We used to roll up in the tarp.  Sure is a great way to block wind and retain body heat.  Never had a tent until I was 28 years old.   wife and I made the first one with a Frostline kit.   I've spent some wet nights, but usually stayed dry enough to avoid hypothermia with rain jacket and pants, and tarp.  Now I'm a geezer, but try to stay as true to the spirit of make-do as I can.  DMc

---- John Rodgers <inua@CHARTER.NET> wrote:
> 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
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >

--
David McNeely