We Don't "Camp"

[Maddiemae81]

I think that's the beauty of RVing - it can be whatever you need it to be. Portable hotel room, adventure base camp, cabin in the woods, beach house, whatever. We've done all those things with ours, depending on the focus of the trip. Now that I think about it, it's been home base when our kids have been showing livestock, the slumber party spot for the kids and their friends, and we've even pasture camped in it.

Bottom line - enjoy it, whatever that means to each and every one of you. Life is short.

[dennis b]

House on wheels but take it camping or glamping

[SloPoke]

Originally Posted by TxLoser

In my younger years I backpacked. Later on I tent camped off my motorcycle. Both of those, I’d call camping. Now, I RV. Be that an RV resort, State Park, National Park, or COE. We do like to meet the neighbors. Met some great people along the way. It’s interesting to hear others backgrounds, where they’re from, where they’re headed etc. Anti-social campers(RVers) don’t worry. I won’t bug you if we cross paths.

We refer to our trips at camping trips, but really it’s an RV trip. The beauty of this whole RV thing, no matter what your equipment choice, is the flexibility to use it in different ways. From boondocking in a National Forest, to a trailer park in the burbs. Take your pick and enjoy.

With ya on this! We might be on a cross country trip, or a weekend getaway - having our comfy bed, personal stuff with us, favorite snacks and beverage in the fridge is better than a motel/hotel anyday/night.

Originally Posted by pconroy

Having a son w/ Autism makes a plane ride or a hotel stay extremely stressful. So, like you, our RV is a portable cabin, a safe place, that allows us to travel.
.....
I like the real bed, the AC and a fridge full of cold beer.

X2 We take our dogs with us... we will NEVER put them on a plane to suffocate/freeze/overheat and die in the cargo hold - NEVER!

Originally Posted by A7thson

Camping is what ever you want to make it!

and the RV gives you the option of stopping ANYWHERE you wish.

Originally Posted by CAG

True that! Sitting around an RV park all day reading or watching TV would bore me to death. I can do that at home.

The tent sleeping, cooking over a fire, and going to the bathroom in the woods was back when we could not afford the RV but we still camp in the woods far from others and have an RV to get out of the cold and rain when necessary.

X2 for us

Originally Posted by Maddiemae81

I think that's the beauty of RVing - it can be whatever you need it to be. Portable hotel room, adventure base camp, cabin in the woods, beach house, whatever. We've done all those things with ours, depending on the focus of the trip. Now that I think about it, it's been home base when our kids have been showing livestock, the slumber party spot for the kids and their friends, and we've even pasture camped in it.

Bottom line - enjoy it, whatever that means to each and every one of you. Life is short.

AMEN!

[parallax]

As a younger man I worked in the woods on logging projects. I had a cheap 20 foot camp trailer that I lived in while working. Learned a lot about boondocking from the older more experienced woods crews made a lot of money at 70 a day per diem paid off my trailer the first 2 months. Then it was all cash after that Did that for 5 years. Had a lot of good times living off the grid. Then moved on to a different job.

[Flyrotor]

I tend to be the more traditional camper, I love my trailer, but really enjoy off grid camping, campfires at night, fishing, kayaking, and cooking breakfast outside on the griddle, percolating my coffee, and occasionally cooking in the Dutch ovens. The trailer provides a refuge from storms and makes a great comfy bed. When I’m camping there is never TV reception, rarely hookups, and always the majority of time is spent outside.

I do on occasion travel as an rv’er, and I don’t really like staying in hotels, and I despise flying commercial, it’s crowded, uncomfortable, and the layovers or not enjoyable.

I have also lived in my trailer for 3-4 months at a time (commutative of more than a year) during job relocations and such. I find my trailer comfortable and truly a home away from home.

[DHart]

Here's the key: do what you want to do. And don't worry about what anyone else wants to do!

[Quantum]

We call it "RVing"

We choose a destination to visit, but our accommodation are our trailer.

I don't mind campfires, but the way your clothes smell after a fire really annoys me, so I bought a portable fire pit. The coziness of a fire, without the smell. You don't have to extinguish it with water at the end of the night, or leave it smoldering so that it bothers everyone the whole night.

We have no intentions to go up north and fish for a week, that just seems boring to me. We like to go and play tourist.

[gymracer]

Interesting to see this as that is how we use our motorhome...Seneca 35GS. Over Christmas was the first time it had been in a RV park since we have owned it. It's first job is to tow our race trailer to races throughout the Eastern half of US. We are boondocking as you'll call it 90% of the time. We have family in FL, MI, IN, KY, and TX . If we are not racing we tow or Mini Cooper so we can run around. We do not set in a camp ground and just kill time and visit. Example Christmas we did park the RV in a very nice RV park in North Fort Meyers. But we were visiting family and friends all up and down the west coast of FL. The MH was just our motel room. We use our MH once or twice a month nearly year round. It is so nice to have your "motel room" with you.

[Siamese]

And no bedbugs! Or anything else that would show up under blacklight on motel room bedding.

[Midnightmoon]

Originally Posted by Siamese

And no bedbugs! Or anything else that would show up under blacklight on motel room bedding.

X2. If you would see the bedbug check routine that I go through when we arrive at a hotel, you would think I was insane. I take the bedding off, look at the mattress, box spring, mattress cover, etc. I even scan the curtains and chairs before I will bring our luggage out of the vehicle.

Our RV makes for such a more relaxing trip all around not having to worry about bringing those little critters home with us.

[Octopus Prime]

We glamp.
We purchased our 26bh so that we could take more trips for the same amount of money that we would spend on one trip in a hotel and eating out.

Usually, we stay at a state park. I do enjoy a campfire and we like to swim in any nice spring-fed river, but we primarily use it as our home base. We visit museums or theme parks and other things that interest us. We might eat out a time or two if there is something that interests us, but we mostly prepare our own food.

A few years ago, we went to a Jellystone park that had a water park attached to it. It was so nice to play all day, then go back to the trailer for a dinner that had been cooking in the crock pot all day. No need to get showered and dressed to make it to dinner on time. We simply ate outside in our swim suits and got cleaned up for bed when we were ready.

It functioned as our own privately owned hotel suite when we went to Disney's Fort Wilderness. It was nice to return to our own beds after a day of play.

I have never liked hotels. I really enjoy returning to something that's mine at the end of the day when out of town.

Edited to add: We've never boondocked.

[Atlee]

Your style of "camping" is exactly what we do. In 2014 we crossed this country from Virginia to Dockweiler CG on the Pacific Ocean in Downtown LA and return with one trailer, and in 2018 we toured the Rockies and northern plains states in a different trailer. In both cases, we, in effect, used the trailer as a mobile bedroom. Never stayed one place very long, a week at the max.

In every fall, for more than a decade, we've used our trailer to follow my universities football team. All home games, and as many away as possible. All weekends at home are boondocking, which includes deploying the Honda generator(s), depending on temperature. On road games, sometimes we boondock, and sometimes we're forced to used campgrounds.

Love not having to spend the night in different rooms, where I don't know who slept there the night before.

We have never done what many call "camping". Setting up the trailer in the woods, and just hanging around, and making fires at night. Just not my thing. I've never like camp fires. The smoke from camp fires chokes me. I have a tough time breathing. In fact, when we are in a regular campground for a few days, and folks around us are making camp fires, I just stay inside, button up the trailer, and run the A/C, if necessary.

Originally Posted by Siamese

Anyone else who doesn't "camp"?

We (wife, me, and two cats) have a 26BH we've used to travel from Michigan to Pennsylvania, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, and many points in between. We tend to go to medium to larger cities and stay on the outskirts as we visit museums, historical sites, and civil war battlefields. And, the occasional concert.

We have a charcoal grill for some of our cooking, but we've never built a campfire, and we seldom sit outside our trailer. We severely modified our 26BH so it has a large living room on the one end, with comfortable seating.

When we're outside, it's to go for a walk around the campground, or to go for a walk in downtown Nashville, Mobile, Chattanooga, etc.. We pretty much never make friends with our campground neighbors, even though we've started spending the entire month of February in the suburbs of Mobile.

We like full hookups, although we increased our battery capacity to allow for limited boon docking. We love Walmarts for a stopover as we travel to a destination. We're happy with any campground that has full hookups, a laundry, few amenities, and is QUIET.

We're "second tier" travelers. As much as we might enjoy the Florida Keys, we made the decision early on to stick with states that aren't so touristy. Or pricey.

Our trailer is our portable, comfy cabin that happens to show up in new places that interest us.

Anyone else use the trailer like we do?

[spark of insanity]

After reading more of the responses? I hate to say but I guess we are glamping as well. When we went to Quebec and Maine and down the New England coast we did the same thing. Thru a crockpot together and turned it on. So nice to come back to the TT to a home cooked meal with a glass of wine and not picking up fast food on the way back to camp. I had meals planned when we went out west. Bought some things and picked up the rest at the store for next day dinner. Mind you I think we ate very well. Better and cheaper then at a restaurant. Glad to hear I am not the only one using our TT like a hotel and restaurant.

[Atlee]

"Glamping" or touring? I consider what we do, when going on 2 month long trips across this country, as touring.

Originally Posted by spark of insanity

After reading more of the responses? I hate to say but I guess we are glamping as well. When we went to Quebec and Maine and down the New England coast we did the same thing. Thru a crockpot together and turned it on. So nice to come back to the TT to a home cooked meal with a glass of wine and not picking up fast food on the way back to camp. I had meals planned when we went out west. Bought some things and picked up the rest at the store for next day dinner. Mind you I think we ate very well. Better and cheaper then at a restaurant. Glad to hear I am not the only one using our TT like a hotel and restaurant.

[koko]

It's been fun reading everyone's description of "camping", "glamping"...Just makes us want to see all this snow go away so that we can head out again for the summer season! The one thing everyone seems to agree on - it's a great adventure no matter how you do it.

[formerwsp520]

The last time I "camped" was in a 1 person tent at 12,700 ft. at Kite Lake in CO. My wife and I bought a 26RK last year to see more places than a lake house shared by siblings and was nothing but work (still at times I do miss it). We Love the State Parks here in WI and have camped at some private parks. Our fur babies are getting use to this new style of getting away. I cook all morning meals over a small Coleman Road Trip grill and use an Adjust -A Grill for supper with lunch a grab bag. Fires, sitting out doors, in our Screen Tent or just in front of the fire is relaxing as is meeting new people (I can be a talker). We like areas we can ride our bikes and walk the dogs. We have found that the people we meet camping tend to be helpful, relaxed, friendly, courteous and generally not in such a hurry that a friendly word can't pass.