[Riverwild]

As some of you know, in a life previous to MS, I was a whitewater guide for 25 years. I traveled all over the country working, lived outside for 8 months out of the year, in tents and out of the back of my trusty Ford pickup. As I aged, and when MS reared it's ugly huge head, I got slower and more into the "seeking comfort" style of camping.

I look back now at what I used to do when I camped, and how I do it now, and I ask myself where the wet sleeping bag and the leaky tent and the dried food went! I used to fit it all in one pack!

I have what's shown below now along with a folding table, an inverter and a 100 ft. extension cord to blow up that bed. I have a cooler that turns on a light when you open it that holds food for 5 days virtually frozen, I use bedsheets and blankets, I literally have a portable home. We have a tiny digital TV that runs on batteries or plug in, and a stereo with CD player that also runs on battery and plug in.

Is this truly camping?

[Riverwild]

P.S.: I fit all this and more in the mouse car too!

[SallyC]

Originally Posted by Riverwild

Is this truly camping?

It is, if a "River Runs Through It"..

[AfterMyNap]

LMAO! You camp better than I live! LOL! So, where ya' headed????

I hear you on the gear-to-go issue, my fleet of wheels and assists takes up nearly all the cargo area of my little SUV.

I was just at MC tonight and helped a couple pick out a tent, I think it just never leaves our blood. I miss it so much!

[ewizabeth]

Wowee RW! If you had AC I could even camp in that! Maybe.

[Taffy]

I say...whatever still lets us get out there!

That dang auto salesman thought I was weird cause the cargo I was carrying was me sleeping!

[tkrik]

RW, they call that luxuriously roughing it. LOL I'd go with you in a heart beat with all that good stuff.

RVing is how we have been going for the past few years.

[kicker]

Aw Riverwild,
Once upon a time we camped with no one else around, canoed in, made a fire of found branches, cooked from scratch with found materials when possible.(pancakes with huckleberries - DH telling me loud and clear , huckleberries NOT blueberries.) Time went on - brought an air mattress, a cook stove with propane!! Life now has so changed. I'm in a chair. Last summer I cried seeing our canoe on a bank, knowing I'd never get in without a lot of help and wearing a life-jacket. Last time when we sort of still could, went camping in a "parking lot", RVs all around. DS (8?) lived in RV next door with his new friend - they made popcorn in the microwave. Our fresh caught trout on a fly-rod was no competition.
We once "free-camped. No charg,e to sleep in wonderful, deep woods, but no rangers either! We awoke in way early hours before dawn to gun fire. We finished the night in van, hightailed it out of their next day. Was "just" drunks who in the huge place picked site near us. Camping never was my absolute fav.really.

[Twinkletoes]

Sounds like camping to me: you have to pack stuff, do w/o stuff, wake up on a deflated air mattress. Yup, sounds like camping.

You rock, RW! Wish I could have joined you on one of your guided river trips.

[Riverwild]

Did I mention the battery powered fan with the adapter so I can plug it in when the batteries die?... the double burner propane stove, tabletop grille and lantern and the 5 lb gas tank with the triple connector so I can hook them all up on the same tank? I even bring a rug for the floor of the tent. I want the two room shower stall/bathroom that goes with the tent now and a pop-up shade canopy- no more struggling with tarps! I wanna make a mister powered by a foot pump for cooling while I sit under the canopy. I want a rocking folding chair so I can rock and squish the foot pump and cool down with no effort on my part.

I'm seriously thinking of going solar...

Someone made the comment that it isn't 'camping' Of course, they were trying to dry all their stuff out when they said it so I am putting it down to jealousy.

Twink, you still can. You just can't sue me if you die since I am not "working"!