Our kids are growing up in the innards of a giant street grid. So I think it's our duty as parents to get our kids the heck out of Broward County and into a tent somewhere.
I was raised in Iowa, with cornfields and soybeans as far as you could see. (Unless you were looking towards the women's reformatory we lived next door to.) My husband was raised in Kentucky. No Broward Boulevard of speeding traffic a block from the house.
I feel sorry for kids growing up in Broward County. They don't get to spend the day skipping 
rocks in the creek. They go bike riding, and their destination is a shopping mall or Subway shop. My son and his buddy think going to Publix for a half hour is a lot of fun, even if they don't have any money. That's sad.
Yeah, we're surrounded by parks in Plantation. But those fenced tidbits of nature on the roadside are no substitute for the real outdoors.
And you can find it in a few hours' drive. We did, recently. The place is called Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park. I found it because it was the only campsite I could find with a spot open on Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, when the kids at Broward schools had five days off, including the weekend. It's in Okeechobee, but well north of the lake, in the middle of nowhere. We passed lots of road kill, and a cabbage farm, on the way out there.
My husband of course was suspect when he learned this place had a lot of campsites open. It must be a horrible place, he said. It's called a "prairie,'' he said. That means no trees, no shade, and nothing to do.
But that wasn't the case, at all. This place was great. And it was cheap; $12 a campsite, and you could bring your pet and up to eight people.
There were horses, and trails through the woods. We were able to fly a kite high into the sky, without scraping up against that Goodyear blimp, or a power line. When you're camping, all food that you are able to warm up tastes delicious.
It rained. And it was the coldest night of the year, I think. And our sleeping bags were wet. We were miserable, but it was a good kind of miserable, the kind you can enjoy because you know that within 24 hours you will be lying in your cozy bed at home.
Camping is a big hassle, with all the stuff you have to pack, and then unpack. But it's really worth it.
I've gone back and forth on it. Sometimes I feel like an idiot packing up blankets and tents and food and stuff so that I can go sleep uncomfortably like a homeless person when I could be in the luxury of my home. How silly.
But you do this for your soul, for your children's souls.
You have to get out there, miles from any TV, video game system, and away from all the things your kids would rather be doing than hanging out with their parents.
The state parks system has a toll-free number you can call to find a park with an opening, and to book it. It's Reserve America, at 1-800-326-3521. You can also book a site online.
> Please comment