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In the Beginning -- Pickup Camping as a Kid

When Lee was a kid, his parents, uncles, aunts and cousins would go camping on the Neches River at Holly Bluff, at that time an informal campgroud in Trinity County, Texas. The adult men would fish around the clock, and occasionally Lee would be permitted to go in the boat to run the trot lines.

We always took the old '51 Chevy pickup, and Lee's parents would load bed springs and a mattress in the pickup bed and cover it with a mosquito net and tarp supported by sticks in the frame holes. Lee's uncle had a green plywood topper for his pickup. Lee's folks always slept in the pickup, and Lee slept on a cot covered by a mosquito net.

Those memories of camping on the river and eating biscuits and gravy with vienna sausage for breakfast and fried fish and potatos for lunch and dinner always stayed with Lee. Through the years Lee and family camped a few times, mostly in a tents but once renting a pop-up trailer.

The Slippery Slope Begins - Aliner Trailer

Lee has always been fascinated with vehicle campers, but it was not until 1998 that he finally purchased one, an Aliner fold-up camping trailer. Lee towed the trailer with a 1997 Jeep Wrangler and used it to attend a number of offroad driving events.

Chateau 28' Class C

Camping in Arkansas, Sept., 2001

It quickly became apparent that the Aliner was inadquate for offroading trips and that we needed a motor home to tow the Jeep. We started attending RV shows and soon found ourselves at a show in Novi, MI. There we saw a 28' Chateau Class C that was shown by General RV, the largest Michigan RV dealer. We liked what we saw, and in 2001 we decided to purchase it.

One of our first trips was a vacation to Arkansas to look at potential retirement locations. On September 11, 2001 we were parked in a friend's yard at Ash Flat, Arkansas when there was knock on the door. Our friend told us to come inside and watch TV since an airplane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. There we watched the second airplane hit the second tower and watched in horror and disbelief as both towers collapsed.

We took the Chateau to:

Itasca 34' Suncruiser Class A

Camping at Silver Lake State Park, MI

After convincing themselves that they really liked motor home camping and would like to do more after we retired, we decided in 2004 to move up to a 34' Itasca Suncruiser Class A motor home.

Since we bought the Suncruiser, some of the trips we have taken are:

36' Tiffin Allegro RED Diesel Pusher

As of this writing, we have had the new rig less than a year and have made only a few trips in it, including:.

Winnebago View Mini Class C

We decided to downsize so that Cec would be comfortable driving and to get into more parks. We selected the Winnebago View built on a Mercedes Benz diesel chassis.

Here are a few of our trips:

Favorite RV Parks