Old Timer Looking Forward to Stories Around the Campfire

Hey, camping buddies, I am looking forward to reading posts, and talking about camping and just the enjoyment of being out in nature. A little about me; I am almost 70 now, and not going to be sleeping on the ground in a sleeping bag anymore; but I grew up in Northern Idaho, and we went camping about every weekend in the summer when I was a kid.

I have had horses since I was about 10, and loved going on trail rides. I now live in town; so I don't have horses any more either; and I really miss riding through the trails on my horse. I really like going fishing, and that is something that I can still do. I live close to the beautiful Tennessee River, and I have seen some awesome fish jumping in there, just haven't gotten any of them to bite on my bait yet. I still have family in Idaho, and the deer on my avatar picture is one that my son took a picture of when he was out in the woods on his "nature walk", as he calls it.

 

Ol' timer??? Shawn..."What's an ol' timer?" "I don't have any idea Northern Dancer - must be one of those cultural expressions." I use to watch Percy Huggit come across Gaunt's Bay in his ultralight kevlar canoe. Man...that guy knew canoeing techniques and camp skills that we never knew existed and he was 76. The wonderful thing about this site [and other wonderfuller stuff] is that no one sees anyone's warts and wrinkles (unless you want to share them).

 

Well, you might not see the warts and wrinkles; but they do seem to be sneaking up on me, at least on some days. However, I intend to enjoy as much of life as the Lord gives me to live, and sharing happy memories of camping trips is great, too.
I have never been canoeing, but I did have one of those little ride-on-top kayaks (if that counts), and totally enjoyed going out on the small local lakes with my friend Pat, and paddling around. I could fit both hers and my kayak in the back of my little Mazda pickup, and off we would go to the lake. Although I never became an experienced kayaker, I really had a lot of fun, and enjoyed being out in the sunshine on the lake.

 

Great stuff - happy to hear about your experiences. "Sharing with me is like a thread that becomes a part of the quilt of my life."

 

For a while , I had a VW camper bus, and if you are going to travel and camp, it is the ultmate vehicle. Mine was named "Hildegarde" (after my mother) and we could sleep two adults and 3 kids in the camper bus. It drove like a regular van, and got great gas mileage; so it was not cumbersome like driving the motorhome.
The bus had what is called a "Penthouse top", and when we were camped, the roof would raise up, and there were little beds up there for kids to sleep in. We had two the older kids up there, and my granddaughter, who was only about 8 years old, slept in her sleeping bag on the floor of the van.

We had a camping membership for Thousand Trails, and the whole family enjoyed traveling and camping with the VW bus. When we stopped at the camp grounds at night, we used their facilities for swimming, showering, and usually cooked our dinner on one of the little BBQ's they provided with the camp space.

It is not the same as adventuring out to some lake in the wilderness way up some old logging road (that story comes later); but it is a great way to take your kids around to see the area where you live, and still camp and have fun at the same time.

 

That's a story I want to hear. Me too!

 

I see that my friend @hayrake is also registering for this forum; and I am sure that she will have some awesome stories to share as well! She has horses, and goes out on camping trips with her horses, and on trail rides up into the mountains where she lives. Hayrake and her family even have their own "horse camp" where they ride up to and camp a lot. In fact, she even spent the Thanksgiving weekend out camping with her family and all of the horses.

She is also a great writer, and the stories that she tells are very entertaining; and I am definitely looking forward to hearing more of them from her once she gets started writing on the forum.

 

I would like to have had a hunk of land to play on - it never happened. BUT, I'm more than content to play on other people's property. Give her a nudge - I would really like to hear the stories and yours too.

Come to think of it, I have a lot of stories too - we must have a story thread here at Camping Babble.