I have been camping for many years, using tents, campers, travel trailers, Class C, 5th wheel, and hybrid. I have posted here some of my adventures and mis-adventures. I make a distinct difference between “camping” and “RVing”. its not based on the type vehicle, but how and where you go. You can “camp” in an RV. Camping is going to the out of the way places, without RV pads, or full hookups, and leaving a lot of your electronic toys behind. RVing is taking it all with you, to a park with RV pads, 50 amp hookups, cable, water and sewer. With my 17 foot hybrid, I could “camp” or RV, depending on how much I wanted to rough it. In my 32 foot 5th wheel, it was mostly RVing, most camping areas were too small to accomdate it. You get the point…
I will post more detail about each RV and the adventures with those camping experiences in other articles. This is just a summary.
I tent camped for many years, even when the family was young. My oldest son was a mosquito magnet so we knew to continue camping we needed something better than a tent. Plus with 26 years of military life, I know canvass. So in 1972, I bought my first RV, a 1968 Chevrolet 3/4 ton pickup with a cab-over camper. It was great and we used it often. Then in 1974, I got orders to transfer to Alaska, the wife didn’t want to travel that far with the kids riding inthe camper, so I sold that and purchased a 23 foot Terry Travel Trailer and a 1974 Chrsyler Town and Country Station Wagon for the trip to Alaska. That was an experience, me, the wife and 3 kids lived and travelled in that for almost 60 days getting to Alaska, including an ALCAN drive of 1500 miles of gravel road.
Next came the Class C, a 23 foot Free Spirit by Holiday Rambler. Flew out of Alaska to Arkansas, purchased the Class C and drove it back. Used it for a couple of years, then sold it prior to leaving Alaska. Then we took a break for awhile and purchased a 1990 Oddessy Micro Motor Home on a Toyota chassis. We used this for a few years and finally upgraded to 1995 Alpenlite 5th Wheel, 32 feet, with dual slide outs. We used this setup for over 7 years and loved it. Then after buying a home in Arizona, we sold it. Of course, our grandchildren kept pestering us to go camping, which to them meant going out in grandma and grandpa’s RV, we purchased a Jayco Kiwi 17A hybrid. Great little trailer for getting into some of the remote campgrounds in the Nationall Forsest and small state parks, but just a little too small for the wife to truly enjoy, and to prevent us from bumping into each other, we sold that and upgraded to a 2008 Trail Cruiser 23SB, with a slide out rear queen bed.
1970 Terry 23′ Travel Trailer
1990 Oddessey
1995 Alpenlite 5th Wheel
2001 Jayco Kiwi 17A
