This is serious question that I would like everyone to answer

[uploon]

We started when I was about 3.   There were four kids, and the folks.  It all started in the "Abe Lincoln" tent.  If any of you have seen the picture of Lincoln standing in front of a large two flap tent during the Civil War, that's what we camped in on old WWII army cots.

Then my dad's friend loaned us his PUP.  It was cool.  Dad and oldest brother in one bunk, mom and oldest sister in the other.  The two youngest on the floor.  Crowded?  You bet, but we only really slept in it.  No electric, no heat, no nothing.

Next, the folks bought a 1970's era "Road Knight."  Same sleeping arangement and lack of ammenities.  The two oldest then moved out-college, marriage, etc, and the camper sat in the drive.  Opened it one day, and the canvas was rotted.  Away it went.  Then for several years, we just traveled and stayed in hotels.  Some GREAT trips though.

Move forward several years, and I'm in college.  My buddies and I would tent camp.  Tons of fun!     :!

Then I met my future bride, and we tent camped----once!  It rained all week, and even I became kind of miserable.  Chatting with the neigbor one day, I thought out loud about putting the tent on the snowmobile trailer to be "off the ground."  His neighbor at their cottage was selling a  1970 Camel PUP for $100.  It even had electrical outlets!

DW's 50th  :cake: , and she got a used 99 Coleman Santa Fe  (SURPRISE!).  We were in luxury!  Wow, a sink, heat, ice box, and electrical!  This was the life.  

Then on our 10th anniversary, we stopped in at the RV dealer to buy a set of propane tank tie down rods so we could add another propane tank to the Santa Fe.  Well.........she happened to look inside the Fleetwood UTAH, then stepped in, and came out only to sign the paperwork!  Happy Anniversary!  Slide out, cassette potty, hot water, fridge, otuside shower.  We had "arrived!"
 
When I picked up the new PUP, I still had to buy the hold down rods to add another propane tank---expensive set of rods.  :yikes:

We love the UTAH, and will stick with it, as it suits our needs quite well.  Eventually, we want to get a 5th wheel for our retirement.  We go to the shows, and look, dream, and think of retirement.

I don't really think it matters how you camp, it just matters that you camp.  I think that so many people miss out on something wonderful when they don't camp.  Our friends have a 5th wheel, and we camp together-both with hook ups and dry camping.  We see tenters, 5th wheels, hybrids, class A's and so on when we camp.  We get along with everyone.  It's the people and being outside, not the camping unit.

[hoppy]

Hoppette's and my parents were not campers at all. Their vacations consisted of visiting a lake, and staying in cabins or motels along side the lake.

 I on the other hand began camping while in the Boy Scouts, and took to it like a fish to water.

 Right after I graduated from HS, a couple of buddies of mine car camped in the south-east. We had a blast. This was pretty much camping with a tarp spread over a couple of picnic tables, sleeping bags, cooler, lantern, stove, .......and beer. Not much food, but the beer was always cold.

 When Hoppette and I were married (and before the kids) we camped pretty much the same, only I did buy a small tent with a floor. Hoppette didn't care for bugs, so that was the reason for the floor.

 Once our lil' critters (kids) came along, the little tent became a 12 X 14 cabin tent. We used this tent for close to twenty years.

 As Hoppette and I grew older, our backs cold no longer stand sleeping on the cold hard ground, I bought my first used 1978 Palomino PU. Cheap enough, for 1,000.00 it had AC, furnace, stove, sink, awning, refrigerator, television hook-up, and we were now off the ground. Kept that PU for ten years, and gave it to our daughter and SIL when we bought our next PU.

  We bought the used 2001 Mesa back in 2003, and it's is perfect for our future needs. I paid 7,000 for it fully loaded. It has everything the ol' PAL had, but now we have hot water to do the the clean ups.

  I'll be keeping this one until I can no longer go camping, with no expectation of moving up to a TT, or 5'er.

  This makes sense for us, since we only get to go camping approx. 20 days a year.  It's just not economically practicle for us to pay upwards of $ 18,000 for 20 days worth of camping. We can store the PU in our garage, keep it well maintained, and ready to go on a minutes notice. No storage fees, and no worry that it's safe while it it stored.

[NoUnder18Allwd]

Falling asleep to the sound of the rain on the tent was great!

I agree!

We're mid 40's, and after looking at everything from a PUP to a 5th wheel, we've come back to the PUP.  We're moving up from tent camping that we love, but the mountains are a tad nippy in the winter.  We just wanted something we could heat a little better than the tent.  The potty is great too when it's 15 or colder outside.

When we retire and sell the house (in 15 years), we may consider the 5th wheel again, but doubt we'll give up our PUP for nice weather use.

Also, we couldn't get a king bed in anything except high end 5th wheel, and those are out of our price range.

We're happiest tent camping.

[ilovecamping]

Thanks so much for starting this topic.  I have truely enjoyed reading all the adventures.  
I guess the first time I went camping was when my oldest DD was just a baby.  We had an older tent and we went a lot of places with it.  We would not have been able to take these trips if we had to pay for hotels and restaurants.  Later we got sort of a pu, one that was a box when open the sides were beds and it had poles to hold the canvas up.  It had nothing else but we loved it.  Later we divorced and he got the camper.  Some friends of mine had a pu and a tt so they towed both to the mountains in NM so my 2 DD's and I could use the pu.  It was a great time and I really missed camping.  I dated a guy with a boat so he got a pup tent and we could then go camping/boating and it was great.  When I started dating my current DH we got a tent and started camping.  I'll never forget the first time we took DS and he got sick so we had to come home.  We went through a lot of tents as most leaked and by now we had purchased a new conversion van and we used it to sleep in at time.  We would take the two captain seats out and the kids could sleep on the floor.  By this time the oldest DD had quit camping so we just had DD and DS.  What brought us to a PU was a very rainy/windy camping trip that we had a new 2 room tent that leaked so we were in the van all wknd.  Everything was muddy, we couldn't cook as we couldn't keep the stoves lit and the wind blew the tarp off the van we were using for an awning.  We started looking and found a 78 Starcraft, sort of small, for $750. and bought it.  We had a lot of good times in it and took it on vacation.  The following year DH ran across a larger 74 Starcraft and we bought it for $600. and used it for many years.  Since each child took a friend, we let the 4 of them have the camper and we slept in the van.  We had a screen room up and that is where we spent most of our time.  In early '04 we decided to purchase a new Flagstaff PU with all the bells and whistles including the shower/pottie.  DH was tired of trying to keep the old Starcraft together.  This was also the year that our youngest decided to quit camping and started working.  We found that he and his friend had done a lot of the set up and now we didn't want that much work for just us.  We did take it a lot of places and had some wonderful times but it was just too much for DH to do anymore.  He got overheated setting up one weekend and we went to the camper dealer and found the HTT I fell in love with.  Well now we started camping even more since we didn't have to load and unload and then reverse the proceedure when going home.  We kept it loaded and could go anytime.  We took a long vacation last summer, '06, and made tons of memories in it.  In Jan DH had his second heart surgery and he didn't want the set up of the HTT any longer or the crawling over to get in bed.  Also the cold weather and putting the refletix in the bunk ends.  I didn't want to trade it off as it was just the best camper I had ever had and I loved it.  But with it being a health issue we traded for a TT.  I can't say I don't like the benefit of having a bed to sleep in or the warmth in cold weather.  It isn't really "camping" as I think of it but it does get us out there.  Now the price of gas is really putting a pinch on us so we may put it on a permanent spot next season.  We did that this year for a couple of months and it was alright but I really like to move around.  Anyway we are planning a long trip for next summer and DH says we may rent a PU.  I just about fell over on that one.  I would like to find a good used PU for cheap and use it for the long trips to save on gas.  We will see what our future brings and I will not say we will not trade again.  DH would like a class C but I am holding out for as long as I can.  We have even thought of a tent that goes over the back of a SUV so we can use the SUV to sleep in.  Who knows for sure, but so long as we keep camping is the real issue for me.

[Clarabelle]

I know this is an old thread, but wanted to answer it anyway.  As a boy, we tent camped and camped with a small travel trailer.  Years later, after the kids left home, my wife and I started backpacking and tent camping together.  Now that retirement is near, we want to do some major traveling and sightseeing around the country.  We decided to buy our Flagstaff PUP.  We love it.  After spending days in a backpacking tent, hiding from the rain, and sleeping on a hard ground, our PUP seems like a palace.  

I don't plan on going larger than the PUP.  It pulls so easily, and the gas mileage is tolerable.  To me, going larger would be moving too far away from camping.

[Mattman]

My wife and I are mid 40s, with a seven year old son.  We got a late start. I grew up mostly in Colorado camping only once every year or two, mostly in cabover campers or tents. It was more about fishing then camping. My grandparents had a TT and I got to go on a couple cool trips with them. I moved to California when I was 13 and got into backpacking pretty seriously through my teens but, the Army kind of cured me of that.

My wife grew up vacationing in hotels or cabins, she was not much of a camper. She and I camped (in seperate tents) several times with our church singles group while we were dating on mission trips to Mexico and one fun trip to Catalina. We have continued to tent camp since we have been married (12 years) but only about 6-8 times total.

I have toyed with idea of upgrading from the tent to a TT for a while.  I recently inherited a couple thousand from my grandmother who finally left us at 103 and amazingly still had a little left in her bank accounts. Some of my best camping memories were in my grandparents tiny TT so, I decided to start shopping for one.  It seemed a fitting way to spend grandma's money.

I initially did not look for a pup but in talking to friend who have TT and friends who have TTs and THs and friends who have pups.  I started to consider the pup as a better option.  Then two particularly windy drives out of the LA area over the holidays real made me question the whole TT thing. On one of those windy days my friend with a 22 foot TT opted to stay home and wait it out, stating a planned trip two days late.  I also compared the mileage two of my buddies get, one with a TT and the other with a pup, the difference was staggering.  

Enough history, we're in a pup now and so far loving it, this blows tent camping away. If we want luxury we'll stay in a time share, for camping, the pup is more than comfortable enough. If I was to upgrade, it might be to a Trail Manor, my best friend has one and it's mighty nice but awfully pricey.

[lpm]

Haven't been here in a very long time but I had responded to this post when it was first posted here.  There has been an update since I was last here. We have bought a TT even though we swore we would never get to that point but the set up plus problems we had with our last pup (a Starcraft Centennial) drove us to the brink.  We decided we weren't ready to give up camping yet.  We love the TT and can't wait for next spring to start our camping adventures again!

[utkayaker]

Maybe we have a similar heartbeat because I like backpacking and minimalist camping too, but I prefer a pop up.  We had (sold it but I am itching to get another one) a Coleman Niagra so it was quite large, but I liked it for many reasons -

You could haul it many places where you wouldn't want to take a big camper (e.g., over rough terrain)

It also had larger beds than many regular campers.

It also seemed to have about as much floor space as many campers.

Where we may differ a bit is camping at Disney - I have never been to Disney (shame!) but we did take our camper to the beach one time and it almost cured us of the desire to go camping.  The reason I say this is that it was the kind of camping that many seem to like to do - jam yourself into some large campground where there is only about 10 to 20 feet of space between your camper and the next.  When we walked out of our camper it was like a 100 acre yard sale with beach toys and towels and stuff scattered everywhere.  Plus we payed extra to be closer to the beach and what we got was a front door view of a big RV right in front of us.  As an extra bonus we got a lot of noise and traffic around our camper 24 hours/day and we got the heat baking down on our roof that it made the A/C seem inoperable.

We like to go camping with wider spaces and lots of trees.  (Maybe the Disney campground is like that???)

Great question and interesting comments!

[aw738]

Disney is not entirely like that. It is peaceful even though you can still see your neighbors.

[carapr]

I started camping as a child with my parents. At first it was a tent and we had loads of fun for about 5 years but there was 4 of us kids and tent camping was kind of hard on my parents. They bought a used PU and we had more fun than ever. Mostly used for sleeping and getting out of the rain. It was easy to tow and we went everywhere. They moved up one more time to a new 28" TT. It had all the comforts of home. It was big and hard to tow. Limited our trips to close destinations. We had fun but it wasn't really camping anymore. After I moved out of the house parents sold TT and stopped camping all together. After about 10 years I started hunting with my father-in-law in a tent. Once again fun but after a terrible storm getting everything wet and tearing the tent I decided to rent a PU the next year. While looking at the PU to rent they had a hybrid for $10 a day more and I decided on it. It was perfect, still had the feel of tent camping with the popout ends but nice furnace and all of that. Last year one of my uncles I go hunting with was selling his PU so I purchased it from him expecting to use it for hunting only. I talked my wife into going camping in March of this year and she loved it. My wife, daughter, son, son-in-law and I try to go at least once a month now. Everyone is having the time of there life. We keep adding creature comforts to the PU such as A/C, television, radio, etc. I plan to buy a hybrid next year. Having a bathroom appeals to the wife and daughter and being able to load and unload without raising roof appeals to me. For me the joy of camping is buy just getting away from the rat race. I like to have some of the comforts of home available. I don't always have to use them.

[4Campers]

What a lot of great stories here. Now that I've just spent the last hour reading I'm inspired to answer this post. I totally agree with the original author, however, on the point that camping is camping. We just all enjoy it in a different way. I started camping as a young teen with an aunt who was single and loved nature. First we slept in a tent, then she bought a used VW camper, then a new one. I always camped on and off since in many forms, from the tent to a class C. Now, my wife swears she was conceived in a pop up. Her parents were always big campers, and owned several pups as she grew up. When we started dating, we camped in a tent. After we got married and the kids came along, life was too busy to camp. Then we bought the Dutchmen. Despite all the troubles it's given us, we have a lot of great trips and memories in it. Now that the kids are older and rarely camp anymore, if we upgrade it will probably be to another pop up, but maybe one with an automatic electric roof!