Camping

I love camping. First time I went camping my children were little - that was a long time ago. We had three kids, bought a tent, sleeping bags, a camp stove, latern and heater. All the neccesities to camp comfortable. Two of my brothers and my older sister also camped with us.
That was back in the day you pulled into the campground, they charged by the car load and you piced any spot you wanted. Camps were set up where ever we wanted and no one was crowded together.  Yes, there was a bathroom and shower, and water pumps were located at various places around the grounds, but we always brought 5 gallons of water from home for drinking and cooking.
The first time we camped was Memorial Day weekend. Weather in Ohio is iffy at best and end of May or not, there was no guarantee for warm weather. There's a reason they tell you not to plant your garden until after Memorial Day and all danger of frost is past.
Yep, you guessed it. It was cold - winter coat weather cold, but hey we're diehard campers and we braved it out. My brothers were more fortunate as they had popup campers. My sister and I had tents. We used great care choosing our spots making sure it was level ground.
We camped for several years and eventually my younger sister joined us. First in a tent and later in a pop up. She and I used to camp in Beaver Creek State Park, what they called primitive camping. There were outhouses, no showers, and water pumps- the kind you had to hand pump - well water. Again we brought water from home. Baths consisted of boiling water and sponge baths every day. What were we thinking? LOL
One year we decided to stay out there for a month. Our husbands went to work from there. Mine worked nights and hers worked days so we always had a man in camp. Of course, mine was asleep much of the time.
They had a naturalist and he held classes for the kids. We hiked down a steep hill with her three kids and my six, the youngest both being about four years old. When we think back to how dangerous that was, we wonder where our brains were. Seriously, it was a very steep hill and if one of the kids, or us for that matter, slipped and fell what would we do? One of us would have had to leave the kids and go for help. Pretty scary. Fortunately, nothing happened and the kids earned their badges for various activities. The kids have great memories and we had fun.
From there we moved on to renting a cottage for a week every year. That was great fun also, but it was only a week. Camping was most weekends and we often stayed a week at a time. Other than the time we stayed a month.
The cottage was much different than camping obviously. We had a roof over our heads, running water, heat, a stove, fridge, and all the comforts of home. One of my brothers, my
parents, and of course my younger sister rented cottages. Really more like homes than my vision of a cottage. The kids could come and go without worry as it was a gated community.
Eventually, we rented a cabin for a week in Lake Hope Ohio with my oldest daughter and her family. We did that for several years and made many memories with her children. We had a great time hiking, sitting around the camp fire and cooking out.
A few years ago my kids started camping - they all had tents. One by one they bought campers, except for my oldest daughter, she still tent camps.
My youngest son bought a popup from a friend and later moved on to a trailer camper. We got the popup from him and recently gave it to my oldest son.  The popup was sufficient space, but putting it up and down was too much for my husband and me. It wasn't a
modern remote or even a crank type. Putting it up was fairly easy, putting it down was someting else.

So we bought and old (1998) motor home. It needs work but fits our needs. We went on our first camping trip of the season a couple weeks ago. It was great to pull up, park, put up our canopy, put the lights on them, pull out our rug, chairs and grill and sit back and relax. Well not actually, I did walk around and offer to help my daughters. It was great having a bathroom for those middle of the night visits and hot water to wash dishes. No more boiling it. Opening cupboards and taking out dishes instead of digging through one cabinet or countertop to find what we needed. My counters remained uncluttered. Clutter drives me crazy. It was great having a refrigerator instead of two coolers, also. Oh and it even has a pantry, so I didn't have to bring two storage containers. We weren't looking for a motorhome, we were looking for a class C camper. Hubby wanted something he could drive. Our car isn't capable of towing a trailer type camper anyway. We were lucky it pulled the popup. We couldn't afford a truck and a camper, so that was our only solution.
We've been busy making minor repairs and making it ours. For some reason there were mirrors next to the stove. Why? I can't even begin to guess. I pulled them off and of course broke them. I replaced them with stick on fake glass tile. Looks much better. There's still two mirrors on the other side of the sink. I have to buy more of the fake tile and I'll pull them off also.

For some unknown reason, there was also mirrors on the wall behind our bed. I removed the headboard and pulled the mirrors off. Fortunately they didn't break. Not sure what I'm going to do with them. They're beautiful beveled glass mirrors. Anyway, I replaced the mirrors with a quilt my daughters made me a long time ago. Each square is a family member's name, their spouse and their children. It looks great hanging behind the bed.
Oh, did I say our dogs love camping. They adapted quite well to the popup and have defintely made themselves quite at home in the motorhome. Needless to say I'm looking forward to our next camping trip, which will be next week.