It was an innocent question from a family member this weekend. This year we've been to national parks, moutains, civil war battlefields, 4 Great Lakes, sand dunes, and just down the street. We've toured submarines and freighters, rode horses, climbed rocks, visited aquariums, amusement parks, museums, festivals, air shows, boats locks and waterfalls. We've had sites where our door opened up on Lake Michigan and another site on a river. It was a great year. Words really seem inadequate. Or if you say it all, it seems like you're bragging. And a part of me wonders if someone would even believe us!So, "Where do you camp and what do you do?"

One thing I will say is that non-campers simply don't "get it". We get some strange looks from people we know when we answer this dame question. Some folks want to lay on a beach doing nothing for 5 days and I suppose that's OK, but there again, that's something I don't get. We're a lot like you, we like to see things. We hike, bike, play tourist and visit historical sites, lighthouses, and anything else that looks interesting. And sometimes we just sit around and relax. At the end of the day one of our greatest pleasures is sitting by a campfire.

I go to state parks, NFS sites and COE's and I mostly swim, burn cigars, burn wood, eat and relax but when something catches my eye I go exploring!

I agree that starting to answer their questions seems like bragging. Before we can succinctly tell them one half of it, their eyes glass over, and they act like: "sorry now we asked."As others have said, they just don't understand.

We go to the regular camp sites with electric and water mostly at state parks and city type camp grounds. Our real love however is the off-the-power-grid sites up along the Blue Ridge parkway out in the wooded areas of NC and North GA...This is how we love to camp with our OFF-ROAD POPUP setupI am right at home up behind Harrisonburg VA on the VA/WVA wooded State Line where I have to cross a rock bed creek to get there. No one there but us and the wildlife... We do run into some of the local JEEP CLUBs making there trail runs sometimes. They have a real nice nearby spot where we camp called FLAGPOLE KNOB...Our OFF-ROAD POPUP is all setup for long battery stays off the power grid but we are not die hard survivalists so to speak. We like our nightly watching HDTV before going to bed at 11PM. Also keep in touch with the kids, paying some bill online, and some surfing of the internet.My other hobby is HAM RADIO so that brings in a whole other big mess of equipment and time consuming evenings yaking with my RADIO FRIENDS...Our POPUP setup is just fine for us with all the modern comforts of home just is alittle short of move around room inside the POPUP. makes us spend more time outside.We are avid tent campers from the 60s and 70s so the POPUP trailer just comes natural for us... We would load up our Jeep and util Trailer and head out to the high country of AZ and NM with friends and have great times.Much like these GOOGLE PHOTOS taken in North Central High Country of AZHave pulled my off-road-POPUP all over Virginia to the Eastern Shore and down to Florida back along the gulf states shorelines as for West as Texas and Okla. Really love the high country of VA-TN-NC-SC-GA-AL in the Naltional Forest areas. All roads go through Gattlinburg TN on our trips both going and coming back...Roy Ken

When talking to our friends, we simply tell them it's a "lifestyle" and our way of traveling and seeing the sights. We prefer to stay in campgrounds with full hook-ups but do stay at water/electric only sites when we need to. Sometimes, our trips are for the purpose of sight seeing and exploring. Other times, we just like to camp and relax. And, there was nothing better than camping over my wife's birthday weekend with both of our sons and their wives.A lot of non-campers don't understand how nice campgrounds can be, and how we have just about all of the conveniences of home. And, I tell them I would rather spend the night in my trailer with my own bed and my own food rather than spend night after night in hotels and have to eat every meal at a restaurant.BUT....we shouldn't share all of our secrets...campgrounds are too crowded now! It has really changed since we started camping in 1984!

"Where do you go camping? What do you do?" | Good Sam Community

34 Replies

RoyB
Explorer II
Sep 30, 2014
We go to the regular camp sites with electric and water mostly at state parks and city type camp grounds. Our real love however is the off-the-power-grid sites up along the Blue Ridge parkway out in the wooded areas of NC and North GA...

This is how we love to camp with our OFF-ROAD POPUP setup

I am right at home up behind Harrisonburg VA on the VA/WVA wooded State Line where I have to cross a rock bed creek to get there. No one there but us and the wildlife... We do run into some of the local JEEP CLUBs making there trail runs sometimes. They have a real nice nearby spot where we camp called FLAGPOLE KNOB...

Our OFF-ROAD POPUP is all setup for long battery stays off the power grid but we are not die hard survivalists so to speak. We like our nightly watching HDTV before going to bed at 11PM. Also keep in touch with the kids, paying some bill online, and some surfing of the internet.

My other hobby is HAM RADIO so that brings in a whole other big mess of equipment and time consuming evenings yaking with my RADIO FRIENDS...

Our POPUP setup is just fine for us with all the modern comforts of home just is alittle short of move around room inside the POPUP. makes us spend more time outside.

We are avid tent campers from the 60s and 70s so the POPUP trailer just comes natural for us... We would load up our Jeep and util Trailer and head out to the high country of AZ and NM with friends and have great times.

Much like these GOOGLE PHOTOS taken in North Central High Country of AZ

Have pulled my off-road-POPUP all over Virginia to the Eastern Shore and down to Florida back along the gulf states shorelines as for West as Texas and Okla. Really love the high country of VA-TN-NC-SC-GA-AL in the Naltional Forest areas. All roads go through Gattlinburg TN on our trips both going and coming back...

Roy Ken
Dog_Folks
Explorer
Sep 30, 2014
I agree that starting to answer their questions seems like bragging. Before we can succinctly tell them one half of it, their eyes glass over, and they act like: "sorry now we asked."

As others have said, they just don't understand.
fla-gypsy
Explorer
Sep 30, 2014
I go to state parks, NFS sites and COE's and I mostly swim, burn cigars, burn wood, eat and relax but when something catches my eye I go exploring!
Campfire_Time
Explorer
Sep 30, 2014
One thing I will say is that non-campers simply don't "get it". We get some strange looks from people we know when we answer this dame question. Some folks want to lay on a beach doing nothing for 5 days and I suppose that's OK, but there again, that's something I don't get.

We're a lot like you, we like to see things. We hike, bike, play tourist and visit historical sites, lighthouses, and anything else that looks interesting. And sometimes we just sit around and relax. At the end of the day one of our greatest pleasures is sitting by a campfire.

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"Where do you go camping? What do you do?"

34 Replies

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