enlightening non-campers

[zell_chan]

I found out today that in 20 years of existance, my best friend has never gone camping.

I politely informed her she's going with me anyway and gave her the basics.

XD I scared her when I informed her she'd likely be showeing with Crane Flies (We call them Gallinippers).

Anyone have any good stories about getting people who havent camped before out there into the wolly and wild? (Or paved and manicured for that matter)

[Kelly]

Anyone have any good stories about getting people who havent camped before out there into the wolly and wild? (Or paved and manicured for that matter)

Nope ~ pretty much the opposite!  I have known my best friend since we were both 13.  We met at a campground.  My family camped a lot back then ~ hers was having a family reunion at this particular campground.   I stayed interested in camping and she hasn't camped since then!  and that was um, er, uh ... a long time ago!   :p   And no matter how many times I suggest she and her family join us ~ somehow it never happens.

There are people who camp and there are people who don't.

oh!  and welcome to PUT.

[Monterey]

Well, there was the time that I got a bunch of guys that had never been camping before out in the woods for a week.....oh wait, that was basic training so I guess it doesn't count LOL

I did take a female friend with me tent camping years ago.  No electric, no potable water, no showers, primitive pit toilets..you get the picture.

Once she found out she had no place to plug in her curling iron, that was it for her.  As far as I know, she has never been camping again.

Now the current girlfriend is a different story.  Took her camping and she LOVED it.  That's how you can tell a real keeper  :#

[AustinBoston]

Now the current girlfriend is a different story.  Took her camping and she LOVED it.  That's how you can tell a real keeper  :#

I guess that means PJay is a keeper! :#

Last summer, we finally got Frank, PJay's B-I-L, to go camping with us.  Pam's sister Suzi had been trying to get him to try camping for years.  But Frank's idea of "dry camping" was Motel 6, and a Class C would have been extreme sports.

Well, we picked the absolute worst campground in the world.  Check-in was with the bartender.  :confused: We should have left right then and there.  The "family campground" was an empty piece of land behind the local gin mill.  We shared the otherwise mediocre bathrooms with the bar.  

On Saturday night, they had a birthday party for someone associated with the bar.  Everyone invited, and I do mean everyone.  We could hear the party all night long, and when the bar finally closed at 2 AM, the celebrators took to riding golf carts around the campground for another 45 minutes.  :mad:

I was finally asleep at 3:15 when someone shows up with a Class-A to use the site next to us.  :banghead: It was a tight fit and he had to manouver several times to get in.  They appologized profusely in the morning, but the damage had been done. :swear:

Frank will likely never see the inside of another campground again.  Suzi had been trying for years to get him to try camping.  He did, and it was a disaster.

Austin

[junklady]

A few years ago I learned that my best friend had never been camping, not even a "tent out" in the back yard. I decided to resolve this situation. Took her to a busy campground where there are decent bathrooms and also port-a-pots. We camped w/both a tent and a TT back then. The first night it rained so hard we packed 5 people in a small TT intened to sleep 2-3. Everything that was in the tent, (bedding, pillows, clothes) was covered in mud from trying to get it out in the middle of the storm. One morning she was in the tent alone and decided to get some air and opened the tent door. She fell back asleep only to wake up later to mice scurrying around her head. Her screams woke up the entire campground. I have never laughed so hard in my life!! Needless to say, she has never taken me up on my many offers to go camping again.

[Camping Coxes]

I have a friend I've known since I was 9 that kept saying he wanted to take his family camping with ours because he wanted to talk his wife into getting a pop-up.  So we planned a trip to a nice campground with hook-ups, etc., but still camping (i.e. lots of trees, dirt pads, etc.).  We came in Friday night and they came in early Saturday morning.  The whole time they were there, she was freaking out because her 3YO boy was getting dirty and picking up sticks and leaves.  Her husband, my friend, kept telling her he was fine, that's what boys do, but she kept telling the little boy there were worms in the dirt that were going to eat his feet if he didn't keep his shoes on.  She eventually turned on a DVD for him and parked him in his carseat in their van to watch it.  

 
I don't think she got the whole idea of camping, do you?  They still don't have a pop-up and I doubt they've camped since then (although my friend has, albeit courtesy of the US Army and Iraq war).

[AustinBoston]

I have a friend I've known since I was 9 that kept saying he wanted to take his family camping with ours because he wanted to talk his wife into getting a pop-up.  So we planned a trip to a nice campground with hook-ups, etc., but still camping (i.e. lots of trees, dirt pads, etc.).  We came in Friday night and they came in early Saturday morning.  The whole time they were there, she was freaking out because her 3YO boy was getting dirty and picking up sticks and leaves.  Her husband, my friend, kept telling her he was fine, that's what boys do, but she kept telling the little boy there were worms in the dirt that were going to eat his feet if he didn't keep his shoes on.  She eventually turned on a DVD for him and parked him in his carseat in their van to watch it.

That is so sad.  It takes a long time, but eventually, protecting children from everything that could possibly hurt them hurts them more than the things they were protected from.  This kid will probably grow up unable to take risks, unable to make bold moves, and therefore unable to reap the rewards that a well-balanced life brings.  Either that, or he will utterly rebel, and the mother who was so afraid of what might hurt their child looses the child altogether.

Sounds like Dad has a better handle on life, and hopefully wins the day with their son.

The day my DS, at the time about five, walked up to my mother, half covered in soaking wet mud, and held up his fist, declaring "Look, grandma, I caught a frog!" was one of the proudest of my life.  This mom would rather her son be strapped in a car seat than discover that there are frogs in the water, and if he's careful, he can catch one.

This past summer, that same son (now 16) raised his own support in order to travel to Tiujana, Mexico with about 12 other teens in order to build houses.  These teens built four houses in four days, and learned a lot about how little we need versus how much we have in this country.

I wonder how far he would have gotten if we had plugged him in at every chance, and never allowed him to discover that there are worms in the ground or frogs in the water.

Austin

[chkster]

Well, there was the time that I got a bunch of guys that had never been camping before out in the woods for a week.....oh wait, that was basic training so I guess it doesn't count LOL

I did take a female friend with me tent camping years ago.  No electric, no potable water, no showers, primitive pit toilets..you get the picture.

Once she found out she had no place to plug in her curling iron, that was it for her.  As far as I know, she has never been camping again.

Now the current girlfriend is a different story.  Took her camping and she LOVED it.  That's how you can tell a real keeper  :#

ditto the keeper... I met my DW online and her handle is Hapekampr!

[zamboni]

My wife had never camped before we started dating.  Soon after, we went camping with a neighbor's big group (CG was a big, open Pacific Ocean peninsula - camp where you want).

By the time we got there, and found them, late Friday night (their campers were in a wagon-train around the middle)... we:

1)  Unloaded the truck to get to the tent
1a)  They all watched, clutching their beers
2)  Set up our tent
2a)  They all watched, clutching their beers
3)  Inflated the air mattress
3a)  They all watched, clutching their beers
4)  Loaded the tent, set up the sleeping bags
4a)  They were all asleep or passed out by now.

During the weekend, we used the porta-potties.  By the end of Labor Day weekend, they were a disaster.  Wife (girlfriend at the time) wanted to get rid of me.

I suggested we buy a popup.  She enjoyed all but the porta-potties, and said "as long as there is a potty inside.  Found a cheap Starcraft with a stand-alone potty that fit pretty well inside.  Kept it a couple of years.  Bought a Starcraft so we could join the Starcraft Camper Club (I'd grown up camping with the International club in the 70's).

We're now on our 3rd camper in 7 years... a hybrid  Our daughter, when she was just 3 weeks old, spent a week camping at the Starcraft International Camping Rally.  She's camped about every month since she was born in 2004