Where are all the motorcycle campers?

[LAB3]

I used to camp a lot, but my "then" girlfriend, who became my wife, hated it. She couldn't understand why I would camp when I had a 24' motor home. It's not the same thing. When I had my sidecar hack, I literally brought everything. Camping was fun, and I brought enough stuff for everyone.

A couple of weekends back I took a lady friend camping for an overnight trip, it only took til the next morning for her to realize just how glamorized the bike camping lifestyle really is.

[Suzukian]

I can relate to that. After we had done the deed, my "then" girlfriend was ready to go home.

[trent]

I used to camp a lot, but my "then" girlfriend, who became my wife, hated it. She couldn't understand why I would camp when I had a 24' motor home. It's not the same thing. When I had my sidecar hack, I literally brought everything. Camping was fun, and I brought enough stuff for everyone.

When I had keystone sprinter, and would bring satellite dish, crock pot and it was like just relocating house..lol
friends and in laws said "that's not camping" and they're kinda right, still fun.

A couple of weekends back I took a lady friend camping for an overnight trip, it only took til the next morning for her to realize just how glamorized the bike camping lifestyle really is.

My then G/F, now wife loves camping, didn't even mind tent camping as long as we were in privately own or state park campgrounds.

She rides, and we thought motorcycle camping would be great....she never even tried it, think she realized that even when she went tent camping we also brought a lot of comforting things with us, even small A.C Unit....no way getting that strapped on to our bikes and I didn't have a motorcycle trailer.
When I moved sold practically everything, thought camper days were over with, and I'd do tent if I wanted to camp.
but ended up buying a pop up camper?

[Suzukian]

Some of those Pop Up campers are really nice. I have a 1986 Champion LaSalle, 24' long, P30 Chassis, and a 454 in it with a 14 inch differential and Saginaw transmission. I actually only have 40K miles on it. I was the 2nd owner. It's in great shape, but I had many Spinal Cord surgeries which kind of F'd me up for a decade. This is a small picture of my Motorhome. It has a 10K towing capacity.


LaSalle.jpg

[LAB3]

Nice size for setting up a meth lab.

[trent]

I was at a road/riverside park eating lunch and seen the top of this guys head fly by with a full load on kayak.

so curiosity got to me and went down the road to get another park and he was pulling in to camp for the night.

we talked for a while and he took some picture of a older couple there, he was keeping a journal of his trip.

If I remember correctly his name was Bob ?

Said he was a bartender ( if i remember correctly lol) from New york and had always for some reason wanted to take a kayak camping adventure from the beginning of the missouri River to its end near st louis.

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[Suzukian]

Nice size for setting up a meth lab.

Far too small for that, great for getting into sites that don't allow big RV's. Having a 4000 Watt Onan Generator makes going off the grid easy. I'd like to get some Solar Panels to make stays longer, but I just don't us it as much as I used to. Situations beyond my control prevent it.

[trevor]

Camping on a street bike? Ah yeah no...Packing all the extra gear to set up each night and pack up again in the morning is not my idea of a good time. Don't have an issue with camping....but not on a bike. Hot/cold shower and heating/AC and a comfy bed are my idea of touring.
I just don't see the fun in it

[trent]

Camping on a street bike? Ah yeah no...Packing all the extra gear to set up each night and pack up again in the morning is not my idea of a good time. Don't have an issue with camping....but not on a bike. Hot/cold shower and heating/AC and a comfy bed are my idea of touring.
I just don't see the fun in it

If ya like camping enough? LOL

If ya gotta have Hot/cold shower, that's not too much of a problem, if ya don't mind using the campgrounds shower house. Sometimes if your in a somewhat full and busy campgrounds can be kinda disgusting LOL.
But the ones I've been too it's only like that on three occasions memorial day...4th of July, and labor day.

The heating and cooling part, just depends , where your at and time of year and how good are you accumulating to some serious ___________.lol
I've known a few broke arse travelers on bikes, one guy I met at uncles garage when I was in high school...the guy stopped in there trying to sell his pocket knife for twenty bucks.
He needed money to get gas and something to eat on his way back to Chicago.

I thought the guy was a bum..LOL he was riding a raggedy old harley ,rough looking bike. My uncle gave him twenty bucks and told the guy to keep his knife.

I thought my uncle was nuts to do it, but afterwards I felt like a jerk for thinking so lowly of the guy and how my uncle was so nice...
Few weeks later the guy on the old harley, shows up at my uncles and this time he's looking a little better..little more energy and looked healthier?
We talked and he said he goes on adventures all the time on his bike...he was a roofer, a carpenter, a writer, and a photographer...and practiced home dentistry...his joke.
Back then he had like six more states to ride that particular harley through.

he'd started stopping by all the time, I guess we were in line with his travels going home a lot.
Anyway, he said he's slept on park benches, public places or where he's been giving permission, said he'd do three of four days camping and then night in motel. Said he's visited a lot of truck stops in his travels, cheap safe clean showers he said

...he said he's known others like him that would go onto private property or abandoned property..but he's was against that.

[trent]

Camping on a street bike?
I just don't see the fun in it

When I was fourteen best friend and I put racks on our mountain bikes and between the two of us we packed old heavy tent that his family had, way to heavy and big...
and few supplies couple sleeping bags and rode from west side of Champaign illinois to just west of Danville illinois to Kickapoo state park guessing forty fifty miles??

Stayed a week, few times we rode into this small town near by for things it was rough lol.
I think half the reason we stayed a week is it was hot and we didn't want to ride in the heat..
took us nine hours if I remember correctly to get there, we had to navigate outer roads on either side of I-74 to get there and stay off off small hwy or I-74.

It only took us about three and a half hours to four hours to get home, and I had to repair a flat..lol

[argonsagas]

My camping at the site was just one night but it was memorable.

I was somewhere east of Gary, Indiana along I-90. on the way to Chicago. I camped for the night at a place that was about 100 yards off the highway.

It was not a good experience. The nearest comparison I can make is a mild earthquake that just will not quit.
Even though they were 100 yards away, there were so many trucks they caused vibrations in the ground, so much so that the ground literally shook all night long


.

[Suzukian]

When I did camp, I had one of those Black Rubber bags, it was huge, you hung it from a tree and filled it with water. The Sun would heat it up and the water came out really hot.

Solar shower_large.jpg

[trent]

My camping at the site was just one night but it was memorable.

I was somewhere east of Gary, Indiana along I-90. on the way to Chicago. I camped for the night at a place that was about 100 yards off the highway.

It was not a good experience. The nearest comparison I can make is a mild earthquake that just will not quit.
Even though they were 100 yards away, there were so many trucks they caused vibrations in the ground, so much so that the ground literally shook all night long


.

Few years ago early in the mourning the house shook, I was just getting up and thought trucks, then it happened again and I thought ain't no trucks around here..lol

Called local radio station to ask

Guy answered and shouts "Earthquake" and hangs up...LOL



Trains got me last time I thought I camp while working about 70 Mile's east of my home.,
this little town had a beautiful fifty acres lake with a gravel parking lot for R.V.s some company was working on a bridge and three employees brought their campers there, full hookup.

But around the lake you could primitive camp, tent anywhere on the grass, and they had a shower house on opposite side of lake, It was a strange situation, cause you had to walk or take a golf cart to it...hundred yards through grass no vehicles allowed.

the city owned the gravel lot campground and the lake, but the lake was private, you had to be a member to go there, but if you paid to camp you could also enjoy the lake just like a member.

Then at 9pm discovered there were train tracks just on north side of Lake, and at 2am. They'd sit and idle forever
And the train itself wasn't bad..it was their horns. Loud!!

On that particular job, I just started driving back and forth from home.

[Suzukian]

In Connecticut, if the lake receives state money, and 99% of them do, there is a little boat ramp for boating. No more than 3.5 h.p. on the little lakes, and you can only park in the lot if you have a boat, canoe, etc. You can't hang out there. There was this one lake surrounded by million dollar houses in Ridgefield Ct. I used to love to go there in my Canoe and row 5 feet within their shores. Most waved "Hi!", but some really gave you the evil eye. In all honesty though, most of the people seemed to enjoy seeing people boating on the lake. It's called "Lake Mamanasco". (that's not me in the pic)

Lake Mamanasco.jpg