Glampers Need Not Apply

Well, one thing I have learned on this trip is that all camping is not equal. I knew about glamping, and I knew that this trip would not be that. I also knew of back country camping, and I was pretty sure I was not up for that. But, I didn’t realize all the options in between. Above, you can see a picture from our first night of camping, when I thought to take a picture of our camping. This first night we stayed at a campground in Iowa. Boy was it hot and humid!

This shows what the whole tent setup looks like. The rooftop tents fold out over the van. We set it up so that one folds out over the side of the van and the other off the back of the van. The bottom “room” of the tent zips on to the top part.

Here is one more picture to show how that looks and how it hugs against the van. You’d can also unzip a tent door on the inside to access the doors to get into the van.

That first night in Iowa was the last night that we were hot camping. The next night in South Dakota, I was pretty sure we were going to freeze. I don’t know if we have just adjusted to the temps or what, but even though we’ve had colder nights since, I’ve not been as cold as I was that night. Of course, the trip isn’t over and we will see what happens.

After the second night, we made a major shift in our camping. Another thing I have learned on this trip is that planning is a really good idea. Another thing I’ve learned is not to be afraid to change the things you’ve planned if it doesn’t really work for you. So, after the second night, we decided not to use the bottom tent rooms anymore. It was adding about 30 minutes in the evening to set up and another 30 minutes in the morning to take down. Since the camping experience wasn’t the main goal of this trip, we decided to purchase a pop-up tent that could be setup or taken down in about five minutes.

 

This is a picture of Benn and some of the boys looking at our campground visitor at Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

This is a picture of a man in our campground exiting his tent before he noticed the visitor.

 

And there is a bit closer picture of Mr. Buffalo, at least as close as I was going to get. That morning we were also visited in our campground by a distinguished group of deer and some harried mama turkeys with their broods. And here is another thing I’ve learned, if you want nature and beauty but still with a bathroom, a state or national park campground is a good choice for you.