HAPPY CAMPERS - Final segment (Scroll down for earlier segments)


     I had no idea what was involved in extreme camping.  I thought it was like camping on the face of a calving glacier, or inside the crater of an erupting volcano, or even on the crumbling banks of a raging river, but I discovered it was far more extreme.  It involved shunning five-star hotels for a sleeping bag and a good soccer field. 

     “There are some who think I’m just being cheap,” says Lester.

      "Maybe borderline delirious, but not cheap,” I answered.  “Of course, I haven’t experienced the true comfort of a freshly mowed soccer field.”

     He admitted it was sometimes difficult getting to sleep with all the cheering.  “But it quiets down after the game,” he said.   “And I know the location of all the sprinklers.”      

     If the weather is poor, Lester will resort to mobile camping.  We’re not talking forty feet of luxury in a sun-drenched oasis.  We’re talking fourteen feet of cramped compact in the pouring rain in a Wal-Mart parking lot.  Lester says he’s spent so many nights in his car that he’s had the locks changed.  Now he can use a hotel key card.

     He tells me he even has maid service.  He uses Mobile Maids, a maid service that caters to people who sleep in their cars.  Every day they come by to clean and vacuum.  Then they make your sleeping bag.  He says some even turn down the top of the bag and leave a mint on his pillow.

     He’s had some problems with the police ignoring his “Do Not Disturb” sign hanging on the outside of his car door.  He said he does his best to ignore the bright lights shining in the window, but it’s the pounding on the car that keeps him awake. 

     One night, Lester was really embarrassed.  He’d forgotten to display his “Do Not Disturb” sign. One of the Mobile Maids was driving by and noticed it said “Maid May Clean Car.”  While she was trying to get in, the car alarm went off, which attracted the police, and all the lights.  He said it took him a long time to get back to sleep. Then he forgot to set his alarm, and overslept.  When he woke up, he was riding behind a tow truck.   He said the gas was cheap, but the room was a bit pricey.   

     Lester says that’s why it’s so much easier camping in a driveway.  The sound of a honking horn, as people are trying to leave for work in the morning, is the perfect alarm clock.        

     When Lester flies and has to rent a car, he’s found a company called Cruise and Snooze. You can not only sleep in the car, but it comes with a sleeping bag.   

     On a rare occasion, Lester will stay overnight in a hotel.  He likes to stay in hotels where pets are welcome.  If they refuse to stay, he goes back to the car.

     One night, several pets followed him.  They wanted to sleep in the car.  He said that kind of camping would be too extreme.

     “When you stay in your car, you give up a few hotel amenities,” Lester says, “such as fire alarms going off in the middle of the night or spending the night in an elevator on the 16^th floor, but for extreme, happy campers, it’s worth it.”

 

 

New chapter coming...check back soon