Just how long have you been RVing or camping or both??

[LEN]

I started camping at as soon as I can remember tents, Ice chests, white gas lantern and no air mattress to start with. In 62-63 dad and I built a camper(slide in) as dad said I can do what those factories are doing only better. Built from the inside out with very little 12 volt and even less 110 volt. Gas , stove/oven, hand pump water and recirculating pot with a gas light and an Adams furnace then the aluminum skin over the outside but none of the fancy kind(WE didn't need that). Even Elk hunted in it back when there was no global warming and the temps reached into the low single digits, and that was inside the camper. But it was warmer than the wall tent. This is in the 55-58 years range and lots of miles.

LEN

[C Nash]

Wife and I started in 67 in a tent but I had spent many nights before that on a creek bank with my teenage buddies fishing. Lot of great memories. Well some were not to great like the time me and the buddies decided we would swim from one year to the next . Jumped in the creek at 11:59 PM and out at 12:01 AM. Laid in bed for a week with NM It gets cold in Alabama last of Dec. and no we was not loaded. Strongest thing then was rabbit tobacco

[SnowbirdInFlight]

<p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="comic sans ms,sand">DH was born camping I think, lol. However, I got a late start and didn&rsquo;t start until around age 24. We actually went sort of backwards as we started out with a truck camper (slide-in) and then went to a tent, then a very small TT, and now our 38&rdquo; TT.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="comic sans ms,sand"></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="comic sans ms,sand">I remember the gas lanterns too and the wonderful campfires. When the kids were young we had an old metal washtub and we had a camper top on our truck. I put curtains/covers over the windows. Then we took the washtub and filled it around &frac34; full of water and set it on top of the big campfire. We heated the water until it was bath-comfortable and then would set it in the back of the truck and take turns taking bathes, lol. Wasn&rsquo;t the Ritz but was fun and felt good to get clean!</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="comic sans ms,sand"></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="comic sans ms,sand">Another thing we did one summer when it was extremely hot was to go to Wally World and get a small child&rsquo;s swimming pool. It was about 8 foot across and I think about 18-24 inches deep. It was the kind that you just fill up and it supports itself. We filled it up and with the hot sun it wasn&rsquo;t long before the water warmed up. The kids really enjoyed it and even Jim and I got in and cooled off! We didn&rsquo;t have A/C then. Well the next day as we drove around the campground we noticed that about four other campsites now had the same pool we got! No one had them before we did, so I guess they thought it was a good idea too, ha-ha.</font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="comic sans ms,sand"></font></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><font size="3" face="comic sans ms,sand">My favorite thing is cooking outside, especially breakfast! Nothing like the smell of bacon cooking early in the morning at the campground. Ahhhh, memories!</font></p>

[rjf7g]

I grew up tent camping with the family. We hit a period where we did the hotel thing, but the first summer I had a "real job" (defined as "not the same job I had in high school") bought a big tent and I convinced my parents and my baby brother to go tent camping again. We went to Blackwater Falls in WV and had a blast. Later that fall, we talked my older brother and his wife in to going with us to Sherando Lake in Lyndhurst, VA. They had such a blast, they bought a pop-up and started camping one or two weekends every month. I had to buy a smaller tent so I could set it up myself and enjoyed tent camping alone or with a friend here and there. Then, I became part owner in a pop-up as I entered in to a relationship. I am in the same relationship, but it is one other pop-up, a travel trailer, a park trailer, and a class C later. On most nights, I would jump at the chance to sleep out in a tent again, though.

[C Nash]

Becky the wife and I decided several year back that we wanted to go tent camping again so we got us a little two man tent and left the TT we had then at home. We went to the Blue Ridge Parkway for two weeks. After a bear walked around the tent snorting and bones acking so bad when we got up in the mornings we decided our tent camping days were over. Haven't tried it anymore but sure have fond memories ot tenting days.

[Darlin]

My dad , now retired army, bought a pop up. Us kids thoght we had arrived. 4 kids , 1 dog & 2 adults. We did not spent too much time in it but as a kid it was better than a tent. As the years went by we graduated up to a TT. I left my parents home and a few yrs later I met Honey.

Just after Honey & were married our youth group (14-17 yr olds)needed extra chaparones for their camp out at the beach. So we volunteered. We arrived fri late afternoon, set up the tents, seperate one for the girls & the boys. We cooked out & had a campfire going, It was great. About midnite it started to rain & continued all weekend. BUT we were at the beach & the kids did not care. We got back late Sunday, soaked, sandy & sore.

We decided then we loved camping but we were not tent people. GOD Bless all of you that are.

Darlin

[730]

well i started out spoiled i guess ,, i was prolly 4 or 5 and dad had a conversion van ,, with fold down bed area and a couch ,, and we did the white gas thing ,,, everything was done on the coleman stove ,, and lights also ,, then moved up to a slide in for a pick up ,, now that was nice ,, but still had no john or shower ,, used a porta potty ,, and we did have a on board stove ,, but no refer ,, then came the first class A ,, man what a diff ,, but didn't have roof a/c ,, and no genset ,, the bathroom was the shower ,, the whole area ,,, then came the next class A ,, now we were up town ,, one a/c unit ,, and genset ,, then the next class A which i own now ,, and a DP ,, which was the way to go back in the early 90's diesel was cheap then

[rjf7g]

Chelse-
That might do it for me, too! I just have such fond memories of tent camping (of course, I was younger then) and the seasonal camping I do now is very different. I am hoping to win the lottery and hit the road, but that plan isn't working very well.

[jetboat]

i started out going with my grandparentsin the 50's.when i got married,and couldnt afford those fancy vacations,we got a camper for the truck.then a 12'trailer,6 trailers later,a couple trucks later,wenow have the a f-350,35' 5th with all the full timer items.now my kids are getting into the pop ups.

[cwishert]

Well I have been camping since probably the summer I was born. We didn't have a camper or a tent, we just slept in the back of the Rambler station wagon. Mom and dad would stay out on the pier all night fishing and then we would head back home when they got tired. We only lived about 30 minutes from thier favorite spot. After that my dad rented a few pop ups and I have a few stories about that but that's another thread all together. Then in Jr High they bought a conversion van with all the amenities except the toilet which they purchased a porta potty. We would just get a blanket and wrap it around us if we were on the road, otherwise we would run everyone out to go. My dad hauled us three kids and at least 4 others all over around the Gulf coast areal of Texas. We had a blast. After that van, my mom decided it was time for a bay house so we sort of quit "camping". But after I got married, we have been camping for the past 25 years, sometimes in tents, sometimes in someone elses travel trailer and now in our own motor home. We love camping. Can't wait until I can come and go as I please. :bleh: