When we finally gave up.

[TomE11]

I have camped in Oregon for many, many years. It is fun and beautiful, but you do sometimes need a bailout plan! I remember one wet Saturday at Cape Lookout state park spent at the laundromat getting warm and dry, then a nice restaurant for a hot meal.

[Gerry Kiernan]

The funny thing is, after a time you tend to forget about the bad happenings, and remember mostly the good happenings. There is no shame in wimping out when it gets too much. I am sure we have all been there.

[stude]

Originally Posted by Glenn Baglo

Great report. Done some of that camping ourselves and there is no shame in bailing out.

:never any shame but for me I'm to far from home to bail out, Kai when are you going to sell Peanut??? I might be interested. You should try this cold where it sounds like you have Asthma I coughed so hard my wife and sister in law took me to the Dawson City Hospital to see what was wrong with me, I came out with a blue puffer for 2 weeks worth of service, 5 Steroids and 20 Antibiotics, just finished them yesterday. I'm now on the road to recover from that but my right eye still cannot see anything out of it and cannot do a thing about it until were back in Canada where my insurance works for me. It is hard to see using one eye all the time so made a daily blindfold and take off at night to give them both a rest, sure hope it is not serious as no reason it could be part of the Cough and Hack I had. The other 2 traveling with me got better but not me, does not pay to be sick when traveling to a country that has exorbitant medial cost for outsiders. Oh well here's hoping Denali is good to us on Saturday and Sunday.
Stude

[Kai in Seattle]

Thank you, all, for your kind words of support!

I'll know some things a lot better next time we go on a longer-for-us trip.

I can only admire those who go for months or full-time! At least we know now that we can manage three weeks...

Again, thanks, all. Appreciate it!

REALLY, really appreciate it!

Kai

[Kai in Seattle]

Stude; if you'd have asked Friday at midnight, I'd have said, "Make us an offer!" but now that we're rested up, if you can call it that (we've completed about 30 out of the original 58 changes and plenty of others I thought up later), we're ready to start getting ready for the next trip.

Peanut--better than just a hard-sided tent, but not quite what a lot of people would like in a trailer. If we get my uncle's generator/converter (from battery to 110V) working and hooked up and stowed well, it'll be better; a step up for us.

Meanwhile, I'm so shocked and sorry to hear about your cold gone bad...once I coughed for 11 weeks including a couple weeks where I was coughing blood, but I never lost any vison over it. That's serious stuff.

My sincere wishes for a complete and speedy recovery. I'm finally able to talk on the phone again without someone saying, "You sound like you're dying!"

Different recovery at different stages.

Kai

PS: Today I spent 3 1/2 hours signing up for my Medicare supplement plans...long but easy process. Tomorrow on to the Peanut To-Do list again. One trauma at a time.

[rbryan]

As others have mentioned Kathleen, you can't control the weather. Nothing will put the kibosh on a great trip faster than that.

One thing that we figured out several years ago is that we like our creature comforts, and we don't apologize for not roughing it like we did when we were in our 30s. A roomy interior, queen bed and full bathroom sure come in handy when the weather gets nasty.

[stude]

Originally Posted by Kai in Seattle

Stude; if you'd have asked Friday at midnight, I'd have said, "Make us an offer!" but now that we're rested up, if you can call it that (we've completed about 30 out of the original 58 changes and plenty of others I thought up later), we're ready to start getting ready for the next trip.

Peanut--better than just a hard-sided tent, but not quite what a lot of people would like in a trailer. If we get my uncle's generator/converter (from battery to 110V) working and hooked up and stowed well, it'll be better; a step up for us.

Meanwhile, I'm so shocked and sorry to hear about your cold gone bad...once I coughed for 11 weeks including a couple weeks where I was coughing blood, but I never lost any vison over it. That's serious stuff.

My sincere wishes for a complete and speedy recovery. I'm finally able to talk on the phone again without someone saying, "You sound like you're dying!"

Different recovery at different stages.

Kai

PS: Today I spent 3 1/2 hours signing up for my Medicare supplement plans...long but easy process. Tomorrow on to the Peanut To-Do list again. One trauma at a time.

:Kai I would of worked very hard and talked you out of selling Peanut as I met you folks once or at least your husband and grandson. You can see you had put a lot of work into making that trailer yours and I know from all the ones we have owned and the amount of work one puts into them one would be nuts to let it go just like that.
Gosh Kai it was only at the beginning of June I ended up in a strange town, strange hospital, strange Dr. and I'm now mostly mended from that dreadful virus I came across but I will have to wait until I get back to Canada to have my eye checked out.
I also want to apologize to everyone for stepping out of bounds.
I like reading some of the stories like what Kai wrote, or the problems that arise with peoples repairs and restorations.
Stude

[mbbear]

Lord have mercy, I can’t decide whether I would have left after the food poisoning or the dog vomiting. You’re giving me new insights into campering and my limits. My deceased spouse thought Ramada Inn was camping. I’m sure that there will be chuckling in heaven as I move forward. I’m sure I’ll be chuckling too!!

[Stephen_Albers]

A world-class runner and penpal of mine - Dr. Ruth Heidrich - has a saying, "There is no such thing as inappropriate running weather; only inappropriate running clothes." Her insight easily morphs into camping.

There is nothing wrong with you that better planning won't fix. Start with your trailer. You took on boondocking challenges without a boondocking trailer. Obviously, depending on shoreside amenities is a BIG mistake. Total self-sufficiency, for the trailer, its equipage and provisioning is what is needed. I suggest you rub elbows with some ocean yachtsmen to home in on the needed self-sufficiency. Be ruthless. Realize that contemporary built-to-a price trailers are not only grossly deficient but are also plagued by reams of known defects that simply must be put right to survive in the field. Their documentation is lousy or non-existent. As a result, typical owners barely know how to operate their equipment, much less maintain it. This will not do in the real world.

You've gained great insight into what is needed. I recommend you put it to use by camping in your trailer IN YOUR DRIVEWAY for a week. When it comes up short you can easily supplement, repair or replace. After you've demonstrated self-sufficiency for a week and all systems are running smoothly, then do a week sojourn. Confidence will build and you'll have fun.

[Glenn Baglo]

Yup. Following your insight, I'd check into a Four Seasons hotel.
For sure.

[John in Michigan]

What we've found repeatedly is that no matter how much testing we do on the driveway, we still find additional problems many miles from home. So, we carry tools, sealant, etc. Seems like each trip is another shakedown cruise, from which we return with a revised list of things to add, fix, replace. But the list IS getting shorter. Soon we will have re-fit or replaced everything on this 40 year old camper. And we are really enjoying the travels.

[Kai in Seattle]

[I]Stephen Albers, thanks. You make some good points. I do think there is inappropriate running weather, such as hurricanes, white-out blizzards, and volcanic eruptions. And there are also inappropriate runners--which is pretty close to the state we were finally in.

I think we were worn out after 24 days, and our dogs and 45-year old Peanut were plenty tired, too.


We'll have some changes done and know some things better for next time, and we'll learn more then, too, things we have no idea yet that we don't know or need.



Thanks, all, good ideas and thoughts!

BEST
Kai

[EggRoll]

Trips like the one you just endured will have memories that last a lifetime. Our travels have always been about exploring and staying spontaneous. While we have to book many months in advance while staying in State and National Parks, we try to always remain flexible and shorten our stay if desired, or perhaps boondock when we are tired of the crowds.

[Cybercuban]

I'm one of the oldie-goldies on this forum and although I am very slowly restoring a 93 16' Scamp, I left behind about 30 years of tent camping. Within those 30 years of tent camping, I am fairly certain that I experienced just about every unexpected . . . . I will refer to them as 'issues" that could possibly rear it's ugly head! Once I had experienced about 100 of these 'issues', I had learned enough to where the enjoyment justified the unexpected 'issues'. These 'issues' were filled with lessons that have served me very well. I think it serves us all very well to set some realistic boundaries regarding what and how much we actually enjoy camping. Climate . . . is a big one for me. I understand that your perspective is that you gave up. From my perspective . . your journey provided you with do's and don'ts that you will apply in the future.
For example . . . I will now camp for long weekends instead of long journeys. For me, 3 or 4 days restores me and I return to the city in a Zen mode.
I originally camped for a minimum of a week and learned that this did not work for me. No more examples needed here. I hope you will discover what works on your end and continue to enjoy camping!

[Avey]

We went on a 10 week trip last year with our dog, he is a 75 lb. Black Mouth Cur. What we did is looked for good doggie day-cares along the way. That way we could visit places that didnt allow dogs. Like museums and most restaurants. We found an app that looked for doggie parks just up ahead of us. We also looked for kids baceball fields, so we could let our dog run and play. But all and all our dog didn't do very good especially toward the end.
Are trip took us around the entire South coast of our beautiful Nation. Then, if something looked like we wanted to see in any given State we would zigzag around each state we were in. We had no plans no reservations and no time limit, and we went through countless States.
Yes we learned from many of our mistakes we had encountered along they way, but what a trip! Next year we are planning to go around the complete Northern half of the United States. We will have to try harder to keep our dog happy.
But you mark my words, that as the weeks go by after your return your stories will get better and better and you will laugh about most of your issues.

[Kai in Seattle]

Agreed.

Kai

[Byron Kinnaman]

We both retired about 8 years ago and have had many wonderful trips in our Scamp 13 and a few not so good. Earlier this year while in Death Valley the weather was always cold and windy. We hung around hoping it would change, never did. So we left and headed home after a little over a month.
There's been some great trips since I retired in 2009. Most 2 to 3 months long. Never a long trip when something didn't go wrong. We learned to live with it and move on.
On of the wettest trips was in Oregon while I was still working, Memorial day week-end. Heavy rain all week-end, time to bail out and head for home after only 2 days.
Now we get over a day's drive away from home and though it out or move.

Lots of happy memories and a few scary memories.

[johnwen1]

I'd say you did a fantastic job "toughing it out". Food poisoning is NO fun. I will be saving your story for the next time I'm thinking "how can things be any worse"

[Kai in Seattle]

Thanks!

Yeah, we did move twice, unplanned, but it worked out fine--better than hoped, even. Within 7 hours' drive of home we kind of consider it our neighborhood, it was too hard to resist.


I need to start a new thread on "Cleaning up after coming home...house and trailer in total disarray?" (SO I guess I will. I don't even have to have a reason.)


Oddly enough, we really do remember this as basically a good trip. We just didn't quite make it all the way. Maybe next time.

Kai

[Bobbie Mayer]

Originally Posted by Kai in Seattle

Thanks!

Yeah, we did move twice, unplanned, but it worked out fine--better than hoped, even. Within 7 hours' drive of home we kind of consider it our neighborhood, it was too hard to resist.

Oddly enough, we really do remember this as basically a good trip. We just didn't quite make it all the way. Maybe next time.

Kai

My parents had a pop-up truck camper. They made a couple of long trips but as soon as they were headed home, Dad always wanted to go straight through with no more stops and get home quickly.