Since having a baby, I've been wanting to start camping again. As a child my parents would frequently take us all camping in remote areas in Montana and Canada. Our camping gear consisted of Army-Navy surplus tents and Coleman fleece sleeping bags. Invariably, we would end up someplace beautiful but there would be lots of wind and rain and often cold. If you have any experience with the old canvas tents you can relate to standing in the rain and wind for an hour trying to get the tent together, only to discover that the thing really doesn't keep water out very well. And as cozy as the Coleman sleeping bags are on a warm or slightly cool night, they really don't do much for you below 55 degrees. Of course, I don't think we were really aware of another novel camping conveniences known as a sleeping bag pad or mattress. I don't fault my parents, we just didn't know about these things, they hadn't grown up with them, and we couldn't have afforded them. Nonetheless, despite the leaky tents, cold sleeping bags, and rocks in the back, it was still a lot of fun and my brothers and I all have fond memories and still enjoy camping, but we do have more amenities....
A few years ago I bought my wife-to-be parents Coleman tent trailer. While it was a standard model that lacked a shower, toilet, fridge, and heater, it was still a huge upgrade from sleeping in a tent on the ground. It had a stove top, large comfy beds, a dinette, built-in 12 volt lights, etc. It was a HUGE improvement. We took the trailer to Montana with us, went camping in the Sierras, and even early this year I added a propane furnace to it. After having Sadie I really wanted to use it but we did desire some more conveniences, such as a shower, toilet, hard sides, etc. Once we determined that we were ready to upgrade, I started scouring the web and local papers for a vintage Airstream. After several months of looking (including a trip to southern California to look at one totally mis-represented on Craigslist) I found one south of Sacramento and we went out to look at it. It was very clean, functional, and almost ready to use. I bought it and picked it up a few days later. We wanted to camp on the way back but that didn't work out and makes for an amusing story for another time.
I sold the Coleman trailer to my brother who lives in Albuquerque and we met at Mt. Charleston near Vegas to do the hand-off.
The Airstream, a 25' 1972 Trade Wind, is now pretty functional with new appliances, an LCD TV, a 160 GB AppleTV, a nice Sony head unit, new tires, and some other stuff. We towed it to Montana through Utah, Wyoming, and Idaho and have probably camped in it 12 or so nights so far this year. It's cozy, vintage, cool, and though I enjoy it thoroughly, it also makes me lust for a newer Airstream 25' front-bed (FB) Safari Special Edition with the recessed halogen lights, aluminum interior, and a great floor plan.
With that said, my standards for camping have changed but we all have a lot of fun with it and have been to many new places and camped where we never would have before. It's a bunch of fun and even still one of Sadie's best nights of sleep is in the Airstream.
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