While many of us escape into the great outdoors every now and again to "get away from it all" not many of us mean it. Going without the creature comforts of home can be a big shock, and I'd rather relax away from home than struggle to survive. I started bringing along a portable generator on the family excursions and have found a wide variety of uses for it; I have listed a few of the most helpful below.
A campfire is great for gathering around and providing light, but it is not always useful or even allowed. In the middle of summer the fire danger can be very high and making one is actually against the law. Due to that, I bring along string lights (like Christmas lights but a higher wattage) and hang them around the camp site. The generator runs them at night and it adds a nice, practical charm to the outing.
While lighting is great for around the campsite, we also need some for exploring. Flashlights work great, but the batteries can be unreliable. I have traded out all of the one use batteries with rechargeable and we always have a fresh set charging when the generator is running. This makes sure we will always have batteries for our flashlights, radios, and toys for the kids. We also charge our cell-phones and sometimes a laptop if we want to watch a movie outside.Years ago I went camping with some buddies. We took an old truck with our gear in the back and just drove up an old logging road till we were satisfactorily lost. After a few days of roughing it we had gone through all of the food and decided to make our way back to town, only to find that someone had left the key in the ignition and drained the battery. We had no way of jumping the battery and ending up walking six hours down the road until we finally found someone that could help us. With that in mind, I have jumper cables with my generator and could jump any vehicle with it. I've even heard of people running a generator in the cab to keep a faulty alternator going.
This might be a bit extreme, but when my kids were little I would use to the generator to pump water from the river into a hole I had dug out. I would make a little pond for them to play in. I found this to be much less stressful than trying to take them swimming in a strong current, and they'd even keep fish in the pond as pets for the weekend.
There are many more uses for generators and camping, but these are some of my most practical or fun uses that I've found. While not for everyone, they help keep the wild outdoors just a little more tamed and friendly.