camping..

Google maps and google earth are all you need for this kind of thing.

Where I come from, staying in a cabin is NOT considered camping.

Or you could just look up a place that interests you, research the dickens out of it and simply gloss over the travel time.

One suggestion is to look up the Finger Lakes region. I lived in upstate NY and we went there on several occasions. There was a Girl Scout camp (Camp Comstock) that rented out space during the summer when they didn't have scouting events happening.

Besides, all kind of depends on how fast they drive.

I can get quite a ways in 3-4 hrs, and in upstate New York that's more than enough to get good and lost.



.... and camping involves a tent and a fire. Otherwise you're just pretending.

Maryn is just being mean. Why should those who live in clean cities even think about life in the wilds, much less research them?

Why else do you think you country bumpkins are allowed on this site unless it's to answer country bumpkin questions. Really!

Cabins are so camping! Where are the thermostats? Why is the garbage disposal a bear? Who would even think chunks of wood burn?

Chase -- was camping all this time growing up in country and didn't even know it.

Mapquest and google maps are both great for these kinds of questions. Start with where you know - NYC and then just look at the maps...

Or start with a state - type in NY and it will pull up the whole state, and then you can zoom in and look.

Whenever you're faced with determining where to set something, just start as general aas you need to and zoom in. It will usually be faster than posting and you'll often get other info and inspiration as you look.

And then if you have specific questions, post them - people will be more likely to answer questions that you can't answer as easily yourself through a bit of googling/looking at google maps or mapquest.com.

Good luck with your research.

~suki

stitchingirl said:

I live in Ohio. How am I suppose to know where driving 3-4 hours out of New York City will land you? For all I know, you'd still be in NYC. That's why I came here and asked. For those who live in NYC and the vicinity so they could just give me a name.

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As has been pointed out - google it. Google maps work wonders. Heck, could have just typed "camping in New York State" and been on your way.

I wasn't going to say anything, because it has been said, but now that you've gone back and whinged about it - they're all entirely correct. Your opening question was five minutes worth of internet research. I don't care if you live in Hawaii (although I would be jealous), this isn't hard to figure out.

I've been to some big cities in the world, some of the biggest, and even from dead center three to four hours was plenty of time to get out of them, as long as your MC's, whom you have established as residents, are smart enough not to try and leave in the middle of rush hour.

Now, you could have gone and asked *about* the different kinds of camping, which is what I presumed you were asking when I wandered over here. That's a little harder, when you're trying to get a feel for what different environments are like without a proper frame of reference. I've camped in tents that didn't have floors - in the dead of winter - and that's a heck of a lot different than a cabin. That kind of advice I think anyone here would have offered up in a heartbeat without taking you to task for not doing your end of things.

Or if all you wanted a name, a better question to have asked would have been "Where do you if you live in NYC and want to go camping for the weekend?" That's also the kind of advice anyone here would have given you without taking you to task - though again, you can Google it fairly easily.

But this idea that because you live two states over in Ohio, this somehow cuts you off from figuring out where you could go to from NYC, is ridiculous.

Either you didn't to do the basic steps to get you to where you needed to be, or you didn't ask what you really wanted to know. That's what got people shaking their heads at you.

stitchingirl said:

I live in Ohio. How am I suppose to know where driving 3-4 hours out of New York City will land you? For all I know, you'd still be in NYC.

Click to expand...

Maps. Works every time for me.

Google maps. It's your friend. Or Bing, if you prefer. They have a nifty bird's eye mode, which is a 3/4 view that can be VERY useful. Tradeoff is it can be slow.

Don't mind them, hon. Even with a map you wouldn't necessarily know what driving conditions are in a given area. I lived for 20 years in the Los Angeles area and it would be very easy to drive for 3 or 4 hours and still be in a metropolitin(?) area if you left at the wrong time of day. Hell, you might still be in your driveway.

I think something are missing. What is going to happen during the camping? Do they need a log-wood (camp) fire? Do they need the company of a bear? Does the hero need external stimulus to save his darling (a bear or gang of thugs)? Must the campsite be primitive (without electricity) etc? All these may affect the whereabouts of the camp site that map software may not be able to help.

Like Kathie Freeman said, if the pair starts their drive on the Saturday morning of a long weekend, it is quite possible that 4 hours later they are still on Cross-Bronx Expressway.

What I prefer to do in this situation is, instead of relying on maps, to search for vacation cabin rental within a certain radius from the city. I get the locations, facilities, some photos, etc. If they fit my requirement, I buy out the cabin (in my dream) and make them private property ^_^

I don't think anyone's being snarky, Stitchingirl. While writing The Toast Bitches, I relied on Google Maps and tourist sites to get a location for my NYC based Bitches to gather on odd weekends. It wasn't a real place, but I wove in the characteristics of the Catskills area. I'm doing the same thing for my suspense novel based in the Pyrenees. I calculated driving time and weather conditions from Barcelona based on internet research.

BTW I live in Canada and can only guess about New Yorkers' exodus out of the city. We have our own flow of humanity out of the Toronto area with its own characteristics.

Just an old atlas or road map printed on paper will do the same job, combined with multiplying the average speed the car is travelling at by the length of time travelled.

In any case, it's up to you where your protagonists end up in 3-4 hours of travel. Do they pick the rush hour, do they leave at 2 am, do they take a wrong exit, do they stop for gas, a bite to eat, to go pee, is there an accident which backs up traffic, do they have a flat tire?

Aw, I just went on and found my old school in Spain. The basketball court is still there.