"Camping" vs. "Traveling"

[Kai in Seattle]

This sounds like a Jeff Foxworthy routine:

You're probably camping if you....
are using a temporary shelter (this is the main one, seems to me)
cook over a fire on the ground
have to walk outdoors to get to your shower
just met your neighbors this afternoon, and will meet all new ones in a day or so
have a canvas or nylon or plastic tarp roof (or a fiberglass roof?)
pay by the day for the spot you're in
More? ________________



YMMV! Plenty of leeway.

[Steve L.]

In early October, 2002, I met my sister and nieces in a state park near Niagra Falls. In the morning there was heavy hoar frost on everything. I had slept soundly but now that I was up I had wet shoes, standing in the cold morning pumping my Coleman stove (squeak-squeak-squeak) to make my morning coffee and it finally occurred to me...I love camping but I was getting a little past the roughing it thing.

We camped every summer as kids, I backpacked the Green Mountain trails for years, camped out the trunk of my car once moving to Michigan. But I decided that something had to change. By the end of the month I had a new Casita in the driveway.

Since then there have been health scares and overall a new "normal" involving a fistful of pills and insulin shots every day. There's a lot more preparation before I burst out of that trailer door with my "happy face". (WAH! I'm not a morning person.) Taking care of business is just nicer in the comfort of the trailer. I suppose my definition of camping has broadened to accommodate the situation. There's room enough for all kinds. Which, to my mind, there is less tolerance for than there used to be.

[mweichel]

when I was young, a couple of friends and I would find a logging road. go along it for a while and then park the wreck we were driving and then hit the bush. We would hike off with backpacks, carrying an old pup type tent and have some potatoes and onions with us. We would shoot squirrels or whatever we could find and make a stew to eat over an open fire. We would stumble out of the bush a week later, hop back in the "wreck" and drive back home. I am going off on a "no-trace" kayaking trip with my son and daughter next week on the West Coast of Vancouver Island. Now that we are older, my wife and I do like a few comforts so we do our camping together in our Escape 17B. I still cook all our meals on an open fire. The only time I will cook in the trailer is if it is raining and there is no possibility of flying a tarp to put a fire under. I still call this camping. I maybe out of the rain, and off the ground - same as when I am tenting in my 3 person Marmot. I still call it camping - as long as I am in a park or the bush somewhere and not in a Walmart parking lot. That I agree can be called parking.

[RogerDat]

Far as I'm concerned anytime spent where God does the yard work is time well spent. Heck if rangers do some and I do none it is still a WINNER in my backpack, which I don't use because it would probably put me in the hospital with another blown disk but still have for unfathomable but no doubt profound reasons.


Camping or as we say in Michigan, that which gets you from one ice fishing and snowmobile season to the next. :-)

[honda03842]

There's an escapism to traveling about in our Scamp, being dependent on just each other and our rolling dwelling, our traveling world consists of a relative small area and at the same time anywhere we choose, news and non news of the media is gone, family commitments shrink into the background and become unpressured choice......

Sent from my SM-N920T using Fiberglass RV mobile app

[rgrugg]

I don't think it matters what it's called. For example I have a 30 foot stickie which I will leave in AZ. I stay 3 months usually fleeing from Michigan winters. That's not camping to me. That's living in my winter home. I also have an Escape 19 which I use for fun whether it's called camping or travelling. Whatever it's called, if you're enjoying life, that's all that matters. I can tell you that at age 80, there is no way that I'm gonna sleep on the ground in a tent.


Sent from my iPhone using Fiberglass RV

[The Minimalist]

Originally Posted by Byron Kinnaman

I think each person has their own definition of camping based on their experience.
I have an entirely different definition than most people here. I just haven't figured out what to call staying in a trailer or RV in a campground. Oh, I guess I should mention my definition of camping. We'll start with where, the closest road is over 1 mile away. Your nearest neighbor is at least 200 yards away, preferably farther. All camping gear, water, and food are carried on your back. No trace camping is the norm, meaning that if somebody comes by the next they'll not see any sign that camped there. Of course there's no telephone, television, or internet. No electric lights except for small flashlight.
Now if we could just come up with a good name for staying in our small trailers.

Well, how about we go back in history a ways. Would you say that those folks in the trains of Conestoga's on the Oregon Trail weren't camping?

There is a long continuum of what can be called camping and I think what most of us do can be called camping. It may not always be Clif's camping, but camping never the less.

Now if you drive it, it's 40 feet long and you stay more than a day,...........you're RVing. There's a difference, don't you know.

[RogerDat]

Oh NO! We now have camping & traveling & full timing & then Clif had to throw RVing into the mix. I'm so confused now I don't think I would be able to remember what I was sitting on the porta pottie for.


Actually it is interesting how so many people from so many backgrounds and life styles all enjoy variations of the same thing, and get along with each other while doing it.

[Mike Magee]

Traveling is my goal. Camping is my means.

[madjack]

Originally Posted by Mike Magee

Traveling is my goal. Camping is my means.

I'm just the opposite...camping is my goal and travelling is the means...RV'ing is what gives me much amusement as I watch them TRY to ?????
madjack.......

[Herman M Parker]

Every time we go out its camping. It don't matter if we are in the class A or the Scamp it's all wonderful. Can't wait for October to get here going to hit the Natchez Trace lived this close to it my whole life and never been on it.

[Herman M Parker]

Forgot to add if you are wondering why wait until October you probably have never been in north west Florida in August. It's so hot and humid around here the dog won't come out from under the house for another month.

[Darral T.]

Herman... I live about 20 min from the "Trace" via 2-3 different exits. Sometimes the wife and I will just go out for a 30min to 1 hr ride at various parts of it. VERY little traffic....speed limit 50mph (keep that in mind!), BEAUTIFUL clean scenery. I've been on it from the north end in Nashville, TN. down to near Jackson, MS! Havent made it to Natchez yet. It's about 472 miles long if I remember correctly. We LOVE to take a "fall" ride on the trace from where we live to Nashville EVERY year. It's BEAUTIFUL.

Keep in mind, if you get near Hohenwald, TN, you could stay at Fall Hollow CAMPground . I'll warn you though, there's a detour due to a bridge rebuild between Napier and Hohenwald, TN. IF you it to the Hohenwald/Fall Hollow campground area, you'll be within about 10-15 min of the Oliver factory!!

...and yes, it's been VERY hot and humid here in Tennessee as well.

Originally Posted by Herman M Parker

Every time we go out its camping. It don't matter if we are in the class A or the Scamp it's all wonderful. Can't wait for October to get here going to hit the Natchez Trace lived this close to it my whole life and never been on it.

[k corbin]

I have a 16" high section of tent in my Campster so that means I must be camping

[Carol H]

Originally Posted by RogerDat

Unless a bear eats your cooler and spare tire. Then I don't care where you are it be camping. Raccoons climbed into car ate your food and destroyed your interior while you slept? Probably camping no matter what amenities there are.

You start a small campfire to make smore's and people come running with fire extinguishers? Then it depends on if you are in the parking lot of Wal-Mart or a place with campground in the name.

:lout

Actually do not think any of the above could conclusively define if your simple parked someplace or camping.

All of the above could happen while at staying at home in a suburb of Vancouver BC or while camping in a Provincial park :lout

Once had a raccoon do over $15,000 damage to my home. No kidding. Bears love to rip apart cars in peoples driveways looking for something to eat.

Lighting a camp fire in your yard at any time will result in folks showing up with fire extinguishers .... they will also show up if you light a campfire at a campsite when a fire ban is in effect.