Pop Up Camping – Shakedown Cruise

Once upon a time we bought a pop up camper.  We had no experience with campers, but we knew it would be perfect for us.  And it was (and still is).  Along the way we’ve learned a lot (about the pop up and us).  For the next few Fridays, I’ll be posting about our adventures in camping.

So, you own a new camper?  Give it shakedown cruise.  What is it?  Why have one?  Well…

According to wikipedia.com, a shakedown cruise is:

Shakedown cruise is a nautical term in which the performance of a ship is tested. Shakedown cruises are also used to familiarize the ship’s crew with operation of the craft. In the travel industry a shakedown cruise is undertaken to test a ship’s systems, both mechanical and human. These test cruises are sometimes made with passengers traveling at a discount. The term can also refer in a generic sense to the process of testing out any new technology or systems.

Okay, so why have one?  The simple answer is to test what you have and what you don’t.

As the owner of a new camper, one of the first things you want to do is go camping!  It’s the whole reason you bought the camper to begin with but, for the first trip in a new camper, a cross country adventure is not the way to go.   Instead, common sense says that a new-camper shakedown cruise close to home is a good way to start.  Being close to home allows you to run home or to a familiar store for things you forgot.

• Make sure you have a pen and paper to make a list of things that would be nice to have.
• A weekend trip is a good length.  You get a sense of how much stuff you need and what things you don’t need.
• Since storage is at a premium, you need to pack carefully.

For our shakedown cruise, we went to a campground near our home with which we had become familiar thanks to visiting relatives.  We knew the campground, planned it for weeks, and guess what?  We missed a lot of stuff that we ended up needing and had to make a few trips to the house.  Then, of course, we received a phone call that threw the whole weekend into disarray (that story is coming up later).  The moral of the entire thing is make your first trip close to home because you never know what might come up or where you might come up short!

Remember to have fun!