In my camping beginning, a blanket on a pile of leaves or grass was bed
enough, and under the stars was ok for a tent   - but for wet weather.
For that I spent many a night under a simple rain tarp made from clear
polyethelyne with silver duct tape on certain points to provide anchor
points for tie-tabs. Some of my most pleasant memories are about camping
in the woods under such, with rain falling.

John Rodgers
Clayartist and Moldmaker
88'GL VW Bus Driver
Chelsea, AL
Http://www.moldhaus.com

On 6/9/2010 11:18 AM, mark drillock wrote:
> Why do so many here seem to think that how they live and do things is
> the only ideal and anything different is verging on evil?
>
> The "majority of humanity" does without a lot of things you have, is
> that really the standard you wish applied to yourself or only to those
> you deem your lessers at camp?
>
> Camping in a Vanagon of any sort is far above where I and many others
> started out. A knapsack and blanket was all I needed 40 years ago when I
> was 16. I later moved on in stages to bike camping, motorcycle camping,
> car camping, and now van camping. At what point did I go wrong? How do I
> reverse the effects of aging so I can sleep on the bare ground again?
>
> I have seen people be happy with almost nothing at camp, as well as
> others that were content with far more than I would even want. The point
> is to go places and do things with a smile in your heart. Build a wall
> of smug superiority around your heart instead if you must but please
> leave it off the Vanagon list as we are a diverse bunch with varying
> ways of doing things, evolving at our own pace.
>
> Mark
>
> Don Hanson wrote:
>>    Yeah, "camping" in a Westie....that's really what is called
>> "car-camping"
>> .  When you pull your vehicle right up to a picnic table and live out of
>> it...that is "car camping".
>>
>>   If you spend most of your time inside, in your air conditioning,
>> I'd say
>> you aren't camping anymore, you are "RV-ing"  I'd be really put off
>> if some
>> Westie spied us in a formal campground and "camped" next door
>> (because we
>> are Vanagon folks, too) and then they fired up a generator to run
>> their air
>> conditioner and watch videos and run the microwave...etc etc.
>>
>>    I don't really get the point of driving to some semi-remote
>> "campsite"
>> only to spend the whole time "indoors"...especially indoors in a
>> Vanagon..You may as well stay home indoors or bring a "real" RV, one
>> with a
>> couple of pop-out rooms and some TVs and stuff..
>>
>>    Doesn't the majority of humanity do ok without AC?
>>
>> Don Hanson
>>
>>
>>
>
>