How did you get started?

rolling_rhoda wrote:
We didn't grow up camping, as our parents were too busy working. Family vacations were visiting relatives over holidays, or day trips with neighbors. When we married and had kids, we were determined not to miss the things in our kids' lives that our parents did. The kids got into scouting, so we attended a few camps with them. Tent camping is not for us. As the kids got older they were busy all summer attending/competing in events. So, we bought an RV and can park, eat, sleep a few hundred yards away. We are soon to be empty nesters, and we're really excited to be fledgling snowbirds.

May I suggest Mission, TX for the Winter? We absolutely love it.
Mission Bell RV Park is our Choice. I cannot recommend it enough.
It is like a big Family. There are all kinds of Activities. You could spend all Day every Day doing Activities if you wanted.
They have many Concerts. Most if not all of the Performers are out of Branson.
If you went there to see them, it would cost around $30 per ticket.
Down at Mission Bell it is $10-$15.
Mission Bell is about 9 Miles from Reynosa Mexico. Reynosa is not a good Place to go. Even the Locals will tell you that.
you can however, take a nice Day Trip to Nuevo Progresso. It is very nice.
They have Bowling Alleys in the Area as well as fine Restaurants. The Area has anything you need.

My father loved to fish and of course I acquired that addiction. My early camping experiences entailed sleeping in the back of his four door sedan across the hump on the floor. We graduated to a tarp that we used as a weather shelter and kept most of the rain or dew off. Fast forward to a tour in Alaska with the USAF and all of the joy that only that country can provide. I have slept/camped for a week in a shelter that myself and a friend built while hunting for Caribou (that was later designated as an emergency shelter by the Alaskan DNR). The temp never got above -15*F that week.

My family and I camped in a lot of different campers over the years and they still love to camp whether it be tenting or roughing in a motel :-). Memories are made of such things and I could write a short book about the adventure we call life.

I now spend six to seven months in my Denali 270FK TT located in the RGV of Texas where I serve as a chaplain. I hope/plan to some extensive camping in my off season next year.

Memories...........

Grew up camping in a pup tent in the back yard and in an old canvas cabin tent with my dad in the woods during hunting season. I was amazed when dome tents came about and became the proud owner of a ten person dome tent. Loved it and used it for 15 years before I somehow put it up damp and ruined it. Bought a cabin tent for the family a few years later but after getting stuck with a rain storm so bad we gave up on the weekend we bought a pop-up. Still a pain to take down in the rain but much drier during the rain once I found the right option to keep humidity out. Other than a state park, never stayed in a campground until the pop-up. With my country roots, even a state park seemed like the neighbors were too close. I enjoy most campgrounds now.

We didn't grow up camping, as our parents were too busy working. Family vacations were visiting relatives over holidays, or day trips with neighbors. When we married and had kids, we were determined not to miss the things in our kids' lives that our parents did. The kids got into scouting, so we attended a few camps with them. Tent camping is not for us. As the kids got older they were busy all summer attending/competing in events. So, we bought an RV and can park, eat, sleep a few hundred yards away. We are soon to be empty nesters, and we're really excited to be fledgling snowbirds.

We joined the RV community in 2009. At first, we took a couple RV trips within our home state each month. In 2012, my mother was talking about a famous trip traveling cross country with my father, but he passed away before this dream could happen. In January 2013, we (her sons), surprised her with an announcement that we are all taking this trip for the next few (5+) years. House went up for sale October 12th, and it sold on October 14th 2013. The buyer bought everything, and I mean everything. We easily sold our cars, found the right RV and truck within weeks. I guess this adventure was meant to be.

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The ex worked in French restaurants that generally closed for the entire month of August. The tradition traveled to the New World so same time every year we found our selves a lil cash poor but adventurous.
I think our first camping trip was to Patchougue, LI to a National Seashore Park. Nothing but cold running water, possibly flush toilets and lots of sketters. Spent a week or so there and loved it. The next year, we took a bicycle camping trip to Martha's Vineyard and subsequent years added Cape Cod to our itinerary. When 2nd son was born decided that we needed a more stationary setting and started exploring upstate NY's state park cabins. Arrived via Amtrak and bus since neither of us had the legal right to drive in this country. Fell in love with the region and decided to buy a former hotel and start a B+B/restaurant. Somehow, we bought instead on Cape Cod.

Several more summers of cabining and camping in and around Truro as we renovated the property. Then we divorced and both of us moved out of the US, me temporary and him permanently. The kids and I began car camping in Europe and the Caribbean during the winters and summers. Continued until we returned to the states and stopped family vacationing for several years.

The kiddos went to summer camp and I foot hiked the Appalachian Trail. Reached empty nestdom and decided to begin tent camping again and with a car. Woo Hoo! Did that for almost 10 years and now are branching off into RVing to see more of the US. Expect to do that for 1-2 years and then evolve into some other version of camping. So far I've loved every step I've taken.

Like so many others, I started camping with my parents, at the age of 18 months. My family was poor and with 5 kids there was never enough money for vacation. Still, Dad worked in a shipyard and every summer they would shut down at some point, sometimes at a moment's notic. Mom & Dad were experts at loading the car fast and off we'd go. We tent camped at Kerr Reservoir (VA/NC) in their primitive campgrounds. I have pictures of my mom hanging up diapers on the line--you don't want to know where she washed them, LOL.

DH did not grow up camping. His family did not have a culture of taking time off from work, so it took him a long time to learn to relax and leave the pager behind. We got into tent camping with our kids when some friends invited us AND promised to help with the kids. My youngest was 3yo and he is severely mentally handicapped. At that time he was more like a little baby, could barely sit, had to be fed a special way. I had my doubts but it didn't take long for us to see that camping was the one activity that we could all enjoy.

Like a lot of people, we graduated from the tent to pop-up to trailer. In 2007, we took the younger two kids, then 12 &14, on a cross-country 2000 mile trip and it was AWESOME! And I'm glad we did it then, because my son was quickly outgrowing our ability to manage him on the road. DH developed severe lung & heart disease, which has made it harder to travel. At this point we have the TT permanently parked in the mountains at our favorite campground. So, while can no longer travel like we once could, at least we can still enjoy the outdoors in our own way.

My wife and I are full-time RVers. I have been a wannabe for a long Time. I have been a Member of RV.net for well over 10 Years. We started our Adventure about two Years ago.
Our Winter Home is Mission, TX on the very southern Tip of the State.
We are 9 Miles from Reynosa Mexico. That is an unsafe area, so when we go to Mexico we go to Nuevo Progresso. It is very nice.
In the Summer, we head North. This Year it is Washington State.
From there we are flying to Hawaii to visit Friends and Family.
Then it is back to Mission for the Winter. Next Year we are headed east through the Ozarks and Tennessee and maybe Michigan.
Then back to Texas again for Winter. I have no Idea where the following Summer will find us. I have not planned that far ahead.
My Wife and I are living our Dream. This is the only Way that I know that I would be able to visit my far flung Family and Friends.

I started in the Navy because it was cheap. No way on enlisted pay to stay in a motel every night. I think it was $10 to rent everything you needed for the weekend from Special Services. That and gas was 25 cents a gallon. We'd throw the stuff in the back of the pickup, fill all the tanks for $12 and take off. We called it "vacation".

Well, it WAS cheap.

My parents didn't camp, but would occasionally rent a cottage at a lake. I always enjoyed that feeling of being at the lake, swimming, and the food always tasted better while we were at a cottage. In junior high some friends talked a dad into taking a bunch of us camping in a tent at Lake Michigan for a week. From then on I enjoyed tent camping with friends and eventually with my first wife.

About the time I was 40 my soon-to-be second wife and I enjoyed camping in my tent, but she preferred at least an inflatable mattress. We did that for a couple years and then moved to a 20' travel trailer. Nine years later we moved up to a '01 Cardinal 5th wheel. And a couple of months ago we traded the Cardinal for a '15 Cedar Creek Silverback 5th wheel. Love the camping/snowbirding lifestyle and hope to keep doing it for another 15-20 years.