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I have a BFL tournament coming up this weekend at Kerr Lake, I spent the last 2 weekends on Kerr prefishing. Due to high gas prices and slow times at work cutting some of my funding I took a different approach to maximize fishing time and save money. Normally I might have split a motel room with one of the two guys I share info with, they were both tied up with work and family obligations and my buddy with a trailer up there wasnt going to be there. Not wanting to spend the full price of a motel room or make the hour and 20 minute drive each way 2 days in a row I came up with a solution... hit the campground. For $25 a night I get a campsite at the Hibernia campground right on the water with electric hook up to charge my boat batteries and a water spigot close by, bathroom facilities 75 yards away and I am able to leave my truck and trailer attached and park in the campsite.
I have never been much into camping so I dont have a tent or anything like that nor do I want the hassles of messing with pitching and unpitching it or sleeping on the hard ground in a thin nylon tent that the monsters can get into. No worries, I have a F150 Super crew pickup with a pretty roomy back seat
. I am a big guy (6-5, 275ish), its a little cramped but if I position gear inside the truck just right I can stretch my legs all the way out and be somewhat comfortable. Crack the windows and run a box fan to drown out any noise and keep air circulating in the truck. The quality of sleep I get in the truck is comparable to what an inexpensive motel might get me. Rather than hitting a restaurant for dinner for about $15-20 and Bojangles for $6-7 for breakfast the next day, I packed up the the little grill and tailgating box and spent $12 at Walmart on some hamburger patties, buns, tater chips for supper and a box of Pop Tarts to get me through the second day.
The first weekend I put in at the Ivy Hill ramp Saturday and fished from sun up to 4:30, took out and went to the campground, found my spot and immediately cranked up the grill and burned some meat and went to the next site over to ask a few questions about the campground. A while later the guy on the next site saw me just standing around waiting on the grill not pitching my tent, "you got a tent or anything?" I just pointed at the truck and smiled. Ate my hamburgers and back in the water at the campground ramp by 6 PM, ran to a nearby area and caught a few unitl dark, beat sitting in a motel room watching TV. Came back, loaded up went back to the campsite and cranked up the grill again and listened to the Darlington race on the truck radio. I was surprised to see by 9 or the campground was totally quiet and peaceful and it seemed many had called it a night. It was kind of a rough night sleeping as I kept coming up with improvements for my quarters to get more comfortable. Set my phone for 5AM, got up, uncovered my boat, wound up my drop cords, waited a few minutes for daylight and made the 2 minute trip to the campground ramp. I was back on the water fishing by 6AM Sunday.
This past weekend things went a bit better and got some more ideas to improve on my execution of "truck camping". I can see this cheap alternative to a motel room working in the future for trips to other distant places. I think total between the campsite and food for both weekends I still came out cheaper than just a room for 1 night.
Necessity is the mother of invention and where there is a will there is a way.
I have never been much into camping so I dont have a tent or anything like that nor do I want the hassles of messing with pitching and unpitching it or sleeping on the hard ground in a thin nylon tent that the monsters can get into. No worries, I have a F150 Super crew pickup with a pretty roomy back seat
. I am a big guy (6-5, 275ish), its a little cramped but if I position gear inside the truck just right I can stretch my legs all the way out and be somewhat comfortable. Crack the windows and run a box fan to drown out any noise and keep air circulating in the truck. The quality of sleep I get in the truck is comparable to what an inexpensive motel might get me. Rather than hitting a restaurant for dinner for about $15-20 and Bojangles for $6-7 for breakfast the next day, I packed up the the little grill and tailgating box and spent $12 at Walmart on some hamburger patties, buns, tater chips for supper and a box of Pop Tarts to get me through the second day.The first weekend I put in at the Ivy Hill ramp Saturday and fished from sun up to 4:30, took out and went to the campground, found my spot and immediately cranked up the grill and burned some meat and went to the next site over to ask a few questions about the campground. A while later the guy on the next site saw me just standing around waiting on the grill not pitching my tent, "you got a tent or anything?" I just pointed at the truck and smiled. Ate my hamburgers and back in the water at the campground ramp by 6 PM, ran to a nearby area and caught a few unitl dark, beat sitting in a motel room watching TV. Came back, loaded up went back to the campsite and cranked up the grill again and listened to the Darlington race on the truck radio. I was surprised to see by 9 or the campground was totally quiet and peaceful and it seemed many had called it a night. It was kind of a rough night sleeping as I kept coming up with improvements for my quarters to get more comfortable. Set my phone for 5AM, got up, uncovered my boat, wound up my drop cords, waited a few minutes for daylight and made the 2 minute trip to the campground ramp. I was back on the water fishing by 6AM Sunday.
This past weekend things went a bit better and got some more ideas to improve on my execution of "truck camping". I can see this cheap alternative to a motel room working in the future for trips to other distant places. I think total between the campsite and food for both weekends I still came out cheaper than just a room for 1 night.
Necessity is the mother of invention and where there is a will there is a way.
