Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

I blame our love of camping for why i bought the toon!

A little history lesson here...

"How i Ended up with a Fricken Pontoon Boat" By WaltF

We picked up a beat to hell 1968 Apache Mesa popup about 7 years ago and camped in the thing so much that after 3 or so years the wife decided electricity and heat would be a nice addition.


Thus in comes the new popup! Picked up a brand new Jayco 1207 popup back in 2005 and camp on an average 40-45 days during the about 6-7 month camping season, ie bout April - Oct.
Love the fricken thing! Its got a furnace, a/c, hot water heater, heated mattresses even!


Then came drunken camping friends!


Then a fricken toon!


..and the rest, is history..

That's a nice looking pop up. Would love to get one for the lake property,but know my snob neighbors would pitch a fit.
I was planning on building down there but sort of re thinking it now. The tax on the lake property is already almost twice what it is on my house. Hate to see what it would be with a house on the lot. The county came through at the peak of the realestate bubble and revalued all the property and ever since then it seem to go up a couple of hundred a year for something. Anyway that's a sharp looking pop up..........enjoy (knowing you will)
doc

When my brother and sisters were toddlers, my parents started us tent camping, then graduated to a pop-up and eventually went to a 27 ft Prowler. Cheryl and I inherited it when my father passed away but we sold it when we moved to Chesapeake CIty.

It was one of the reasons the PC appealed to us.

Some of my best memories was my family camping, and then my Dad introduced me to hunting and fishing.

It's a shame most parents today don't expose their kids to the outdoors more.

Howdy Waltf. We have always had campers and V bottom boats. You tend to spill to many drinks in those tippy go fast types so we moved on up to the toon. It has cut my alcohol bill in half! Bought a Starcraft 34RT a year and a half ago. It's our first PUP and the whole family loves it. Lots of room when popped up. We take it to the lake a couple times a year and also on our deer and elk hunts. Take care, Craig

Similar to you Waltf, except we had always tent camped. After we got the first 'toon Jen and Kim really wanted a/c (and I really NEEDED a/c, much, much quieter ) so we got a used Palomino pop up, a/c, heat, etc... It was nice to upgrade from tent camping, so much easier to cook and clean in as well. I think we were in our 2nd season of camping in the pop up and we got caught in a very bad wind/rain storm up at Conchas lake in the middle of the night. Luckily for me my younger bro was there to help me hold the top and get some rope to a tree, really think we might have tipped over. That was the last time for Jen and the pop up. Fast forward a month or 2 and we had our new 05' Trail Cruiser hybrid TT, best of both worlds, hard side TT with the tent ends for the "real" camping experience. Since then we have made alot of upgrades sat. tv, laminate floor t/o (matches the cabinets very nice) border paper and decorations, faux plants, etc...

Camping does indeed rock! We just got in from a 3 day 2 night lake trip, with the appropriate sunburn and hangover that is usually associated with a properly done trip! This pic is not from this trip.

Sorry for the oversized pic.


BMR, missed the last line of your post the first time and it reminded me of a late summer, early fall camping trip we had up in the Pecos wilderness. Kim was maybe 1 1/2 years old that trip, one of the pics taken of her that trip is still my favorite to this day! Will try and scan it or figure out how to share somehow.

Kim was less than 3 months old her first camping trip, her brother was still alive, what a sight we must have been, a disabled child on O2 and an infant camping up in the mountains!

Sweet pic John!!
Where is that?

Glad yall love camping so much. You can have mine and Betty's. We love being at home and half mile from lake

I am in the process of scanning all of our family slides to digital and there are a bunch of our family camping trips. This is how our parents introduced us to camping, some of our best memories.

Check out the "Nixon Now" bumper sticker. I am in the back behind my younger brother and older sister.

WaltF wrote:Sweet pic John!!
Where is that?

Walt, that is from Lions beach down at Elephant Butte. That was in 05' the water was way down then, it is up about 50' now and with your snow hopefully we can be full for the first time in years.

Great pic BMR, we had the same metal cooler when I was growing up!

Got the pic I was talking about and then one from earlier that year.

Ahh, 2tt, your pics are MIA. I love seeing pics of camping. Although I never camped when I was little, my kids grew up camping and boating. Great combo! Now we can't wait for the opportunity. The grandbabies love it too and are getting some of the best experiences and memories they will ever have. Dave's daughter is not really into roughing it; so, next year we plan on taking his grandkids along and get them exposed to the good life. Thanks for the pics.

Alma, they are there, just waaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyy over to the right. I had not scanned anything before and do not know what I messed up.




Loyd, can I get a DUMBASS from you?

Looks like you just had to crop them..if you scan a small image on a flatbed scanner, you get alot of blank space.

I still use a cooler like that one