The evolution of our lives as camping folk

[CajunCamper]

Our style of camping has changed over the years to fit our mood as well as the activities we participated in during our camping trips. But one thing has remained the same. Being in the outdoors on a family camping trip just touches our very soul and let's us know that we are where we are supposed to be.

When my wife and I first started camping we did so out of a need for an inexpensive get away. Being broke dictated that we tent camp in state parks near home which allowed us to spend a couple of nights away from home for less than $50.00. That was when 10 bucks would fill the car up with gas.

When our kids came along we introduced them to tent camping because we were really broke and they loved as much as us from the very beggining. We learned how to save on meals by going simple, (cereal or pancakes for breakfast, bologna sandwiches for lunch and hot dogs or hamburgers for dinner.) We learned a lot about camping and how to enjoy the outdoors. We also learned to work together as a family and to enjoy the time together building memories.

About 9 years after our first tent camping trip we purchased our 1996 Coleman Santa Fe (which we are still very proud to own) for the simple fact that we couldn't imagine a weekend trip or an extended vacation that didn't involve camping. The pop-up gave us the comfort of air-conditioning for those trips during the summer while offering us the convenience of being ready to leave on a trip at a moments notice.

During our early pop-up days we began to accumulate lots of gadgets and took along lots of extras to the outdoors. We bought our lobster tacky lights and because we are from south Louisiana told everyone they were crawfish.

Now 20 years after we started tent camping, we find that we combine  what we love best about tent camping and pop-up camping. We love the seclusion of tent camping, but now in our mid 40's enjoy the comfort of sleeping in our pop-up, so we select sites that for the most part are considered primitive but are large enough to set up our pop-up. This usually means no water or electric hook-ups but this is where we rely upon the skills we learned early on during our tent camping days. To us it's the best of both worlds.

Now we have gotten into kayaking and want to do an overnight kayak trip so I have been steadily purchasing backpacking gear for it's compactability and light weight for easy storage. We have already selected the campground where we can pull our pop-up into a primitive site and set it us as a base camp. We can then take off in our kayaks for a mile or two on the lake until we come to a backcountry camp area that is very secluded. We'll spend the day kayaking, fishing and swimming, spent the night in our newly aquired tent and then paddle back to the base camp late the next day. Now we've introduced a third element to our camping experience.

Camping is truly the time and place on this earth that I find the most peace. It's where I am recharged and where my mind goes when I need to find (my happy place). Most of my fondest memories were created with my family while camping together.

How has your camping evolved since you first started camping? I would love to hear your stories.

CajunCamper

[AustinBoston]

First off, that was an excellent post, Cajun.  Posts like that are the reason the campfire forum exists.

Much of our camping evolution has followed a path similar to yours, with a few twists.  Like you, we tent camped out of financial necessity.  As our family grew, so did our tents - until we had a 10x20 foot tent that would not fit on some campsites.  Along the way, we looked at pop-ups, but it seemed that when we were thinking about a pop-up, there was no money.  When there was money, it went to things other than a pop-up.  Meanwhile, pop-ups kept getting more expensive.  It was like chasing a carrot on a stick.

We introduced the kids to camping very early.  I think each of the kids camped at least once before their first birthday, and PJay (what a trooper) even went along at least once when 8 months pregnant.

I can remember one trip before DD#1 was one year old.  She would sleep soundly, but managed to keep crawling out of her little sleeping bag.  (Why we didn't just wrap her in blankets with two laywers of pjamas I don't know.  We were young and foolish.)  It was cold, so she'd wake up.  One of us would bring her into our sleeping bag and thaw out the ice cube that was our daughter, then put her back in her sleeping bag.  That went on every few hours all night.  But she never cried, she just accepted it.

We camped all over New England, New York, and into Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.  I'm probably missing some destinations along the way.

The next step was not evolutionary, it was revolutionary.  In 1999, on our drive home from our second trip to P.E.I., I brought up for the first time what became known as the "Long Trip."  That is a story I have told many times, but to make it very short, we decided to carry on a family tradition of PJay's family and take a trip across the USA.  But this was going to be much bigger; PJay's trip was 21 days, ours ended up being 56 days.

It didn't take long to figure out that tent camping that long (and in that many campgrounds) would not do.  We started looking at pop-ups.  We thought about when to buy, and ended up with a deal for a pop-up that was going to sit on the lot all winter if we did not buy it.  At the time (2000) it was the largest pop-up anybody made anywhere.  Of course, we also had to buy a van to tow it with, so in some ways it was not the deal that a smaller one might have been.

That trip changed us in ways that I doubt we will never fully comprehend.  It taught our kids to dare to do big things.  It broke me free from the chains of 14 generations of "staying behind when all others went west."  It gave us a sense of how big the country is, and, in some ways, how small it is.  It built into us memories and experiences that will last a lifetime.  If you say "the lone night buffalo" or "APRONGHORNANTELOPE" OR "J. T." or "vinegar pie," or any of several dozen other things - then a flood of memories come pouring out.  Even now, six years later, it brings tears to my eyes thinking about that trip.

Of all the things I have done in my life (and all the things I may yet do), the decision to make that trip when we made that trip was the best thing we ever did.  In just a few years, the girls were off to college and the trip was impossible.  A few years earlier, and we could not have afforded the scale, nor would our youngest have been able to really appreciate it.  

But now, we are looking at the next step, and we are back to evolution.

Our oldest has now married and given us our first grandchild; our second is getting married in the spring.  They live many hundreds of miles apart, and both are well over a thousand miles from us.  They will most certanly camp, and DD#1 and her marine husband have already taken DGD camping at least once.  But bridging the miles between them will be a significant obstacle for some time to come, and that's where we come in.

While we will likely continue to use the pop-up for a few more years, we are starting to look at hybrids.  Their parents can introduce them to tent camping, we will introduce them to trailer camping (and their own cousins, too).

The plan is, we would join one of our kids, camp with them for a weekend, then head for the other (with the grandchildren), to camp a few days with them.  Roughly, we would spend a weekend on either end with our kids, and spend some time in between those weekends with just us and the grandchildren.  Exactly how this would work, of course, would depend on the age of the grandchildren and how long they can spend away from Mom & Dad.  (I'm sure Mom & Dad will be glad for a few days without the kids, or at least those old enough to leave for a week.)  I have no doubt that for a while that will include their great-grandparents, too.

While all this could be possible with the pop-up, we believe it would work better with some of the hybrids we have seen.

I have little doubt that if we play this right, the sight of Noni & Grandpa's camper will bring joy and excited anticipation.  We will find out.

So although there has been some "leaps and bounds" along the way, it has been, and will continue to be, an evolutionary thing for us, too.

Austin

[wernstriumph]

What wonderful posts! Our camping evolution started out in tents for years. We camp with a group of friends, 2 of which had popups. We were satisfied with the tents until one Oct. trip it poured all night and into the next day. The weather radio said it wouldn't let up. We had a 2 year old at the time and it was cold wet and miserable. DW took the little one into our friend's popup for almost the whole day. At lunchtime, we were trying to set up a dining fly (more like trying to keep it from bowing into the next county) And DW came out of the camper and said," I THINK WE SHOULD GET A POPUP!"
We searched the classifieds and ebay and the local dealerships for a few weeks and finally got our Sun Valley (got it on ebay). Before the popup, we only went camping maybe twice a year. Since getting the PUP, we were camping every few weeks or so. We've gone from Jersey to Maine, and from Jersey down to Virginia. Lots of places inbetween too!. It's amazing how close we've become as a family. My older son always asks,"when are we going camping?" Even the little one now 3 and 1/2 wants to know when we are going in the camper. We still camp with that group of friends, but we do alot of "just us " trips. Sometimes we go sightseeing and sometimes we just RELAX. This year we plan on taking the PUP out to Montana to visit my parents.

[4Galvs]

Cajun,

Great post!

We started out tent camping with friends over long weekends near our home base of Chicago.  This covered many years BC (before kids).  Then after our DS '00 was born we took a bit of a break.   We went out for a short weekend with friends who had a popup.  The Monday following that weekend I was trolling the net for a used unit.  The rest as they say is history.  Shorty after finding a way too big showroom unit our DD '02 was born.  We took her, DS, and our Dniece '96 on their first trip in the popup in October.  DD was 5 months old!

We have had a bump or two along the way (we pretty much missed the 2005 season altogether) but we picked it back up again last year.  DN has been with us on most every trip since.  We headed out over a long weekend last June to the Finer lakes area in NY state.  We had so much fun we're heading East again for close to a week this year.

I'd like to get out for 6-8 weekends a year but life a has a bad habit of getting in the way.  I keep planning trips and we keep heading out.  So far the popup has worked out great.  But the darkside is tugging.  If I had room to store 30' of trailer at home I'd be pushing for a hybrid or TT in the years to come.

[SpeakEasy]

Wow; where to even begin?

I was raised in a camping family. We only ever had a tent, but one year, when I was in high school, we rented a popup for a trip throughout New England. That was memorable. I'll never forget the trouble my dad had towing it up the hills of Vermont. Or the time he stopped on a parkway just north of NYC to check the map and the cops had a fit that he pulled over where he did.

Because camping was a major part of my childhood, it was inconceivable to stop camping when I became an adult. Fortunately, my bride was agreeable. We received quite a bit of camping equipment as wedding gifts, and we included a few days of camping on our honeymoon!!

When the twins were babies we kept camping whenever we could. Like Cajun, it was a matter of money. This was the only way we could afford anything like a vacation. With Mrs. SpeakEasy at home with the kids and me working as a teacher in a small Christian school, there was never much money. One of the most memorable times was the one summer when we could only afford to get away for a four-day weekend. That was it for the whole summer. We camped, of course. And of course it was cold and rainy the whole weekend. Mrs. S and I still chuckle as we recall the twins asleep in the tent while we sat in the rain next to a campfire and listened to baseball on the radio.

In 2000 we made the plunge and bought our popup, and like others have said, it was revolutionary. We took a trip to Yellowstone that first summer, and just like AB said, the trip was the trip of a lifetime. I had ALWAYS wanted to drive across the US, but had never had the guts to do it. Now I accomplished (most of) that goal. I was and am dumbstruck by the geography of this country.

Since then we have taken many trips. We've reached the point in life where our daughters are on their own. However, our married twin and her hubby met us out in Colorado last summer for a week. That was awesome, because it proved that she really did enjoy our company and chose to be with us. In about six weeks she is going to give us our first grand-daughter, and she is already wondering aloud how and when we'll introduce her to camping.

I don't have as clear a picture of the future as AB has expressed, but I know that camping and family will be a major part of it.

I think one of the primary reasons for camping now is to get back in contact with nature's beauty and quiet so as to re-charge the batteries. (Not the 12v ones; the spiritual ones.)

-Speak

[CajunCamper]

Austin, in your post you said:

.......(That trip changed us in ways that I doubt we will never fully comprehend. It taught our kids to dare to do big things. It broke me free from the chains of 14 generations of "staying behind when all others went west." It gave us a sense of how big the country is, and, in some ways, how small it is. It built into us memories and experiences that will last a lifetime.)...................

Boy thanks for sharing that with us, I think many of us can say we have had the same kind of enlightenments in our lives while experiencing the wonder of a family camping trip.

I was just talking to someone today about an experience I had after reaching Taggert Lake in the Tetons after a nice little hike up the mountain. It was hard, it was risky, but the intimate viewing of those mountains and that lake are pretty hard to describe. It actually turned into quite a wonderful spiritual experience for me.

Camping and the adventures that go along with it has pushed me and challenged me to do things and see things that I may never have had a chance to see and experience otherwise.

One of the really cool things about family camping is that the kids were able to see and experience things that most non-camping kids only read about in school.

As I said in my first post we are presently combining elements of different types of camping as well as new activities and hobbies to our camping experience and it is really like discovering camping all over again. We are able to go to some of the same campgrounds we have gone to for years and now with us dry camping instead of sites with hook-ups we are actually enjoying parts of the parks that we haddened really experienced before. Also with the introduction of our new hobby of kayaking and kayak fishing, we are able to enjoy the lakes in a different way. It's like a fresh look on a familiar subject and it's really kind of nice.

Happy camping.

CajunCamper

[CajunCamper]

WOW is "haddened" even close to being a word. My bad. Just had to laugh at myself.

CajunCamper

[HouseInABox]

my husband and i both camped as children in different ways - me summer camp in rustic a-frames and girl scout camp my husband a truck camper with his 2 siblings and family just to local areas....after meeting and marrying we went camping with our in-laws sleeping on their living room floor being surrounded by trees and foilage and the sounds of the birds and most campgrounds the sounds of rushing water we deceided to plunge into the world of camping via the tent.

What a set up we had our large 2 room than 3 room tent with a tarp over the top which afforded us a nice porch and connection to our screen room.  A hard lesson learned during our first week camping as prior to that trip we only went for 2-3 day weekends we didn't realize we had to lift the air mattresses and they became moldy terrible couldn't get the smell out put them out for clean up thankfully someone else gave it a home! lol we travelled all over pennsylvania with our first daughter mixing educational with fun.  She and now our youngest are always excited when they study something in history that they have seen or participated in first hand!  I don't think people realize how economical camping is; in our journal we keep our beach vacations there as well and for the cost of a week to the beach we could go for 3 weeks camping out to dinner a few times and an amusement park or two..plus the knowledge you will sleep in your own bed.

After almost 10 years of tent camping with purchased our first used pop-up from a dealer with our income tax!  The next season we decided to add air and were told by the dealer it would be no problem, they installed and the roof kept collapsing after installation the last time we used it we went to lowes and had metal pipe cut down to size and with the help of the campground owners son raised the roof and lashed it to the support poles as we were there to camp for 10 days we made the most of it.  

Unfortunately we put camping on hold until a friend of my husbands wanted to get rid of their old family camper and they were particular with who they would part their old family friend --we were the lucky ones!

We take our nephew with us when we can and thats how i chose my name ..when he was little he always said he was amazed at our house in a box - gotta love kids!  Our youngest loves sleeping on the table bed and our oldest loves her cave and she closes up tight at night.  We have made many modifications adding a toilet and air.  We have always invited my parents to come spend the day with us as camping is not in their blood.  They enjoy the visit and steaks cooked over the campfire!

I think camping helps us to appreciate the world around us and want to help preserve the wonders.  It has brought history alive for our family and we have created our own histroy as well with wonderful memories our kids will talk about the rest of their lives we hope it will become a part of their families lives as well.
We love the expreiences so much so that for 2 weeks we camp close by and my husband commutes to work he loves it because he says he feels so refreshed every morning .....nature really does nurture the soul!  I think thats what draws us all whether we dry camp or resort camp the call to our hearts and souls is the same.  

As I write this I anxiously await memorial day weekend as that is always our first trip of the season.   I am already planning in my mind what menu to plan...happy camping!!!!!

[GeneF]

CAMPING, what is that?

I think I may have camped twice in Boy Scouts when I was a kid.

Then, with two kids, someone gave us an old tent camper (not a popup) and we haven't stopped camping in almost 20 years.

Added a lot to our family bonding and adventures.  Kids went to places that their classmates had never heard of and were able to write many of "What I did on my summer vacation" reports without any problems.

Trips of two days to 49 days occured with the kids and each one was an adventure both for the kids and the parents.  Ghost stories around the campfire, meeting new people, visiting historical and natural places just are "priceless."

Now that retirement is here,  DW and I are still at it and plan on going until I can't hitch the trailer up any longer.  Be heading out for 6 weeks on Wednesday for a warmer climate.  Hoping to head back out to Utah for a couple of months this fall.  Have to admit it, I am fulfilling my working dreams of retiring and doing some travelling.  DW and I both feel that we are two of the luckiest people because our dreams are being realized.  Life has and continues to be good to us.

The people that we have met on this Board and camped with over the years have provided us with a wealth of knowledge, friendships, and adventures.  None of which could ever be put on a MasterCard.

[cyclone]

I grew up camping as a child.  Our minister introduced my parents to the joys of camping.  They had this huge tent with no floor which my parents then borrowed.  (I really don't remember it, but I have heard many stories.)  One of our first trips was a big family camp-out at Whitewater in MN.  I was about 4 or 5, I think.  I'm not sure how many people fit in that tent, but my parents still talk about the water flowing between air mattresses one night when a good storm came through.  I think that's what convinced my parents to buy a tent with a floor!  The next summer (1963) we tented our way from Iowa to California and back.  Three weeks in a station wagon with four kids and a tent.  My parents must have been very brave.

They later bought a bigger tent and we camped often in Iowa State Parks.  We also took a couple of vacations to Colorado and the East Coast in borrowed pop-ups.  They bought a Wheel Camper when I was in high school.  Ah, the luxury!  They eventually sold it and we all pretty much stopped camping about the time I graduated from college.  

After a 10 year hiatus, my sister and I decided to go camping in the Smokies.  We are single with no kids, but thought it would be fun.  We borrowed a leaky tent and had a great time.  Which led to buying a tent of our own.  We probably camped about 3 times/year.  My parents retired and bought a used Palomino.  We camped several times with them in that Pal.  Then, my mom started having some health issues and couldn't handle sleeping in the pu any longer.  We bought the pu from them and finally got off the ground.  We still enjoy their company and they often will come out and spend the day with us if we are camping close to home.  Dad always cooked breakfast when we camped as kids - and he still will do that once in a while.  Now, we are in a newer and nicer pu and love it!  We may not be the typical family group camping, but it doesn't matter.  We are camping!  I am so very grateful that my parents instilled this sense of adventure in us.  

I found PUT long before we actually camped in a PU.  (Yep - that was me in that tent at the rally in the Smokies).  I'm with Gene - camping with PUT friends is priceless!

[dlwilliams]

I'm a newbie to the forum, but I'll jump in too.  I did a little camping as a kid with the Boy Scouts, but not a lot, and my wife had never camped.  One day back in the mid 70's my wife and I got to talking about camping, and next thing we know we bought a tent, other "stuff", and headed north to Ontario (from Alabama) to spend the next 2 weeks tent camping across the Ontarion Provencial Parks.  Quite an adventure.  Even though it was late May/early June, there were a couple of nights that were freezing cold.  We tent camped for a few seasons, then graduated up to a small Coleman pop up.  Used that for some years, then bought a new, larger Starcraft Starmaster in 1990. It was nice, had a shower, heater, A/C, water heater.  We used it once or twice, and I lost my job, so camping was put on the back burner.  We kept the camper all those years until the present, never opened it up for 14-15 years.  Then, year before last I went with a friend to a music festival in Kerrville, TX and stayed with him in his pop up.  Had a great time.  Last year he couldn't go because of an accident, and I wanted to go back.  So, with great trepidation, I opened up my PUP after all those years.  It was just like new.  Sure, I had to replace the tires, pack the bearings, do a little maintenance, but nothing major.  I need to get the A/C serviced because I thought it was working OK, but it wasn't.  Water heater works fine.  All the canvas is fine.  I took it to TX and used it for two weeks, and am making plans to go back this year.  My wife, who used to enjoy camping so much, doesn't seem to be interested anymore.  I'm hoping I can get her interested again so we can go on some weekend camping trips.  Time will tell.  We looked at some hard sided campers, but I only have a Tacoma V-6, and although it has a towing package, I think I might be pushing the limit for towing.  Plus, the PUP is paid for.

[PopUpMomma]

Oh my gosh, where do I start

[dademt]

Wow, with so many of you I can relate to my own upbringing.  
 
I started out camping with my parents.  Both were "city folks" who didn't know anything about camping other then it was a great chance to be a true family with little or no distractions and it was not that expensive.  When I was about 8 my parents got a pu and we did many years of that while I also was camping in a tent with Boy Scouts every month.  Years went by and a little break in the camping until my parents had the bug again but this time did a TT in a private campground.  
 
When I found my DW she had also done quite a bit of outdoor camping ( in fact she was part of a ground, search and rescue group at the time ) and enjoyed camping as much as I did.  Needless to say, we started camping right away.  One of the best tent memories was up in Connecticut when my 2nd DD was only a couple months old, we emptied the suitcase, lined it with blankets and let her sleep in that covered up nice and warm ( and not covered with the lid in case somebody thinks we are that nutty ).
 
Shortly afterwards we got our PU and enjoyed that for two years.  This last summer our house got flooded while we were away camping.  It was then that I had wished we had a camper with a bathroom and such that would have helped.  So finally during one of those " we are stressed and to $%&& be the finances, we purchased our TT.  With the 3 kids it just works easier and it gives me a piece of mind knowing we have a backup.
 
Getting back to my parents, they got rid of their TT years back but after watching us with our PU, the bug hit them again and now they have a class C.  
 
With all this being said, the family time alone and the time with new and old friends is just priceless.  We camp every year at least once with my parents and we have a few friends that we do special trips with.  While searching for the PU i came across this website and I still remember Tracy welcoming me and being persistant enough so that I finally came out.  Now I have found a whole new set of friends that I could not imagine being without.  That includes not only those I have camped with but also those on this website who truely have become near and dear to my heart.
 
Well to wrap up, camping has become so important to my DW and I that we are considering moving south and closer to the mountains so we can camp easier without having to always spend the first 1-2 hours getting out of the metropolitain area we are in.  Lord willing, we will be somewhere near the blue ridge mountains or something like that over time.
 
I guess to me camping isn't about how as much as the family, friends, and Nature/Spiritual time you get that otherwise you would miss.  There is nothing that can replace those things.

[ilovecamping]

I have been enjoying all your posts and they brought back many memories.  I too started out in tents and even remember selling our under dash A/C to go to Branson one year.  We had to take the motorcycle to save on gas and used a tarp with sleeping bags to camp.  We had a wonderful time.  We went through many tents and finally we went camping one wknd and as soon as DH got the new 2 room tent up I was inside making the air mattress bed and it started to sprinkle and the rain came in at every tiedown.  We piled all we could on top of the air mattress and slept in the van.  DH and I had the back seat folded down to a bed and the 2 kids were on the floor.  We dealt with rain, mud and wind all wknd and finally when we couldn't even light a stove to cook on, we packed up and went home.  Not long after that we purchased a small 78 Starcraft pup and went right on camping.  We enjoyed the pup but it was small so when DH found a 74 Starcraft pup that was the largest we thought it was a castle.  We let the 2 kids and their friends have the pup and we continued to sleep in the van.  When DD turned 16 she no longer wanted to camp so we let her stay home with her older sister and we moved to the pup with our DS and his friend.  We spent 8 years in that pup and loved it but it started having problems so we went out in Feb of 05 and bought a new Flagstaff pup with a pottie/shower and a slide out dinnette.  We had so much space and took it to Branson, and GA and had it full with family and friends.  This was also the year that our DS decided not to camp with us much as he was then working and had a GF.  It was just too much for DH and I to set everything up and load and unload so we traded it for our HTT in Oct of 05.  We spent quite a few wknds in it that fall and 65 ngts in it last year.  We took our first long vacation and did 9 states in 17 ngts and almost 3000 miles.  Our oldest DD went with us as well as our 3 yr old DGD.  We saw so many things and places that we could not have imagined and allowed DGD many experiences like swimming in the ocean.  DH had his second heart surgery in Jan of this year and he really wants less to set up and no more climbing over to get in bed so we are trading our HTT for a TT.  They ordered it last Wed and it should come off the line the first week in April.  We are already planning a trip to TX to visit a couple of friends we haven't seen in almost 13 yrs.  We are hoping to go to FL in the fall but finances will determine if that happens or not.  Our DGD was out over 40 ngts with us last year and is already asking when we are going camping again.  She is missing it as much as we are and we can't wait to get back out there.  Camping was and many times still is the only way we can afford to go the places we want.  It is by far our first choice for sleeping arrangements when vacationing and is much more comfortable that hotel rooms.  We can relax and enjoy the outdoors so much more and hope to continue to camp for many years to come.  Our DS and his GF still camp and have a tent and all the gear.  They don't really want a camper at this point in their lives and I admire them for going and roughing it and enjoying the outdoors.