How have you evolved camping since you acquired your AS

[NWRVR]

Late 1960's tent camping on the Sandy River in Oregon, VW pop-top camper in Alaska, camped the Alaska Highway Kenai to Seattle with four adults and three children under six years with tent one way and returned with two adults and one child. Winnebago Brave in Alberta, Canada early 1970's. Various stints 17 years overseas 1978-98 and no camping until five years ago when better half said let's go to the RV show. Went directly to the the Airstream, didn't even look at anything else. The only thing we would have done differently would have been to get the 30' Classic first!

[Mollysdad]

At the "spartan" end I had a backpacking tent. Enjoyed the solitude.
At the "glamping" end of the spectrum I had a motorhome with an ice maker.

But I can't get up off the ground as easily, and I got tired of the maintenance costs of a motorhome, so the Airstream is the perfect compromise. Most of the great things with very few things I miss.
And I never tire of looking at it.

[cazual6]

Short Answer: Getting an AS is evolved period.

Long Answer: Went from camping with tent, now referred to as tent people, to GLAMPING.

Having your own toilet was the biggest PLUS, everything else is just is icing on the cake.

[dnas]

Nina-will take a picture of the shades and post when I can. In the meantime they are from Blinds.com, and the color is Menswear Linen SG3016, and as always with the company you can order samples. Caution, they were not cheap, and my handy husband had to make special brackets to hang them. All will be revealed in the picture.

[rmkrum]

Oh, amen to the idea that your own, personal, clean toilet facility is but a few steps away on the road.

As we age, that gets more and more a necessity than a convenience, trust me!

[PKI]

Change - yes, each year, we try something a bit different.

Last year, we finally tried some COE compgrounds. They will be in the plan on future trips. We have tried dry camping and do not like it, but we do find that the generator allows us to stay a night when we can't get into a FHU park. That reduces the stress of traveling without reservations and in places where RV park sites are limited.

We are starting to look for RV sites a bit more distant from major highways. Some are good value and represent a very good experience. Some are just a good overnight stop for us. We still like KOAs, but ask for their quieter sites. Being over a hill, higher than the highway, or behind a big motorhome/5er can be a traffic noise buffer. Except there was that night beside a furnace as loud as a diesel engine.

We initially traveled a lot of miles each day and stayed at rest stops when the day was too long. This was the result of poor trip planning. Our target travel distance is now 300-400 miles. Our planning includes two to four backups parks.

That long distance travel required night driving. Our new approach is to travel at night only on rare occasions. Stop early and get settled before dark.

Most of our stays are one night. That needs to change. We are committed to planning a trip schedule that has multi-day stop overs in the plan at least two times a week. We'll see how that goes. We had mixed results last year.

We go to fewer WBCCI ralleys. Not sure how that will change. The Caravans were something that interested us. After research and experience with travel on our own, we seem to be less inclined to consider organized events.

We eat more in the trailer and seldom go to restaurants. That is a major change from day one. We eat healthier and less. When we do eat out it's with family and a special event.

We now shop at Walmart. They have everything we need, mostly. We have found that ice cream is a staple we can't live without. The grocery stores in small towns are proving to be a favorite stop. They have items that are different from our normal brands and the deli foods can be very good.

However, the warehouse, low budget stores seem to be a bad idea for us. When we stop to shop, we want to get all items needed. Several stops to fill the list is not as viable as it is when not traveling. Stores that have poor quality produce and mostly frozen food is less helpful than conventional markets. Costco is the exception as we can pickup can goods, bread product, water, and wine in bulk. It's not everything we need, but it's a large quantity of the items we regularly consume.

Our average expenditure for RV parks went down last year. We like that change. It's a good strategy, but drives you away from areas with higher cost options. We are struggling with that one, but have a few ideas to try.

Camping method - no change. We have never camped. The AS is the only RV/tent we have used. It's how we travel with our dogs. It is also a clean bed, bath and kitchen that tags along with us. We like our AS.

Issues we are considering. 1) drop and store for sequential Eastern trips - investigating cost effective inside secure storage. 2) longer duration trips. 3) more comping focus on short local trips. 4) when to shift back to motel use - race between aging and the development of sell driving vehicle technology.

Happy trails - find those smiles. Pat

[urnmor]

In one of my earlier responses to this thread I said I have cut back on what we bring today, however there is one thing I have added. It is a portable drill that I now use to raise and lower the stabilizers. Why I waited so long to do this is beyond me. It certainly makes raising and lowering the stabilizers quick and easy and most importantly my back appreciates it.

[drbrick]

Over the last 20 years from tent to back of a Ford Escape (for Sleeping), to T@B (which is more of a hard tent ), to the Int'l 25 which I consider Glamping - in saying that we still do most of our cooking on the BBQ and 90% of our camping is Boondocking. So really just made it more comfortable for our old bones

[fastrob]

Since buying the Airstream,
Tried a 3,000lb truck camper, too big and top heavy. Sold it.
Bought a new 2018 Ram Promaster to convert it. Love it. Build in progress. Thinking of towing the Airstream with the Promaster if we can get a new floor in the Airstream by next winter.

[Rgentum]

Our days of sleeping in a double sleeping bag on the floor of a 4x6 ft pop-up tent in the cold and the rain are over. I'm delighted to have made that transition.

[66coupe]

Our grown kids got the first Airstream (Serenity 27) a couple of years before we retired, and we joined them in cabins at sites they visited in the region, and fell in love with AS. Looked at enough others to be sure AS was the one, and started with the same 27' model they had, a 2015. We are glampers-only, stopping at mostly KOA campgrounds with TV, wifi and other facitilites. Drive 400 a day or less, make a number of premade meals as others have stated, and only use the fresh water tank for winterizing. Bought the extended warranty and they didn't make no money on us, we're almost 4 years in and still getting useful claims. The other thing we've learned with age is use AAA for any flats; do our own winterizing; keep it spotless so its always delightful to go into the first time; hook up to house current a day early so the fridge is ready on depaertuer day and use the fridge on propane en route, as well as the heat in colder months to avoid freezing issues. With one AC it gets hot, but a low-speed pscillating fan helps the AC. The only thing I'd do diferent is 2 AC's for the 27. Only remaining downside is you have to go to the AS 30 footer for truly comfortable evening seating (recliners), but we didn't want the larger truck that we'd need (we tow with a 2014 F150 Platinum with the full tow package and the 6.2 liter V8. It'll pull the trailer up a tree...... cb

[don m]

Originally Posted by urnmor

I am curious as to how our fellows campers have evolved camping since owning their AS, especially as we grow older.

It has been 12 years for me sense I sold my last AS
and I still get out there and camp, first with my tow vehicle
a 150 Ford van and now I have a Hyundai Santa Fe with
air mattress, cooler and basics for camping out. Enjoy.

[airforus]

It was a long time coming for us to purchase a camper. Always camped in a tent and lean-to's up until last year. Only been out eight nights so far. Know I need to get out more for the experience of towing the AS and such. Have planned two lengthily trips this spring/summer. DW loves the essentials of not having to get up in the middle of the night to go to the potty Well as the saying goes, Happy wife, happy life So I guess we will be towing on down the road.


Curtis

[InterBlog]

We've evolved camping into "anywhere, anytime", courtesy of the off-grid improvements (including solar and lithium) we have done to our Interstate over the past 4.5 years. Best decision ever. I can remember 12 years ago when my husband and I first met when we were living in a tent and out of the back of my minivan for a week or more at a time. What an uncivilized mess that was.

Most notably, we "evolved" to construct a private road and parking pad on a piece of property I had owned but let sit untouched and unused for almost 25 years. Each year, I now drive from Houston Texas to far northeastern Nova Scotia to spend a month or more there. My husband (who has a regular job and cannot take as much time off) flies up to join me.

[A W Warn]

Originally Posted by urnmor

I am curious as to how our fellows campers have evolved camping since owning their AS, especially as we grow older.

Where I go camp, and when I go camp, and how long I go camp has changed a lot as I've aged. Before the first Airstream, I started camping in the backyard, then the Boy Scouts. Later as a young family we camped in a popup tent trailer.

With the first Airstream first we took the kids on weekend adventures, to the beach for the family and/or fishing for me, was our normal weekend getaway while I was working.

After the children were gone, the pace of things slowed a bit. I could go and do what I liked, instead of the children. Still the beach for the weekend was the normal weekend destination, only a few long road trips. Due to time constraints of work, long trips were limited to a week or two of vacation time.

Early in retirement we took our first month long road trip, no schedule, just some planned destinations along the way (and those destinations changed on our whim). The road trip once or twice per year is the norm now. We also take many weekday trips, instead of the weekends when the weekend crowd is there. We do not do holiday trips to campgrounds now, let the working people fight that crowd!

Later we started using an Airstream like a second home, staying a few months, then 5-6 months, in Florida during winter.

Now I'm getting ready to downsize. The 34' we used for our winters in Florida is going to the next owner soon. The 25' will be kept for warm weather travel, until the next change (whatever that might be).

[kb0zke]

Ok, my FIRST camping experience was with my wife of less than a year, our pastor and his wife, and a bunch of high school kids. (Keep in mind that I'd read Trailer Travel Here and Abroad several times before I graduated from high school in 1968.) We did more tent camping with the kids (including one memorable night when Jo Ann was about 14 months pregnant (twins) and we had a one-year-old who wasn't interested in sleeping - and the bathrooms were locked at night).


As the kids got bigger we got bigger tents, then a Class C. After the kids went off to college we still had the bigger tent, but that was getting to be too much for the two of us, so we started talking about full-timing. We bought an mpg 181 as our learner, decided we still liked the idea of full-timing, sold the mpg and bought the Foretravel. Five years later we've decided that we're moving slower than we had anticipated, so the Foretravel is for sale and we're going after an Airstream.