I was once driving with a man from Dallas through the mountains outside Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

It was a summer morning. Cumulus and stratus clouds flecked the sky. The sun was hitting the tops of mountains. They glowed pink in the cool summer air.

Mansions were scattered on hilltops here and there. The Dallas man remarked how amazing it would be to live here and drink coffee on your balcony any morning you want.

It was a good point. The scene was moving. It would be cool to have enough money to buy a house like that. No doubt.

But, you don’t need to be a millionaire to enjoy moments like that.

Granted, if you live in Texas, you’re not going to be able to experience the mountains a whole lot. But if you’re willing to travel to Colorado, you don’t need to spend a fortune to experience many mornings like that.

What do you think you experience when you camp?

Frankly, it is a much finer morning to wake up outside in the summer in the Rockies than to wake up inside a mansion that costs $10 million.

The air smelling vanilla sweet from ponderosas; the sound of the wind through their needles all night; the perfect coolness at 7000’ or 9000’ in summer; that first sip of coffee as the very mountain you’re staying on turns pink; and that optimism of another day in a paradise…

You don’t need to be a millionaire to experience better moments that millionaires DON’T experience stuck in their mansions. Don’t envy them. Be somewhere better. Camp.

Yes, I know camping is grueling and frightening to those who’ve never tried it. But that’s all in your head. I think it is worthwhile to try it because you can experience morning glory ANYWHERE.

North Texas, for example, is the southern edge of the Great Planes and people don’t associate that flatness with intermittent trees as a fine camping experience. You could say the same about many seemingly “boring” States like Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana, Ohio, Mississippi, wherever.

But I know that wherever you are there is a joyous optimism before the sunrise which is enhanced by hot coffee as that first pink light hits a mesquite in South Texas or a fir in Northern Colorado.

Wherever you are when the weather is right – and wherever is always perfect at certain times of year – sleeping in fresh air under the moon and waking up to first light is an experience as enjoyable anywhere.

You just have to do it to know so. You have to not be chicken crap and just camp.