Hello From Kentucky

[Bear1951]

Hello from Kentucky. DW and I are empty nesters and have been for a few years now. I introduced my DW to camping on our first anniversary nearly 44 years ago. My camping history extends back another 10-12 years. We started in a borrowed tent on our first trip. We spent a week in Cade's Cove in the Great Smokies. The US Navy decided that Southern California would be a great place for us to spend our next 5 years and we discovered and enjoyed the experience. We had the opportunity to camp in the mountains and in the desert. After the Navy, we returned to KY with our new 3 month old daughter. She made her first camping trip at the ripe old age of 4 months old tent camping at Rough River State Park. The in-laws all declared us insane and pronounced doom on DD in the form of "pneumonia fever." Amazingly the child didn't become deathly ill from her exposure to the great outdoors and is an avid camper today.
We bought our first camper around 1980. It was a 9 1/2 ft cab-over slide in. It was old, but fully contained and we enjoyed it at every opportunity. Jobs changed, the slide in found a new home and we reverted back to tent camping for a few years. An '84 Coleman Royale came next. It was well used for several years before deciding that a Class C might fill the bill. Once again we used the Class C for several years before another job change put a damper on our camping. We found a buyer for the old class C and for some time we were without either a camper or a tent. (tent fell into the hands of family members that sat it up one sunny spring day and took it down in the fall when it turned to rot... end of loaning equipment.)
After what seemed like a lifetime, our economic situation improved to the point where camping could return to our life. We found and purchased our current camper, a 2001 Coleman Timberlake 12', a/c, cassette potty/shower and king beds on each end. It has been ours for three seasons and we are averaging @35 nights per season in the PUP.
The PUP will soon be up for sale (this spring) and we will be replacing it with a lite weight TT. Our search has narrowed to two units as of now. Our first choice is Keystone's Passport Elite 23RB, but we are also looking at a Starcraft Launch 24RLS and 21FBS. I have spent a good amount of time on Pop up Portal, and hope to do the same here.

BEAR

[MSHappyCampers]

Welcome to IRV2! We're sure glad you joined us!

Good luck, happy trails, and God bless!

[TonyDi]

Glad to have you here.

Happy Trails!!

[beamisl]

Wow Bear,

Sounds like you two have had quite a time camping and loving it. Welcome to the forum. I wish you all good luck in finding what works for you and the time to enjoy it.

[Bruce C]

Good luck with your camping and upcoming plans. Safe travels

[denlock]

[hal1phx]

Good luck with your search ....