How did you get started?

[Wobbles]

Originally Posted by bob caldwell

When I bought mine, I needed something I could pull with my Model A that didn't way a ton.....sure was a step up.

You win! I have not been in anything that old. Know anyone that camped in a Conestoga Wagon? Great one.

[SkipnTerri]

Had a Prairie Schooner -- does that count??

[Oaklevel]

As a kid camped in the backyard.... When had kids couldn't afford a motel for a week so thought of buying a camper. DW did not want to sleep on the ground. Wanted to try camping without wasting a lot of money. Found a 73 Terry for $600 that needed a lot of work, but was not used much. Put about $200 in it and off to PA with it. Had a 70s F150 to pull it with to start. Never pulled a camper before so had no idea what electric brakes felt / stopped like (didn't til we bought the 88 Terry). Spent our vacations in PA and many weekends at Newport News Park. Liked camping so well we bought the 1988. And on from there.

[jclayjim]

Went from a conversion van to a small camping trailer so we would not have to board our three cats in order to go camping.............thanks to my wife, they now own half the trailer as a "Cat Suite). I like the trailer but at times miss the simplicity of the van.

[wpgman19]

DW and I were trying to figure out how to spend our retirement years (hopefully in 5-7 yrs). Didn't want to feel obligated to spend every weekend or vacation at the same cottage or condo down south. We both love to travel and camped in Tent Trailers as kids. Checked out the RV show this year 'just to see' what RV's were worth, and ended up buying our 32' Rockwood TT (and had to get an F150 to pull it) just 2 weeks later. Already in love with the new lifestyle, and look forward to lots of practice (and training) prior to retirement!

[Ejs4029]

My Parents started my Brother and Sister and myself off camping with a tent camper and moved on to a travel trailer....Also was tent camping while in Boy Scouts and still enjoy that.

[Tdbrn]

I grew up in Southern California and started tent camping on a motorcycle trip I made with a friend in 1976, I did NOT like sleeping on the ground. I got a Honda 1000 Gold Wing in 1978 and also found the "Time Out" fold out tent trailer made for motorcycle towing. It slept 2, and off the ground, I had a lot of years and miles with that setup. Moved up to the 4 sleeper model Time Out after wife and kids started going along on family trips together, by then wife on her 1500 Gold Wing me on my 1500 with a kid behind on each and with a small cargo trailer and the Time Out in tow behind either bike.

In 1996 wife's father thought we'd like an RV experience more and helped us get a used 24' class C "Roll-A-Long" bunk house. Even though cramped, at least all the kids could go at once! 3 kids meant someone always stayed home with relatives on the motorcycle trips.
Class C was OK, but I didn't like having to always break camp to go anyplace. The old class C failed smog check and was going to cost too much to repair, more then the RV was worth.
So in the summer 1998 we bought a 24' Terry TT since was lite enough it (supposedly) could be "towed" with a Chevy Astro Van - it WAS NOT SAFE to tow the trailer with that! Lite was not like a lite trailer is now so in the fall we got a 1998 3/4 ton Dodge Diesel Ram truck to tow with and the next summer, in 1999, we traded in the Terry on a 30' Tahoe 5th wheel with a slide, my wife was negative on slideouts until we actually had one! Never NOT had at least one slide since!

We've kept with trailers because I like leaving the trailer at the site and exploring! Wife's father was fulltimer for a few years and let us use his 34' class A for a family reunion trip in 1997, it was nice, but I still like TT better, and I didn't see a difference with towing a trailer or towing a car like he did so I'll always pick trailer.
In June 2009 we bought a 2009 29' Wilderness, then last Oct. we traded that in and got the 2015 33' 28RKX Wildcat Maxx TT as our "retirement trailer", in a few short more years!
So in a nutshell, 39 years of my RV life.

[widogmom]

Like a lot of folks, we'd both done some tent camping, but what really got us started in RVing was when DH took a cycling vacation in AZ and rented a friend's motorhome to stay in. He was really impressed and, a couple of years later, we bought our own!

[Crockett]

folks said were opening an RV dealership. knocked a hole in the wall of the garage. got an craftsman 3/8" reversible drill. camped vicariously ever since...

[Brother Les]

Boy Scouts.

I really envied the families who had tents to camp in compared to my half-fly.


Shelter Half Pup Tent

[Loraura]

Growing up my parents had a popup, then a Travel Trailer, and they took us to every single state except to Alaska and Hawaii. We spent 2-3 weeks per summer camping and seeing the US, then spent many many weekends at the local state park.

My grandparents got in on it and got their own TT and joined us much of the time.

I tried tent camping a time or two but it felt very cumbersome and not very comfortable! Texas heat doesn't make for a long tent camping season.

My husband and I started racing mountain bikes all over Texas and it was much easier to camp on location than travel long hours or stay in hotels, so I bought us a popup. it was enough to convince my husband that he liked to camp afterall! Just needed a decent mattress, an AC unit, and some creature comforts.

Boy then did it spiral quickly to a HTT, and now our 1 month old Coachmen FE 292BHDS.

I'm in heaven. It reminds me so much of the 1980ish Shasta bunk house I spent every summer in traveling the US with my parents.

We hike and bike almost everywhere that we go. Not much on the water sports, but there is always so much to do other than boating activities on the parks around here.

I cant wait to go on some LONG vacations to Colorado and Utah and get some serious mountain biking done and see some of the best parks the world has to offer.

[dj3spots]

Grew up "tending" the camp while father & brothers hunted. Became the SAG(support vehicle) for my DH when he was cycling; I refused to sleep on the ground and wanted a "porta potty". Hence, our first TT purchase. That was years ago.


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[widogmom]

Originally Posted by Loraura

My husband and I started racing mountain bikes all over Texas...

If you ever want to do some camping in cool refreshing Wisconsin, check out Nine Mile Forest and the Wausau24. Very pretty up here! Wausau24

[ColoradoRick]

I was an Army brat (New Jersey, Texas, Georgia, Germany) and me and my brothers were cub- and boyscouts and Dad was a scoutmaster so spent many summer nights camping with the troops. (And the smell of a US Army tent is something you never forget!)

Got married to my highschool sweetheart (in Maine) who's family had a camp on a lake.

Jump ahead about 30 years and my wife was working as a hairdresser at the Air Force Academy which is right up the road from the Air Force RV campground so she met many sweet gals who told her how wonderful RV's were and not to wait until we were old but do it now, as a part-time hobby.

Researched ALL kinds of campers but since I only had a Tacoma with a V-6, found a used 18-footer at a local dealer who took the time to teach us just about everything we needed to get started.

Totally fell in love with our new hobby and, last year, upgraded both the 18-footer for a FR 33-footer and traded in the Taco for one-year old Tundra.

Couldn't be happier...we're blessed people!!

[CarolinaGirl]

We have 4 kids. It is super expensive for all 6 of us to vacation anywhere. We don't visit hotels because that means having to get 2 rooms. It can get crazy expensive. We have friends who have a camper and seemed to love it. I had never even been inside a camper until about 3 years ago. I finally talked hubby into it and we are having a blast. We are trying out as many campgrounds as possible. It is great for family togetherness time and a nice weekend getaway. I just wish we had gotten a fifth wheel. I don't like all of us having to share 1 bathroom. LOL Maybe someday, right?

[tomrob1161]

Started out in 1970 borrowing my aunt & uncle's Holiday Rambler, then bought a pop-up, Strury, 26' double axle in 1977. Moved up to a travel trailer in 1985, have had 4 travel trailer since then, no 5th wheels or motor homes, like travel trailers.. Liked the lazy living in the early 70's, no TV no phone. Of course times have changed, but still love "roughing it".


2013 Rockwood Signature Ultra Light, 8315BSS.

[JoanneL]

Great way to travel with kids. We had a pop up. Later when it was the two of us and dogs we got one Travel trailer, then another and now our first MH. We can take our dogs with us and have our own beds with us!

[robsshots]

We had never camped nor backpacked. Living in Denver I was without work from 2008 - 2010 and were getting ready to move back to Florida (our "home base" so to speak.) Wife suggested we rent an RV for a month or so and visit all the national parks in Colorado and Utah before leaving Denver.
I told her that was a great idea but we couldn't afford the move the Florida much less the huge cost of what she was suggesting. But, coming from a marketing background, I suggested if we could come up with a "really big idea" perhaps we could get an RV manufacturer to sponsor us. As in loan us a rig or some such silly idea. That was in mid-December 2009 - at Christmas we came up with a "really big idea" and I wrote a marketing plan to support it: 50 national parks, 7 months, 22,000 miles. To leave Denver end of April, completing the gig end of November.
And we did. Got sponsored by Mercedes Benz USA and Airstream. They loaned us an Airstream Interstate (class B motorhome), paid all of our expenses (except food), gave us computers, cell phones, software.
Merrell gave us boots, shoes and clothes. Olympus gave us lenses, binocs, back-up camera and a digital voice recorder. Even Teko socks showed up and gave us each a week's worth of socks!
We went from Denver to Utah, Texas, California, up the coast, then to Alaska, back to Montana, Wyoming, across the Dakotas to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, across to Maine, then down to the Keys in Florida. We returned the unit to the Airstream factory and sat on the curb and cried.
All we could think about was how to get back on the road full time. Dream came true in August of 2014 when we bought our rig and a truck. Having a great time, and learning a different kind of travel than we did on that "really big idea" trip. Don't know how long we'll last out here, but since middle of August we've been to WV, Great Smoky Mountains NP, Colorado, east side of Utah, Monument Valley, Grand Canyon, Havasu Falls, Lake Meade, Sedona, wintered in AZ at Congress, Benson and Apache Junction, from there to Bishop CA, now sitting in Yosemite until Sunday.
From there we are spending a month in Oregon shooting photos for the Oregon State Park system. After visiting Olympic NP, Mount Rainier NP, Glacier NP, and Yellowstone, we'll work the beet harvest in Minnesota before working our way to Florida for the winter. Space there already booked.
It's different than we expected but enjoying every minute. Last night we were in Yosemite till 2 am shooting the strawberry full moon on that parks landmarks. What else would I rather do? Nothing!

[Reb Kitt]

WHen I was a kid, I got a tent and camped all summer, from the back yard when I was 10 or so to campgrounds when I could drive till I went into the Army. Stopped for many years, but when we visited the kids many who lived in areas where we could pull a camper up to had difficulties because they still had working lives and we didn't when we visited. Created problems because we are night people.
We got a 40 foot fifth wheel and took it to visit the kids. We brought a circuit breaker to put in their breaker box with us and the first time we went to one of our daughters, she said it was the best visit ever. This was a sentiment repeated by all 5 of the 7 kids who live all over the country. (2 live near us.) We take the camper to visit my brother and dad at the family farm. WONDERFUL because we have our own space.
We started going to campgrounds for reunions and then rallies and love it. Because it is easier to clean the camper, we often entertain in it when we are at home. When we have overnight guests, they stay in the camper, it gives them privacy.
All told, our camper is used about 180 days a year, here and away. When the time comes when we can go away for unlimited time we will become almost full time.

[kandl]

Fur kids... we go, they go, everywhere...