Tuesday, February 5, 2019

What Kind of Camper are you?

This is a LOADED question. There are SO many different ideologies on camping from whether you are full-time or part-time, your packing style - simplistic or glamper, and your outlook on electronics - no phones/TVs/computers purist or all the modern luxuries. But one of the most-asked questions about camper style that I hear from friends, is where do you go?

As far as I can tell, there are really two types of campers when it comes to the "where." Either you go to the same place every time, or you go to a different place every time. Yes, there are some folks who are little in between, but for the most part there are some pretty consistent campers out there doing one or the other.



Same Place-RVers

Same place RVers are those who like to book the same park and many times the same site every time. These are pretty meticulous folks who have tested their camping style from several angles and know what works from certain spots, or tried one and just REALLY liked it.

Usually, same place RVers meet other same place RVer friends and arrange to camp out at the same time - which is pretty magical if you think about it. It's like the equivalent of online dating for campers but its all done the "old fashion" way. As far as I'm concerned...if I meet a friend while camping who actually wants to see me again after getting a REAL dose of who I am sans makeup, clean clothes, not caring when my kids run around screaming and who enjoys my deep conversations over a smelly campfire...they are definitely a keeper!

Camping bonds people together in a really special way. We have several friends who book the same lakefront spot at the same lake every holiday weekend of the year. They love it and there isn't much convincing them to go anywhere else. I say do what works for your family and hold true to it. Once you start following the pressures of others, you start to lose sight of why you started camping in the first place and fun starts to be work.



Wanderers

My husband and I definitely fall into this category, mainly because of our love of history and constant desire to learn. Life is too short to see the same things over and over again especially when there is so much out there. We are consistent with this mindset too, when it comes to books and movies we hardly ever watch or read the same one twice. We have been to almost every state park in the state of Texas, and have started branching out to RV parks and LCRA land as well as out-of-state camping to keep it interesting.

Wanderers have an insatiable craving for adventure and usually do really well with change and being amenable to most situations. "This site doesn't have an even concrete pad? No problem, we can just stack blocks to teeter the camper to *just the right* angle to not fall out of bed."




We also try to pair our camping location with really neat nearby festivals, museums, or towns to explore. Of course, this can backfire on us when family or friends want to go to a park that we've been to before. In which case, we may bend a little for the good of the group and see the same place again.

The heart of the matter is that we LOVE traveling. Before kids, we left the country once or twice a year and pretty consistently spent weekends in other cities and states. Today, however, as those of you with young families know, this is much harder to accomplish with toddlers on a nap schedule who have to be fed every few hours and can't be confined for too long on airplanes. Wandering with our camper has become our way to continue travelling while exposing our littles to new and different areas, ideas and concepts. Our RV trailer feels like a second home with all of our creature comforts and makes it easy to travel without feeling a lot of the pressures of air travel with perfect, quiet children (does that really exist?!).

Now, if someone can help me, I'd love to convince my hubs to travel a little further out, like maybe South Dakota or Maine...I haven't accomplished that quite yet but there's still time!

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