How did you get into camping? This question came up on an RV camping blog recently. Responses to the question varied. Camping was a necessity for a few folks who otherwise had no home. Several people began camping as children—taken along with parents or grandparents who introduced them to the great outdoors. Still other people began camping as an economic way to travel to their children’s sporting events. The stories go on and on, as you might expect. It seems everyone has something to say about how they got into camping.
How we got into camping/RVing
The conversation thread helped me remember how my husband and I first began camping. When we were first married, we attempted to be tent campers. We went out two or three times but didn’t find much enjoyment in the experience. Fast forward about 40 years. Three children raised and out of the house. Both my husband and I were looking forward to retirement but had no specific plans on what retirement might look like for us. Get into camping? It wasn’t even on our radar!
Getting into camping joke
All through the years while raising our children, we teased them about getting an RV. We laughed about how during retirement we’d join Laborers for Christ (a church group made up of retired folks who worked to construct churches, schools, camp buildings, etc.). “We’ll just travel off into the sunset,” we’d tease. We’d laugh and promise to call them at Christmas and Easter. It was a joke. Well, we meant it as a joke…
The ad that changed everything
Then it happened. I saw an ad in the Laborers for Christ newsletter. In it, a private owner posted his Ford F-350 dually diesel truck and 35-foot Mobile Suites (now DRV Mobile Suites) fifth-wheel. He wanted to “give it away.” We immediately called the phone number on the posting.
Turns out, the truck and RV owner originally wanted to donate his complete rig to the Laborers for Christ organization. The organization, however, didn’t want the insurance, storage, and upkeep hassle, so his second choice was to sell it to a Laborer. It looked like our “retirement plan” just might come true!
Although the diesel truck only had 56,000 miles on it, we purchased it and the RV for a total of $10,000. Yes, $10K total. My husband told the owner, “You know you can sell it for much more.” The guy agreed, but said since we were planning to use it as Laborers, he wanted us to have it.
The joke’s on us!
Within a week, we were driving home a new (to us) truck and RV. After a two-day “shakedown” trip, we were off to Lexington, KY. We’d spend the next eight months helping to build a church and preschool. Our kids suspected we’d lost our minds. They thought all along our “get-into-camping retirement plan” was only a joke! Well, originally it was. But as it turns out, the joke was on us!
Since that time, my husband and I have participated in several additional builds: Some church additions; some camp cabin remodels; and some schools, too. We’ve met the most wonderful people—both on the road and on the job sites. And that’s how we got into camping in our RV.
How did you get into camping?
Now it’s your turn. When did you first get into camping? Let’s keep the conversation going. Tell your story in the comments below, please. I’m excited to read them.
##RVT1045
We started out camping by borrowing a friends pop up. We liked it so much we bought a used one. We took our kids with us and they loved it. We tent camped on Rock Island which is very primitive. What you carry in you carry out. We graduated to a tow behind for a few years. We had two of them. We then went to a 5th wheel and we are now on our 4th we which we now live in full time. We wouldn’t change anything that we have done.
Gail, What a nice story! Thanks for sharing.
I used to travel as a kid out west. Loved the views. Over 50 years ago. Fast forward, my wife and i went tent camping and couldn’t deal with the aches and pains of old age and the weather.
Into a TT now.
I served in the service and got to see parts of the world. Time to see the USA
My first “camping” experience” was in a canvas tent in the woods next to my folks house in South Portland, Maine during the summer of 1956. My folks were not campers, but I was hooked. As the years rolled, the canvas tent was replaced with a nylon tent that was supposed to be “waterproof”. Next came a Starcraft popup camper for me, my wife and 2 daughters. Our next RV was an Aliner “A frame” popular with indoor plumbing, heat and an air conditioner. Woo hoo! Our next camper was a Winnebago Micro Minnie. We are currently owners of 31 foot Class C Winnebago motorhome, a bit more comfortable than the old canvas tent.
I am one of five kids. My parents didn’t have money for hotel vacations so my dad bought a tent. We camped in the canvas tent attached to the back of our station wagon. We did that for years at mostly state parks. After i got married i took my husband and two toddlers tent camping. It poured down bucket of rain. After that to we got our pop up. We had that for 15 years! Now on our second tt.
I was adopted into a family of retired Circus sideshow performers who owned a tourist court in the only town in the US designated (at the time) for show business and every winter all these Spartan and Pontiac and other brands I am sure but these impressed me the most, would spend the winter with us, these trailers had an appeal I still can’t explain to this day. So as an adult all I wanted to do was travel around in one of those, 16 different units later and a lifetime of work travel and I still head out as much as this old body will let me.
The first camp trips I specifically remember were early dear hunting trips with my Dad, Uncle and Godfather. We camped in northern Michigan in November. Our site consisted of two large military 6 person tents. One for sleeping and one for cooking and eating. A wood stove provided heat and cooking to the “cook” tent and the sleeping tent had none. Being too young to hunt I was assigned duties of fetching water from the nearby stream. Being well back in the forests we never worried about contaminated water. After a very cold night in a feather tic sleeping bag with a Hudson-bay style red wool blanket I would rush through the snow to the heat of the cook tent. There we would have breakfast and dress for the woods all ways being in the woods by “day light in the swamp”. Evenings were filled with chores of gathering water and wood and then the glorious stories around the campfire. Rocks were heated by the campfire to warm the sleeping bag. Wonderful memories of glorious times.
When we were younger, tent camping was a lot of fun – scouts, camping with family, etc. After having kids it was rare but it happened. Fast forward many years and we were looking to move after inheriting a bit of money. We homeschooled our kids and wanted them to actually see the things and places they studied. So we bought a Class A Georgie Boy Pursuit and we traveled with three kids, four cats, and a dog – I told him we had to bring the WHOLE family. 🙂 So, we traveled for 3.5 years and settled in FL. Mike never lost the bug. So, he started looking at RVs – we looked for about 2 years. He found one, we took the paper work over – yes, it was ready to go in a folder! – bought it, and here we are on the road a second time. There are little stories in between all of this but that’s the gist of it!
Camped as a kid in a big canvas tent. When I married, we began tenting in a nylon puptent. Progressed from there to bigger tents then tent trailers and now, with our kids grown and old age requiring more comfort, to a small fibreglass egg trailer. Love it! Still cook out over the fire and wouldn’t have it any other way.
We first got into camping as a way to get away from the hustle and busle of work. Our first experience was with a tent purchase and our SUV, in addition to a highly rated air mattress. After our very first miserable camping trip we arrived back home and immediately returned the tent and mattress. Our thoughts, there had to be a better way than loading and unloading the SUV every time we camped. Enter the Pop-up camper, easy to tow with the SUV, and a lot of our camping gear could be left in Pop-up. That got us through about a year, when we decided to move up again to a full fledged pull behind RV, of course that required a full sized pickup as well. No problem, with pickup purchased, we finally found the perfect camper for us, a 2014 Freedom Express 248 RBS. Original owner had made some changes that made it perfect, and the rest is what they call, history. We are now camping in our 4th year with RV, and while still retired and working part time, we get away every chance we get.
Got our first camper in 76. A 18 Scotty, used it a lot then after son, moved up to bigger trailer. Have had several pull trailers, 2 5ers and back to trailers. Our present, back to an 18 footer, still gets out for week long trips or monthly. Family reunions and other visits, just back from week in Texas and Louisiana. May be old and slower now but still enjoy getting out and visiting with other campers. Have camped in every state but Hawaii.
We got into camping through our Son n Law and daughter. He had always took his daughters camping in his 5th Wheel. He and our daughter married and she loved it because she could go camping and work remotely if needed.
They kept saying hey yall would love it. Get an rv and we can camp together. That’s how we got our first RV. It had been a dream for years but life got in the way. We were finally in a place to go do several days of camping every month. We fell in love and decided to go full time.
Previous wife’s father had an RV sitting in driveway not working. Fixed up the RV and had a ball on that trip. Never could say the same for her.
Started camping in mock tents in living room, progressed to backyard, joined Boy Scouts, in early 70’s Mom won a Coleman camping trailer in a Standard oil promotion when they introduced unleaded gas and changed their name to AMACO. fresh as a daisy contest. My wife and I have owned a few RV’s since.
RV and tent camping must be in my blood. Earliest memories are mom, dad, and us 4 kids trailer camping in the Mojave desert and Lake Tahoe. We moved often, living in 7 states by the time I was 16. We tent camped when the camper was sold, moving to dad’s next job.
My wife is new to camping. She started when I first met her, starting with tent camping and now spend 8 months a year in our 5th wheel: Florida winter; Adirondacks summer; and spring/fall home in our Upper Cumberland Plateau sticks and bricks to live like our rural neighbors and do maintenance on the house, ard, RV & tow vehicle. Camping and RV living are a part of us.
I had never seen the inside of an RV, much less camped in one. My impression was that they were very expensive & ok for a weekend trip, but not much longer than that. I got a work from home job. At the time, I had no idea what this would mean to me.
My daughter announced that she had a summer job working in Yellowstone (my favorite place in the world). I automatically said, “I wish I could go with you!”. It was a light bulb moment. After a quick talk with my boss, I was searching for apartments near Yellowstone.
On the drive home, we visited cousins in Denver. They just bought a motorhome (looked new to me) & gave us a tour. It was much nicer than I could have imagined, but I still thought it was too costly. Turns out it was used & cost a bit more than our car. Suddenly RVing looked very attractive.
We rented one for a long weekend & were hooked. We have been RVing for 10 yrs now & love every minute of it.
First tent camping experience was in 1949 on a Gulf Coast beach with parents, aunt, uncle, and cousin my age. Then came Boy Scout camping trips with an Army-surplus pup tent (canvas shelter halves). During one of my college summer vacations, my parents rented a pop-up tent trailer for a week at a state park–my first experience with the “RV lifestyle”. In the mid-’60s came 6 weeks of living in a borrowed tent for a college summer field course in Colorado and Utah. My bride and I spent our Colorado mountain honeymoon in her parent’s Mitchell cab-over pickup camper (and we are still married after 54 years!). When our 3 sons were young, we were back to tent camping in then-remote Forest Service campgrounds in places like the Maroon Bells and San Juans. However, only when we were both retired did we actually buy our first RV. And immediately headed to Alaska to celebrate that retirement!
Grew up tent camping. Continued after marriage in fact our honeymoon was tent camping on a lake in Texas. Continued to tent camp in Alaska until our fifth year there with 2 little ones, got kicked out of the campground at 2 in the morning because of bears. All tent campers were told to leave. Bought a nice slide in camper after that and never looked back. Now continuing with a 5th wheel.
My family started camping in the 60’s. My parents wanted to travel but with us 6 kids (ages 13 to 4) there was not enough money to stay in hotels. My dad started looking at pop up trailers and he decided to make his own. He bought scrap metal and started welding up parts. No plans or drawing, he just made a few parts, put them together and them made the next one. The wheels came from a junkyard Chevy so the car spare could be used on the trailer. The assembly was started in the basement because it was winter and we did not have a garage. After the frame and running gear was finished, he took it apart and built the rest of it in the driveway. It had aluminum sides,2 beds that slid out to open it up, cabinets inside for storage and a built in cooler with a door to the outside in the back. A co-worker that made boat covers made the canvas top. We lived in Kentucky and our first major trip was to Daytona Beach Florida in 1964. The next year we went to California. Great memories!
I grew up camping with my family. I was so young I don’t remember the first camping trip. We started in tents but by the time I was in elementary school they had a travel trailer. A small Driftwood that all five of us squeezed into. Later they upgraded to an Airstream. Now we were living the good life. My parents were teachers so we traveled every summer. I loved it. When my husband and I got married we didn’t have much money so it was back to tent camping. That was a hard adjustment for this girl. I’d got soft having that Airstream. 😁 we did that for a few years but it seemed like every time we’re camped it would rain. So after a few years we bought a Coleman popup. I was much happier off the ground. We had many great memories with the kids and that popup. Eventually we upgraded to a travel trailer. Then after 10 years to our first fifth wheel. We currently are on our second fifth wheel. Still love exploring our beautiful country.
We started RV camping with a truck camper as a support vehicle for waterskiing trips and riding and racing dirt bikes. It evolved into camping only trips with our kids. Now they have RVs too. Third generation
During my childhood, my parents would borrow my grandparents Commander Motorhome, we would camp through out the eastern sierras in California during the summers. Many trips with Grandpa and my brother camping locally. Turned into desert trips and mountain camping. Fast forward, my wife and I bought our first rig a 76′ shasta 24′ bumper pull with our two baby girls in tow. Many trips have happened since. Now empty nesters, we have had a couple of D.P. Motorhomes, however recently went back to a nice 33′ Southwind class A, we tow our jeep and make various trips from San Diego to Idaho to visit our grandbabies. Look forward to many more trips to come. Heading north again in July!! It was those early years that kept that camping bug alive and well. Love looking back on such great memories in the great outdoors!! Safe travels everyone!
My parents had a cabin in northern Wisconsin when I was growing up. It was one step above camping, since it had a pump outsiode and an outhouse. In college I joined a group that did “outdoors” stuff. We went camping in tents. Lots of fun, but one nigh t a wolf woke us, and in Wisconsin it tended to rain a lot. One of the people brought his parents pop up. I was in love. When I married, I wanted an RV, but we we re military and looking at going overseas. We tent camped, … Then we came back from Europe with two dogs, got into dog sports, and my husband wANTED A TRUCK. I told him it could only be one that would pull our RV, so I pestered every salesman about what the thing could tow etc. We bought a Ford F250, followed a few months later by a King of the Road 34 foot fifth wheel. 33 years later we just b ought our 5th RV!
Growing up I went fishing often with my Grandfather, who was a railroad engineer, but no camping. When he retired, we went to visit in Florida on the train – bedroom, dining car, comfortable and scenic, go to bed in Virginia and wake up in Florida. By the time I was old enough to travel with my family, trains were pretty much gone. I thought someone should outfit a Greyhound with sleeping and dining facilities to recreate the railroad travel experience, and low and behold my wife’s father had a Class B motorhome. We borrowed it for one trip and were hooked. We have since had 6 Class B’s, a gas Class A, and are on our second diesel pusher.
Wife and I have always loved traveling! Before coming to America 25 years ago from South Africa, we had been to 9 countries.
I had always had the idea of getting an RV and traveling around to see as much as we could of this great country – my wife was convinced I was totally nuts!!
Then 5 years ago, when we retired, she suddenly shocked me and said, let’s do this, now I thought she had lost it!
So, we sold our house, bought an A Class DP and have since been to 49 States and 7 Provinces, have travelled 46,000+ miles and enjoyed every minute!
Oh, to keep ourselves solvent, we spend about 6 to 8 months a year volunteering, usually at State Parks.
My wife had been searching for her biological father for some time. Thanks to Ancestry DNA she connected with her half sister in 2017. Shortly after we made the first of many trips from central North Carolina to the hills of eastern Kentucky. We soon found out that lodging nearby was scarce so we started looking at other options. On her newfound father’s property was an area where a mobile home had been, perfect place for a RV.
We in turn started the search for a camper. Finances were tight so we thought about getting a fixer upper. Purchasing a 1993 Chateau travel trailer we found out some of the horrors of used RV’s! After a lot of work and YouTube videos we got her road ready.
After several years of using our camper as a hotel we decided that we were missing out on the potential that our little Chateau offered. We’ve only been “camping “ for a short time but loving it! Our next move is for a better tow vehicle. Looking forward to more adventures!
As a young family, we started out with a Sherwood Tent Trailer towed behind a 1973 Toyota pickup. When it rained it leaked. We spent my youngest daughters third birthday on Victoria Island, and of course it was raining.
Fast forward, we are now on our sixth motorhome, a Tiffin Allegro Red of which we dearly love, Known as LMH, Last Motorhome.
I did not grow up camping. My first tent camp outing was over senior skip day with friends just before high school graduation. Years later when I was dating my now husband we began tent camping with family. After a severe bout of the flu with no bathroom nearby and no way to get warm I said no more camping until we can get a camper. We bought a used pick-up camper then our first of 5 travel trailers. We have been full-timing since retirement in 2012 and plan to continue as long as we are able. We volunteer host for Oregon State Parks 8 months each year.
Dirty Hotel Rooms and Air B N B’s.
Horrible Service at Restaurants.
And there I was in front of an Airstream! (Angels Singing!)
Two uncles had driveable RVs and in-laws had a fifth wheel. Camped numerous times with in-laws and respect for uncles and tgeir decision-making all conspired to make me want to travel. Ultimately my preferences and wife’s assessment of my abilities led to the purchase of a heavily discounted 2016 class A in July 2016. That year we took one trip in it after driving it from Texas (site of purchase) to Tennessee (site of our retirement home on my parents’ farm). We lived in it for 8 months and traveled regularly while our house was built beginning in May 2017. After retiring in early 2018 we began traveling monthly, more or less. Ordered a 2022 last month and are hooked. 🙂
Driving 100 miles each way and boating all day was too much. Our friend suggested putting a camper at the marina. $600 later we had our first little 16 foot camper and was in heaven!
I think camping/rving is in my genes. My grandparents came west from New York in 1959 with their 4 kids in a camper my grandfather built. They upgraded to a manufactured camper and traveled all over the United States the rest of their lives. When I was a kid my parents bought a used camper for the truck and we also traveled all over as I grew up. After I got married it took a few years, but I finally talked my husband into getting a small 5th wheel about 15 years ago and we’ve been traveling ever since. I’ve never considered doing it any other way.
I was a traveling medical professional (medical laboratory scientist) and we were tired of different living conditions each assignment. And with dogs it was always more difficult to find a short-term furnished rental. So we decided to take our house with us. Then we discovered workamping and are still RVing even after retiring.
50 years ago when I was a child my grandparents sold their fruit farm in the Hudson valley and bought an Avion travel trailer. In the winter they worked in Everglades national park and the summer they worked in Yellowstone national park. They were work campers before there were work campers.
During school vacations I would get to go stay with them and that was my intro to camping.
Since then I have become an RV owner and a master RV tech.
I did some backpack tent camping in my teens and enjoyed it. Years later, after hearing about the “Burning Man event in NV, I decided I wanted to see what it was all about and, that a small RV would be useful. After LOTS of research, I ordered a new, 2010 Casita 17′ Spirit Deluxe Travel Trailer which I could tow with the 2004 Toyota Sienna minivan I then owned. The Casita was a GREAT choice! I had a great time at the 2010 Burning Man event and returned in 2011 & 2012. In 2014, I “graduated” to a Super-C diesel puller which I now Full Time in.
Almost 70 now, and my family has always camped. Started out (with my parents) in canvas tents, Coleman gas stoves, always a dog along. My husband and I started out the same (with more modern tents), took a portable crib for the babies in the tents. Did tent camping all the time the kids were growing up. Then graduated to sleeping in our brand new GMC truck with a memory foam mattress. Luxury! Finally in 2018 bought our first travel trailer; a 18’ Lance. Luxury, luxury. A perfect couples trailer.
Started camping with my parents, (cab-over camper) when I was in infant. We camped that way until parents divorced, when I was 10. Did not get back to camping (class-c) until my mom remarried in my teens. Met my, wife to be, when I was 16. Camped with her family once, in a pop-up tent trailer. In college, my parents purchased a brand new 30’ 1996 Flair class-a, and I lost track of my wife-to-be. She camped and hiked with friends through to 90’s. Reconnected and married my wife 12 years ago, and became a dad. My step dad-dad passed away, 6 years ago, and we purchased the 96 Flair and kept her in the family. Since then we have hit 7 national, travelled 16k miles and used the RV for countless travel baseball tournaments.
As a teen ager growing up on a small farm there was always chores, but there were times I could get away for a night. So I take my horse and ride up on the mountain near home and camp out with the saddle for a pillow. That was over 60 years ago but what fun. Memories like that are hard for young people of today to experience.
Backyard, boy scouts, hanging out at the lake. Tent camping with young family, then 4WD outings.
Later, back packing, then a big cabin tent, finally using a collapsible bedframe and air mattress so we didn’t have to get down to & up from ground level!
Fast forward to middle age, we both saw the handwriting on the wall: it was time to do something different, so we quit our jobs (they were soon to be ended anyway) bought a truck and travel trailer and hit the road for one year and 45000 miles; that first experience that can never be duplicated, no matter how many more RVs, time and mileage may accrue.
Now, well into retirement, 5 years on the road as full timers, sometimes and part timers, 85,000 truck miles and 45000 trailer miles, RVng is a lot different than when we began, not as carefree, more expensive and requires more effort, but still worth it.
Thanks for the miles and memories.
30 years ago I was working highway construction in AZ,NM,NV and UT working daylight to dark 6 days a week. Sometimes it was 30 miles to a motel so I bought a travel trailer to park on the jobsite. I enjoyed that more than a motel. So when I retired we bought a 5th wheel then a motorhome and have been enjoying traveling ever since.
I was raised a city boy in Los Angeles, never went camping. Got my introduction about camping when I joined the Army. Slept in a 2 man pup tent with another GI. Being outdoors in the wild was nice. Kept right on camping after 10 years in the Army. Now I’m 72 and just back from two camping in Quartzsite, Az. Beats four walls anyway!
Long time ago, working at the copy room at Western Electric in Cicero, IL. I met a camper, and told me all about camping, and the fun he and his family had around the campfires. So he sold me his Ted Williams tent, homemade kitchen, and roof top carrier. Off we went, and now have diesel pusher. I still remember that tent.
For years we had a large sailboat, sold it when the kids got too busy, wife had knees replaced so rolling around on the water and trying to walk in it was hazardous to her. We still wanted to travel around so we bought a small motorhome and then moved up to a 40 foot pusher. All the same concepts, had a dingy, black tank but no gray, diesel engine to maintain (think my max fuel use was 30 gallons for the year) and no washer and dryer. However it was harder to take a walk while swinging on the hook unless you can walk on water! A couple of things Are different. Best sleep while gently rocking, no campfire smoke drifting around causing me to cough, if the neighbors were loud just pull anchor and move, no one ever wanted to know the age of the boat while visiting a different marina.
What a kick to read all these different stories!
My folks were married in 1948. Dad was a GI Bill student at Kansas State. They a lot of spare time but little money so dad converted the seats in a 1940 something car to lay down into a bed. The trunk was the kitchen. I had been from Massachusetts to California by the time I was 18 months old. They upgraded to station wagons where the front seat was my bed and the tailgate was the kitchen. When I outgrew the front seat they bought a 16’ travel trailer. From there it was on to Scouting and backpacking. Now being old with a bad back it’s back to an RV.
There’s not much happening in Wisconsin in early March, so when I heard the ad for the RV show on the radio, I thought Why not? It would give us something to do on a cold, windy day. I had not grown up as a camper, and my husband had done some pop-up camping with his family. Our young boys thought the idea of going to an RV show was about the worst they had ever heard, but within 15 minutes of arriving, they absolutely insisted that we buy one! Fast forward a year or two, and the universe organized itself such that we were able to take our new trailer out west for seven weeks into 14 national parks deserted thanks to covid. Best. Experience. Ever. Fast forward even more, and our boys are too busy and too big to cram all of us into that camper again, but we’re hoping to take it up again one day.
I tent camped with my dad’s tent in the backyard while growing up. Tent camped again in my 30’s. Ground got harder, my back got softer and I bought a used pop-up while on a vacation in Michigan and hauled it home, shocked my family. Camped in it for 2 years. Sold it for more than I paid for it. Bought a used TrailManor and absolutely love it and am enjoying the camping life. Also, remember we were all newbies at one time. Strike up a conversation with newbies, gently let them know the code of ethics we camping people live by and they have gained some knowledge. Knowledge is power. I’ve asked people to turn off there lights at night and most people understand when you explain it to them nicely.
My parents were part owners of a hunting cabin on 35+ acres in upstate NY. Nobody in my family hunted and since it wasn’t used by anybody else during the summer. we took the occasional family weekend trip there. No phone, TV, or running water unless the stream was flowing down the mountain. If it got chilly, you started a small fire in the woodstove. I loved that place when I was a kid and found it very relaxing to be there in my later years. Skipping ahead to recent years, boondocking in my old motorhome brings that peaceful feeling back. Just having the basics is all I need to be happy.
I’ve camped for as long as I can remember. We started with a fancy canvas umbrella tent. My Dad got it from Rainier Tent and Awning. Ahh the smell of waterproofing and canvas. We camped all over the PNW. Got paid to camp for a few years thanks to Uncle Sam. Got married and we hiked and camped all over. Got a van and continued. Told our daughter that when she went to college we were going to sell the house and hit the road. Well life interceded and we took her to college but didn’t sell the house for several years. we did sell in 2018 and have fulltimed since then.
I’d forgotten about that distinctive smell (waterproof canvas)! Thanks for the reminder. Happy travels!
Matter of fact, recently gave my 15’x15′ all-canvas well maintained serious camping tent to my great grandson with high hopes he will continue to use it and use it well. Yes, the reminiscent aroma of water proofing in a canvas tent…a sort of forgotten memory. Thanks for the reminder. I will mention that to him.
I guess because of my folks, I didn’t know there was any other way to take a vacation – tent or travel trailer. I had never stayed in a motel until our wedding night. Army barracks yes – Motel no.
I hated camping as a boy scout and at summer camp in the Adirondacks. i thought sleeping in the open or in a tent was a punishment. Fast Forward 20 years some friends invited us to join them camping in Western Massachusetts to spend 4th of July at Tanglewood Music Center. WE bought a two person tent and stuffed it and two sleeping bags into the Corvette (!!!) and off we went. Having the tent and other minimal camping gear we began to explore the eastern US with a campground guide and B&B Book (for bad weather). Someplace in there we borrowed a friends 26 foot Unger Crown Commander – on a Dodge Chassis. I have never seen another one of those. We took that coach all the way around the Great Lakes and thought that was the best way in the world to travel. It took us almost 24 years to convert that experience into another rental – this time a C in Vancouver BC after a week spent camping out of a kayak on the Johnson Straits. We got serious bought our first motorhome.
After 10 years of part time to most time, we sold the house and hit the road FT in our brand new DP.
I was a young man of 18 yrs with two terrible bad habits. I played tennis and played in a band. With either, I was often required to travel. I bought a Nash Rambler station wagon at age 17 yrs. It was a natural. I often played in a tourney or a weekend gig while sleeping in the Rambler. It just became a habit and a convenience. Eventually, I aged into the notion of camping and being outdoors.
While I eventually did sell the Rambler, tennis and camping were to become a lifelong habit. I gave up tennis about age 55 or so. I’m still an avid boondocker style camper. Been to Quartzsite and so many Midwest campgrounds I can’t remember them all. Still love to head out for Bluegrass festivals if only with a tent.
My parents owned a cottage when I was growing up and we spent a lot of time there year-round. When us kids grew up and started having families of our own and were busy, it became more of a challenge to keep up the cottage. We decided to camp together every summer and as time progressed, we graduated from tents to pop-ups to travel trailers and now we have a fifth wheel. For as much as I loved the cottage and miss it, we love the freedom of having our house on wheels and experiencing different locations.