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| Ah, paradise! Please excuse the messy campsite, the maid was on a break! |
We have been camping for years in our trusty 12-person Wenger tent. It has served us well, holding up under rain, wind, and hail, surviving middle of the night trampling from the pesky teenagers running amok in the campground, and just generally providing us with a wonderful home base.
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| Morning snuggles and giggles |
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| Hail, Hail, the gangs all here! |
Our kids have learned so much by tent camping I can't even begin to list all the positives - it's pretty neat to see all of them working as one big team to set up and break down camp - makes mom and dad proud.
But Superman and I have finally had enough of sleeping on the ground, on a pad on the ground, on an inflatable pad on the ground, and on the queen-size air mattress on the ground. We both have rickety backs that just can't handle another season of hauling gear, setup, and crawl-on-your-knees, clean-as-you-fold take down. Now, we have enough children to do that all for us, you say. Well, yes and no. Some day I will do a piece on just how much gear is required to tent camp for 7 people - it is a lot. We do almost all the cooking over an open fire with fresh ingredients (that need to be cleaned, prepped, mixed, chopped there on site), don't use paper products (so all dishes are washed by hand with boiled water and sterilizing tabs), and keep the camp maintained and cleaned throughout the day and the fire stoked, in addition to fitting in time to explore the amazing natural area we are privileged to be staying in at that time. It is a lot of work - work that we truly enjoy, but back-breaking work nonetheless. And while all the kids have specific jobs and help tremendously, there is still a lot of heavy lifting for mom and dad.
It's time to think about throwing in the tenting towel and start looking at other options - but where to start? When considering the transition out of a tent, the only options available are wheeled ones...pop-ups, trailers, fifth wheels, RVs, the list is overwhelming!
Finding something that fits our large family and stays within budget looks like it will be a daunting task, one that will only be accomplished with a ton of research. Sorting through the dealer marketing, message boards, advertisements, sales, and opinions of friends and family is what we plan on doing over the next few weeks, and we invite you to tag along in our series of blog posts about this new adventure.
Happy Camping!
Jen :-)
