The National Park camping experience

The great outdoors...
Over the weekend my girl friend and her kids travelled to Chippewa National Forest just east of Cass Lake to do some camping.
I have never camped in a national park before and when I arrived there I was a bit lost.
I was used to provincial or state parks where there was a gate and had to pay a daily vehicle fee plus the campground rental fees.
Well I was unable to find the check in station. So I swallowed my “guy pride” (cuz you ladies know we never need a map or ever get lost) and stopped at the visitor centre to ask for directions.
Well shown the way to where I was camping and proceeded to the Norway Beach loop.
Still expecting to find a check in station there I was surprised when all I had to do was drive in and find our site. The sites all had Reserved for such and such on them for such and such dates.
I backed in and started setting up camp a few hours before Kim and the family came. All the while expecting someone to come and ask where my vehicle permit was... but they never did.
That is just the way the National Parks work, at least at Chippewa. There is a host in every loop and they can answer questions and have firewood for sale.
Once I stopped worrying about the park rangers coming around we enjoyed the beauty of the Norway Pines and the rest of the park’s amenities.
We were joined by Kim’s mom and stepdad on Saturday and they liked the park so much they decided to spend the night, taking the campsite next to ours.
We were all having so much fun that we wished the weekend would have lasted longer and had I not had to rush back to take pictures of fireworks (that were rained out), we probably would have stayed.
–Until then, Ken