by Barbara Kasey Smith

Created on: January 13, 2009

Which provides for a better camping experience: RVs or tent-camping? I'm a person who has had such bad experiences tent-camping that I prefer RV camping ten to one more than in a tent. When you tent camp, you have to be ready for many elements that you would never suspect. Tent camping caused me to literally hate to camp because we would run into so many obstacles fighting with the elements and critters.

We would arrive at the camp grounds, get our tents and all of our equipment set up in the appropriate places and we would wait for our first night sleeping in our brand new tent. We thought, we would be safe since we had bought a nice big new tent and we were so proud of it. Ah, the life of having a spacious tent where parents were on one side and children on the other with an aisle between the blowed (air filled) up beds. We enjoyed a fun filled evening of smores and hot chocolate. Bed call came and we all got tucked in. It was so nice not to have everyone's breath blowing in our faces. We said our good-nights and was ready to enjoy a good nights sleep.

I would say all of us had been to sleep about an hour or two when we were waken by harsh winds and the tent swaying back and forth. All of a sudden, a gust hit the tent just right and it fell on top of all of us. The wind had blown the door opening in a different position and in the darkness we couldn't find the zipped door to get out of the tent. The rains started to pour and wouldn't you know it, a stream of warm was running right over the tent. We all finally got out of the tent and ran to our vehicle for protection. It rained, lightning, booms of thunder hurt our ears, and we were cramped up in the vehicle like a can of sardines.

I knew why I hated camping. During the overall camping trip we had disaster after disaster. There wasn't going to be any sleep but in the vehicle for the rest of the night. The next morning we got the tent back up and dried everything out and this night a skunk decided to spray and the odor almost kills all of us. Needless to say, my camping trip was terrible, and I ended up hating it even more. I told my husband, this is not my bag, and I don't want anymore tent-camping but if he wanted to continue to camp that was fine but not to include me.

We now camp in a RV and I feel like I'm in luxury. I can enjoy the rain, the wind, and all the elements and I'm protected by a nice RV and can lie in the bed and accept all these elements going on around me. RV camping is like taking an apartment with us. We can stay dry when it rains and we are protected from the gusty winds. I think RV camping is the only way to go.

I love to RV camp. I enjoy the various places we can go in it and be very comfortable. We live two months out of a year in it in Florida and enjoy every minute of it. It's just like being at home. We have all the luxuries that we have in our home and its great to be able to take it with us whenever we want to get away for awhile. Try RV camping...it's the greatest!

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