Your very first camping trip

[spark of insanity]

I swore that when my daughter was born we would never RV ever. It would be tent all the way. Until I realized that I needed a propane stove to prepare a bottle for formula. Then a had to bring a coolers, pots, pans and an air mattress. I remember being stuffed to the gills by the time we gave up the tent thing after an E1 tornado took us out. So I told the family a pop up is like a tent only off the ground and safer from a tornado. Then we got a bigger pop up then and now? An RV. It is a mini apt for us. 21 foot with a television, nice comfy bed and an air fryer toaster oven. Its huge and yet I am happy now that I can microwave, cook and have hot water for a shower without having to pack up and go to the comfort station. Sigh. I guess it comes with age. But it was my mother over 30 years ago that said lets go camping. We went camping in a tent. Now? My mother looked over the RV and said yup we are ready for Colorado. That was today.

[brettt]

Never tent camped as a kid only one day state park picnics!

[JFlightRisk]

Me and three of my buddies decided to go camping for a weekend, at a state park. It was 1972, and there was no such thing as a reservation. First come, first served, and it cost $4 a night for no hookups.
Didn't need hookups, 'cause we were gonna be on our motorcycles.
No one had a clue. One buddy said "I have a tent". Another said he had "some" sleeping bags. I said I had my scout mess kit. Man, we were all set!
We arrived on our bikes. The only site left was right next to the sewage treatment pumphouse! Didn't know a holiday weekend would be so full. Hey, this was our first time.
So, out comes the tent.....it's a PUP tent. There's FOUR of us, and one guy is 6'6".
Next, out come the sleeping bags.....BOTH of them! Dude! There's FOUR OF US!
So I get out the mess kit. "Hey, anybody bring any FOOD???" Yup, one brought some potatoes and foil. Another had a fifth of whisky.

We built a fire, drank the whiskey, wrapped the taters in foil, threw 'em in the coals, and proceeded to forget they were in there. I think it was the booze.
So.... three of them squeezed into the pup tent...the tall one slept in the center, with his feet sticking out. I was the youngest, so I put my bike on the center stand, feet over the handlebars, covered up with an army blanket, and that was my first camping experience.
I just had to get that off my chest...it will explain a lot of why I am like I am!

[Merrick]

Sometime in the early 1970s. Single mom liked camping and bought a red Coleman popup. They weren't electric then and had no hookups. Started taking me and my brother camping when I was about 7?

Teaching it to my kids now.

[ADKAurora]

Going to show my age in the opposite way compared to many posters here: my parents started camping with me as an infant in an old (late 70's/early 80's) Viking pop up in 1991/92 (born in spring 1991; not sure if they started that summer or the next). I believe they mostly camped in Upstate NY. They still tell the story of the time a skunk was underneath the pop up and my parents were praying I wouldn't start crying because they didn't want the skunk to get startled and spray the pop up (luckily I didn't cry, and the skunk went on his merry way).

My parents had that pop up for a few years, and then upgraded to a brand new 22' Jayco travel trailer. We camped in that for many years; also mostly across upstate NY but we took it on a few trips to Maine and Virginia. Sprinkle in some Girl Scout Camp trips for me in there too. My parents traded the Jayco in on a 29' fifth wheel when I was 13, and traded in that fifth wheel for an even larger 40' fifth wheel when I was 22. They currently live in the same 40' fifth wheel (they sold their house to go full time after I graduated college), but are talking about upgrading to an even larger one that's also a toy hauler.

At 26, my husband and I bought a mid 90's used pop up camper. At 28 (this year), we bought a new Jayco Travel Trailer. I'm starting to see a similar pattern to my parents (completely coincidentally!).

[spark of insanity]

Originally Posted by Merrick

Sometime in the early 1970s. Single mom liked camping and bought a red Coleman popup. They weren't electric then and had no hookups. Started taking me and my brother camping when I was about 7?

Teaching it to my kids now.

And that is where it all begins. With the parents who loved camping and then passed it on to their children. My daughter is hoping her soon to be fiancee will enjoy camping as well. We did take him one year. He seemed to enjoy it. Who knows. To be continued.

[JFlightRisk]

That's really nice they started you early. The progression you're following is a natural occurrence around here. It's called 'two footitis'. Every time, the new camper gets just a little bit longer.

[Camper_bob]

No way to remember my first camping trip, and too many over the years to truly isolate my earliest camping memory. Mom & Dad owned a Citation travel trailer before I was born. My bed was actually a bunk over mom and dad's bed. Theirs was a folded down dinette (it had one dinette in the front and one in the rear; my older brother's bed was the front dinette), my bunk was actually a cabinet that folded open. I still remember what my blankets smelled like, and I can remember the "tinny" smell of the screen over my little crank-out window. I used to open it and get a good, deep whiff of the early morning air while I waited for the rest of the family to wake up. Dad still had that camper when I moved out for college.

All of those years we camped in that trailer, but we also backpacked and tail-gate tent camped quite a lot too, mostly in Boy Scouts. My dad and I would tent camp on fishing trips quite a lot. LOTS of great memories. Spent most of my life outside.

Now that I have my own son, I'm getting him started the same way. He won't ever remember his first trip either; he was only 6-weeks old!! My MIL tells the story all the time about how impressed she is that we took him camping when he was only 6 weeks old! No big deal to us, that's what we do!

[TCNashville]

The earliest I can recollect was at Shakamac State Park here in Indiana. Had to be '61 or '62 as I couldn't have been more than 5-6 years old I think. Could've been earlier but that's the first I can remember. I do however remember my Dad drinking a Budweiser for breakfast.

[LuckyDuck]

It had to be the late 1950s — I wasn’t even in school yet. We were at Yellowstone in a “camping trailer” my dad had built. It was four pieces of plywood on a trailer chassis with a canvas tarp for a roof and a mattress on the floor. Dad was off taking pictures and Mom was frying eggs outside when a hungry bear wandered up. No way was she letting the bear take our breakfast, so into the trailer she jumped, frying pan and all — probably not the wisest idea. The bear poked around but eventually gave up and wandered away. Ah, good times!