We went hiking yesterday — only the second of the 15 Family Hikes on my Mighty List — and it left us thinking we might like to go camping.

The last time I went camping was probably at least 20 years ago, and it was definitely not my idea of a good time. My parents loved (and still do love) camping and fishing and boating and many other activities that pretty much require being outside, so there were a few nature excursions in my childhood. I did not inherit the outdoorsman gene. I’m outdoorsy in that I like reading in a hammock.

But my children love tramping through the woods and splashing in rivers and squishing through mud, so outdoors we go.

(Pete especially loves mud. He wrote a song about it while we were hiking:

Mud mud mud!
All the beautiful mud!
Mud mud mud!
Oh, how I love mud!

And then he asked me to “make some mud” for him at home. We’ll see, kid.)

Rockford has never been a camper, either, so we don’t have a single bit of camping equipment. Nor do we really have a good idea of where to begin. I’ve looked into tents and sleeping bags, etc., and it looks like it would be a not-at-all-small outpouring of money to become People Who Camp. I’m hesitant to spend that much on something we might end up only doing once. (Just because the kids like playing out there doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll like sleeping out there, right?)

My ideal campsite would be the Thunderdome,

but Sky Mall probably wouldn’t accept that many returns. So I’m wondering:

• Should we attempt this camping thing?
• Is there such a thing as a Rent-a-Tent business for novice campers? There should be.
• What’s your best camping tip?

Updated to add: Here’s some advice from Facebook!