[RR1]

I will start with the questions.


How did you hear about Frugal Village?

Google while searching frugal, homestead, minimalism

What interests you here?

Minimalism, saving money, gardening, reading etc.

What will you contribute?

Who knows.

Do you know any other members here?

No.

How many kids? Ages?

Two sons ages 26 and 25, both single, both elsewhere.

Tell us about yourself.

55 and work full time. On a hobby farm though I am downsizing everything I have control over. My focus in life is in flux right now.

Do you own any pets?

Cat named Tabby, dog named Zip and four barn cats.

Occupation?

Rural mail carrier by day, art ninja by night, or so I'd like to think .

Married or single? Married.

Interests and hobbies?

Art, gardening, reading, watching dvds, music, outdoors

 

[Contrary Housewife]

Welcome aboard!

 

[RR1]

Welcome aboard!

Thanks! BTW my name is Christine, everyone can call me Chris.

 

[Spirit Deer]

Welcome, Chris!

What part of WI are you in? We're right next door in the arrowhead of Minnesota, 110 miles north of Duluth. We hosted a camping rally at Chippewa Falls a few years ago, at Lake Wissota SP. We like that area.

 

[ermadunk]

:welcome2: Chris to the village

 

[FrugalMomof3]

Welcome to FV! You're going to love it here <3

 

[RR1]

What part of WI are you in? We're right next door in the arrowhead of Minnesota, 110 miles north of Duluth. We hosted a camping rally at Chippewa Falls a few years ago, at Lake Wissota SP. We like that area.

I am about a half hour NE of Chippewa Falls.

What is a camping rally? Sounds interesting.

Thanks all for the welcome.

Chris

 

[Spirit Deer]

In our case, our rallies were for people who had met on a particular camping forum. We met up once a year, sometimes twice, all over the midwest. We don't have them anymore. We had a lot of fun and met other forum members from all over the US and Canada.

 

[RR1]

Sounds like fun. I would love to get a camper, just something small, and go on mini vacations around here. But for now it is just a dream . I have researched turning my Prius into a camper and it can be done. I used to use my hatchback as one in the 80's and I am sure the camping mattresses are a lot better now!!

 

[Spirit Deer]

We've been camping for about fifteen years now using pop ups and a motor home, and finally narrowed down what works best for our purposes at this time. (Subject to change, of course.) Our goal was always to make camping the least work possible. This is our current rig. We just love it.

We tent camped before starting with the trailers. We hated it, but we weren't very good at it at that time. If we had it to do over, we would be far more organized and efficient, knowing what we know now compared to what we knew then. We've looked into van and truck tents for certain trips, but decided we're so incredibly spoiled and lazy now we don't want to leave our trailer home. It sets up in under a minute and it would be torture to go back to all the setup with a tent now! Still, I like the concept of a van tent. It's probably about what you'd use for your Prius. This isn't my pic or my tent, just an example of what we were considering.

Back in the seventies we camped in the little truck topper we had on the back of our Ford Courier. Our double bed mattress fit into the box of that truck perfectly, with storage underneath. It was very comfortable. We could have done that a lot better too, if we had known then what we know now. I've thought about making our Astro van into a temporary camper but we decided against that, too. I'll admit I still have some gear around that would be used for that, though. Just in case, you understand.

 

[RR1]

Does that camper pop up? I've never seen one like that before. Wow. I got spoiled with my sister's camper which is a larger one they park at Devil's Lake. It was really nice but I don't have a truck etc. I've never seen the tent setup either! Back then I used to only use the car to sleep in and was out hiking or joining in what I went for (I used to show model horses and used my car as my hotel room in Chicago, LOL). Now I don't have the energy to hike all day etc. so having a place sit and relax would be nice.

I always got a kick out of the Glampers. What fun!

 

[ilovechocolate]

Hi and welcome, Chris!

 

[Spirit Deer]

Yes, our Aliner is a hard side pop up. Here it is, ready to hit the road.

We didn't want to move away from pop up camping because of the minimal impact on gas mileage and the great towability of a lightweight, low profile trailer, but the setup was getting to be more than we wanted. We travel more than camp now, and that means lots of overnight stops. We had setting up the canvas pop ups down to a science by the time we bought the Aliner, but it still takes a certain amount of time to setup two queen bunks and a dinette slide, and then go inside and do all that set up too. We liked our other pop ups, too, but it was time for a change.

I have camping on the brain these days, thanks to cabin fever. We haven't had much chance to go the past couple years, so we're hoping this year will be better.

 

[RR1]

Awesome. My eldest son got a popup camper for $300 and it is in excellent condition and complete. Guy just wanted it gone. I don't have a vehicle to pull it though or I'd threaten to borrow it, LOL. It is parked in my yard. I like easy too and hard top I would think has its advantages.

 

[Spirit Deer]

Maybe your son would tow it to Wissota for you to spend a weekend in. Once you're sleeping up off the ground, there's no going back to a tent!

Everyone's always looking for killer deals like that on pop ups, although I don't think pop ups are as popular as they used to be. Everyone wants all the amenities, and by the time all the extras are added, it's about the same cost as buying a travel trailer, at least on the new market. We tow a lot in the windy Dakotas, so don't want a full-height trailer. Otherwise our last trailer probably would have been a Fun Finder TT.

 

[NikoSan999]

Good morning and welcome to the Village! Enjoy your time here. :vs_wave:

 

[RR1]

Thanks. I've having trouble getting pages to load, database errors.