the snakes head to the woods. They want nothing to do
with you.”
This article appears in May 7-13, 2009.
