Camping

How many of the 4 or 5 readers of this blog like to camp? I certainly do. I've been camping since I was a kid, but not always on a real consistant basis.

Most of my life, my camping has been in a tent, at a campground where facilities are available. I'm not sure I'd really, truly enjoy the real roughing it kind of camping. I like being outdoors, sleeping outdoors, cooking outdoors, and all. But I really enjoy being able to take a shower in the middle of it all, too.

The last few years of camping in a tent have gotten a little rougher. Age, maybe? Lack of climate control? But probably the straw that broke the camel's back, were the last two times I camped in a tent.

• 1st of the last two, was during Tropical Storm Ernesto, which didn't quite develop into a Hurricane, but was close enough in my book. Tent was set up. Left during the storm (smart enough to not try to ride it out in the tent), only to return later to make sure all was well. Nope! Tents aren't made to withstand tropical storms or hurricanes. The tent was still intact, but since the campground flooded, so did the tent. We had a 5 gallon bucket, and emptied the tent 5 times. 5x5=25 gallons of water. We slept in the car that night. Not fun.
• The 2nd of the last two times, was Memorial Day weekend (2007). Same park, different storm. Not an actual tropical storm or hurricane this time, but a great Thunder/Lightning/Electrical storm. Again, a tent is not the place you want to be. Sat in the car for quite some time. Drove , and I think finally drove home to sleep at home. Went back the next day, all was well, and enjoyed a somewhat muddy weekend.

Now - some of our friends to this point have been camping in a pop-up camper for a couple of years because of the same situations that we were in. They were always dry and rested the next day.

And so the hunt began. Last year, a pop-up camper was found on Craigslist for a reasonable price for a great camper. Yep - it's been in the driveway for nearly a year now. Bought in August last year, it got 3 good uses before it was allowed to take a break for the winter. We took it out a couple of weeks ago for a test run of the season. And whaddya know - the AC breaks. During a hot spell. 98 degrees during the day, and not much better in the evenings. We muddles through , and limped it home. There were many suggestions around the campfire as to what the culprit may be, but we had to wait to see...

The culprit was the capacitor. (The only thing I could think about was the "Flux Capacitor" from "Back to the Future". We found a trailer guy that specializes in camper-trailers, and he had it switched out in no time. Now it's cooler than ever and will probably freeze me out of the camper on our next trip. Which will be Labor Day weekend.

I'll try to post an update to let you know if I still like camping. It was getting a little dicey there for a bit.....

AMW