Past Reincarnations

[Al Stansell]

I have spent hundreds of nights in tents, and the only tent I remember fondly was a large platform tent I lived in at summer camp. As for the old, canvas, leaky army surplus pup tents that make up the rest of my camping history... I don't miss 'em one bit. I remember when I was about 18 years old I saw a Serro Scotty Sportsman and said "WOW! Someday I'm gona have one of those!" It seemed like the perfect trailer for a guy that liked to hunt and fish. I never did get one, but discovered the Boler in the meantime, and bought at the first opportunity I could. Thank you Ray Olecko!! Alec

[Bob Starr]

This was home for ten years of my life! I like my ammenities
Bob

[Greg Yother]

I had never done anything but tent camping in my entire life of 35 years. It then got to a point where I was going to a lot of bluegrass festivals to camp for one or two nights. It got to the point where it seemed like the festival was simply a short break between setting up and striking camp. Then one trip this last Spring, I was setting up camp while my father-in-law lounged in front of his camper, while he ridiculed me (all in good fun) about the fact that it took him all of ten minutes to set up his camp. That was the straw that broke the camel's back. I was determined to find something that could sleep my family of four, could be pulled by an Outback, and could be backed into my small back-yard gravel parking space (off an alley with a sharp turn into the yard past my fence). A friend of a friend had a 13' Scamp at the Walnut Valley Festival and allowed me to take the 50 cent tour. That started my research, which led me to this site; the kindest, most helpful, cool bunch of folks on the internet!! There was no turning back.

The situation that really appeals to me is having the centralized "pre-set-up-home" for all of the equipment, as opposed to loading it from the basement, then unloading and setting up, then striking camp, etc. etc. Now we are able to make camping jaunts pretty much spur of the moment; we throw together some clothes and food, hook up and GO! Simply awesome.

[Byron Kinnaman]

Attachment 10349

This was home for ten years of my life! I like my ammenities
Bob

Now that's one classy buss.

[Joseph Domingos]

I'm seconding that vote, Bob's bus pic REALLY is quite a sight! hehe I'll bet it was pretty homey inside though huh?
Joe

[Bob Starr]

Wish I could show you some pics of the inside, but my entire collection of pics burned when my house burned in the forest fires a few years ago. It was very comfortable, antique church pews for the dinning area, antique stove from the 1900's for the cook stove, and even a wood burning stove to heat up the interior. Bedroom was upstairs and the roof in the front part was the top of a VW bus with the cloth top. It had a back porch with a wrought iron railing around it. The saddest part is that my ex sent it to the junkyard after we split. Here is another pic with my traveling friends; you might understand that we turned some heads as we went down the road together

[james kent]

Oh Boy! I love the imagination that went into the project. Sorry about the way it went. Ex's have no ........

[Don & Viv]

Had to go with "Other", as our most recent camping experience has been with one of these:

http://www.autohomeus.com/

Fibreglass, yet a tent and kinda sleeping ON your vehicle rather than in it. Nocturnal trips to go potty, involving clambering down a ladder, didn't sit well with the "significant other", however, and the pooch can't climb ladders. The Boler was a natural.

Don

[Bobbie Mayer]

Had to go with "Other", as our most recent camping experience has been with one of these:

http://www.autohomeus.com/

Fibreglass, yet a tent and kinda sleeping ON your vehicle rather than in it. Nocturnal trips to go potty, involving clambering down a ladder, didn't sit well with the "significant other", however, and the pooch can't climb ladders.

I looked at those online, was quite intrigued, but couldn't figure out how the corgis were going to get up there!

Bobbie

[Alf S.]

Hi: We always Motel'd it. Looked @ a Boler in '77 but @ $3000.00 too expensive after house/car paymments...and little 's on the way...fast fwd to now almost empty nesters and we bought the '77 Boler @ $3000.00 some things never change.
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[jack maloney]

Barb and I started backpacking back in 1961, into the Teton back country. Since then, many good miles in the Gros Ventres, Wind Rivers, Bighorns, Yellowstone, Yosemite, Maroon Bells, etc. Also many long canoe trips through the Quetico and Boundary Waters wilderness areas, ski mountaineering in the huts above Ashcroft CO, glacier climbing on Gannet Peak, snow caving in the Absarokas, etc.

When we got too old for that sort of thing, we settled on a fiberglass egg as the next best way to see the country.

[Gerry]

Although a tent camper back in the early 60's with my folks in the 70's became an avid back-packer and an accident in the late 70's left me with a broken hip.
This did not stop me from back-packing until the late 90's and in 05 had a total hip replacement.
Hiked and slept under the stars uless wet weather was iminent and often wondered why I carried the 7lb tent if I wasn't going to use it much but it did come in handy during a snow storm in Sept.
Gerry the canoebuilder

[CharlynnT]

Gerry - you sure you're not Canadian?

[Anne H]

- Backpacked . . . . . until my legs gave out

- Kayak camped . . . . . until I got a dog

- Car Camped in a 20yr old VW Westfalia . . . . until I got the second dog, got tired of traveling in the SW with no air conditioning, spending my camping time fixing and renovating the old VW.

- Got the Honda Pilot, sold the VW, bought the Escape . . . . Me and the hounds traveling in wonderful air-conditioned splendor and camping in maintenance free luxury (need an emoticon of me in lounge chair with an iced-drink)