Welcome Martorious and other newbies!!

[brainpause]

Marty,

Just wanted to publicly welcome you to PUT!

To everyone else, Marty is an old friend of mine. It is funny what roads helped us "meet" online again.

Marty and I were both firefighters in Ashland City, TN, for a couple of years together. Life changes for Marty took him to Indiana, and then I got married and moved away from Ashland City.

Well, Marty stumbled across my webpage, and Voila!, here he is!

Marty has a big family, so those of you that sleep several people in a small trailer, I'm sure he will be up for some advice! He and his family are some of the nicest people, but campers tend to be that way!

Once again, Welcome to all our newest members!

Larry

[tlhdoc]

Hi Marty and welcome to PUT.  Please tell us about your self.

[Martorious]

Thanks Larry et al for the warm fire and welcome!!
 
Like Larry said, I have a goodly size family!  
DH '65 (Me!)
DW '74  Stephanie
DS's '95 Spencer, '98 Jacob, '01 Ethan
and last but definitely not least DD '04  Abigail
 
(I finally found out that the 'D' in 'DH' etc stands for 'Dear', and here I was thinking that it meant 'da', as in da husband, da wife, etc!!!  :J  )
 
I am a novice/noobie when it comes to camping.  We're looking to purchase our first Pop-Up in late winter/early spring next year so I've been doing some research and found PUT and decided to tap the wisdom of those whose footsteps we will be following.  Larry has helped me immensely since I've re-established contact with him, and he's pointed out several pitfalls that any newbie should look out for, so I'm already indebted to him beyond my ability to pay back!
 
As for a little about myself, as Larry said I was a firefighter in Ashland City, TN for about 6 years as a volunteer, during which time I found out that I really liked working as a 911 dispatcher for our county's Emergency Dispatch center, so I've turned it into a career.  We moved to Indiana in 2002 and I currently dispatch for a Big Ten Universities' Police Department.  The pay isn't anything spectacular, but it pays the bills.  Most of the time.  LOL.
 
I met Stephanie and we got married in 1992, we've been best friends and soulmates for over 12 years now, with 4 wonderful kids that are constantly teaching me things ( and here I thought it was supposed to be the other way around!)  We just welcomed our newest child home in April.  Out of the four, it looks like she will be the only one to get my brown eyes, but we're still not sure as they seem to change color every day.
 
Well that's the basics, anything else you want to know, just find my site next spring and pull a chair up to the fire and I'll regale you with stories of my early life, but be sure to bring plenty of coffee as it may put you to sleep! :morning:
 
Marty

[Kelly]

Welcome, Marty!

I'm one of those people who sleep several people in a small trailer!!  I'm a single mom with 4 kids ~ 3 DDs & 1 DS.  We currently camp in a 10' Palomino, but will be in the market for something else next camping season.

My best advice for camping with lots of kids ~ Keep it Simple!  At least that's what works for me  

You'll get lots of good advice here ~ don't be afraid to ask ...

[vjm1639]

Welcome! It's great to have new people around!  You'll find answers to about anything you need here. The folks are terrific!

[Martorious]

Welcome, Marty!
 
I'm one of those people who sleep several people in a small trailer!! I'm a single mom with 4 kids ~ 3 DDs & 1 DS. We currently camp in a 10' Palomino, but will be in the market for something else next camping season.
 
My best advice for camping with lots of kids ~ Keep it Simple! At least that's what works for me
 
You'll get lots of good advice here ~ don't be afraid to ask ...
 

Yes, Keep It Simple,Stupid has been our motto for a few years now!  We're looking at several of the state parks and reservoirs near us, and the way we've got it figured, we could probably camp for a couple of years and not stay in the same place twice and all in the central Indiana area.
(I'll be a good PUTer and review the campgrounds  )
 
Speaking of new Pop-ups, I'm looking at a 1971 Starcraft 1220 which is on a local dealers lot.  I say 'looking at' loosely since so far it is sight unseen.  But the price seems right.  (I'm expecting it to be a fixer upper, as long as it's structurally sound I can fix/replace everything else.)  Does anyone know where I can find info on that year model?  I googled and there seems to be no reference to that year pop-up.  Also any pitfalls that a buyer should be aware of when buying a used pop-up?
 
Thanks for the warm welcome!  
(if there is a better place to ask those questions, please let me know!)
 
Marty of the Six Musketeers!

[Firefyter-Emt]

Hey, welcome here too... You are not alone with the family of 6. We have 3 sons and a baby girl. some interest in former line's of work as you may of guessed.  and I am sure if you are a friend of Larry's you must be a good guy (well, that and the FF background!) Hope I meet up with you someday and take you up on some of those stories!!

[birol]

Martorious,

I recently got a 1968 Starcraft in resonably good shape and it was the best decision I have made in recent years. Check it out for structural damage and grab it if the price is right. Mine is built like a tank and all the systems seem to be so simple that even I can understand them.

With the help of Lee  we put a new roof on it, and I am now confident enough to refinish the lower section at home. For the kind of money I paid for it, it is well worth it to invest more on it and make it a nice camper.

[brainpause]

Marty,

Birol was the first one I thought of when you posted about the 71. It was an event bigger than imaginable here at PUT, when Birol bought it.

Anyway, Birol has some good starter advice. It seems that whenever we see an older camper at a cg, it is a Starcraft. It has become a joke with me and Holly. What kind is that older camper over there? Starcraft!!![/b]

If the canvas is in questionable shape, budget $500-800 or so for a new canvas. Having worked at the Saddle Shop, I know you are handy enough to take care of the rest. That is part of the fun anyway: fixing it up the way you want!

Larry

[Martorious]

That was our thoughts.
Originally we'd budgeted about 2500-3000 to buy one next february when the tax check comes in, but this way we can get the camper now, and if it needs anything major we can use the money originally budgeted for the pop-up to buy canvas, fabric, fixtures and such.  I figure conservatively we could redo the majority of it for less than 2k with us doing the majority of work ourselves.
 
My only concern is that it shows evidence of a prior roof leak.  The dealer stated it was raining the day he took these pictures and it wasn't leaking then, so apparently the leak was fixed, either that or it is a 'severe weather' only leak.
 
I haven't seen it yet, but the dealer emailed me some pics, I'm going to look at it Friday on my day off.  If all works well I will be bringing it home then as well, now to come up with a suitable name for it....
 
Any way, check out the pics here and let me know if I'm crazy or not!
Marty's Webshots

[birol]

your link to the pictures is not working ...

[brainpause]

I got the pics to work for me, Mr. B.

Marty, this looks like a decent find, of course depending on the price they are asking. The roof can be fixed also. I think you asked a valid question on the last(?) picture: Wonder what's lurking beneath the carpet?

The canvas looks good, though!

Larry

[MommaMia]

your link to the pictures is not working ...

B~  I can get it to work just fine.

[Martorious]

your link to the pictures is not working ...

I had some trouble with it at first as well, but webshots says that it takes 30 minutes for some updates to be finalized and I was still moving/editing things so that may have been the cause.
 
Try again birol, since you have a similar situation with Finally, I was really looking forward to your two cents worth.
 
 
edit:  Just tried the link in my signature and it is still having problems.  But then I refreshed it and it worked fine.  B- just keep trying, it'll open up sooner or later.

[birol]

Ok, Ok, stop hitting me, it now works for me too    :p

This looks like exactly like my camper !!!! Please buy it if it is in good shape you will love it ! Maybe we can camp together once ! It will be just great !!!!

You got the closet, that is great ! I would keep it, storage in this PU is next to nothing ! Turn it into a storage compartment maybe ?


I was looking at and I got this :



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