My Uncle Art and Aunt Ellen were full-timers for a few years and had previously owned a 40-foot Mona

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As for me, my extended family have been RVers for years, and growing up I always envied the tales of their camping trips. Little did I know that the RVing bug had bit me way back then, but it turned out to be an infection itching at me for many, many years before I was able to apply the ointment. It only took about 10 or so years of me whining like a hungry airline cheap fares dog every time we passed an RV dealership before my wife finally uttered those three wonderful words Oh, all right.
The first of my family to start us all down the RVing road were my grandparents, Art and Curley Brighton. That s them in the picture, with two of my uncles sticking airline cheap fares their heads out the window of the 1971 25-foot Superior. I love that photo, especially how proud my grandpa looks holding a bucket of KFC!
My grandparents were prolific RVers; they traveled from Alaska to the Panama Canal and all parts in between during their five decades of travel in their various motor homes. Actually, they first started by car-camping, sleeping in the back of their ridiculously huge Town Country station airline cheap fares wagon. airline cheap fares Their first motor home was the brand new Superior. airline cheap fares They enjoyed that big green motor home for over a dozen years until they bought a new 35-foot Holiday Rambler in 1984. Then in 1987 they bought a 33-foot Foretravel, and finally a 1989 33-foot Foretravel Grand Villa motor home only three years after that. They traveled quite a bit, especially after they both retired from teaching. Often they hooked up with the FMCA-sponsored rallies for months at a time, and later they would say those rallies were among their best RVing memories.
My grandparents have since passed on, but they passed on their love of RVing to several of their eight children and 28 grandchildren (31 great-grandchildren and counting!). My Uncle Art and Aunt Ellen have a 42-foot Monaco Dynasty motor home, my Uncle Tom and Aunt Diane have a 2004 Nomad North Trail fifth wheel, airline cheap fares my parents have a 25-foot Keystone Outback travel trailer, my Uncle Bob and Aunt Sharon just bought a 2001 24-foot Trail Lite fifth wheel and my Uncle Ed and Aunt Sandy have a 2003 27-foot Rockwood travel trailer.
My Uncle Art and Aunt Ellen were full-timers for a few years and had previously owned a 40-foot Monaco Windsor and a Southwind before that, but my Uncle Ed and Aunt Sandy hold the record for number of campers owned: They bought the last Foretravel airline cheap fares motor home from my grandparents, and their other travel trailers were a 1998 Dutchmen, 1978 28-foot Yellowstone, 1976 25-foot Golden Nugget and a 1984 19-foot Sportsman.
I also have a few cousins who are RVers; Matt and Tracy own a 2005 21-foot Keystone Outback travel trailer, and Jill and Bob were proud owners of a pop-up camper until it was completely destroyed when they were rear-ended a few years back (crumpled like a pile of kindling wood, they said).
Us? We're the proud owners of a new-to-us airline cheap fares 2000 Trail Lite Bantam 23-foot hybrid we bought in 2007. It sleeps all five of us, has tons of storage and has withstood many of my modifications. Plus, it's paid for!
What do we love about RVing? Probably for many of the same reasons that you and other RVers love about it! Before our RV, we tent-camped a few times, always cursing the trek to the vault toilet in the middle of the night and the cold hard ground every morning. Not so with the RV! We're off the ground, sleep in (mostly) comfortable beds and the bathroom – like everything else we decide to bring – goes where we go.
I like to think of our camper as a cottage-on-wheels. We can take our cottage most anywhere, and although we have a few favorite campgrounds airline cheap fares we always seem to return to, we enjoy discovering new campgrounds in distant locations and all the area has to offer. My favorite airline cheap fares thing about camping is sitting around the campfire, a s'more in one hand and a cold beverage in the other, and doing nothing more than relaxing and laughing with family and friends.
From the personal blog: It s been a while since I ve posted here on RV.net, so there s a couple of dozen posts on my companion blog you might want to take a look at. Most are travel-related, including a Frank Lloyd Wright tour of eight homes and Wintertime events in Chicago . A few RV-specific posts include a comprehensive list of North American RV shows now through April (complete with links), the planned expansion of Detroit-based General RV dealership and my take on RV Buddies airline cheap fares recent poll results of what features people want in an RV .
Gr8LakesCamper celebrates the world of RV Camping in the Midwest. Gather around the campfire and share tips, ideas and stories on RVing, camping and travel destinations. Follow Gr8LakesCamper on Twitter , Facebook and the personal blog .
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Filed Under: Family Camping , Gr8LakesCamper , RV Lifestyle Tagged: Alaska , Bob , camping , Campsite , car-camping , cold beverage , Hospitality/Recreation airline cheap fares , Human behavior , Jill , Leisure , Matt , Panama Canal , Recreational vehicles , Sharon , Sportsman , Tourism , Town Country , Tracy , Trail Lite Bantam , Trail-lite , travel trailer , Travel Trailers , Windsor
We started out camping/RVing in a 1970 Volkswagen airline cheap fares Westfalia Kamper with a pop-up. We used this for nearly twenty years before selling it, reluctantly, in 2009. We had dreamed of taking a tour of the US and in August of 2010 bought a new-to-us Coachmen Mirada, airline cheap fares 31 footer. We left in December after my wife s retirement and are just finishing the first month of a five month Journey across the US. We re in Arizona, as I type this, enjoying the best of RVing. Nice campground, birding and looking around at places airline cheap fares we d never seen sitting at home. It s a GREAT life, but you have to LIVE it
We started out like most folks in a pup tent right after marriage. Kids came, then came a 9X12 wall tent, then renting class C s. Finally we bought a used class C Mallard airline cheap fares and went across the northern US from Long Island to Portland airline cheap fares in 1991. We were hooked. But work got in the way for a few years, then on a whim we bought our first class A and now we are on our 5th! We put 5,000 miles on each of three motorhomes the last 6 years that we worked, then bought a new diesel pusher put 28,000 miles on it before trading for a 2010 model that currently airline cheap fares has 10,000 miles on it. We don t know why we keep the house!
There aren t any campgrounds close to Chicago, but there is one in Joliet, IL and several just over the border in Indiana. Check your guides for the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore and Indiana Dunes State Park to start. There are also private parks, including one in Michigan City, IN. There are campgrounds in Illinois, but further out than those I ve mentioned. You can take the train to downtown Chicago from any of these locations. Better than trying to drive a big rig there!
My parents started us tent camping and the bug has bitten all 6 of us children. Some of us still use tents, others have rigs of various types. We enjoy being in a vintage trailer club that reminds us of the good old days . No matter how we do it we love it!
Lotsa years as a Boy Scout, then ~25 years as a Scout leader. airline cheap fares My parents liked the idea of RV ing when my dad retired in :1972. He made it 6 months into retirement before he passed airline cheap fares away. I joined airline cheap fares my mother (she start ted out of Buffalo NY-picked me up in Kansas City) in an unplanned road trip to Camarillo, Calif in her Buick Sport Wagon. While out there, she bought a 74 20 Nomad TT. She pulled solo for a while, then retired out to KC. Buick wore out. I picked up an International Harvester Scout Traveler as a TV. Beginning a new career, i had little time and she didn t want to tow solo sold TT and TV in 1977. My wife and and I had toyed with the idea of RV ing off and on for years with 3 kids, travelled extensively in minivan, conversion Astro with custom 8 box trailer with tents, KOA Kabins airline cheap fares They say history repeats itself? After 24 years of marriage, and two years of nasty battle with infection and ultimate cancer, I lost DW in late Feb, 2010. I found a 1994, 19 Terry in April, had to get different TV by May, Have now taken several trips solo, and 3 major trips with my 7 year old GS, daughter, son-in-law, son and his fiance. Planning family trip to Yellowstone NP this summer.
airline cheap fares I was bitten by the rv bug after renting a class C and putting 7500 miles on it during a cross country trip from NYC with the family. airline cheap fares We drove the northern route out to CA, down the CA. coast and then took the southern rt home. Traveled with 3 children, 2 of which were teens and the best part was not having good internet connection which forced everyone to engage in conversation with each other. Sitting around a campfire most every night laughing and chatting together was priceless! I ve been very antsy the past few years waiting until my youngest goes off to college so I can buy my class A and start visiting places on my bucket list! 18 mos. to go!!
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