Had a break in the weather here this week...the kids are buggin' to tent camp in the back yard! ) Man i wish winter was over. I think I'll break the seal and un-winterize this weekend...bring her home for a good cleaning, check over, etc.
Kids are on Spring Break later this month and we're going to Hawn SP last weekend of March.
I started with tent camping, then added air mattresses (hard ground, NEVER again!), then "graduated" to an enclosed trailer car-hauler (still on the air mattress). Brad came along and we got a 20' 1976 Coachmen Class C that he lived in full-time for a year while he worked in Arkansas and I lived in Dallas. We upgraded him to a 27' 1983 Winnebago Brave ("It has ROOMS!"), which he lived in another 1 1/2 years, until I moved to Arkansas (we couldn't afford the Airstream MH on the lot when we bought the Winne). We still have the Brave (and need to sell it), but couldn't pass up our 310 when we recently found it.
Brad's family started off with four kids and two parents in a little (14'?) Go-Lite travel trailer.
Susan
__________________
"Despite the cost of living, have you noticed how popular it remains?"
1984 310 Limited Motor Home "The Rockin' A"
1974 31' Excella (soon-to-be carhauler)
1974 20' Argosy Motor Home
Tent camped in Boy Scouts in the 60's. Deer hunted out of a large canvas tent owned by a friend in the 70's. Got my own Eureka dome tent to camp and hunt out of in the early 80's. Was tired of a leaking tent and tying up guidelines in my underwear at 3 a.m. in blinding rain storm so bought a Cabela's Guide Tent in the early '90's and still use it every once in awhile (No, won't sell it, great tent). Bought the '77 Excella 500 in 2001. Bought the '86 Sovereign 25' in March, 2005 and love it.
__________________ Craig
AIR #0078
'01 2500hd ext. cab, 8.1 litre gas, 5 sp. Allison auto
3.73 rear end
Mag-Hytec rear diff cover
Amsoil Dual by-pass oil filtration system
Amsoil synthetics all around
265 watt AM Solar, Inc. system
A lot of similar stories. My parents would never think of camping. Looking back, I think my mother became agoraphobic as she got older except for traveling by car so long as my father drove. He never even took a vacation until he was 37—don't work, no money coming in. He was obviously affected by the Depression.
In my mid 30's, I was involved with a woman who loved hiking and camping and that's when I discovered I wanted to be in the Colorado wilderness as much as possible. We had a cheap tent, heavy cloth sleeping bags and I had a borrowed backpack. We froze at night in those sleeping bags at 11,000' in early July, but we did bring Jack Daniels so we didn't care so much. I got a really memorable sunburn, not realizing how intense the sun is at altitude. She moved on—to NYC of all places—and I moved to Colorado exactly 30 years ago.
I got a better tent and sleeping bag and basic camping equipment, learned to cross country ski, ruining my knees, but I didn't know it yet. I did a lot of skiing and backpacking in the '80's. Carrying heavy packs further damaged my knees, and by then I began to notice it. When I met Barb, we continued to backpack to some amazing places in Colorado, but by 1990, my right knee couldn't take it anymore. I did have a '78 Microbus I got in a trade in '85—fastest Microbus ever made, but leaked oil like a VW engine (what terrible engines they made in those days—no wonder they were cheap). We camped in that sometimes, but it didn't really suit us.
In 1990 we bought a basic Nissan pickup and took that all over. We especially explored Canyonlands and other areas of southern Utah. So we truck camped, but could get into remote areas. I missed hiking through wilderness because it rejuvenates and is so peaceful. That Nissan was a great truck and I drove it until '99 when I sold it it with 145,000 miles and had spent only about $300 on it. It would go anywhere. We were so cheap then I put in an aftermarket radio and we didn't get air conditioning. After driving in New Mexico when it was 100˚ we decided to never buy a vehicle without air again.
In the '90's, the ground started to get harder and the tent seemed to be shrinking. So we bought a Coleman air mattress and a big tent we could stand up in. More and more goodies—a big Coleman camp stove replaced the little backpacking stove, for example. The air mattress lasted a year and kept developing holes and the patch kit supplied didn't work. For a while Coleman's main office was in Denver. I brought the damn mattress into the office and dumped it on a secretary's desk. She was surprised! They found me another one to get rid of me.
The ground continued to get harder even with a badly made air mattress and my knee didn't get any better. We bought a new Tundra in '02 and a camper specially made for it (light construction) with a wet bathroom. The company that made it wasn't far north from Denver (but we were 250 miles west). When we got it, we found quality control was terrible and we found it hard to fit into. It was made for people 5'2'' and weighing 95 lbs. each. I had to fix all sorts of things and the air bags were installed improperly and one blew out within a week. They sent me new ones and I had to re-install each one properly. After some legal threats, they agreed to take it back, though we had to take a loss of some money. Good riddance and I never wanted to see an RV of any sort again.
We like old things (each other most of all). We collect old (and new) Navajo weavings, buy reproduction Mission style furniture, have Art Deco and Art Nouveau lamps, reproduction Air Deco light fixtures (made in China of all places, but they look pretty good and are a lot cheaper), had a 1919 cabin when we lived in Evergreen, but a lot newer log house now—log cabin of sorts, but a lot more modern.
So when my wife confessed her desire for an Airstream and her growing hatred of motels, I had to do something, and did. We discussed buying a vintage one but neither of us wanted a restoration job. I restored and also modernized when necessary that 1919 cabin, and have finished this log house (pretty much, more to do). I didn't want to take on any other restorations and remodels. I thought of a recent model that someone hardly used because they didn't like it, but didn't want to search for that one, tow it from somewhere far away not knowing what I was really getting, and realized a 3 or 4 year old one cost about as much as a new one figuring the discount I could get from a dealer. I love negotiating with dealers and can usually get them to my price. I'm retired, but still a lawyer at heart.
I still miss the wilderness. My knee was fixed a couple of years ago and I can walk very fast in a straight line on a flat surface, but hiking on trails is not like that. There's not enough cartledge left (I can't even spell it right) and I want to avoid getting a new artificial knee.
So I have to content myself with sleeping in my own bed, eating ice cream in the desert, watching HD TV, eating the wonderful meals Barb prepares, using a real toilet instead of squatting in the woods, and taking showers that are always hot. Life is tough traveling with our "retrotube". Hmmm, Barb wants to name it and it seems like women like to do that. Maybe that's one I could live with.
What I would like is Dr. Who's Tardis technology. The Tardis is bigger on the inside than the outside. Outside it looks like a British phone booth. It travels through time and space. I could camp in the wilderness. There's never any problem with power, water or sewer. Until then, I'll have to suffer with the Safari which I intend to have forever, or until I get the Tardis. Making such plans is always dangerous, so who knows what will make sense in five years—is there an assisted living Airstream model?
My parents took all seven children (in our 56 cadillac limo towing a 17' winnebago.) camping all summer from LI, NY all over the west. I was 12 and hooked on camping. 67 westfalia vw bus, converted blue bird school bus, coachman class c, elite 34' tag axle beast class a, and finally an AS.
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