What’s Wrong With Expensive?
Cheap. Cheap. Cheap. The editorial zeal shown by most media—including this one—for the best deals on gear or the least...

Cheap. Cheap. Cheap. The editorial zeal shown by most media—including this one—for the best deals on gear or the least expensive, so-called great trips is beginning to sound like the noontime chorus at a chicken ranch. Maybe we’re overdoing it. I mean, what’s wrong with expensive?
Years ago, I paid my dues many times over sleeping in car seats or under polyethylene sheeting next to trout streams or striper beaches, which I fished with cheap tackle while having an absolutely wonderful time. In later years, I was able to fish from higher-end lodges, either by hook (my own money) or by crook (the kinds of freebies writers sometimes get). I have to say that a hot shower after fishing, followed by a Cuban cigar (where legal) and martini enjoyed while somebody else does the cooking is not a bad thing.
Obviously, not all can afford the high end. Neither can I, at least not often. My wife and I still camp out on many of our fishing trips, partly because we just enjoy the camping and partly to save money. And once in a great while we splurge on a higher-end trip. Expensive is not so much bad, I think, as it is an aspiration. If it weren’t for expensive, what would we aspire to?