In our own way I guess we also got back to tent camping. Wife is retired but still have to wait a bit so I can have Med insurance. We used to tent camp but it was very hard for us sleeping on the ground so we bought a user HTT trailer about ten days ago and have already gone camping for two days. And we love it. The drive and set up is so fast we are just besides our selves. We know we'll use the Jayco for the longer trips 3/4 months or so but for the short ones , can't beat sleeping under the canvas (on our HTT).
bob and jackie
If it was a one time $20.00 to fill the gas tank, I would be with the folks that say why go back to a tent. DW and I were going to take two trips of around 300- miles each. One dollar a gallon difference is about $333. I figure an extra $1000 per year for our non camping miles. Also everything else cost more because of fuel prices. DW was happy when she saw a pack of hot dog buns on sale for less than a dollar.
So I can understand someone leaving a TT and going back to a tent. Good luck and have fun camping.
Jim & Junnie
2005 Sunline Solaris T-2553 Our Web Site
M GO BLUE wrote: You spent all that money on a new RV in the past and now just let is sit because gas is ~ $1.00more per gallon this year than last year?...which may I add is an extra $20/fill-up...ti each his own I guess
I thought the same thing...
I'll never go back to a tent, but if it works for you...great! Just don't try to sell me on it...
When I started hard-sided camping, gas was 0.20/ltr, now it's 2.25/ltr. I got rid of the campers last year in Texas - found someone who wanted it. I never gave up on the canoes and river-side tenting-
after all it made me a good living for more than 24 years. I'm sure there are more canoe campers out there or those who used to do it.
Wolf
Home 56.16°N -96.9°W ~ Wall 12 man and Eureka 6 man Egyptian cotton tent ~ Winter S/V Porque No 7.25°N -80.8°W //Mitakuye oyasin!
A lot of folks that I know (and I was nearly one of them) purchased TT's and big ole gas guzzlin' TV's to go camping. They were able to do it, but only just. They did the math and realized that if they held their mouths just right and nothing ever went wrong, that they could afford it. So, I figured, why not?
The DW and I sat down and did the math and figured out we could do the same thing. We had a few debts to pay off and then we were darn well going to go out and drop a load on a TT and TV. No king cab for us, either. We've got too many kids for that! We were going suburban all the way! Man, I was totally stoked up about it, too. I couldn't wait to hit the road!
But, like I said, we had a few outstanding debts to take care of first. We are now a pay as you go family. If I can't pay cash for it, I can't have it. So we had to get rid of all our past debts before we could go spending on anything fun. I HATE putting off satisfaction, but I've learned to do it over the past couple of years. Though, truly it sucks to wait.
Having said that, however, while we were forced to wait to get the new setup, things started happening. Gas started getting higher and higher and higher. And it's still going up. Who knows when we'll see the end of it? This new reality definitely hadn't been factored into our decision to buy a TT and TV.
So, now when we do the math, the world looks a little different. We've decided to still get a camper. A PUP. And while we're saving up the money for the PUP we'll be camping in our tent.
And what about the suburban? Man, no way. My buddy's got one of those beasts. He's the reason I wanted one to start with. He uses his to pull his TT. I really liked all the room and the power. But just the other day he told me that he was filling her up at the station and that, "guess what, the pumps kick off after $100 now!" He was especially sad because it kicked off at $100, but he wasn't full yet. I don't need that in my life.
And as an added insult, I've got another friend who's a car dealer who was going to hook me up when I was ready. Even he was saying I had dodged a bullet. He and his partner took several SUV's to an auction a couple of weeks back. Suburbans, V8 Explorers, Expeditions all that sort of thing. Nice, well-maintained, clean vehicles. They couldn't even get anyone to bid on them. The only things moving now are small, fuel-efficient cars. So, I'd rather not stick myself with something with zero resale value now, and with gas going up and up and up, that's only going to get worse.
We can pull a PUP with our Windstar. It's got the tow package and it's ready to go. Plenty of seating, and we don't plan on any mountain trips. We live in the KY Lake area. We've got more beautiful places to camp than you can shake a stick at all within an hour's drive or less.
I guess what I'm getting at, is a lot of people had been operating at the extreme end of what they could afford and that was before the oil companies had us all by the short hairs. I'm sure not everyone is going to have to go from TT to tent, but I don't think anyone should be surprised when it starts happening more and more often.
On the plus side, though. People who are looking to buy big TV's and TT's or 5'ers will be in hog heaven. It's gonna be a buyer's market baby! I'm seeing more and more of the big guys sitting on the side of the road with "FOR SALE" on the side or on the windshield. And I'd be willing to bet that more than a few of them belong to people who just can't quite pay for the fuel any more. Not in conjunction with rising food and heating/cooling prices.
I'm just glad that I didn't get sucked into it because at the time I was certainly a willing participant!
* This post was
edited 05/26/08 04:23pm by jtbeck *
Me (69), DW (69), DD (95), DS (00), DS (01) and 1 camping toy fox terrier (08)
95 Fleetwood Utah, 02 Ford Explorer Limited (V8)
Oh there is no end in sight as far as fuel prices. We are pretty much in the same situation, wanting a TT and a TV, but I doubt we'll ever get one. I don't even think we'll afford the PUP....
I've been getting alot of those forwarded junk emails about the Arab Emirates lately...the wealthy sheik with his solid silver car, the indoor skiing mountain, the man made islands...people complaining that is why the price of gas is so high. The price is high because India and China are quickly catching up to us as far as fuel consumption, but there's no increase in production. And I find it funny that Americans are complaining about the wealth they oil countries have...it's called capitalism, which is what American is founded on. The reason the Arab Emirates are building the man made islands in Dubai and the indoor skiing mountain is because they know their supply of oil is almost up. The calculate they will run out of oil in 2016 at the current rate of use. That's 8 years away. So yes, prices are high, and they are going to get a heck of alot higher very very soon. It's time we change our lifestyles, heck, we'll have no choice, to a more efficient use of energy, and to different sources of energy.
Fauna, you made me laugh with your reference to the solid silver car. I hadn't heard that one yet! That's a good one!
One thing that would have made our country much more self sufficient would have been a decent rail system. We used to have one, but we let it crumble and wither away. Americans have had such a love affair with the car that we couldn't see past our own steering wheels.
I'm just as guilty as anyone, I'm not throwing stones!
But since we had cheap fuel for so long, now we have a situation where people are commuting 100+ miles to and from work EVERY DAY! Heck, I had an 80 mile commute until just recently. If we had a decent rail system in place (like darn near every other industrialized nation) this wouldn't be such a big deal. But right now, a few extra cents per gallon makes a big difference in what people bring home each week when they've got a long commute. It can make a BIG difference.
I lived in Europe for a while and I was surprised to discover that no matter how small the town you were in, no matter how out of the way it was, it had a train depot. You could be in the middle of absolutely nowhere, and hop on a train and be in the middle of a huge metropolitan area in next to no time. I fell in love with that mode of travel.
If we used rail systems the way most of the world does, we wouldn't be in the iron grip of oil to the extent that we are right now. Oh, I'm sure we'd feel it, and we'd gripe about it, but it wouldn't be the catastrophic mess we're facing now.
I'm not naive enough to think that would solve all our problems, but it would help.
Since this is a thread about camping, I guess I should say that I can't wait to get our PUP later on this year. But while we wait, I plan on having a large time with my family in our tent! I really enjoy tent camping and I think it's great for the kids to pull them away from the wii and the couch and make them toughen up a little bit.
Not that we're roughing it all that much. Our tent is 17' x 15' with three rooms and electrical ports so that we can run fans to keep us nice and cool when it's too hot, or a ceramic heater to keep us nice and warm when it's too cool. Air mattresses to keep us off the hard ground help, too. I'm sure we'll wind up taking a portable dvd player with us, also. It's fun to watch a movie in the tent after it gets dark. Even a short weekend trip has the potential to make memories that your kids will treasure for the rest of their lives.
As far as the PUP goes, I see that as an investment in cost-effective vacations for years to come. You look around and you can find awesome deals on them. Even brand new ones. You don't have to have a Kenworth to tow one, just stay within the tolerances of whatever TV you choose to go with. Most of them will pull #3,500, so that will give you a fair range of PUPs to choose from.
The main reason I want to get a PUP is to extend our camping season on the front and back ends. It will allow us to camp earlier in the Spring and later in the Fall.
No matter what style of camping you wind up going with, just go camping!
FantasticFauna wrote: Oh there is no end in sight as far as fuel prices. We are pretty much in the same situation, wanting a TT and a TV, but I doubt we'll ever get one. I don't even think we'll afford the PUP....
I've been getting alot of those forwarded junk emails about the Arab Emirates lately...the wealthy sheik with his solid silver car, the indoor skiing mountain, the man made islands...people complaining that is why the price of gas is so high. The price is high because India and China are quickly catching up to us as far as fuel consumption, but there's no increase in production. And I find it funny that Americans are complaining about the wealth they oil countries have...it's called capitalism, which is what American is founded on. The reason the Arab Emirates are building the man made islands in Dubai and the indoor skiing mountain is because they know their supply of oil is almost up. The calculate they will run out of oil in 2016 at the current rate of use. That's 8 years away. So yes, prices are high, and they are going to get a heck of alot higher very very soon. It's time we change our lifestyles, heck, we'll have no choice, to a more efficient use of energy, and to different sources of energy.
Man, that's crazy talk! We only buy about 14% of our oil from Saudi Arabia and it's affiliates. Most of our fuel comes from Canada and Mexico, and to a lesser extent, Venezuela. You're paying a very high price for fuel due partly to its cost rising in speculation. About a couple of years ago the law changed that allowed hedge fund-type investing in oil futures in the US. About 30 years ago the US built its last new oil refinery, and they are all that old or older and break down more often. Congress has a high ownership in its decision-making by environmentalists and their funding agents, who vote for no offshore oil drilling, including the tiny amount of land needed in the desolate ANWAR tundra to provide a million barrels of oil per day. The federal and state fuel taxes in California add up to about $ 0.60 per gallon, and this is from folks who don't explore, drill, refine or transport even one drop of gas or oil to my family. There are about 25 different blends of fuel in the US, which also contributes to cost factors since you cannot transfer one type to another's area, discouraging competition in the market. Oil is the most widely available and efficient source of energy known to man, with more efficient energy sources at least 50 years out for consumer transportation applicaitons. Most of the blame for oir energy woes lie in Washington - with our Democratic party majority in congress. Haven't you noticed the parallel with the cost of fuel and their "taking over" the majority in 2006? Remember their promise to lower fuel prices? I do.
I don't know. I'm not disagreeing with you, but I would need to see evidence of the Democratic majority and the rising prices. I don't remember any votes like that coming up in the past couple of years. Plus, their majority is so razor thin that they would have to have lots of Republican help to pass anything of that magnitude. Remember, they make laws not policy. And any law that they make would have to be approved by the president. I don't think anything like that has come up.
You're right that most of our oil comes from Mexico. Yet for some reason our "leaders" kiss the Saudis butts at every opportunity. It's appalling.
The speculation is also a major contributor to the rising prices. And if something happens and the bottom falls out of it, you can bet your last dollar that our corporate-welfare government will be falling all over themselves to bail out the speculators. Look at the mortgage crisis for a good example.
As for drilling in ANWAR, Rock on. We need to get after that oil. The offshore drilling ban is ridiculous, too. We won't let our companies do it, but we've got Chinese companies right across the 12 mile international boundary drilling like there's no tomorrow. We should be doing the same thing. I agree 100%.
You're also dead-on about the different fuel blends. It's ridiculous. It'll just about make your ears bleed to try and understand their reasoning for that nonsense.
I would also add that due to the disastrous economic policies of the last decade the value of the dollar has crumbled. Add to that the fact that we're borrowing money from China like they're a payday lending service and printing up worthless money to repay them, further diluting a struggling US economy and you've got all the makings of economic armageddon.
This country needs to wake up and understand that we need to operate our government like we run our houses. If we don't have the money for something, we don't buy it. We don't just borrow and borrow and trust our kids to pay it back for us.
This is why I need to go camping. To relax and not think about stuff like this!!
Hmm...sorry to bring politics into camping....disregard my rant earlier in the thread.
I'm anxiously awaiting our first trip of the season, or even just tenting in the backyard! Unfortunately it's been to dang cool to do so, with temps at night dropping below 50.....
Oh good Lord, no need to apologize. If somebody steps over the line and gets crazy then they'll need to apologize. But, that happens so infrequently here that I don't think I'd worry about it at all.
I think people of intelligence can argue a point without it becoming personal or nasty. Thankfully, the people who post here are generally of the highest caliber.
Having said that, I'm probably the worst person in the world to discuss politics with. I hate all of them! Democrats and Republicans and all the marginal parties in between. I'm definitely a "throw the bums out" sort of guy.
I just realized that you're posting from Canada. When you said it was still too cold to camp I got curious as to where you live. It's rainy and humid (I guess it goes without saying that it's humid if it's raining) in the mid 80's here. We're taking off in the morning to do a little tent camping with some relatives. Looking forward to it. I'll end the weekend by going to a Reds game with my cousin in Cinci!
I can already smell the campfire and taste the s'mores (not to mention that ballpark hotdog I'm gonna get!)!
Do you guys have your first trip planned out yet? You must have a zillion beautiful places to camp around Ontario!
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