No camping for me. Too many bugs. Closest I would consider is those igloo hotel pods in Finland where you go to see the northern lights.
if you like northern light displays (and who doesn't except for early hominids who were probably terrified of them) when I was a bomb loader stationed near Fairbanks working the mid-shift in the winter, nearly every clear night the lights were shifting & undulating off and on. Sometimes they seemed so close you could reach out and grab them!
I've been mulling getting a proper off road vehicle. Company out in AZ buys up humvees at auction (they typically go for 10-12k) go through the wiring, get em road registered and can customize them to order.Its worth the markup for them going through it and registering it alone. The problem is that the base engines suck ass. They are crazy underpowered for the vehicle's weight. Get into an engine swap and I might as well buy a suburban. Never saw a jeep (that wasn't a sweet 16 present) that wasn't modified out the tailpipe to get to where it was actually useable. I'm interested to see what the new bronco is going to bring to the table, hopefully more utility than flash.
Those chairs are so much better than the folding bag/camp chairs that got popular 20-something years ago. The rigid ones are easier to get out of and the side table thing is handy for a drink, smokes, phone, etc.
Oh yeah. And more comfortable and easier to get in and out of (edit: I see you already mentioned this, somehow in my mind I read it as ‘get out’ and translated it to ‘set up’ and thought you meant getting in and out of the bag). Two are from Gander Mountain (RIP ) but the two from Harbor Freight are almost as good (just thinner fabric [but hasn’t ripped in 3 or 4 years of decent use so... ] and no cup holders in the side table). https://www.harborfreight.com/foldable-aluminum-sports-chair-green-62314.html
A few years ago I got one with the cupholder table for Fathers Day and I immediately ditched the bag chairs I'd been using for camp. This year for Fathers Day my daughters got me a camp chair that's a rocker. I've used it at some cookouts at friends' houses, but I don't know if I'll take it camping or not because of the lack of a side table/cupholder.
I’m picturing you sitting in front of a campfire, rocking, looking up and saying it is gonna rain tonight, you feel it in your knee.
RIP Gander Mountain? They still have one here in Augusta, or do you mean Gander Mountain doesn't sell that style of chair anymore? Regardless nice pic of your campsite - looks like a great spot - nice vistas compared to camping in thick woods.
They went bankrupt and sold all their inventory and stores. Looking at Wikipedia I guess Camping World bought the name and restarted them.
Mostly "festival camping" these days. I generally have to travel with others and pack light, so leaning towards "rough". I do like having a tent that's in the 5' high range and replaced the air mattress with a stretcher cot. Can't dance around the campfire naked after waking up on a half filled air mattress. Years ago I did a canoe trip through Algonquin with some others. We'd tied the food from a tree, but the bear had a squad of raccoon minions that chewed through the rope. Sure glad we'd listened about the "no food in tents" rule
A friend and I camped a couple years ago. She'd brought some "special" breakfast bars. The raccoons got into them in the night and had a party. woke us up. We didn't leave the tent. But, next morning, the campsite was a mess.
I think this is the perfect balance of luxury and roughness: https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1991-volkswagen-transporter-6/
Nice story! And you were very lucky! I think there is a time and place for every style of camping. But I agree, it doesn't feel like camping if you bring a TV. I prefer to be deep in the woods where there is no connection to the outside world. I slept out under the stars several times this summer, a couple of times in a hammock and once on the grass. I also tent camped. But no backpacking unfortunately.
I saw your pics and knew immedietly you were on this side of the state! Not far from me! Looks like a great time!
Westfalia and VW vans go back to the 60s. this one even though it's 30 years old is uber cool having a 5 speed manual, 5 banger diesel that provides respectable power, AND air conditioning. Euro-weenies outside of Spain thought it was the devil's air back then.
I miss the west. Backpacking a string hammock is the way to go, but there's a lot to be said about a good air-mattress. Jeep camping I'd load up all the good stuff (but never a TV or boom-box).
Here's another, but for usability I'd go with the 91 diesel. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1974-volkswagen-vw-westfalia-model-2391-p22/
Okay, that pic isn’t actually that sunny. But it was, definitely more than the rain all week Wetside.
Yeah, it is a little bit cooler this weekend. I am about 2 hours or 103 miles from Ellensburg. I saw that there was snow on Steven's Pass this weekend! Woo! Did you see any snow in your travels?
Also, one of the nice things about polyamory is that you can have partners that don’t have their own children so actually enjoy spending time with yours. So they climbed the ridge behind our campsite. Computer. Enhance. And here is what our campsite looks like from the ridge. Computer. Enhance.