An Overwhelmed Beginner's Journey
Hello there! After reading tons of great threads and info on this site for a few weeks now, this will be my first post. :) And while the topic of my first post is (as I’m sure has been the case fo...
Forum Discussion
Deb and Ed M wrote:DutchmenSport wrote:
No tent? Well, get a couple lawn chairs this week end, throw a blanket over them, outside in the back yard, and have the family sleep under it this Friday night! You'll have a blast!
We have that luxury, here in the Midwest!! However - the OP is from Florida.
Some of my Florida relatives came up to Michigan to visit. My niece was sitting on a blanket on the lawn, running her hands over the grass and remarked "I've never done this before". I asked "what, petting the grass? You have grass, too" and she replied "no, sitting on the ground. You don't have Fire Ants up here".
Reflecting on all the sting-y, bite-y things that live in Florida, I think I'd want to be in a pop-up ;-)
Boy did you read my mind on that one! The kind of things that creep around on the ground in Florida, you better believe I'm getting off the ground ASAP. I don't mind at least zipping up tight in a tent for the meantime, but there's NO CHANCE I'm sleeping on the ground without some kind of enclosure, LOL. We have these giant Wolf Spiders that hunt actively in the dark on ground level, and they practically are swarming in the area where I live. I can't take my trash out at night without one running past my feet. And I've come across plenty the size of a small plate with eight legs. No sir.
Okay okay, back to the F150. Maybe you guys are right, I shouldn't take it out of the running. In fact, my step-father owns a Super Cab F150 and my wife remarked how surprisingly roomy it is in the back seat when we rode with him once (including my son's car seat between us). My biggest concern there was the gas mileage, we both have longer commutes to work and tend to stack miles pretty quick. Also keeping cargo dry since, here in FL, the sunshine gives way to torrential downpours and back to sunshine in a matter of 3.5 minutes. But I get it, a bed cover will take care of that.
At any rate, sounds like my thought of leaning at least towards 5000 lb options only seems to be a big recommendation here, so I definitely think that sounds like a safe bet. I do plan on escaping up towards the mountains of North Georgia / Tennessee / North Carolina in some coming Summers, so the extra towing ability will help a flat-lander like me feel a little more comfy in those hills.
Thanks yet again for more helpful comments!
