Before I Airstreamed... - Page 6

FreshAir · 12-09-2006, 10:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by overlander63

Neil, did the trailer look like this? If so, it is called a Trav-L-Coach.

It wasn't this fancy but that shape. I have a side view of our trailer camping 'at the lake' but I cannot find it. The picture that I used was taken in our Detroit back yard.
Neil.

zamboni · 12-14-2006, 08:16 PM

They don't make 'em like that anymore. What did "Dad" pull that with?

CA Streamer · 12-14-2006, 08:47 PM

Started camping at about 7 years old in a tent in the back yard in New Jersey...with my friends...we would try and do things that we were never allowed to do normally.

Started seriously camping in Boy Scouts at 11. We went once a month...a schedule I have tried to keep to date..I'm 50 now.

In Boy Scouts we used WWII Army surplus puptents with no floors...

Tent camped on and on...

Bought a VW 1962 Campmobile after I graduated HS. Had it for about 3 years before the engine died in the Adirondack Mountains in NY...it was my party pad...

Next came the pickup truck with camper shell...my ride to California...1978

More tent camping...

Then the Tipi...where I met my wife...

More tent camping...

Then the 14' Sunline SOB trailer...fully self contained...this one got us off the ground...

Hmmm...not big enough? How about a 26' 5th wheel with queen size bed? Yea!

Wow! Airstreams sure are nice....how about a 28' with a slideout? Yea!

Somehow, I don't think it will end. Wonder what Airstream is next?

ljmiii · 12-14-2006, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TIMEMACHINE

We upgraded from 5 Star hotels to our Airstream. Yes, we consider it an upgrade...hands down.

Same with us. Our AS isn't a tent upgrade - it is a nice hotel that we can take anywhere. That always has two connecting rooms available. That always has really good coffee. That we can park among the trees...though I don't know if we can give up the Ahwahnee...;-)

camperski · 12-14-2006, 10:06 PM

Started with mom and dad in the 70's coming to the parkway from Fla each summer in a used oldsmobile with a u-haul car topper filled with tent and gear.

Late 70's put a Silde On in the back of an 73 F-350 Super Camper Special

We then moved to the Moutains from Fla. high school and back to a tent with my buddies. 20 years of camping with my buddies, my little girl says "dad...i want to go" we started in the back yard. A year later we bought a Jayco Hybrid box and our youngest began camping at 4 months...(oh ya my wife started going too)

Hooked up with old high school buddy with his 1951 Spartanette and couldn't stand it!!!! He'd pull into site and set up....I'd start working a puzzle!

Enter the 69 Overlander....the Sovereign came and went....and a 53 Spartanette has found its way to me......but the Overlander is .......well if we hit the lottery...we'd do a few more things to her.....but when you see us out we'd be in the Overlader!

PWRSTRK · 12-14-2006, 10:27 PM

Before I Airstreamed, I went to exotic Asian hotels and resorts. Mandarin Oriental, here I come...

Airstreaming is more fulfilling, and the dog can go with us.

SilverToy · 12-15-2006, 12:57 AM

Family NEVER camped - PERIOD. Dad had bad times in the war and didn't want the memories stirred up - I understand. How could I miss something that I didn't know. I couldn't.

Did go for a 2 week Canue Camp trip along the Buffalo river in NW AR. That was a great experience, but the floor got harder every night. Getting up go harder too. All in all, not to bad for 2 weeks on $400 including gas, all the rental equipment (tents, stoves, lights,sleeping bags, etc.....) and we made it back alive!

But then 'College Love' intervened and reintroduced me to camping. Her Family had a JayCo that was a 23 or 25 - with stacking bunks. Unfortuanly only 4 beds.... Mom in 1, Brother in 1, sister in 1 when Donna...... and what is poor Axel to do....??

We set up a tent on the side where the windows wouldn't open - this allowed more privacy since Donna couldn't possibly sleep inside when I was sleeping outside....;>)We made that tent COZY to the MAX!!!!!!!! If this tent is rockin - don't come a knockin....

That "COZY" camping really did a LOT to bring me into the RV/ Camping lifestyle. Camped with them for years and had a load of fun.

Then the years passed and my own family started, and kids joined the party, and after several kids we realized that "normal" travel is crazy expensive and misses the point of passing so many of the wonderful places that are out there. Slow down, see the towns, eat at the Diners.

Since I had lusted in my heart (Thanks Jimmy Carter) for quality, older machines (muscle cars, 57 chevy's and the like) because I worked as a mechanics aide in a small iowa town. Saw more than a lot of the Silver Pickle's goin by...... I forever was hanging out the door far too long to watch after those Silver Beauties - till they were out of sight. Then the wonderment of what was going on in their lives..... All SO exotic!!!!!! The AirSream Mystique......

Fast forward to 04. Internet and time, combined with $ and an excellent idea of want you want can be a bbbaaaaaaddddd thing. Found a 34' from the early 90's that is just the greatest trailer....!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOVE her, The kids LOVE her - it's all good!!!!!!!!!

So, Thanks go out to Donna Shurg - coudn't have done it without you.

Love the stories, keep um coming!

Axel

juel · 12-15-2006, 02:22 AM

It's odd how HARD the ground got when I turned 40. Must have something to do with global warming. Always wanted an Airstream. Now I have the Argosy and life is good again, camping is soooooooo much fun.

tamis · 12-15-2006, 06:44 AM

How it came to be.............

I grew up on the water, on Long Island, "camping" in boats, and on the beach. That and Boy Scouts.

My parents bought me a tent when I was about 6 or 7. I was very excited about it, we set it up, and of course I wanted to spend the night in it. Mom was very concerned about this, even though I was just in the backyard. After an hour or two in the dark she sent my Dad out to scare the crap out of me, so I would come back in the house. It worked. It worked so well I never tried it again until I was about 10.

Then in my late "teens", I would hitchhike and backpack around New England. Back in the days when there could be dozens of hitchhikers at select exits, holding signs, waiting for a ride, or not. When it got to late at night, little tent cities would sprout up. What a good time that could be. I can't imagine letting a 16 year old kid do that now. Of course, my parents didn't quite know all the details.............

Then I moved up to the classic Ford Econoline Van. Nothing but mattress's in back, creatively decorated, providing comfort for 6-12. My Motor Home days. My parents were losing all hope............

After that, it was a cabin on a commune in New Hampshire. Outhouse, wood stove, hand pump for water. Outhouse at 5 below, if that ain't camping......

By 25, reality slapped me in the face. Got my American Express card, and I was ready to join society (sort of). For the next 25 years, it was nothing but hotels if not at home, and trying to maintain a proper standard of living (sort of).

A Mid-Life crisis at 50. The good years are gone. The twilight of my life. What has happened? What to do? Get a sailboat? Get an RV? Get a 25 year old girlfriend? A sailboat on Lake Erie is not very practical. A 25 year old girlfriend is to expensive. The RV looks like the way to go, but what to get? RV's can be so tacky, I remember the Silver Bullets of my youth. The new ones are too expensive. The old ones are a classy approach, affordable, the way to go. So here I am............... and so it goes.

I'm still thinking about that new girlfriend. But I think I might be to tired, and poor...........

T

Mac1 · 12-21-2006, 06:26 AM

Great thread - Linda camped with her family in the late 50's and early 60's on Lake George in the summers untill they bought a camp (house) on the east side of the lake. It has been their family's gathering spot for vacations ever since.
I grew up camping with the Boy Scouts (some in the USMC, bunkers in Vietnam) and out on our "back 40" until I bought a used vw camper just before we got married 33+ years ago. We spent our honeymoon camping in Maine, taking the "Bluenose" to Yarmouth, NS and toured up and around Cape Breton Trail, then back down through New Brunswick home. (Maybe we will do that trip again in '08 for our 35th anniversary). We kept that through five years in Columbus and used it quite a bit camping for the three years we were in Pocatello, ID (Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, Glacier, Sawooth's) with two young'uns. We sold it before moving back east in 1982 and didn't camp again until buying our Sovereign last April. We are looking forward to making up for lost time, planning a west coast trip this summer and ending up in Maine.
Keep sharing your travels on the forums and we look forward to catching y'all at a forum rally soon.

Mac & Linda

**Mel** · 12-21-2006, 09:26 AM

I grew up camping with my family in a VW named "Schultz". I cried when dad sold it! That was followed by a truck camper, then I became too cool to camp with my parents, so switched to tent camping. After getting married, we tent camped, first on the ground and then in a truck-bed tent. After borrowing my parents' fifth wheel for a camping trip, we decided we would enjoy camping a bit more in a trailer. It was left up to me to decide what kind of trailer to buy, and the rest is history...

Royce · 12-21-2006, 11:40 AM

Started out car camping with my parents. When I got old enough mid teen's in the late '60's started back packing. Made my own pack and pack frame. Used that twice. :-) bought a pack. Went a few times, year round, snow camped with out a tent. Spurce bough bed. Nearly froze to death one trip, would have if I had been alone, fell though the ice crossing a stream. I prefer to back pack solo. Met Karen in '73' boondock honeymoon in a loaner Winnebago. Through the years while the kids were growing, we tent camped. She didn't like to back pack so she would car camp and I would either join her or take off on a side backpack trip. Usually only once or twice per year. Son joined me a few times but daughters stayed with Karen on those trips. I also have noticed that the the ground is no longer flat or smooth and I can't sleep through the night. Furthermore, the trails in Colorado are up hill, both ways.

Last year bought a 12x15 canvas wall tent with stove. Used it once. Like it but am really looking forward to the 6 meter.

Heald off buying SOB because I knew I wouldn't be happy.

classic67 · 12-21-2006, 12:08 PM

Tent camping in the beginning and throughout much of my camping life.

Life with the Airstream is soooo much better now!

str8strm · 12-22-2006, 06:04 PM

Started with my parents and grandad in a tent on the mississippi, they graduated to a popup trailer (most exciting was bears in the campground in Yosemite, they broke into our cooler and we were not sure that they would not tear the canvas in our popup apart!!!) then went to a trailer that carried motorcycles ( before they were "toyhaulers") and then finally to a Class A MoHo. Now both my brothers and my parents have Class A's BUT none as classy as ours