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RVing and Music Festivals: Making Bicycles Welcome

Curt Manufacturing clamp-on bike rack (image courtesy eTrailer)

When we bought our Ford F150 to tow our travel trailer to music festivals and campgrounds, we thought we had all the capacity we needed. With a four-door crew cab spacious enough for five and a large bed with a hard tonneau cover, we envisioned loading it with lots of stuff and room to spare. Except, we came to find, for our bikes. With the bed packed with other camping supplies and our trailer manufacturer fairly adamant about never attaching anything to the rear bumper or installing a hitch to the stern, how would we shuttle our bikes to our fav fests? We found that a number of manufacturers have it all figured out. Now, which solution was best…?

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The Most Important Piece of Camping Gear: Flashlights

From HikingTier’s Best Camping Flashlight

Once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right. Sometimes no matter how hard you look for something, there just isn’t enough light for the task. Camp at enough music festivals and inevitably you get caught in the dark.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been searching the tow vehicle (TV), the storage compartment in the camper, or making my way through a thick stand of sitting / resting / raging music fans in total blackness. Many of our best camping festival sites are steeped in total darkness once the sun goes down.

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Bought Your Trailer? How to Buy Your First Tow Vehicle (Part 2)

Donkey Jr. hitched to Mr. Charlie and ready to go.

They say to “buy your second RV first.” But it’s best to buy your tow vehicle second. The tale of our purchase of Mr. Charlie our travel trailer discussed the thinking that drove our decision. We wanted a slide-out, a private master bedroom, an outdoor kitchen that would make us the envy of mornings at the music festival – all in a unit close to 21 feet or so. We settled on 25 feet, and were – and remain – thrilled with our buy.

But between the day we put money down on the trailer and drove her off the lot about four weeks later, we had a minor detail to address: the tow vehicle.

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Our Path to (Re)Discovery of Camping & Festivals (Part 1)

Back when I was 10 or so, my father used to take me camping. When we weren’t tenting beneath the oak forest canopy on the banks of Fisheating Creek, we were hiking through Old Florida pine scrub on the Florida Trail north from U.S. 41 toward Alligator Alley. Those times we did Disney’s Fort Wilderness campground, the kids would stay in a rented trailer. He’d pitch his tent out back. He was that kind of camper. 

Mr. Charlie & Donkey Jr.

About the same time and about 1,500 miles to the north, a girl I’d meet a decade later was camping with her family. They’d tow the family trailer from Toronto to places like Lake Nipissing or Algonquin Park in northern Ontario. They were another kind of camper.

For two families, this was camping. Four decades later, we’re camping again, tho’ our “lodging” of choice might have my dear ol’ dad (RIP) spinning in his REI goose down sleeping bag…

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Go Big or Go Home – The (Not So) Lighter Side of Glamping

Go Big or Go Home! That was the battle cry heard on the convention floor at the Florida RV SuperShow in Tampa this past weekend. Gargantuan displays by the major luxury motorcoach manufacturers were in no short supply. Names like Newmar, Phaeton, Prevost and others were out in full force.

Starting at $250,000 but rapidly climbing into the million-dollar stratosphere, I always thought these were the coaches that escorted the rock stars to the music festivals we attend. Apparently, they’re for some (very elite) fans, too.

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