do you get offended?

[fermi91]

do you get offended when people call sleeping in a RV "camping"?

to me it is not camping unless it is in a tent without an air matress.

[Bigdog57]

Re: do you get offended?

No offense to me - each 'camper' has their own needs and expectations. I think a camper TT is still 'camping' if you are boondocking, and do not have all the comforts of home.
If a huge RV that costs way more than my humble property and has king-size bed, TV, MW oven, etc..... no, that ain't 'camping', that's "RVing". :cool:

[renodesertfox]

Re: do you get offended?

I agree with Big Dog! In fact there is no RV space in our humble little forum! 5th wheels are allowed as well as smaller trailers and pop-ups. I personally am a dyed-in-the-wool tent camper and like it that way! Gettin' close to sixty and still like lyin on top of soil!

[surmisez]

Re: do you get offended?

I think there are all different types and styles of camping. I don't get offended if someone in a trailer states that they're camping. It's no skin off my nose.

Many folks have made fun of my husband and I when we camp. We set up a tent and screen house. Because I have a bad back, we sleep on an air mattress. We cook, eat, and hang out in the screen house -- in between hiking and other activities. I have pics of this on my page if you're interested.

Many people have different needs and wants when camping, and that directly translates into their *definition* of camping.

I do agree that the massive Class A RV's are not camping. Those are homes on wheels, sometimes small mansions on wheels. Most folks that own Class A's live in them exclusively, and they do not say that they're camping, they almost always say they're RV'ing.

The only time I am offended by trailers and rigs is when they decided to leave in the wee hours of the morning or top off their tanks really late at night. The towing trucks or the rigs themselves tend to be pretty noisy and it really disrupts the peace and quiet -- especially if you're sleeping.

[Gordie]

Re: do you get offended?

I don't get offended but RV camping isn't my thing. Not anymore anyway. I used to car camp or group camp, now I'm pretty much a soloist in the backcountry away from the crowds.

[MikeB]

Re: do you get offended?

I think campground camping is great ............ for others! I like camping away from everone else. If everyone thought the way I do, I wouldn't be able to get away from others.

[LITTLEfish]

Re: do you get offended?

Not really, any outdoor type camping is camping. Weather that be in a 33ft camper or in a 10x10 tent , for fiscal reasons I don't have a 30ft camper but I do have several tents that are damn comfy!

[ontariocamper]

Re: do you get offended?

[QUOTE= Gettin' close to sixty and still like lyin on top of soil![/QUOTE]

Way better than UNDER the soil RDF!!!:eek:

[Gus@campingwithgus.com]

Re: do you get offended?

Whoa Nellie - now there are some responses that will get the RV'ers riled up.

As a tent camper, I have a hard time considering anything more than a small pick-up camper as actually camping. And only that because a lot of hunting campers use them. But it's still a stretch.

[dancing2some]

Re: do you get offended?

Camping to us is largely about freedoms....becoming free of society's everyday restraints. We're not camping if we chose to use an air matress Fermi? I suppose there are the true hardcore types that think you're not camping if you use anything more than a bedroll and flint/steel to get your campfire going. Heaven forbid you should pay money to live on a little piece of nature, packed in like sardines with a bunch of other people camping on their little piece of nature. My point? When we go camping, we do so to enjoy nature in our own way, not to the expectations of others. By your definition, most that have responded to your post aren't really "camping" any more than those who chose to use some giant RV, because they use certain creature comforts like an air matress. What about camp stoves, lanterns, propane heaters, ez-up shade shelters or screen houses or high tech sleeping bags? At 50 years of age, I've been camping my entire life, and have done so as primitive as it gets, and on the other end even once lived in a pop-up complete with a tv for ten months one year. Was I camping? Darn sure I was. I was just doing so to my own expectations, and nobody elses.
Hoping I'm not sounding abrasive in any way, as I don't mean to, but it makes me chuckle when I read comments from "tent campers" saying that the motorized fleet of RVers hitting the roads aren't really "camping". I personally know plenty of folks that only pack what they can carry on their backs and strive to get as far from civilization as possible. Many of them view those of us who choose to pack our gear in cars and trucks and carry it only as far as the fire ring and picnic table as not really "camping" either. Do it your way....don't do it to make someone else happy.

[rxcamping]

Re: do you get offended?

As others have said, What does it matter where you sleep. I sleep in and RV when my wife and kids younger than 1 are along. My oldest son and I tent camped exclusively our first year and now do so occasionally when the rest of the family is not along. I sleep in a tent, or I sleep in an RV. Otherwise how I cook clean my dishes and spend my day is exactly the same either way. The only major difference for me is the walk to the outhouse is a lot shorter at 3 am. I like doing both for different reasons. Main reason I like sleeping in the tent is I hear a lot more of nature and the creatures as I fall asleep. Main reason I like sleeping in an RV is I hear a lot less of the more evolved teenager/young adult (humanis barley consumers) drinking and carrying on. The other main reason I like sleeping in the RV is that my whole family is along instead of just me and my boy. Its not what you sleep in that makes it camping to me its what you do during the waking hours. I can tell you that if you went with me and camped in either mode you would notice few differences in how I camp.

[NYCgrrl]

Re: do you get offended?

I'm not easily offended and I like to think I'm capable of changing/evolving with different opportunities and times.
When I started camping as an adult, it was in a $10.00 pup tent ( often w/o the poles), on a bicycle with a child in the back seat and front pannier.
We would Amtrak it to a jump off point then on the cycles we went, stopping at a different campground almost every night.

I'll admit that at that time I kinda sniggered at RVers with their stereotypical AstroTurf'd front entrances.
Then I meet an RV family with a washing machine, seasonal spot and 8 children.
The parents turned my thinking around. Here they were with a "batch of hooligans" (the mom's words :D) introducing them to the outdoors in a manner conducive to their lifestyle. Who was I to sneer when admiration made more sense?

Time flew on.
Divorced the ex;eventually met a new man who thought camping was something you did in the backyard w/ Mom delivering dinner to the tent and introduced him to a wider version of outdoors. He'll neverrrrrr cycle camp with me; he lusts for a 5th wheel and yet we're perfectly happy 4 generation family gigonda tenting in a car. My hope is that someday we'll primitive camp together but that'll take time to acclimatise him and open his mind to new possibilities (20+ yrs and counting, LOL!).
And who knows?
Maybe I'll embrace RVing first.

Life's too short for polemics .

[renodesertfox]

Re: do you get offended?

What gripes my tail is certain RVers always think that they can get their rigs(adventure homes) in small designed campgrounds that have been designated at tent only cgs. I've seen with my own two eyes a road that is a rocky four-wheel drive recommended road blocked for hours by a RV trying to turn around once they've discovered that the road really was that rough! I have also driven on those very narrow roads like the kind you'd find in the hills of Tennessee and West Virginia where I would have to put half of my jeep off the road just so the road-hoggin' RVer could drive by. We have also discovered that out west there are campgrounds that don't permit tents at all...just RVs and that's fine with me. Also the generator noise from RVs bothers me alot. Most of the time people that park their RVs in a campground follow the rules of the campground by not running their generators during quiet times. However, that rule is easily broken. We have camped at a few campgrounds in the dead of winter in our tent and have had to listen to the dull hum of generators droning the chill away for their occupants at our expense and we even pitched out tent quite away from them, but at night sound travels loud and fast! In a tent there is no insulation from the noisily generator, no matter how quiet you may think your generator is! Someone else told me that they had to watch the late Johnny Carson show because they never like missin it! To me that ain't campin, so excussssssssssse, me! We're dispersed campers and like to camp away from everybody!

[Lost_Indian]

Re: do you get offended?

I love my tent. I used to own a TT and hated it. In a RV there is no Nature sounds unless you call a humming A/C nature. Tent camping is the way to go. I have Tent camped in 10 degrees to 110 degrees. You just adapt to it. The thing that offends me is R/V's trying to push Tents off the land that is set aside for tents only. Oh, Yes Barking dogs! I have 2 dogs of my own. I know better than take them camping. They would Howl all night.

[SilverMaggie]

Re: do you get offended?

When I camp, i prefer a tent, but I do have my air mattress and a feather mattress pad to keep the air in the mattress from making me cold.

In my opinion, I'm camping when I sleep under the stars and I hear critters around me during the night and I wake up and don't give a damn about what my hair looks like or that there is dirt under my nails!