Tell us about your first time!

[TimHolt]

Okay, when you got your first RV, what was the very first overnight place you went with it?

Ours: Ruidoso New Mexico

[mike837go]

Same place we were tent camping. SWMBO's lot in the Adirondacks!


8 years and another RV later, still going.

[Marcm157]

Camp Driveway first for familiarization and practice - Then a local KOA about 20 minutes away for a "Live Practice" and then straight to Ocean City MD about 5 hour trip! Stayed at Asateague State Park...

[schiguy]

Cowan's Gap State Park PA. Thank goodness I went with an experienced friend that helped me out. Several years and many trips later I have now become that "experienced friend" a few times.

[Camper_bob]

"Camp driveway".

It stormed CRAZY that night. Thunder, lightning, heavy rain, the works. It was a good test! We found out how bad our mattress was that night, woke up feeling like we'd just been beaten. We even cooked breakfast in the trailer the next morning. Right before we went to Wal-Mart and bought a 4" foam mattress topper!!

The second trip "out" was to the beach. RV Resort with full hookups. About 3 hours and a ferry ride away. That first ferry ride with the trailer was interesting! Now it's "old hat"; we do it all the time. Getting the trailer in our spot was a real chore that trip too. Really tight quarters and bad angles. Took me FOREVER to get it right, and I'm sure it was quite entertaining for the "onlookers"! We don't go to that place any more.

We live, we learn. The rest is history!

[M&A]

First nights were at 5 acres in NE AL where we are building a retirement house for my folks. No local water or power. Didn't take long to realize how quickly 30 gal of water could be consumed in the shower. Learned a lot!

[Dustdevil]

It's been so long ago, I can't really remember. But I think it was to Pumice Flat Campground near Devil's Postpile National Monument and Mammoth Mountain. Was probably in 1992??

[norty1]

First trip in our used MH was an overnight somewhere off I-26 in SC.

A thunderstorm rolled thru during the night and we awoke to water dripping in our face.

[Tex1961]

Exact same State park and exact same spot where we did our very last tent camping after sleeping on the ground and freezing our rear ends off and said no more...... OMG..... Camping became fun again......

[bankr63]

Hmmm, pretty sure the first time in our own camper was Canisbay Lake Campground in Ontario's Algonquin Park. We borrowed a camper from a buddy for a couple of years before pulling the trigger on our own. That first off-the-ground experience was at Lake St. Peter Provincial Park just East of Algonquin.

[Seann45]

Camp driveway......
then
Cold Lake Provincial Park

[BuddyRay]

Well I'm sure my actual first time CAMPING was with Boy Scout Troop 67 - but I don't remember where exactly.

My first time in an RV was with my Parents about 1962 at Elijah Clark State Park in Georgia. I remember it well because my Mom always drove (Dad actually hated to drive, with or without the RV). We got to the campground at dusk, Mom had NEVER backed at TT before. Somehow she got the trailer off in the woods, with the axles stuck on either side of a good-ol pine stump. Seriously, the stump is BETWEEN the two axles and no way to move forward or back.
You probably know what happened next - as RVers are always the most helpful and friendly people on the planet. About a dozen people showed up with lanterns, flashlights, jacks and strong backs. Ultimately a bunch of the men just picked up the back bumper and manhandled it over the stump. Once everybody found out it was our first camping trip, another guy parked the rig and everybody helped setup.

My parents were both amazed at the level of camaraderie and sincere help and advise. They learned more that weekend about RVing that they ever did from the dealer or the manuals (pre-internet remember!)
And like most of you - I can tell dozens of tales of being "saved" by helpful fellow campers. Like the time a guy in Monterrey Mexico helped us hot wire a melted ignition switch (but that's a story for another time :-))

We always try to "pay it forward" and although my parents are both long gone, I continue that tradition to this day.

[bansai]

Fist Trip in my current camper was at a KOA in the mountains here near Central City Colorado, just to get familiar with everything, that same trip we also took it to Rifle Falls state park, and another campground in Dillon CO.

I can't remember where we first took our popup, but that was 15 years ago so I can probably be forgiven

[TWP723]

It was a beautiful cool starry night. And she just got home from her granmothers house and.....


uh


um


Sorry. Wrong FIRST time.

[TWP723]

First time was at Quarryville Pa Jellystone. No shake down trip!

[robkelly]

Won't name the park, but it was almost our last time out too. Roads were extremely tight, for the most part neighbors were arrogant snobs (to the point they didn't even respond when we said good morning), etc. DW cried a good chunk of the weekend as she equated this place to every campground and thought we'd just wasted a lot or money on the TT. Told her we can't equate all of camping with this first weekend, and though she was a bit reluctant, went to a different place the following weekend. It was clearly better as we just wrapped up our third season..

[Camper_bob]

I was thinking first time in our current trailer (also our first trailer in adult life).

If we're talking about first time EVER, (in a trailer) that's different. Mom & dad had a Citation travel trailer before I was born, so it would be impossible for me to remember my first time in that trailer. They kept that trailer until I was in Jr. High when it just got too old and rotten to keep using. It had sustained a lot of water damage due to some vandalism and a break-in. I have A LOT of memories of that trailer. Some of my earliest are in the Lake Livingston area in East Texas. They kept the trailer at a private CG there for many years. We would go every chance we got. Since our immediate family was all that was in TX (parents moved us to TX when I was very young, so all our family was up in MI), we went for all the holidays. Thanksgivings, Easters, Christmases ... you name it, we were out at the trailer on Lake Livingston. We would tow the boat up there most weekends and spend the bulk of our time fishing or water skiing.

I can actually still remember what my bunk smelled like in that trailer. I can remember how my quilt felt, and I can remember how the cool morning air smelled coming through my little crank out window. I stayed in the bunk above mom & dad's bed. It was a cabinet that folded down into a bunk. Their bed was actually a second dinette that folded down into a bed. There was another bunk just like it in the front of the trailer over the primary dinette where my older brother slept. I can remember how excited my mom was when dad put a TV, OTA antenna and a VCR in for her. She was SO excited to be able to watch TV in the trailer! And to have a VCR in the trailer? Well, that was just fancy pants!!

I could go on for hours. LOTS of memories revolve around that old trailer. I was VERY sad to see it go when it came time to get rid of it.

[ReelCool]

Hutchinson Island to our summer stay spot for 10 Yrs with prior motorhomes. We thought trying out the new to us camper in familiar surroundings was a good plan. It was the first trip in many that nothing went wrong, broke or cost at least a $1,000 to fix! We are happy campers in our happy place!

[Shorty Cox]

I was thinking like TWP723.

"The sky was dark, the moon was high.
We were alone, just her and I.
Her hair was brown, her eyes blue.
and, I knew what she wanted to do.

So with all my courage, I did my best.
I placed my hand upon her breast.
I trembled, I shook, I felt her heart.
Slowly she spread her legs apart!

I knew she was ready but I didn't know how
It was my first time at milking a COW!!!!"

Shame on all of you....

Shorty

[Bassdogs]

Made the plunge in 1975 with a Colman Valley Forge popup. After a set up in our driveway, the following weekend we traveled about 50 miles to a county CG near my mothers home for a shakedown. The shakedown cruise is something I have done with all my campers ever sense because my memory of setting up with nothing more than the pup, a couple sleeping bags, and a flashlight. No extension cord so of course we set up where the pigtail wouldn't reach the powerpost. Only an old skillet and a handful of old forks and spoons, no outside grill, no lantern, no hose to connect or fill the small freshwater tank, no battery for the front tongue [needed for the lights /water pump that first nite sense we couldn't plug in and so we sat under the light of a single flash lite struggling to read manuals to figure stuff out.

You live and learn but the main teaching moment is "walk before you run" and stay close to a Walmart the first nite out on each trip.