Do you camp out using a tent, pop-up, travel trailer, motorhome?

['TUDE]

So, what is your preferred method of camping out?

Often times, the places I like to camp are off the beaten path and tent camping is my main choice. I'll admit though, if there is a rental cabin anywhere nearby, my wife pushes that topic (some nonsense about hot showers and a bathroom with a roof) .

To me, tent camping can be just as comfortable as any other type of camping if the weather permits. We use the inflatable beds with frames and I sleep faily well even with a bad back.
There's nothing like sitting around a campfire late at night telling stories, and watching the kiddos drop out one by one heading for the tents exhausted.
My son often speaks of waking up to the smell of my cooking breakfast, saying that is one of his favorite things about the camping experience.
I also like to camp as close to the water as I can get if it be a fishing trip too.
It's amazing how everyone will unload out of the tents at o'dark-thirty when they hear dad catching fish.

[MACV]

Cabela's outfitter tent, Cabela's Military Cots, Cabela's shower with hot water heater, Cabela's camp kitchen. Not exactly roughing it but makes for very cozy camp.

[Muggzy]

it was always a tent and a truck load of gear, barely had room for the rest of the family. We always had a good time and everyone was always glad to get
back to a real bed when we got back.

I still have all the gear. The tent probably needs to be set up and waterproofed again.....seems like it's been many years since we camped out
as a family. hmmmm....it has been many years... 7 or 8

I wonder if my wife would like to go tent camping for our anniversary:rofl:

I have a new dog..(Muggzy) actually he is my daughters dog but I'm the one that feeds him and take him to the woods and.....picks up his crap:cry: heck..
he might be alright with it.

I always enjoyed it but as the kids got older it seems like everyone got too
busy to think about planning a camping trip.

I have a cabin (of sort) so that is probably the biggest reason we don't do the tent camping anymore.

Man....this is taking me back to the "old times".......lots of great memories

Thanks for bringing it up

['TUDE]

Mugzy, don't get me started on memories.

Not too long ago, I was talking with the kiddos about the way things were when I was a kid. For some reason, they love hearing these stories but afterward, think your from another planet.

Anyway, one topic brought up was road trips and camping. Oh, how my kids hate long trips on the road. They have to take an arsenal of gadgets and electronic games along so they won't "die" from boredom.

I reflected that when I was of like age as they, things were much different on road trips. The days before Pong were rough.
Being the youngest and smallest of the family, I had a special seat in the family's 1959 Impala. Some may remember this seat as "the upper deck" or "the shelf". I remember it as "the sunburn rack". Yeah, I'm talking about the shelf behind the back seat, next to the rear window. My provisions were a pillow and a few hot wheels. Crayons were banned from that area after a hot summer trip to Little Rock when my hair and pillow were fused together but that is another story.

Road trips were straight forward. There were to be no stops unless blood or vomit were present and those were on a case by case level anyway. All meals to be consumed on the trip were prepared and eaten while moving. No McDonalds or drive-thru delicacies for my dad. A cooler in the backseat (where I should have been sitting) contained all meals needed for survival, no matter how long the trip. A typical menu from this treasure chest may include (and usually did) bologna, mustard, cold fried chicken, shasta sodas in aweful flavors, and my dad's nasty tubed german liver sausage spread. I'll mention at this point that the bread and chips were always caried in the front seat between mom and dad. As for chips, I don't remember ever eating anything other than plain old 'tater chips. I think that's all there were back then.

Bathroom breaks. Oh my how I remember the torture of "holding it in". A boy had three choices if mother nature called on the road. Option one was to "hold it". Not much of an option where you are looking at another three hours before we get to our destination. Option two was to beg big sister to ask for a bathroom break for herself so you could use the chance to do "business" yourself. Now option three was tricky. This option was reserved for when big sister was pissed off at you because hot wheels kept rolling off the deck and onto her diary while she wrote or maybe she just liked to see me squirm. Now timing was everything with option three. This consisted of mom moving the bread, chips, map, and purse into the floorboard, making room for sister to climb over the front seat while I had to slide down from my perch, find the "emergency fruit jar" and do my business in the privacy of the backseat.
I'll tell you right now, that jar better be sealed as tight as you could get it afterward or else mom had you scrubbing the floorboard with powdered laundry soap and a brush. Oh, option 2 bathroom stops were never at a bathroom either. They were on some dirt road just far enough off the highway for privacy and enough room for dad to hit the gas 2-3 times while I was leaning up against the trunk relieving myself.

Roadside attractions. A rare occurance but often I would file away in my mind all the neat roadside stops that we usually passed on previous trips along the same route and begged dad to stop there before a new adventure started. This might include a Stuckey's (are they still around anywhere?). Remember all the cool stuff these places had? Big fat pencils with scenes on them that you knew your teacher at school didn't want you to use but all the kids in class thought was cool. How about the Indian drums, tomahawks, bows, coonskin caps, salt water taffy, circus peanuts, and the coolest rubber snakes ever made? Those are the things I thought were cool anyway and what allowance savings were made for. Now anyplace that charged admission like the rattle snake shops, backwater museums with mumified animals, and the like were off limits. The only chance we had at ever stopping at one of these places were if we had a flat on a biased-ply and needed a place to pull over and change it out.

Backseat fighting. Did anybody else get a three count before all heck broke loose? It usually started over the previously mentioned hot wheels cars rolling into my sisters backseat domain and not giving them back or when I had to flip myself around on the rear deck so my other side could get equally burned, almost always making my sister duck her head before my Converse tennis shoe grazed the back of her head. Now when the fighting would erupt, my sister was the queen of pinching. Not those little grab a little skin and squeeze pinches but the long fingernail grab and twist ones that always made me squeal like that Home Alone kid in the aftershave scene. Of course, by the time my mom whirled around or my dad adjusted his rear view mirror to see what was happening, my sister always composed a "what happened" look of innocence on her face all the while I am vigorously rubbing what's left of my leg. As bull-headed as I was and still am, I'd have to give my side of the story. I had a total of three seconds (a count of three) to say what I needed to convict my sister and to zip it.
After a count of three, a light brake tap was applied, just enough for me to loose my perch and kick my sister in the head trying to regain footing. After that, dad would train the rearview mirror on me for several miles. In reflection, I'm still not sure if it was for my own safety (to keep sister from causing more soft tissue damage) or to make sure I didn't "accidently" make another hot wheels slide into her.

Anyway, I could go on and on. I just hope I am not the only one here who has experienced childhood travels such as mine.

[Muggzy]

it always amazed me how dad could be driving down the road with 3- boys in the back seat and make the backhand pop in the forehead and get the right one:rofl:

All three of us were probably doing something we shouldn't have been doing
maybe that's why I think he got the right one.

[fastfreddy]

I prefer a tent that can be hiked up the trail but the family prefers the big tent that is driven to the "site". Come to think of it, it's been awhile since I've been on an extended hike.

[MACV]

I should have bought stock in Cabela's 20 years ago. I would have made myself rich.

[LV Hospice RN]

Ah, camping in the great wilderness...i did this mostly in Missouri but ranged as far as interior Alaska.

Now to me, "roughing it" means the Motel 6. I prefer the Marriott of course, but sometimes they just arent available.

Roasting marshmellows around the campfire? I prefer Scotch and Water, barside.

Outdoor showers? I prefer the four-headed one's at Marriotts!

The beautiful scenery? I will take the view over the pool, thank you...

A nature hike? I prefer the hike to the five star resturant, New York Steak please, medium rare, HOLD the steak sauce....

My how my wants and needs have changed over the years!!!

darrell
sin city

[Donut]

My dad never would take me on a tent camping trip. The story goes; dad and friends were going on a trout fishing trip. Dad gets the old two man tent out to let it air out. Mom says the tent is too dirty but dad didn't pay any attention. So dad goes out. During the night it starts raining really hard. The next morning when the buddies go to wake dad up to go fishing they find dad floating in the tent. Dad finds out later that MOM WASHED THE TENT!! Dad wouldn't sleep in a tent from that day forward.

[crcksht]

I'm strickly a backpacker and I like to save on weight. While I have a Walrus tent, I normally use a 9'x12' polyethylene wally-world tarp along with a closed-cell foam pad. The tarp is OK except in heavy winds. If I'm expecting really nasty weather I'll tote a USGI gore-tex bivy sack because I use a down bag. The bivy sack adds about 15 degrees to your sleeping bag rating and only cost $75 (as new) at a gun show. My friends usually bring tents. Road-side camping is lame.

[Treborer]

http://www.hennessyhammock.com/setup.htm

:smile:

[Bwana John]

I have been fortunate enough to spend 75 days on the beach in Baja California this year, its mostly car camping out of the back of by my pick up.
http://img86.exs.cx:81/img86/2589/gb4fl.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
One of my campsites on the beach
http://img22.exs.cx/img22/7729/sunrise5qk.jpg (http://www.imageshack.us)
This is a view of the sunrise while laying in sleeping bags looking out the back of the truck. I got to camp here for ~35 days
It just used to be primarly backpackpacking for me the wife and dog, but Im getting old, and like my toys (SCUBA, kayaks, ect..)

[44echo]

Originally posted by Treborer
http://www.hennessyhammock.com/setup.htm

:smile:
I have been planning getting one those for the last 6 months!
If tenting I use a ThermaRest 30" wide and 2" thick, had a narrower one but kept rolling of it.

[jaykden]

usually we rent a forest service cabin (quite a few around here) but they have zero luxury, basically just a roof, four walls and a wood or oil stove. i like tent camping but with all the brown bear we have around here, the gals will not stay in a tent unless we're out on an island. my cousin and i were down subsistence fishing for sockeye salmon and that night we anchored up the boat and slept in this "2 man" tent. it was this 25 dollar costco special and i felt like a sardine in that thing. the problem was, everytime he'd move, i'd wake up (i found out later he was sleeping right over log) i got one hour of sleep that night and that was when he went outside for lack of sleep. anyway, a few hours later we're back out fishing and see a large brownie fiddle-farting around close to the campsite (musta smelled the grease in the fire) i was feeling pretty good though because i was packing my franken-fal carbine with a 30 rnd bren mag loaded with hertinberger. oh yeah, we ended up with 20 sockeye.

[Deltaten]

While not necessarily a "minimalist", I try to camp with only what I can carry on my back. Tent only when bad weather is on the list; otherwise a tarp over/under.

In fact, even when we do a weekend at Dirty Mary's, I use the same med. ALICE and associated gear. I like cooking in a mess kit over an open fire. I like "cowboy coffee" cooked in a canteen cup. I like almost raw meat eaten with a knife, and "Hillbilly MRE's (thanks Byron. ;) )

THAT'S camping!

Tho...I do avail myself of Roger's (or is that his better half's?) chili, justa's fry pan offerings and Karl's well done grits; served under the big tarp/fly, on a picnic table, but..... I know I can do without. That's why I do it how I do.

O'course, the truck or someone elses's car are overloaded with guns, gear and ammo. :D

Regards,
Paul

[Rooster]

Since the places I like to camp are well off the beaten path, I prefer an ultralight tent or tarp.

[Shootability]

We used to tent camp pretty often - 2 kids and dog all together. Then we camped out in a huge thunderstorm with high winds and lightning - radio said tornadoes were in the area - dog was scared and wet - long night - 8 years ago and have not been in a tent since.

Cabins and hotels - want to try a motorhome.

[jerrymrc]

use to tent camp all the time. Now it is a small 16' trailer. Perfect for the wife and I. We dry camp at the range and the trailer is just perfect. I like the small trailer because it goes wherever the truck can. There is a small cabin at the range that I do get to use the old gear at in the winter.

[Para Driver]

.. the Kafue river camp, in Zambia... tea and toast before you shave, a dozen eggs and some fried venison for breakfast.. and the sound of hippos fighting in the riverbed, about 30 yards from your tent lulls you to sleep.... and sometimes a Lion roaring in the far-far distance, to just remind you how unimportant you really are...

[skfullgun]

The wife and I tent camp at Matagorda Beach (Texas) during the Fall and Spring. Twenty-two miles of fairly pristine beach with minimal traffic make it attractive in the cooler months. Summer-time brings too much traffic. We (me, Maggie, and the dog) prefer a 7'x7' dome tent. Anything bigger catches too much wind. I usually carry a propane tank with a distribution post for the lantern and stove. We don't usually do any surf-fishing in the Gulf, but prefer to fish the bay (I like to go floundering in the bay, but the Misses is too afraid of the stingrays to do any wading).

We also have a small pop-up that we take with us when we go hunting in the Winter, or camp in the heat of the summer (yes, it has A/C).

[Treborer]

Originally posted by 44echo

I have been planning getting one those for the last 6 months!
If tenting I use a ThermaRest 30" wide and 2" thick, had a narrower one but kept rolling of it.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neat piece of equipment, toss the pad, toss the tent and under three pounds.

Special forces use em I'm told.:angel:

[calavera]

Originally posted by Treborer
http://www.hennessyhammock.com/setup.htm

:smile:

With my luck I'd end up as a grizzly piñata! :eek: :rofl:

[Firestarter]

I love tent camping. A couple of years ago I was going about every other weekend. I have a favorite place that I like to go to that has a pristine creek with bluffs that rise on either side, plenty of mountains and waterfalls to explore and a nice CCC camping area that has a walk in turkey hunting area nearby. It isn't a park and so is very gunfriendly. A few miles from there is a Forestry service pistol and rifle range with the two being seperate. Beautiful country here in the Ozarks of Arkansas.

Note: I have been dying to go camping and have worked on my gear list all winter. I always try to gather stuff up at the last instant. This year all of my gear besides food is going to categorically packed in containers and ready to go.

Oh here is a picture of my JEEP brand tent that I found at a Sams club for $130.00 and I can't say enough good things about it. It is 12' x 15' Drytek material, has 3 separate rooms that you can undivide if necessary, has cup holders built into it, has what is called a vortex system which draws cool air into the tent from the bottom, comes with it's own mallet for hammering in the tent stakes, a case that has wheels, and is tall enough that even I can stand up in it without ducking (I'm 6'6"). Best of all my 5' tall wife can put it up all by herself. It is that user friendly. :biggrin:

The sides also zip down (pictured) so you can get plenty of a breeze during the day. I always have folks coming up and asking us where we got our tent. With 4 kids it is roomy enough for the entire family (sleeps 8 -10). (This picture was of one that is for sale on Ebay).


http://i12.ebayimg.com/02/i/03/8b/c3/85_1_b.JPG

[44echo]

Originally posted by Treborer

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Neat piece of equipment, toss the pad, toss the tent and under three pounds.

Special forces use em I'm told.:angel:

I need the one rated to 300 lbs I think so its a little heaver, but not much.
I have a Byers hammock now, i find it more comfortable than any bed, keep tryin to find a way to sling one in the bedroom.

Best tent I have right now is a copy of the excelent Siera Designs Clip Flashlight, mine is made by Eureaka, room for two and roomy for one, less than 4 lbs.
Just bought a Clip 3 and will test it in the yard soon as the ground thaws.

[WannaFal]

Weve been camping since we got married............couldnt afford to go anywhere else.
The last time we went in a tent was the weekend before 9-11. It was raining when we left home, when we got to the mountains and inside the tent after we put it up!
That tent had never leaked until that day and it was awful. The CG moved some reservations and put us up in their "cabins", which were Garden sheds from Lowes with bunk beds in them.
The next fall we saw a tiny popup camper in town 4 sale used. I went by and bought it the first week of Dec. Told the wife someone else got it. I was going to give it for Christmas. MAAAAANNNNN it was a cold Dec in our house, The Sun before Christmas I gave up and went and got it.
We went to Charleston SC for NewYears and stayed4 days, 6 people in an 8' camper.
It was "fun".
That was the only trip we took in it. The kids/wife liked it so much I traded up for a 12' Coleman popup that we tried to wear out in just 2 years.
We went so much that we were always putting up and tearing down in the rain so last year we got a 31' Four Winds TT.
We took it to Panama City Fl in March last year, and many more trips.
My goal in this camper business has been to get away from going to tourist traps.
For instance, weve always gone to Myrtle Beach SC every summer (even b4 camping) and took the campers too. We go to Gatlinburg, Stone Mountain, etc, etc.........
Ive been trying to get the kids to tire of these places so that we could go to places where we could do less spending and more outdoors exploring.
This year we are going for 10 days to the Fl keys. Hope to be sick of snorkeling by the time we leave there!!

[BUFF]

I got to love camping in the Boy Scouts. My wife's family camped from the time she was little. She grew up eating venison, game birds and fish and learned how to cook them from her mom.

I had a small orange vinyl 2 man pup tent I bought in college, and soon found it was a lot more pleasant to share with my wife than with various hunting buddies.

We replaced it with a 4 man Springbar tent for more room. We would pack up in my old '74 Bronco and go some cool places. There's an awful lot of Forest Service and BLM land in Utah and Wyoming that is accesible by 4WD roads.

That said, I have never had a really great night's sleep in a sleeping bag. In 1987, we bought a nice, new 3/4 ton 4WD Ford F-250 and a nice 10' self contained camper. We haven't used the tent anywhere near as much since. Yellowstone Park after school starts up in mid- to late-September is a great trip.

We spent an entire month in the camper a few years ago, 1998 I think. We drove up to Washington, into British Colmumbia and the Yukon and then the Alaska-Canada Highway. We wound all over Alaska, then got on the ferry/"Maritime Highway" and came down through the Inside Passage, stopping at the same ports the cruise ships do, finally ending up in Bellingham, WA.

Most of the time we use the tent now is when we go boat camping. Our favorite spot is Lake Powell on the Utah/Arizona border. Literally thousands of miles of shore. We will put in at a primitive ramp or at Bullfrog Marina, load the tent and gear into the boat (old 19' Chrysler I/O) and run a few miles up the lake and find a small side canyon to camp by ourselves. Far better than the crowded, noisy campgrounds.