Here's a LINK to a fun thread on about.com. It's talking about vehicles that you could use for sleeping/ camping/ etc. in the 50's, 60's, etc.

I never owned one of these vehicles, but DO have a fun sleeping-in-cars story. Kathy and I took a post-college tour of Europe for 3 months in 1971. Things were cheap in the old days...no more than $20/day for both of us....everything but transportation. We leased a Renault R-4 for 10 weeks for about $370 dollars. For further economy, we would in this little station wagon about every 4th or 5th night. Some of the memorable recollections:
*Sleeping in dirt road in the Schwarzwald of Bavaria
*Sleeping on a pull-off at the edge of the road in Norway's fjord country....right beside a glacial waterfall

Hope about you? Any stories of car-camping; being marooned in a blizzard in your car; VW Westphalia stories; childhood trips while pulling an Airstream or mini-trailer?

 

After college, two of my friends and I got into a Volkswagon Beetle for a 30 day jaunt cross country. Not having too much money, or wanting to spend too much money, we brought sleeping bags, a three person tent and camped out each night (except in cities where we had relatives who were glad to let us sleep indoors).

The only time we ever had to sleep in the VW was on the night that a bear decided to wander through the campsites. We were convinced that we'd be safe in the Beetle.

I don't think I'd ever sleep in a VW Beetle again. It's not real comfortable.

As a matter of fact, these days I find motels much more to my liking than pup tents.

 

Our R-4 was actually pretty comfortable. We reclined the seats and zipped together 2 sleeping bags that we got for a wedding present (how romantic ). In the morning, I would start the car while we were still in the bags....to warm up. We were traveling from late Aug to late November, so it started to get pretty nippy in Germany, Switzerland and Italy.

Oh, I forgot another memorable place that we slept overnight in 1971:
*In a truck stop parking lot along the Autoroute in France! We went to sleep with a few trucks in the lot, but woke up surrounded by behemoths

 

Slept in a VW for a weekend at the beach in Long Beach during the Grand Prix in 1979.

 

The 1966 Dodge Charger had rear seats which folded perfectly flat providing more than six feet of flat space. I can think of at least three times I made use of that feature for sleeping, including an amusement park which I didn't leave when the park closed for the night. Didn't have to pay to get back in the next day.

:d ance2::dan ce2:

Gerry

 

I also had a '66 Dodge Charger, 426 Hemi, Silver, White interior. "What a Car" !!! One of the "Muscle" cars, in it's day.

 

In '88 I bought my first new car: an Rx7 Turbo. I decided to celebrate with a camping trip to northern cal.

While planning out the trip on a map I decided that if I was going that far I should take some extra time to visit coastal Oregon. I'd been there as a kid on family camping trips, and had really enjoyed the area.

Of course, as long as I'm going to be in Oregon I might as well take a few more days to visit my aunt, uncle and cousins in Seattle. And as long as I'm going that far north, I'd like to visit Vancouver Island.

What was going to be a 1 week in-state trip turned into a 6 week trip to Alaska, the Canadian Rockies, a ferry ride up the inside passage, and a drive down almost the entire length of US101. It all added up to 8700 miles, 1 oil change, 5 rolls of film, some nervous moments on logging roads where a sportscar had no business being, and more smiles than I knew what to do with.

One of my favorite memories of the trip was a park ranger who saw my "NVR CAUT" vanity plate, and asked "Does that mean you're single?"

A few years after that trip I did spend one night in that car when my tent sprung a major leak. The passenger seat wasn't too bad for sleeping.

 

Rob,

As a matter of fact: Barbara and I consider a Holiday Inn as "camping out".

 

Liz insists that she'll only go camping if we can get a regular bed and hot & cold running water in the tent.

 

and any hotel/motel that doesn't offer a 5 star restaurant and excellent room service is camping out.