I mentioned yesterday how I long to get my Camper out of nearby RV storage and thawed out from the snow. If I had it parked at HD Indoor Storage, I wouldn’t be so cranky because it wouldn’t be encased in an icy, white mass. I could easily go inside and check on it as it waits, cozy in its own garage. I would have likely visited during the winter and inhaled the faint scent of campfires from days past. Maybe even taken it out for a camp on those many odd, warm weekends this past winter…
Enough RV Storage Talk…(for now)
Bottom line, HD Indoor Storage can’t open it’s shiny new garage doors soon enough for me (if you are anxious too, check out updates on Facebook). What inspires me today is not the many inspiring places to camp near and far, but the prospect of MORE FRIENDS!
More people camping = more camping friends!
This morning I saw this exciting post “More Americans Are Going Camping” based on a report released by Kampgrounds of America (KOA). And this is not new, news exactly. I enjoyed thinking of myself as a “trendsetter” before. Hey, Oprah was sitting on the steps of an Airstream on the February 2017 cover of O magazine! (I bet she is not waiting for her Airstream to thaw out at some outdoor RV storage place.)
What might that new camping friend look like?
It just came to me this morning. More people camping will mean meeting so many new “Happy Campers!” Who are they? Intrigued, I downloaded a copy of 2017 North American Camping Report myself. Fifty-four pages of juicy tidbits. Here is what jumped out at me…
- Look at you! You’re likely to have a Camper in your house. Among US households, 61% now include someone who camps.
- Many of these Campers are FRESH! Not 80’s Hip-hop “Fresh”, but new to camping. Over 1 million households have started camping each year since 2104. That means 3.4 million Us households becoming new campers over the last three years.
- They’re fresh-faced. I say that as a weathered Gen Xer (thus the 80’s Hip-hop reference). Those Millennials (born 1981-1997) are taking to the outdoors and doing so in greater numbers than expected. In the overall population millennials comprise 31 percent of the adult population, yet account for 38 percent of campers.
- Not that fresh-faced, they have kids. You parents out there no what I’m talking about! Your new camping friends have a good chance of having kids. Fully half of all campers reporting that there are children in their households.
So much to look forward to this 2017 Camping Season. I’m going to pour over these numbers a bit more. It almost makes me forget about my thawing camper in RV storage.