It sounds like you were stuck at an established campground. My condolences.

My worst time camping was at a large Boy Scout event at West Point. (We were there because my CAP squadron was also chartered as an Explorer post.) We were forced to camp our allotted 30x30 foot piece of a huge field. Being “military” our tents were set up with precise 2’ spacing between them. Never mind if your assigned spot had a gopher hole in the middle of it. It rained the whole time and the ground was saturated. It was so muddy that if you stood in one spot for too long you’d sink. The grass was trampled on by so many feet that the mud was squeezed up through it from below. It was cold. No fires allowed.

One night I dreamt how I would escape into the woods and build a lean-to with a huge reflector fire in front of it. I would dry off all my clothing and gear. Nice soft dry pine needles under my sleeping bag…

Then I woke up to the crinkle of a space blanket and resumed bailing water out of the floor of my tent with a canteen cup.

My best time camping was probably in a debris hut somewhere. Once, I spent the coldest night of the year in three feet of snow in a snow shelter. I’m sure I would have frozen to death in a tent.

Unfortunately, civilized people frown on your building a survival shelter in the middle of their nice organized campground.