Our first camping trip: What went right and what went wrong

Our family of 5 took our first camping trip in our Coleman Lantern 17B over Spring Break to Ormond Beach, FL. We had a great time, and we learned a ton about what to do (and even more about what NOT to do) when taking our camper on trips! If you are a seasoned camper, you may read this list and think – well duh! But we learned these things the good old fashioned hard way, so lets get started with the things that went wrong:

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5 Pitfalls to Avoid While Camping with Kids

1.UNDERESTIMATE TRAVEL TIME

Underestimate is an understatement. Google maps showed a trip time of approximately 7 hours from north of Atlanta to Ormond Beach, Florida. Now, I knew that pulling a camper and traveling with three children (7, 5, and 2) would take a little longer, but my sweet naiive self thought to maybe add a couple hours or so to our travel time. Little did we know that between driving slower than usual since we were towing, stopping for gas several times because of the decreased gas mileage, meals and potty breaks… it took us a grand total of 12 hours to reach our destination. Now we know that for our family, we will not plan a trip of more than 5 hours or so according to the Google maps without stopping for the night to break up the trip. Pitfall #1 leads us directly to pitall #2…

2. ARRIVED AT THE CAMPSITE AFTER DARK

Luckily, camping people are THE NICEST people in the world. We pulled up to our campsite at around 10pm and the area for backing into the campsites was pretty tight. Another camper immediately offered to help us, but still it took a good hour or so to get it backed in and hooked up. It was dark, our kids had all pretty much fallen apart at that point, and now we know to never ever arrive after dark again. 🙂

3. DID NOT BRING ADEQUATE SLEEPING GEAR FOR THE TODDLER

As I write this, I cannot believe that I thought co-sleeping with my toddler for the first time would be a good idea on this trip. He is awesome and really easy going, but trying to settle down in a bed next to me when all he’s ever known is a crib… it was not happening. Once he fell asleep it was ok, but it took hourrrrs for him to fall asleep each night (while I received several knees to the face). I recently discovered via the Coleman Lantern 17B Facebook page that a Pack N Play fits in between the dinette benches. We will be trying that next time for sure!

4. DIDN’T BRING THE DVD PLAYER

I know, I know, we are camping so the TV shouldn’t be an issue. But lemme tell you, it comes in really handy when we need a calm minute or are preparing meals for the kids to sit still for a few minutes! And we love to watch a family movie before bed sometimes. We got the TV mounted, and the RV Resort “had wifi” so I thought we were good to go streaming with our Roku. Have you ever tried to explain buffering to a two year old? Next time we will be bringing our DVD player as a back up for sure.

5. EMPTIED THE FRESH WATER TANK COMPLETELY BEFORE WE LEFT

To keep our trailer as light as possible, we emptied the water tank that Camping World had filled when we bought our camper. However, one of the beautiful things about traveling with a camper is that you don’t have to use public restrooms along the way! Especially in a pandemic, this was awesome. Except there was no water to flush, so when anything but #1 was in order… we had a problem. Next time we know to leave enough in the tank for flushing purposes!

5 Things That Actually Worked Well

1.POOL NOODLES UNDER BUNK SHEETS

I had read this hack somewhere for keeping kids from falling off the bed, and it seemed to work for us! I just placed it between the mattress pad and the sheets and voila, it gave them a little warning if they were getting too close to the edge. I probably wouldn’t rely on just a noodle for anyone younger than my kids though (7 and 5), but for us it worked great.

2. BUCKET OF WATER AND TOWEL AT THE DOOR

This may be specific to beach camping, but may also work for dirty feet at other campsites too. I kept a bucket of clean water at the door, and when we returned from the beach we washed our feet off in that, transferred the kids straight to a towel to dry off, and this seemed to keep most of the sand at bay.

3. BISSEL STICK VACUUM/DUST BUSTER

However, it is the beach, and even if the water bucket kept most of the sand out, there still seemed to be some sand that made its way into the camper. I loved my Bissel Stick Vacuum (that also detaches to become a dust buster) so much that I also use it at home now for our everyday kitchen clean up (because my kids make a mountain of crumbs on the daily).

4. SAND-FREE BEACH BLANKET

Ok so maybe I’m realizing now that my family just has an aversion to feeling sandy. In the past, we have taken normal beach towels down to the beach to sit on (for us chairs are not worth the effort because no one is sitting/relaxing with 3 kids under 7). The towel would inevitably soak through and get sandy, and I was wondering how I was going to deal with the wet sandy towels while camping. Entering – the beach blanket I’ve been missing all my life. It’s made of nylon, and it stays dry and the sand wipes right off. Perfect base camp for all the crab hunting, sand castle building, and wave splashing.

5. KEYLESS RV LOCK

We received two keys to our camper upon purchase – one of which broke immediately, the other we constantly panicked about the location of and worried about losing it. My husband installed (super easy) this Keyless RV Lock, and it was so convenient to go to and from the camper whenever we wanted without thinking about who had the keys.

So there you have it, the first few of many lessons we will learn along the way. What are some lessons you learned the hard way camping? Comment below!