First off, I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has been reading and commenting on my posts. I honestly never dreamed these stories would get the response they have. I started sharing them because I enjoy writing about the things Dawn and I have experienced over the years, and it has been pretty cool to find out that other people enjoy reading about them too.
And just so everyone knows, the stories I tell really happened. Sometimes I may have a little fun telling them, but somewhere along the way Dawn, I, or usually both of us actually lived through it.
Dawn and I have been together for almost 35 years, and camping has been part of our lives for most of that time.
We actually started out tent camping. Yep, before fifth wheels, slide-outs, automatic leveling, recliners, air conditioning and all the other things we now consider “necessary,” there was a tent.
Apparently we were tougher back then.
Or younger.
Probably younger.
From tent camping, we eventually moved up to a little pop-up camper that we pulled behind our motorcycle. We traveled all over the Midwest with that setup and had some great adventures. Looking back at it now, I’m not entirely sure how we managed to pack everything we thought we needed onto a motorcycle and into that little camper, but somehow we did.
Eventually the knees, backs and everything else started reminding us that we weren’t 25 anymore, so the motorcycle camping days came to an end.
Next came a little teardrop camper that we pulled behind our Jeep. That gave us a little more comfort while still keeping things simple.
Then we moved up to a 16-foot camper.
And somewhere along the way we apparently decided that if 16 feet was good, 38 feet must be fantastic.
So we bought a 38-foot Crossroads with three slides.
And we loved it.
It had tons of room and was extremely comfortable, but we eventually discovered one little problem: it was a lot more at home in an RV resort than some of the state and national parks where we really like to camp.
So we went the other direction and bought a Grand Design Reflection 226RK.
That camper was a great fit for us for several years and took us on a lot of adventures. But, as anyone who owns an RV probably already knows, apparently campers have a strange habit of shrinking while you own them.
Eventually we decided we wanted just a little more room.
Which brings us to our current Grand Design Reflection 150 Series 295RL fifth wheel.
For us, the 295RL has turned out to be a really nice middle ground. It gives us the extra room and comfort we wanted without putting us right back into the “Where in the world are we going to fit this thing?” category.
Of course, no matter what camper we’ve owned, one thing has remained pretty consistent:
I will eventually find some new way to learn something the hard way.
And Dawn will usually be standing somewhere nearby watching it happen.
For a lot of our camping years, it wasn’t just Dawn and me either. We traveled with our two dogs, Loki and Odie, and they were every bit as much a part of the camping adventures as we were.
Sadly, we lost Loki in January 2025. Anyone who has ever traveled with a dog knows they aren’t just along for the ride—they become part of what makes those trips special, and we still miss having him with us.
Odie Dog, on the other hand, is still going strong. He loves camping just about as much as Dawn and I do, and if you’ve read many of my stories, you already know he has a way of becoming the center of quite a few of them.
Sometimes I think Dawn and I are just the supporting cast and Odie is actually the star of this whole operation.
He’s always ready for a road trip, a campground walk, something to eat, or the opportunity to make whatever I’m doing just a little more interesting. I’m pretty sure he has provided me with almost as much writing material as I have provided myself.
We’re from Southern Illinois, just outside of Marion, so we’re fortunate to have some fantastic camping areas right in our backyard.
Dawn has worked in banking for nearly 36 years—and amazingly, at the same bank the entire time.
I spent nearly 10 years in the Marines and later spent more than 20 years teaching computer forensics, cybersecurity and related subjects at our local college before retiring from education. These days I work as the Safety Director for a small trucking company while we wait for Dawn to retire in December 2027.
And when I say “wait,” I mean I am absolutely counting down.
Days.
Possibly hours.
After that, the plan is pretty simple: camp more, travel more and collect more stories.
Over all these years, the campers have changed, the trucks have changed, and our definition of “roughing it” has definitely changed. But the reason we enjoy camping really hasn’t.
We like seeing new places. We like meeting people. We like sitting around a campground talking to people we’ve just met like we’ve known them for years. And most of all, Dawn and I still genuinely enjoy traveling and doing this together.
Some trips go exactly according to plan.
Those usually aren’t the stories you hear about.
The good stories tend to come from the trips where something breaks, I make a questionable decision, we get lost, the weather decides not to cooperate, Odie gets involved in something, or I say those famous words:
“I’ve got an idea.”
That’s usually when Dawn starts worrying.
I hope you enjoy reading about our adventures and occasional disasters as much as I enjoy writing about them. Maybe one of our stories will make you laugh, remind you of something that happened on one of your own trips, or occasionally keep you from making one of the mistakes I’ve already made for you.
If you’re new to the blog, please take a look around and read some of the other stories. There are quite a few adventures already there, with plenty more coming.
And if you enjoy them, please subscribe to the blog if you haven’t already. It really does help, and you’ll know whenever another story gets posted.
Hopefully we’ll get the chance to meet some of you at a Grand Design Rally or cross paths at a campground somewhere down the road.
And if you happen to see me outside the camper staring at something with tools scattered everywhere, Dawn sitting in her chair shaking her head, and Odie Dog right in the middle of whatever is going on…
Don’t worry.
We’re probably just working on the next story.
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