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Camping…anybody else?
The MLT FB and IG post about camping and the photo of Mona with such a gorgeous background made me think about the coming summer season. There were a few FB comments, but does anybody else get out and camp?
We have traveled by motorcycle for decades and along with it, we tented lots and eventually ended up with a tent trailer which I pulled with two of our Honda Goldwings. Nowadays (for about 20 years) we camp in a large 5th wheel RV (although I will still tent on solo motorcycle rides/trips on occasion) snice herself has decided that ground foamies aren’t to her favor anymore.
But for years now, my business commitments and as availability of suitable RV sites got very tight, I spent most of my camping excursions at the racetracks and staying camped in my pit area. But now that I am retired, that will change again. Not giving up camping in the pits since race season is only 5 weeks away, but now we are free to find recreational areas to stay at as well. My favorite being my old childhood home in Cold Lake Alberta where there is a wonderful lake and I still have cousins and friends there. Naturally, I always have a guitar or two with me for evenings and off track days. That obviously won’t change as locations become more in keeping with the company of more natural surroundings.Just to show you my last year’s antics at the racetrack, a few shots of “track life” and off track time fillers.
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11 Replies
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Hi Daryl
That track life camping in the pit and pulling those tent trailers on your Goldwing’s sounds pretty awesome. You do some wonderful camping in style.
Around Vancouver, there are plenty of great campsites within a couple hours drive. I did some camping in Alouette Lake and Harrison Lake near where I live with friends and when I had my dog Max back around 2015 to 2010. Some fond memories. I always loved the smell of camp fires in the campsites. There are a lot of hiking trails near where I live, so enjoy doing that these days.
In my 20s and 30s I use to live for road trips, that sometimes entailed overnighting in rest areas in my old Mustang along the I5 and Highway 1 and 99, and 101 in California, Oregon and Washington states. To save time and money, just drove until late at night, and pulled into a rest area and slept in the car, if that can be considered a sort of camping. Oh the passion of road trips, and opening up my 89 5.0L Interceptor Mustang on isolated lonely highways.
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I “camped” in my car too! My oldest brother lived in Port Hardy and my Monza Spyder was my motorhome. Folded the back seats down, rolled out a sleeping bag and caught some z’s at the rest stops. Ah, to be young and single again…Was great to go to BC then since there were always beer strikes in AB!😆 Coming home that trip I hit the last town in BC and loaded the back of the car with all the suds I could afford at the time. Which wasn’t all that much haha. Amazing how many of my friends were so glad to see me!!!
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I’m not really a Camper fan… my idea is either a RV fully functional…maybe do a wknd/daytrip …a cabin with Indoor Plumbing, amenities, lol… and sane idea for cabin stay.. a day or a wknd thing… not fond of water, beaches, I prefer land…Meadows, valleys, …lol… in essence…just not a full blown outdoor lover of dots…have outdoor allergies too … hate outhouses with a passion…
Though in the past did grow up going to cottages on a river that both set of grandparents had, spent day and/or a week at each over the years we had the cottages in family, before being sold….did stay at relatives’ cabins for a week / wknd a few times… stayed a wknd at a cottage of a family friend , hunting camp at a friend friend’s of Dad’s ..( did not like that experience at hunting camp at all…it was still winterish –early Spring & had to eat moosemeat- 🤢🤮 )…Thank God there was Bacon/Steak/Hamburger to eat besides the awful Moosemeat — sorry if anyone likes it but it was disgusting to me … I’ve had Venison once…it was better tasting …
And I hate boats…Seasickness extreme & gives me anxiety/panic attacks …
So to sum it up…I can just enjoy country/land stuff for short term in terms of ” camping ” …but do enjoy strolls in countryside walking …. just not a water person…Landlubber is more my style….. 😉🙃
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Not everybody enjoys camping and “roughing it”. I’m pretty flexible that way, long as I’m dry, I’m good.
Our first bike trip the year we got married (’81) was a real test. We were less than an hour from home and hit a monster hail storm (on a motorcycle remember) and we were riding in the tire tracks of the vehicle in front of us; 6″ of icy slush on the highway! That night we camped at a provincial park in the foothills of the Rockies and discovered I had forgotten the hand axe…no campfire and the temps dropped below freezing that night. Not only that, I forgot the air mattress and we laid our sleeping bags on the hard ground. Next morning the tent was layered in frost, and so was the bike. And we’re still together…🤣 By the time noon rolled around it was sunny and hot and we were peeling off layers of cold weather gear. Go figure.
Sorry you don’t like venison of any type, we both love it! -
I’ve had venison …once…I liked it…it was Moose Meat 💩🤢🤮that I hated ….lol
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Technically, all game meat from ruminants falls under the “venison” category. Not just deer. Elk and moose are also in the same classification.
Deer requires a certain talent to be fitting for sensitive pallets. And there are some folks that have a natural distaste for certain edibles. Both my wife and I cannot abide goat cheese. There is a gene or something some folks have that makes certain food stuffs taste ghastly. The best way I can describe the taste of goat cheese to me is “used sweat socks”. Not that I know what that tastes like from chewing on used socks, but that’s how I define it. There are more vulgar descriptions but I won’t go there.😅
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Daryl, it sounds like you had some great adventures in you Monza back in those days, and finding some nice suds too. I’ve been up to Port Hardy years ago, some really isolated and great forest country up there. I always enjoyed exploring Vancouver Island, even went to a Beach Boys rock festival they had in a small town soccer stadium once. Long Beach and Tofino on the Pacific coast side of the island are great places to camp, even sand dunes on the beach.
Jacki, I think a luxury RV might be a great option. I’ve never done that, but always dreamt of doing a camping trip in a luxury RV with all the amenities. I think you would get the best of both worlds, camping and roughing it in nature and convenience of a portable home. On Youtube “van life” seems to be a popular thing these days, but I’d rather do RV life in preferably a luxury RV, with a running water toilet and shower.
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Our 5th wheel is far from luxurious, but it sure keeps the rain off. It’s rather large (36′ plus my 3/4t truck), so I have to choose destinations rather carefully (ferries are a bit of a bear) but I certainly can “take it with me” if I want. My race bike and pit gear fits in the back with ease and then some. My Goldwing will fit, although I have a pretty hard and fast rule about riding the big girl rather than hauling it. Can even fit the RZR SxS if I choose to.
I’ve done the Inside Passage ferry trip From Rupert to Hardy on the Goldwing (with the tent trailer) and toured the Island that trip as well. Tofino, Ucluelet and Long beach are awesome!
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My oldest brother has 5th wheel RV… I’m okay with That Kinda Roughing It 😉🚐
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When I was a kid, we camped every month. A tent, in January, in Michigan. I was a Boy Scout for a while. I’ve tried the RV that gets gallons per mile instead of miles per gallon, and a public campground surrounded by hundreds of people. Not in a hurry to do those.
I have family on the east coast, so every year I drove out there. Leave Friday after work, and car camp when it got late. Let the sun wake me to finish the trip.
In ’78, I drove west. I’d leave the interstate to find cheap motels on Route 66. That was the trip I stopped for an hour at the Grand Canyon. Afterwards I drove highway 1 that Jung mentioned, to San Francisco.
There must be music in that last trip somewhere – Michigan seems like a dream to me now…Route 66…Pacific Coast Highway…San Francisco.
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I do try and avoid large RV parks, much prefer more quiet family (rustic) settings. But again, with a large rig it can be difficult.
We “rode” Hwy 1 south from Astoria to the Redwoods (Goldwing and tent trailer) back in September ’91. Wonderful trip, quieter time of year for the coast highway. I did haul my cruiser custom in the back of the toy hauler on holidays a few times, but loading and unloading to go for a ride got tedious. I much prefer to do my traveling just by motorcycle, but we mostly hotel it now for the missus sake. She never did like the custom bike, or any of my sport bikes. Prefers the more luxurious Goldwings, always did.
I might have to get myself a compact “travel” guitar to take on the bike haha.
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