Car camping

Before my California trip, most, if not all, my camping experiences involved either a car or a canoe (I won't go into this particular type of camping here since it usually happens at camp with a lot of other trippers, and involves portages, bug bites, and lots of muscle, and really shouldn't be considered in the same category as "regular, i.e. road access" camping). When preparing for said California trip, I was justifiably a bit anxious about the whole camping while hitch-hiking idea. Luckily, everything went smoothly, and I found the whole experience exhilarating, and really not all difficult. I had come to conclude that though a car would have been appreciated, it really wasn't all that necessary. Seems that I had forgotten the joys of having a car; which, during my latest trip to Nelson, I was reminded of...

New conclusion: Camping with a car definitely has it's perks! Here are a few of them:

• You can carry a canoe atop it
• You can hide your food in it, and sleep without fear of bears
• Actually, you can put all your stuff in it, and sleep without fear of rain getting everything soaked
• You don't have a sore back from carrying all your stuff around with out all the time
• You can justify bringing a pillow camping to yourself
• You can have a cooler and ice, so you actually can have milk, cheese, and cold beer!
• Liberty! If there's a road, you can go there! No fear in the mornings as to whether you can find a spot to sleep for the night
• You can carry 5 books for a 2 night camping trip, no sweat!

So, for my next cross country camping trip (I'd like to go West - East across Canada and then East - West across the States), I'd like to have a volkswagen camper in tow... which means, I need to try to get that driver's license!

Dream car: A Volkswagen Hybrid Camper Car [Notice the background and the surfboards!]