MAKING MUD PIES
To be a camper, you have to really, really enjoy the outdoors. The bugs, elements, and Mother Nature’s moodiness can definitely put a damper on a quick escape. It seems to never fail, when you are all geared-up, raring to go for a nice, relaxing camping trip, she decides it’s a great time for a monsoon, a freak ice storm, or some other special treat she’s mixed up especially for your long-awaited getaway. This is exactly what happened to us the weekend we decided we simply had had enough of her raining on our parade!
We had never really been fair-weathered campers, though and we often enjoyed attending the two NASCAR race events held near our hometown in Texas twice a year. Unfortunately, both opportunities were prime time for unpredictable weather. It was during one of these events in which the need and reason for Travel EASY Decks was born.
If you have ever been to the NASCAR track in Texas, you know the campground area is simply a large farmers field sectioned off with dirt/gravel lanes between the RV “sites” filled in with fire ant hills and deep ruts. Not the best camping location when the weather is dry and definitely not a “top ten best camping spots” when it’s raining, for sure! Well, needless-to-say, this particular 4-day weekend was filled from start to finish with a constant, gentle rain. The. Entire. Four. Days.
We did our best to enjoy the weekend and we did a pretty good job. Spent the weekend hanging with friends, listening to music, meeting new friends was so totally worth the mud. The mud actually made it a little more fun especially when someone slipped and slid.
The one thing that quickly became “unfun” was packing up to leave. Everything was muddy and, I mean, every thing! We had placed a rubber mat out to help with keeping mud out of the travel trailer. I had used every beach towel I had stuffed in storage to protect the carpet from Texas black clay stains. We had muddy pants, boots, tennis shoes, and socks hanging everywhere trying to dry out.
Jody spent hours outside trying to not take all the campground landscaping with us while packing up chairs, grills, tables, coolers, and the door mat - that had to be dug out from under 6 inches of mud. I spent a week trying to get all the towel, rugs, floors, and clothes clean. It was a black, sticky, muddy mess and As we pulled out of the campsite, I noticed that many people just gave up and left hundreds of dollars worth of stuff behind.
Brand new outdoor rugs were left barely visible under the mud puddles where RV steps had been. RV hoses, propane grills lines and other regularly used camping accessories were left in the muddy grave they had sat all weekend. Without RV hook-ups, in particular water, ton’s of good, reusable stuff was just abandoned because it was too muddy to pack up and take home. It was such a waste and, quite frankly, unbelievable how many people left those $150 camping rugs behind!
Now, don’t get me wrong, Jody and I love camping. And, as avid boondockers, we have spent years camping and playing in campsites just like this, I mean, like 10-12 years at this point in our marriage. With one difference….we had boardwalks! Boardwalks that kept the camping fun and possible without the nightmare mess of Mother Nature’s moods.
Unfortunately, the boardwalks we enjoyed elsewhere were not capable of tagging along with us wherever our adventure’s took us. But they would have been so absolutely GREAT for that NASCAR event. We had to figure out how to get that “luxury” available anywhere we decided to park and play.
And Travel EASY Decks was born. Jody took my request for a “portable carpet” and thought of just about every possible was to make it my most favorite piece of camping equipment ever!
Travel EASY Decks are open-faced so the mud and rain and leaves and dirt have some other place to go other than inside our trailer. The deck is height adjustable to easily accommodate high and low spots all campground areas have. They require no-tools to install - I think he did this specifically for me because he knows tools and I don’t particularly get along all the time. Travel EASY Decks are both expandable and site-adaptable - you can make them as big as you want (still without tools) and configure them in a way that fits each individual campsite you visit - personalizing each and every site just the way you like it. And they are light-weight, each panel is just 7lbs - just like picking up a small dog - but is robust and hold up to 350 lbs.
Nobody has actually come out and told me that I’m spoiled but I know I am. I have a good man who did everything he could think of to make my request not only a reality but something so easy, durable, efficient, and strong that its too perfect of a camping “accessory” too keep to myself.
