What is the point of a "camper"?

Curious .... do all Americans call them "pop up campers"? In Canada I've never heard them called anything but "tent trailers".

 

It was really a big indication of my dad's coming mortality when I was about 20-22, dad was mid-50s, the family (minus me) was off on a camping trip a hour or so away, and I got an urgent call from my mom that I had to come help pack the whole shebang up.

Those were in the days I was pumping Ethyl at Happy Jacks, spending my nights drinking Kessler's, so I was pretty much done with the family camping trips.

My dad actually was in the first stages of a perforated ulcer. Packing up the camper and all the gear was doable for one healthy adult male, but dad was hurting bad and they needed help. I ended up driving the car and trailer home, mom followed in my car, and I pulled dad straight up to the hospital.

They wheeled him straight into ICU and performed scope surgery. He was in for a week, and bounced back pretty quickly, but the docs said another hour or so to get to the hospital and he would have been in real trouble.

(Luckily it had to have been one of the light days on the Happy Jack's boozing schedule, so I was sober enough to make the rescue run. I suspect I might have been moderately hung over when I rolled out the door. And getting a phone call from your mom saying "your dad just collapsed on the ground" sobers you up in a big hurry.)

Really that was the beginning of the end of the family camping trips. There was a renaissance for a few years when my brother (12 years my junior) was in his mid teens and could supply the muscle, but as my dad was in his sixties the camper gear got to be too much of a struggle.

 

That's the vernacular in the US.

 

So, when you invite me to be your guest, are you saying that I can come to your house or that you will pay my air conditioning bill?
I just need to clarify because I have some vacation time to schedule.

 

Funny ... when I hear 'pop up camper' I automatically think of the VW camper vans with the pop-up tops. LOL

 

In the US those are called "friggin' awesome"

 

I have never owned a tent.

 

Here too.

 

You teach me some tricks on that six-string, you can stay at the Ritz if you want.

 

Camping in the Shuswap sounds like ut would be awesome. Have spent so e rime in the provincial park while renting a VRBO on the North side of the lake, beautiful spot, great water.

I always heard them referred to as pop up trailers or campers, that's what most call them out here.

 

It's a lot of fun to pitch a tent when camping with the wife, but putting up the shelter sucks.

 

There's actually differentiation among the camping culture:

A pop up camper is a camper that basically opens by itself, by the flip of a switch or the turning of one crank. Most of the hard Shell models qualified.

Rigs like the Nimrod Riviera setup we had -- that required a lot of physical setup -- were called "tent campers."

Our camper included 16 6-8 foot steel poles, pounding in four stakes and Guy ropes, and fastening about 40 snaps.

And before the whole thing got started, somebody had to hoist the trailer, tongue weight about 80-100 pounds, off the hitch of the car. By hand.