Worst Camping Trip Ever

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mocamper

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Mar 27, 2007
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Now don't get me wrong. We enjoy camping. It's just this time was the worst ever. Wife and I started camping this spring and have been several times and loved it. Could never wait until the next time out.

Every year we take our kids and grand kids on a trout fishing trip. Usually we stay in a cabin but since we had our camper this year, everyone wanted to go camping (5 adults and 2 small grandchildren). I made our reservations, we planned everything out. Just so the wife and I didn't get stuck doing all the cooking, we decided to have a cooking contest with our kids and son in law. They thought it was going to be fun and we even bought some prizes for the winners. The kids were really excited about going!

We left Sunday morning at 6am to begin our short drive 6 hours away. By mid afternoon we were set up.

By Tuesday night, my son and I both started feeling bad.  Both my son and myself came down with the flu that night. Granddaughter (1 year old) we believe had symptoms but not to our degree. My son only being 18 got over it in 12 hours. For me (50), it took more like 48 hours. Wednesday night, my son in law came down with it. Thursday my wife came down with it.

Some may ask could it of been something that we ate or drank and the answer we believe would be no. One small piece of information I left out though is my daughter watches several kids. The Wednesday before we left, one of them became sick and so did my daughter and my grandson. They had visited us at home that Tuesday night. So I believe we were infected then. While camping, my daughter and grandson did not become sick.

So, 7 days in a 31' camper and 5 of those days 5 people were sick. Our kids left on Friday just to get away from it all once they got better. I had to extend our stay until Saturday just so my wife could travel back home.

We have never been so glad to be back home in our life. Words even came up "should we sell the camper?" but both of us agreed we have had such good time before, we don't want to lose that. We want that to continue. We're not going to let 1 bad time make our decision.

We've talked of when our next trip will be but both of us believe we will wait a month or 2 before venturing out again.

I used to say, "my worst day of vacation is better than my best day at work." I have to think on this one now for a bit.


 
Sorry to hear you had illness during your camping trip. sounds like you had some great plans.  Hopefully you will put this experience behind you and have a great time next time.
 
I am no expert on RV issues. I'm here to learn. But you have touched on one of my "expert" subjects.

While my RV experience is new and recent, I am an old "rifle and backpack" wilderness hunter. Your camping trip reminds me of some of mine. You and your family will look back on this, someday, with humor and pleasant memories. This is a "Campfire Story," the kind you tell new friends and old, as you sit around a campfire and reminise about what you have survived. Nice smooth going camping is fun, but it is no campfire story.

You are blessed. You all made it, and you won't forget it. I smell a great campfire tale! Get out there and make some more memories!

I made a mistake, once, in the Frank Church Wilderness. Ran out of water due to a stupid error. Ran some nice looking stream water through a charcoal and silver filter, and used that. Got very sick. Thought I had a really bad flu!

Short story - - - Spent two very sick days in there, not knowing where I was. (Made a map error, after getting sick.) Very concerned that I would not survive. I did make it out.

Punch line: Unknown to me, above me when I filtered the stream water, there was an old gold mine that had used Cyanide processing to extract the gold. I survived Cyanide poisening. Lucky, indeed! Heck of a fireside story, where I can tell the whole thing.

Got a bunch more. Few of them are from the "successful" trips. That's the nature of campfire lore.

Ray D  ;D
 
Ray D said:
I smell a great campfire tale! Get out there and make some more memories!

I agree!  Get back out there.

Here's a little article I wrote several years ago about our trip from h    . :mad:

On our most recent trip, Karen made some remarks about me trying to hit as many states as possible, a subtle allusion to this trip of over 10 years ago.

During our three week trip, our daughter and two grandkids were with us in our 32' camper for 5 days.  It sure felt more roomy after we dropped them back off at home!  Fortunately no one was sick, though.
 
Well, Everyone has a "Worst" trip, some are worse than others (This one sounds link it was no fun at all) and everyone has a Best trip, likewise some are better than others.

However at least yours was not "Camper Related" but due to a PASSING illness.  And the Illness has passed as well, This too is good.

I recall the words of a famous author, upon reading a particularly acid review of his work he wrote the critic a very nice and short letter:

Sir:

As I sit here in the smallest room of my house, I have before me your review of my work, Soon it will be behind me.
Sincerely

Your bad trip, like that review, is not behind you (though not perhaps in the same way) and now you can get back to the good life.

Oh yes, and wipe the coffee off the monitor.
 
Mocamper,

You know about lemons and lemonade?  Most of us have gotten sick at one time or another while out doing our thing RVing.  That's the lemons.  The good part, in addition to it transitional nature, is you weren't in a hotel room somewhere (been there too and it's the pits).  YOU had your own bed, food, bathroom, and other comforts.  That's the lemonade.  Trust me, after a few years, you might remember this event, but it will fade into the background because it will be replaced with many good memories.  ;)

ArdraF
 
Thanks all for the support. We are getting back in the groove again and have been cleaning up the camper getting it ready for the next trip. Yes, it certainly will be a camp fire story that we will all laugh about in the future.

ArdraF you right. I did have all my comforts of home. I have been sick before on a business trip and that has to be the worst.

Ray D - I would certainly enjoy hearing your story sometime. Sounds like a terrible experience but what a story to tell. Amazing you lived through that.

 
Odd time of year to catch a genuine flu...

I heartily recommend flu shots in the Fall.  My wife and I have only missed one flu shot in the past 35 years.  Believe it or not, that year we both got the flu.  We were flat on our backs in bed from the day after Christmas to New Years Eve.  We have no recollection of how our then-4-year-old daughter made it through that week. 
 
Mocamper, I am quite sure you know this. When things go as planned, ho-hum. That is what would be expected. It is a fond memory. If there is an attraction attached to it, that is something friends will want to know, and you will want to tell. But all that information sharing can be done in a few minutes.

When things go stunning erratic, that's different. It wasn't what would be expected! What caused that? How did it happen? (Usually some stupid mistake.) How could you have done that? Why?

"Well, you see, it's this way. What I meant to be doing was - - - - - -." The fire flickers - shadows dance - sunset deepens - a tall tale begins.

Yep, amazing I lived through that! I am still amazed. Got enough of those stories that like George Burns, the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning is surprise!  I am still here!

You already have, in your memory, some of those events gone wrong. Now, you have a new one. Welcome to the world where the tall story is King.

Ray D  ;D
 
Ray D said:
...This is a "Campfire Story," the kind you tell new friends and old, as you sit around a campfire and reminise about what you have survived. Nice smooth going camping is fun, but it is no campfire story.

You are blessed. You all made it, and you won't forget it. I smell a great campfire tale! Get out there and make some more memories!
I just stumbled on this old thread and have to say I agree completely. My best campfire stories are all from the times when things didn't go as planned, like the time I set Bowling Green, KY on fire, or the time I spent six hours hiking up switchbacks in the rain in the Pike National Forest, or the time we got three straight days of rain in the desert in Utah, or when my kids and I spent two hours hiking up and down a dune at Great Sand Dunes in Colorado while my wife was locked out of the MH.

None of these seemed funny at the time, but they sure make great stories now.
 
Wow, this thread certainly brought back some almost forgotten bad times. Time has certainly healed us and last fall, we began camping with about 4 of my coworkers after this ordeal. Gained some new friends, shared some great stories, and camped right up until November with this group. Everyday the wife and I talk about when we can go again this spring. We are planning an April weekend trip with our new friends and probably will a couple times a month. To top this all off, we are all going to the same spot this summer! All of our vacation time has been scheduled around camping and have 2 nice trips planned consisting of 5 days and 7 days.  My worst day of camping is better than my best day at work! Well....almost.
 
One small thing to point out, that this was NOT the flu. Influenza is a fairly serious sickness that lasts 7 days, while the illness you describe sounds more like a bad cold, from which you generally recovered in 2 days. Both the cold and the flu are viral illnesses (antibiotics of no value) though there is now a medication that shortens the flu, but only if taken in the first two days.
Influenza is a disease that kills many people each year from complications such as pneumonia, and even if you shake it off in a week you feel tired and draggy for another week or more. Last year I got the flu, which led on to pneumonia after the first week, and I was in bed two weeks in the RV, and dragging my *ss for a full month afterwards, and my cough did not settle for three months.
This is a small (and some would say trivial and even PICKY point), and does not lessen the disaster of having five people sick in an RV all at the same time.
Dr. Rankjo
 

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