How did you begin this hobby?

36 years ago, we started with a teeny, tiny tent and headed to the Shenandoah Mountains, VA at every possible opportunity during the spring, summer and fall, along with our children, who were, 5 & 6 at the time. We continued tenting, with pleasure for 4 years, and then splurged on an ancient pop-up which we purchased used from friends for $500 – we named it the Taj Mahal (as it seemed about as grand to us) and towed it with our antiquated Chevette, returning mostly to the mountains for weekend jaunts. Then our children got involved in sports – soccer & swim teams, their activities monopolizing any free time we might have had, and our careers blossomed, demanding more of our time and energies. We didn’t camp for over 23 years. By then, our children were off on their own, and our careers were not as all encompassing. It was time for us! We bought a Coleman Pop-up, which served us well for 3 years, as we took weekend trips on the Skyline Drive and Blue Ridge Parkway and summer vacationed in NH. We loved the spaciousness of the pop-up bunks and the feeling that we were really close to nature, but it inevitably poured rain just as we were “popping down” and stocking up with supplies was difficult as we had to keep most everything in back of our SUV, not to mention that we now had time to take longer trips. In 2006, we gave the pop-up to our son, and bought our first trailer - a 16’ Fun Finder. We were in heaven! Frig, AC, heater, small bathroom and enough bunks to take our grandchildren with us occasionally. That little Fun Finder went everywhere – Florida (for over a month), OBX, all the Mid-Atlantic & New England States, Quebec, New Brunswick PEI, Nova Scotia all the way to Cape Breton – over 10,000 miles, towed by our Toyota 4Runner. In 2012, we moved up again, giving our Fun Finder (still as good as new) to our daughter. This time, we bought a used 2011 Shadow Cruiser – 23’ with a real bathroom, a queen size bed, large frig, oven, etc, etc. It’s a keeper, serving us well for trips up and down the eastern seaboard, and back to Canada. We stayed in it happily for 2+ months this last winter in FL, and will again in 2016 (God willing).

All units, with the exception of the teeny tiny tent are still in use by our family. We are about to leave for our annual Family Camp in the Shenandoahs. What fun it is to see our 3 units – the Coleman; the Fun Finder and our Shadow Cruiser all in a line, occupied by our children and grandchildren. Happiness Personified!!!!

Dog Folks wrote:
My darling wife led me down the "camping" road. When we were dating in 1972, her mother allowed me to accompany them on the first trip of the year. My wife's mother was an avid camper and camped most weekends when the weather would allow. We went to a local state park, in a truck camper, and proceeded to set up. It was the very first trip of the year and the camper had been in storage all winter. My future mother in law started the refrigerator on propane. A bird's nest in the flue caught the camper on fire! Not a great introduction to the world of camping. The camper was ruined and no camping took place that weekend.

A year later, we married, and with the very last of our wedding cash, bought a tent, and some supplies for camping. As is the case with many camping couples, we “upgraded” as time went on. We had a series of tents, a truck camper, a pop up camper, and four different travel trailers during our working life. Each unit was a little bigger and more complex.

So I started camping to be close to my wife. After 42 years of marriage, I still want to close to her. We now full time.

Kudos!

It's stories like this that still gives me hope the world is going to be ok. :C

We own a couple of motocross tracks, always stayed at hotels for events. Saw my clients/friends in TT's/Motorhomes and figured one day I'd get one. Wanted to keep it at the track, didn't want to pay "storage fees" so I pulled the trigger in 2011 and bought my Wilderness Lite on Ebay for $2500. Drove to Reno Nevada from Mission Viejo, CA and picked her up ! Used her a few times at the track, but now want to take her all over the West Coast for fun. Been spending the last year modifying her and upgrading her =)

What she looked like when I picked her up:


Her insides:


And what she'll look like when we are done with her this summer:

Other half ALWAYS wanted to go to the coast...Port A Texas. She has been going there since she was about 4 years old. She would always tells me at the last minute...Let's Go!!! I own a statewide moving company and the weekends are our busiest times. It was not convenient time wise at the last minute. It was also next to impossible to book a hotel the day of or day before.

We went to a "show" to look at TT's and we liked what we saw. On Labor Day of 2014, a dealer was open (Sunday) and I said, Let's Go Look. I had already secured financing (which she didn't know about) and we went looking. She fell in love with the Jayco White Hawk UltraLite 29REKS. Went inside and started talking deal. Got the deal done and looked at her and said...start making reservations. She didn't believe me that we had just purchased the thing. That was That!

I did a little tent camping when I was a child and have always been enchanted by wilderness but never was much interested in camping as an adult and instead was busy working and taking hotel vacations to exotic SCUBA diving locations. When I retired and let my mind roam to find things I would enjoy doing, I developed a persistant fantasy of traveling with my dogs in a large class A to state and national wilderness areas. I say fantasy because it is not something I would ever do as a single senior woman because it involved too much work and maintenance. Part of the fantasy was having a chauffeur/handyman along. After some years, following a drawn-out health scare that ended very well, I decided to find a way to rethink my fantasy into something that I could actually manage. I decided a smallish class C was doable. So for the first time ever I drove off the lot in my new Itasca rig and began to have the wilderness adventures I fantasized. It's a challenge and a joy that greatly enhances my retirement.

My darling wife led me down the "camping" road. When we were dating in 1972, her mother allowed me to accompany them on the first trip of the year. My wife's mother was an avid camper and camped most weekends when the weather would allow. We went to a local state park, in a truck camper, and proceeded to set up. It was the very first trip of the year and the camper had been in storage all winter. My future mother in law started the refrigerator on propane. A bird's nest in the flue caught the camper on fire! Not a great introduction to the world of camping. The camper was ruined and no camping took place that weekend.

A year later, we married, and with the very last of our wedding cash, bought a tent, and some supplies for camping. As is the case with many camping couples, we “upgraded” as time went on. We had a series of tents, a truck camper, a pop up camper, and four different travel trailers during our working life. Each unit was a little bigger and more complex.

So I started camping to be close to my wife. After 42 years of marriage, I still want to close to her. We now full time.

As a kid I used to use an old hand me down sleeping bag and throw it in the back yard. My parents bought me a small tent, when I got older I was a Boy Scout. I have camped, fished, hunted all my life. Got married, wife said, Potty needed!!! We bought first pop-up, then TT, then bigger TT, and now own a 5th wheel. I cannot imagine not enjoying the outdoors. By the way, when hunting I stay in old hand me down pop-up. Works just fine for me and buddies.

I grew up through the Scouting organization, and so was tent camping, backpacking and canoeing for all of my adolescent and teen years. That continued into married life, introducing my wife and children to the joys of camping. So, this is not a hobby as much as it is a lifestyle.
For a few years we even owned and operated an Outdoor store, selling backpacking/canoeing, clothing and gear.
Eventually we graduated to pop ups (several of them over the years) and then to the travel trailer scene when a neighbor had a TT for sale at a price we couldn't refuse.
We still have many fond memories of the tenting, and pop up days, but at our ages, (especially mine) the TT scene is the way to go. We still refuse to camp in the side-by-side, one on top of the other urban campgrounds, and would rather stay home. We always go to the Provincial Parks, or the more "rustic" State Parks that we can find in order to get more privacy, and be closer to nature, even though we are in our air conditioned, umpteen thousand dollar TT and TV.
We used to shake our heads at rigs like ours and wonder how it could be called "camping", but now we get it! :)

We had never camped at all, but we were avid hikers sick of dirty motels and bad food. So in our early 50s, we bought a little used trailer as a mobile motel room, just as an experiment. If it did not work out, we would re-sell the starter trailer.

As it turns out, this hobby has taken over our lives, in a good way. We camp between 60 and 80 nights a year. Because we got a 4 wheel drive SUV (and later a truck) for towing, we go places we never could or would have gone. We boondock in remote areas of the national forests, miles away from any other person, for days at a time.

When we realized we were hooked, we sold our starter trailer and bought a new one, outfitting it with a lot of boondocking modifications.

Our only regret is waiting till the kids were grown to start trailering. On the other hand, the privacy is delightful -- it's just the two of us in our "rolling empty nest!'

I am an Eagle Scout and my father was my Scoutmaster, so we did a LOT of camping when I was a kid. Our family also couldn't afford expensive vacations, so we would go tent camping during the summer. As I became a teenager, my parents bought a Nimrod PU, which was nothing more than beds on wheels, but it was a huge upgrade to tents on the ground.

Before we had our first child, we camped in a tent on a site where my in-laws had a beat up old TT. After we had our first daughter, we decided it was time to get a PU. We ended up owning 3 PUs over the next 15 years, each time upgrading with a bigger unit with more options. 10 years ago we made the move up to a base 24' TT. 2 years ago we upgraded again to a 28' TT with a big slide and many more options, we LOVE this unit, and plan to have it a very long time. In addition to our many trips to various campgrounds, we are now debating placing the unit on a campsite at the Jersey shore for all of August. We've never had a unit anywhere for more than a week, so this would be interesting.

Ironically we know no one that camps or owns an RV now. Everyone rents shore houses or goes to hotels and resorts. But when my extended family goes to the Delaware shore for a week in July, they rent a house and we bring the TT and stay at a campground nearby. This gives us our own homebase, beds, bathroom, and a place to get away from all the drama. And it also costs us about a third of what they pay for the house rental. :)