Intro: Why Dirty Chacos

I'm Nathan Nelson of Knoxville, TN. I grew up camping with my parents, fell in love with my wife (April Nelson) camping, our dog's (Laurel the Husky) favorite outing is to a campground, Our little boy's favorite weekends are camping... you get the idea.

The reason for the name: I tend to take 2 pairs of shoes on our trips. My chacos and running shoes. Most of the time I'm in my chacos, and if they aren't dirty we probably didn't have fun!

The reason for all this effort is the lack of good information on front country camping for families. We often find ourselves comparing all the campgrounds we have visited and turning down visiting others based on various factors.

Camping has MANY definitions. Whatever your definition of camping is, GO CAMP! We have an awesome house perched on a ridge in the woods next to a wildlife preserve next to 30+ miles of trails. Many of my blog posts will be by a citronella candle on the deck listening to the birds. I am very thankful for all I have been blessed with, but when you are home with all the worlds distractions truly relaxing is very difficult. So if its an RV that floats your boat or if you backpack 10 miles into the wilderness I will try to address a little of it all.

Camping, my definition: Pop up or tent set up with at least 30' to the next site, Laurel on her lead making sad attempts to bury her bone, hammocks hanging, fire smoldering with chairs around it, clothes line up with little Sawyer clothes, and most importantly almost nothing to do or worry about.

In future entries I will touch a little on our personal adventures, but will try to focus on these areas:

- Base Camp (size of site)
- Campground rules (Nazi's to Trashy)
- The hood (what kind of people camp here)
- Sawyer Factor (what will you kids do)
- Bathhouses
- No car attractions
- Area attractions
- Fees
- Ownership
- Accommodation/reservations.

Please feel free to suggest more info/categories.

Thanks for reading! Stay Classy... world.