"Our First Camping Trip"

[trumpwer]

Another AS becomes a family heirloom!!

[canny_banjo_man]

Ok Guys I read with GREAT interest ALL Yr here postings, I thank U all 4 sharing 'em with us all...
So how many of U tried 2 Re- create that " Days gone by " theme, when the A/S was hitched 2 the Station Wagon, the pup, football, soda, ( and BUCKET ) were all loaded into the rear...Dad made final checks on the vehicular fluids...and as soon as U left the DRIVE...U were on VACATION..heading for the place U dreamed of PARADISE... .......
Only this time U r the DAD, and U tried 2 get it right, but somehow it all turned out a BIG let-down an as far as U r concerned NEVER AGN...Chris.....

[overlander63]

Our first camping trip was with a Starcraft popup camper. We had decided to try camping, my wife had never camped before. The first trip was almost the way you hear it advertised, sunny warm days, cool breezy nights, peace and quiet, etc, etc...
Then we decided the first trip had been such a success, we should do it again. That was our first mistake.
We arrived at the camprground early evening, in a very light drizzle. Set up the camper with no trouble, just a little grumbling about getting wet.
We stepped into the camper, turned on a light, and the deluge started. It rained for three days straight, 24 hours a day. When it didn't rain, it poured. We had record rainfall for that weekend.
By the time we left, we were reduced to huddling in the exact center of the camper, with rain pouring through the canvas almost everywhere. Sometime on day two, I remember thinking that I must have lost my mind. We decided maybe we should put pontoons under the camper, and make it a houseboat.
We got back into town Sunday night, Monday morning I was looking at our current trailer, an Argosy.
We have had several more short trips in the Argosy since, and we have learned that rain around here is an excellent way to make new friends, especially when you have a dry trailer, and the people on both sides of you are in tents...
Terry

[flyfshr]

Growing up, my family always, without fail, camped over the fourth of July with member families of our church. Four or five families would caravan up to the Iowa Great Lakes and take over one of the loops in a campground. Each family had an SOB and a station wagon or pickup with camper shell. At first light, I was up and out of there to go fishing. I would walk around the lake looking for fish to catch. I'd spent the week before catching nightcrawlers by flashlight in our yard after dark. I was a fishing fool. These memories go back as far as I can remember. One spring, my aunt and uncle took me along to the Black Hills of South Dakota and I was amazed at the geography, clear lakes and streams, and these strange looking fish with the beautiful colors (trout). After moving away from home in '75, there were very few camping trips until I moved to Arizona. This is a great state for getting out and seeing the sights. Most of the early trips here were with friends and I slept in the back of my truck in a sleeping bag. After I got married in '93 we decided we wanted to go camping but my wife thought that camping meant a bathroom with shower, cooked meals, and a full size bed. I had other ideas. We met half way and borrowed a friend's pop-up. Sure, we can pull that with a Dodge Caravan, two kids, a dog and more stuff that we'd ever need. The temp. gauge never left the red during the whole trip. On the way home, coming out of the Salt River Canyon (10 miles down, 10 miles back out) the transmission had had enough.

We decided we still liked camping but needed other vehicles, on both sides of the hitch. Some time later, I went on a fishing trip with a friend in his '60 Trade Wind and I was the one that got caught. From then on, all I could think about was owning a vintage gleaming Airstream. My wife and I love camping in it and I will always have one parked out front.

FF