RV Podcast #331: The Amazing Power of Family Camping

Family Camping, whether in a tent, pop-up camper, a towable trailer, motorhome, or any other type of RV, unites families through great memories! That's what we talk about in this 331st episode of the RV Podcast. And through our special podcast guest - a Mom and Grandma who has passed along a love for the outdoors and family camping to her children - and the remembering of Jennifer and me with own experience with our kids.  We hope that this article and our podcast will inspire newcomers to try it out and cause others to rekindle a love affair of the great outdoor and family camping. You can listen to the podcast in the player below or scroll down this page for shownotes and a transcript of the interview, plus links and resources about all the things we talk about.  There is great power in family camping Jennifer and I have camped our entire married life. I grew up in a family that hunted and fished but we never really camped. When Jennifer and I got married, one of the first things she insisted on was that we would be a camping family. She grew up camping and spent family vacations in tents and trailers along the shorelines of our Michigan Great Lakes.  The first big expense we made as a married couple was a 13-foot Shasta trailer. As we started having kids, we replaced it with a Coleman pop up camper. And although we camped in state and county cames every time we could, our preferred style even way back then was boondocking - though no one called it that then. It was truly off the grid, with no hookups, down a rough two-track carved out of the woods in Ogemaw County and along the Rifle River. This Coleman Popup was what we used for family camping back in the '70s. That's our favorite spot along the Rifle River in northern Michigan. My sister and her family owned a bunch of raw acreage up there and even in this empty nest stage of our life, we take our RV to the exact same spot as often as we can. Photo of the tent Jennifer and I used from the 80s through the 90s Our three kids grew up camping and the memories we made around campfires, hiking deer trails, taking innertubes down the swift-moving river, and being together made memories that we all still laugh about today. After our kids went to school and grew up, Jen and I sold the popup and turned to tent camping for many years. We've been in small Class B and Class C motorhomes since 2012. Our daughter, Wendy camps in a tent with her family and has passed her love of family camping to her husband, Dan, and daughters, Elizabeth and Rachel. Son Jeff didn't have to work to convince his wide Aimee to camp, She, too, grew up in a camping family and they camp every chance they can in a travel trailer with their kids Jovie and Jax. And all of us get out a couple of times a year for big family campouts. Our third child, Scott, along with his wife, Lauri, and grandsons Zachary, Nick, Matthew, and Jacob, lives in Nashville. And while he is not doing much camping these days because of work responsibilities, we expect him to do so.  Here's a video of one of those summer family campouts we do with our grown kids and grandkids, this one from Silver Lake along Lake Michigan. That was from a couple of summers ago. Here's our latest family campout, this one taken just this fall, right around Halloween time. \ The benefits of Family Camping Here's a list of 7 camping benefits that Jennifer and I can quickly identify: Disconnecting from devices and connecting with one another Having quality one-on-one-time away from the daily routines of home, work and school Learning about God's creation, the natural world, wildlife, and the seasons not from a book but by seeing it and living in it Learning how to handle challenges together, be it mechanical problems on the road, sudden storms, or sorting out personal issues. There's nothing like being in a confined space together to quickly get to issues that otherwise may simmer and build resentment. Working together setting up camp, planning meals, gathering firewood, taking down camp Appreciating each other. When there are no shopping malls, social pressures, work or school distractions, and competing activities, family becomes so much more than a word. The ties formed from camping last forever. And - perhaps the most important benefit - understanding that life is not all about me. It's us. We're all in whatever it is we are in... together! An Interview about Family Camping: Nancy Einheuser While her husband had to stay behind each summer running the family business, Nancy introduced her three kids to family camping when they didn't know the meaning of the word "vacation." Our guest to talk more about the power of family camping is Nancy Einheuser. Nancy has been a camper all her life who introduced her husband, Robert, to camping and then their three children. She is a member of our RV Lifestyle Facebook Supporters Group and shares with us what camping has meant to her and her family. Mike Wendland:           Joining us to talk about that power of camping for a family is one of our Facebook supporters and one of our regulars on our Facebook group and all of the RV lifestyle stuff we do, Nancy Einheuser. Nancy, first, thank you for being willing to share your story and offer some encouragement for the people out there who are wondering, "Should I start this? Should I do it?" Tell us about camping and your family, how far it goes back, and what it means to you? Nancy Einheuser:          Oh my gosh. Well, thank you, Mike. Thanks for having me. And yeah, you've touched on a tender spot in my heart because my camping history goes back to being a little girl, one of five, and my dad had started the camping. He actually was self-employed, like a lot of self-employed people, overworked. He had a medical issue, popped him in the hospital for a while, and he had a lot of time to think about what he wanted to do differently with his life. Family Camping was a priority When he came home, that was the first thing he did is made sure that we took vacations together, and our vacations every summer involved camping, and camping pretty much in Michigan. We found enough to do in Michigan that we never felt that we were lacking to go anywhere else. We went somewhere different every year until we got very fond of a particular spot. And as we became teenagers and we're having jobs and getting our own cars, we would congregate there together. Dad would go up, put the home-base base camp down, and then we would come in as we could, from school or job. Mike Wendland:           Now, I was taught a long time ago, never to ask a lady her age. So, I'm not going to do that, but I am going to ask you to help us understand how long ago this was that camping became a part of your life and- Family camping started at a very early age Nancy Einheuser:          Okay, well, I have no problem saying my age, even though I am a lady. I'm 62 and my father started taking us camping when I was about four. My brother was an infant, my younger brother. I have an older brother and two older sisters and I was the fourth of five. So, the youngest one was in diapers, he was my younger brother. Mike Wendland:           From your earliest memory, camping must have played a pretty big role in that. And what kind of camping was it?  Tent camping with 5 kids! Nancy Einheuser:          Mostly tent camping with five kids. My dad went through first a large, large family tent and a large screen porch for the area where we would cook and keep our coolers. And he was a fisherman. My father loved the water, loved boating. And if it weren't that my mom would get seasick, he would have lived on a houseboat, for sure. He loved the water, but we started out with a camp and we would always get two sites, one for the tents and the cars, and then we'd have one for just the fire pit and the cooking and the picnic tables and so on and so forth. So, that's how we started out Then came the pop-up camper I do remember him getting a pop-up and it had the slide-outs with the big beds and he'd stack us like sardines on one side and mom and dad on the other. He snored hard at night. He drove during the night a lot of times, and he worked long hours and he would be so tired and he would just snore so loud. We would throw our flip flops at him during the night to get him to turn over. We would take turns, trying to sound like our mother saying, "Dave, turn over." So he could stop snoring. But during the day we played hard. We just had the... It's sort of like a Huck-Finn-type of life, camping. We just, we had the best time. We were free to go. Kids don't have that kind of lifestyle today at all. There was no necessary check-in. We were just home before it's sundown, whether that was at home or when we camped, but camp adventures, the adventures were just far and wide. Mike Wendland:           So, that was as a child. Nancy Einheuser:          As a child. Her husband didn't have the family camping tradition...but soon embraced it! Mike Wendland:           And then you married and had children of your own. And how did camping continue? Did your husband camp? Was he a camper at first? Nancy Einheuser:          He never really was a camper. He had done camping with the Scouts program. He was not real excited over it. And when we first got married, of course, I already had all of my own equipment. I had been camping with girlfriends and on my own from the time I was old enough to drive. So, when we first married, one of our first trips was to take the Jeep and throw the tent in and go camping. And unfortunately, we had a rain cloud follow us. We went through one of those situations where we'd take the top down, we had a soft top, and we'd get on the highway and the rain would start. So, we'd pull under a tree or off the side and put the top up and we'd get back on the road, get ahead of that cloud. And we went back and forth, back and forth.