My first exposure to spending an overnight in the great outdoors was not in a travel trailer or even a tent. It as underneath the backyard picnic table, with a tarp, draped over it.

That's what I call redneck camping. But I was young and small (those days are gone) and there was plenty of room to make it a comfortable experience. I guess you could call it more like an overnight outdoor sleepover rather than camping, but it was outdoors, and that worked for me.

Eventually, my Dad purchased a second-hand army tent for my siblings and me to camp in and believe me, it had that second hand, old tent-like smell. It's something you never forget.

In my early adulthood, I purchased a pop-up tent and later a tent that could accommodate 2 or 3 persons, although it was advertised as one that could comfortably sleep 6. I;m thinking that's a bit of a stretch.

I spend many years tent camping around the Northeast, but as time went on, I yearned for a travel trailer with some of the comforts a tent can't provide. That was almost 20 years and five trailers ago. My current trailer is nicer than my house, not that my house is anything more than a cracker box palace.

So, if you love the outdoors and camp, which do you prefer, tent camping or enjoying the luxuries of a travel trailer?

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