I've seen a couple of people camping with rooftop tents and truck tents. They seem like a good idea, especially in places where there might be creepy crawlies on the ground, although to be honest if i had a truck i think just getting a simple camper shell would be less hassle. Although then you can't transport large things in your bed any more.
The thing i don't get is how you can sleep cross-ways in a car. Maybe it's because i'm 6'3, but to me it seems a bit torturous to try sleep in a space that's shorter than you are. I do sleep curled up for a decent part of the night on normal nights, but i really need to be able to stretch out from time to time otherwise my knees will lock up. Some car dwellers have a trick of folding the passenger-side front seat down and the rear seats down, then you have enough space to put a platform with your feet in the trunk and your head up near the dashboard... I guess that's how truck campers are laid out too, with the bed suspended up over the cab.
It is definitely a trip talking to people who used to travel a lot in the 70s and 80s. They all remember camping back then, just pitching a tent, or pulling over and sleeping in the car. It seems like it used to be such a normal thing, and now it's not. I don't know when exactly the change happened, but now even state parks have far, far more RV sites than "primitive" camping sites, and some state parks don't even have any sites without an electric, water and sewage hookup. I mean, it's nice to have electric in your tent so you can charge your phone and watch shows on your laptop, but not when you have to pay RV prices to stay! The wild thing is that it's not like Americans in the 90s or the 00s all suddenly all got rich enough (and big enough vehicles) to tow a trailer. The parks just gentrified, so the lower income folks can't go there at all any more.
The one upside of owning a car (as opposed to a bike) is that you can pull over and sleep at rest areas, or (if you have tinted windows) just stealthily park in a quiet part of town and get some sleep. Worst case a cop knocks on the window, then you make your apologies and drive away. It seems like a lot less hassle than having to pack up a tent you tried to stealthily pitch in the woods behind a shopping mall or whatever.
Something else that may be a big issue with the parks was around the 90s is when they cut the park budgets. Basically, the State Parks in Texas used to be very very cheap (if youw anted electricity) or even free for use (just reserve a spot and go!)
Then the Republicans came into power in the state and decided that only people using the parks needed to pay for them. They reduced the public tax money for it, hiking up the prices at the gate, and the state parks started wanting the Big Money from RV Campers to keep going.
This was also around the time that the State of Texas got rid of all the free picnic areas around the state. Hundreds of little dotted pulloffs where there was a nice table, a BBQ pit, a waste can. Most are gone now, and only a few still exit, mostly at scenic views (https://goo.gl/maps/nZnVTTFNUM6vh3EX7). All in the name of "Less Taxes."
Ugh, this sucks so hard. That's what a fellow tent camper in Oklahoma told me happened there too. It feels so stupid, because what's the point of a (theoretically) government-owned park which isn't accessible to all the people the government represents? I think the same thing happened in Alberta and Ontario in Canada. BC is different - you can just show up at a park, and there are always spots reserved for walk-ins, there are dozens of rec areas around the place, many of them are free... And it's not like there's a lack of land in those other provinces, so it's definitely a political decision. A poor one.
I do like the WA method of parks. They all require a "Discover Pass." Buy the pass, which is only $30 and you have one full years access to any State Park in the state. But if you don't have one, $10 gets you one day's access on-demand at any park and it's transferable to any other park on that same day. There are parks EVERYWHERE, primitive camping is permitted on nearly all of them, and if one place is full, there's likely another camp a mile or two away. And if not, find an empty spot in the woods and just go there.
Getting the "America The Beautiful" National Park Pass ($80) and the Discover Pass gives you free access to all Washington parkland (and there's a LOT out here) for a year. Sadly, there's no Discover Pass style system in Texas, and the America the Beautiful pass is moot in Texas as there are very very very few national parks in Texas.
The thing i don't get is how you can sleep cross-ways in a car. Maybe it's because i'm 6'3, but to me it seems a bit torturous to try sleep in a space that's shorter than you are. I do sleep curled up for a decent part of the night on normal nights, but i really need to be able to stretch out from time to time otherwise my knees will lock up. Some car dwellers have a trick of folding the passenger-side front seat down and the rear seats down, then you have enough space to put a platform with your feet in the trunk and your head up near the dashboard... I guess that's how truck campers are laid out too, with the bed suspended up over the cab.
It is definitely a trip talking to people who used to travel a lot in the 70s and 80s. They all remember camping back then, just pitching a tent, or pulling over and sleeping in the car. It seems like it used to be such a normal thing, and now it's not. I don't know when exactly the change happened, but now even state parks have far, far more RV sites than "primitive" camping sites, and some state parks don't even have any sites without an electric, water and sewage hookup. I mean, it's nice to have electric in your tent so you can charge your phone and watch shows on your laptop, but not when you have to pay RV prices to stay! The wild thing is that it's not like Americans in the 90s or the 00s all suddenly all got rich enough (and big enough vehicles) to tow a trailer. The parks just gentrified, so the lower income folks can't go there at all any more.
The one upside of owning a car (as opposed to a bike) is that you can pull over and sleep at rest areas, or (if you have tinted windows) just stealthily park in a quiet part of town and get some sleep. Worst case a cop knocks on the window, then you make your apologies and drive away. It seems like a lot less hassle than having to pack up a tent you tried to stealthily pitch in the woods behind a shopping mall or whatever.
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Then the Republicans came into power in the state and decided that only people using the parks needed to pay for them. They reduced the public tax money for it, hiking up the prices at the gate, and the state parks started wanting the Big Money from RV Campers to keep going.
This was also around the time that the State of Texas got rid of all the free picnic areas around the state. Hundreds of little dotted pulloffs where there was a nice table, a BBQ pit, a waste can. Most are gone now, and only a few still exit, mostly at scenic views (https://goo.gl/maps/nZnVTTFNUM6vh3EX7). All in the name of "Less Taxes."
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Getting the "America The Beautiful" National Park Pass ($80) and the Discover Pass gives you free access to all Washington parkland (and there's a LOT out here) for a year. Sadly, there's no Discover Pass style system in Texas, and the America the Beautiful pass is moot in Texas as there are very very very few national parks in Texas.
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