I think part of that "out of place" feeling might be because you are young, with an older folks "camping" style.
We were still camping in tents until our late 30s, early 40s. We were in campgrounds with other people of similar age, doing the same thing.
I was still doing some camping in my 50's, but it was mostly with younger people, so to that extent I was out of place, sleeping on the Great Wall with a group of 25-40 year olds.
We didn't feel the need to switch from camping to RVing until almost 60. Now I am one of the youngster in that crown, at 66 out RVing with friends 10 to 20 years older. Median age in our RV club is almost 80.
We used to be one of the younger ones without kids. We got our first pop-up in 1992 and tent camped before that. We were in our 20's. It was another 6 years before kids were added to the camping experience. We usually camp in state parks and see lots of folks our age or younger, but most do have children.
Lisaren
Madison5004
2 rugrats
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my wife is 29 and I am 28 and we bought our outdoors rv backcountry 22F last year. Tried the tent camping and she said she would never go camping again after the first night out. We have a soon to be 8 year old and a 5 year old and they love camping and we love going every weekend.
I loved camping as a kid but DW isn't into tent camping. To get back to what I enjoyed,we purchased our RV in our 30's. 8 years later and now with two girls and all the kids activities, it's harder to get out but, we try as much as possible. We are fortunate to have several friends from college that enjoy camping also.
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JenniferandJosh wrote: We're the odd couple out in our social circle- we have a trailer and love to use it!
We're 32 and 31 respectively, but have owned a trailer since 2008. We're always the youngest on the campground! We meet wonderful folks, but they're all at a very different stage of life than we are.
To make us even more odd, we don't have children, so any young families we see aren't in the same stage of life either.
Wish younger folks would look at camping and spending time in nature as better entertainment (and more rewarding) than bar-hopping and random parties.
Ok, rant over!
Has to do with employment and only weekends available.
Also once kids reach about middle school age and are into sports (etc.) - they need to be there!
However -
Find some Firefighters - 30 years on the job & never ran out of places to go, go, go - with folks of *ALL* ages!
Lots of trips of all sorts with various "equipment" and "toys".
Actually think we did way more when we were younger - even with kids!
Try joining some kind of club - for off road, boating, M/Cs & ATVs, etc.
You *should* find folks of all ages.
BTW - My 85 year old neighbor still snow skis & surfs (darn good, too!)
The wife and I have been together 6 years. I'm 39 and she's 40. We tent camped quite often until 2010. The last storm we got caught in was horrible. I threw everything in the bed of the truck and said never again. LOL. Went out a couple weeks later and bought a popup. That lasted one season. I got tired of cranking that thing up and down and dealing with the lack of storage. Don't get me wrong, we had a blast with the popup. Bought the TT last August and we love it. We go as much as we can manage. We see people our age in all the campgrounds we go to.
I was very fortunate in that at 32 I was able to full time for 9 years while I rented my house out. As long as I was within 2 hours from my office, I was good to go! It's pretty incredible what you can see within 2 hours of Los Angeles/Orange County here in California!
I was also fortunate to begin RVing with a truck and camper at 29. It was odd though to be the "man out" in many RV situations, but I always made it a game to ensure that those around me knew I wasn't "a threat" and was there for the same reasons they were. I learned a LOT from those folks through the years, especially when full timing. Of course having 2 dogs with me was a conversation starter
Dak
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I know I have already responded to this, but saw the post near the top and wanted to add I saw plenty of 30 somethings camping this weekend, many were also couples without kids. So there are many out there. I don't think most people your age are out looking for bar hopping and parties. I think that you might be stereotyping there. Most are either not able to afford a trailer yet as they are raising kids and paying a mortgage, or the ones w/out kids are likely the more adventurous types who like to go backpacking and tenting it instead. And then there are those people who are just not the 'camping type' but still have other activities that are outdoorsy like boating that they enjoy. As I said in earlier post, when I was early to mid 30's, our weekends were taking out our two sea doos and racing them on the lake. Sometimes we'd take the tent with us and make it an all weekender. It just wasn't realistic to be able to afford two jet ski's (gas alone on those suckers will kill ya) AND a travel trailer at the same time. It was an either/or thing for us as we are not independently wealthy. Since we have lead foot on bikes we decided that trading in our jet ski lanyards for keys to a travel trailer was a safer bet once we hit the age of around 35.
When we camp we are friendly with all age groups and categories of people. Have the outlook that you want to meet interesting people, not necessarily people of your own age. While that might be nice, it surely isn't required to have fun. A lot of people I meet older than me are extremely fun.
* This post was
edited 05/08/12 09:18pm by JayWalker2009 *
From us, we tend to be middle of the road age wise compared to what we see at the local campgrounds. Now mind you we like to camp at state parks, private campgrounds (as opposed to RV resort type of places) so the demographic tends to change a bit I suppose. Also most of the facilities are mixed use so you could have a tent next to an Class A RV next to a popup.
I am 37 but stated RV camping with a Popup at 35 (was tent before then) and we have a 4.5 year old. We all love to camp but just now starting to figure it out with a TT. We bought our 2012 Jayco Swift last year so only been out 4 times.
I think another factor is when you are looking to go....holiday weekends vs. standard non-event weekend plays a role. As said before many are working to pay bills so taking time off is generally more convenient over long weekends.
2012 Jayco Jay Flight Swift 264BH
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