Camping out is risky business – it could be a wonderful experience or it could be absolute torture. Losing control over things when you step outside the safe and predictable domestic world and into the wild blue yonder, deters many people from ever trying camping at all. However, there is a solution to this problem and that’s camping American RV style where pleasure, rather than pain, is the name of the game.
It’s Not What You Think It Is…
But let me just back track in time to illuminate my point about the unpredictable nature of camping. I’m on my very first road trip through California. I decide to break the monotony of nights spent in various motels and experience some nature. I have packed a small tent, so when I see a campground sign I pull off the highway, pay my fee and set off to find my designated campsite for the night.
I drive around for sometime, looking for a way out of the parking lot and into the camp ground, when it dawns on me I am in the campground. I’m stunned to find my tiny camping space is sandwiched between something that looks like a rock band’s touring bus, and a mobile home. I spend my night camping out under the stars but instead of being lulled to sleep by the gentle sounds of nature, I lie there listening to the rattle of my neighbor’s A/C generator on one side and the cackle of TV laughter coming from the trailer on the other. They call this camping?
Coming to My Senses
That night I realized two things. The first was that the word camping in America often has little to do with sleeping in a tent. In fact, on that fateful night on my road trip I had stumbled into the great “grey” area of motorized or recreational vehicle (RV) camping. The best way to appreciate how many shades there are to this style of camping is to place motorized camping on a continuum with sleeping in your car at one end of the scale and occupying a rock star style touring bus on the other end of the scale.
Safe
The second thing I realized that night is the reason why RV camping is so popular in America. It pretty much eliminates most of the risks involved in camping such as bad weather, insects, wildlife, iffy public toilets and dodgy camping stoves, plus you don’t have to sleep on the ground. I have to believe that the oft used American term “happy camper,” that’s used to describe a very contented person, must come from RV camping and not tent camping.
Comfortable
If you are going to camp out but still enjoy all the conveniences of home – washer/dryer, stove, microwave, shower, air-conditioning, TV and satellite dish plus the kitchen sink, and also bring along the boat for fishing, the dirt bikes for exploring and the family car for running errands in – then you have to find a vehicle that can handle it all. Not to worry. Take a walk around any RV campground and you will see that there are as many different RV styles as there are camping lifestyles. In fact the choices of RV styles seem almost endless.
RV Spotting
On a recent visit to friends camping out in the High Sierras in their massive “5th Wheel Trailer,” I was amazed at the seemingly endless variations of homes on wheels that surrounded us. My friends introduced me to the simple RV classification system (please see link below) that not only encompasses all RV’s but also provides the language to describe them as well. This information suddenly changed me from a complete RV ignoramus into a pretty savvy RV spotter.
RV spotting is very much like bird watching. While bird watching necessitates say, at a minimum, that you notice the different shapes of beaks and wings and look them up in a bird guide, RV watching requires you to discern characteristics such as two wheels on the ground versus four or a pop-up roof versus a fixed one, and apply the classification system rules. After a short lesson from my friends I put my new knowledge to the test. Strolling among the hundreds of RVs parked between the trees, I did a pretty good job of spotting the common, and the rare forms, of RV homes.
Here are two guides to the different types of RV’s so you can become an expert RV spotter when you camp out in California.
I still love camping in a tent but these days I am much more careful about picking tent versus RV camping sites, and have never repeated the horrors of that first Californian camping experience. My RV camping is still on the minimalistic end of the RV scale, a tent pitched beside the car or sleeping in the back of it. However, over the years my appreciation for the RV side of camping has definitely grown. It’s great to be able to bring a few luxuries along with the tent such as a proper mattress to sleep on, camp chairs to sit in, wood for the fire at night, and a tail gate to place the stove on while cooking.
In fact, I have to admit, I do have a hankering for a little camper van but worry that getting one might lead to a bigger addiction – a full blown 5th wheel or motorhome even – and then my naive tent camping days may be over for ever. At the moment that’s not a risk I’m prepared to take. But what I will say about American style RV camping is this – it may not look like “proper” camping out but don’t knock it until you have tried it!
