The Canadian Glampur is a website dedicated to exploring, enhancing, and informing the Canadian Camping community about our Glamping experiences camping in a Class "C" RV while traveling around Alberta and British Columbia. Hopefully soon we will expand our travels to other Provinces within Canada.
So who are we and how did we get here? Well it's been a journey and through these pages we hope to show you how we got here and maybe where we're going, and share some of our knowledge as Canadian Glampurs.
As Glampurs we have explored many campgrounds as parents with children and now as a Couple living the RV dream. We are Basecampers, which means that we maintain a sticks and bricks house and venture off on 1 week to 6 week trips in our RV. Better than weekend warriors but not as glamorous as full timing.
We Started off with humble beginnings. Even as a young family, we had all the camping gear to glamp it up! Camping was our escape from our lives in the city and every year we managed to make two or three trips during summer vacation to our favorite campsites, which was usually by a lake.
Even the kitchen tent had all of the glampware to make cooking outdoors easy, efficient, and family approved! The one drawback to all of this was setup, tear down and packing. Oh..My did it take time! as best as I remember, it used to take me two to three hours to setup or teardown and pack-up the truck. There had to be a better way! In the end we tent camped with the kids for 10 years before we changed our game and joined the RV club.
The White Dolphin as we called it, was a 1974 21'ft Sportsman RV on a Dodge Chassis. With a little modification ( Added a hanging bunk) it slept 5, but I would not call it comfortably. This RV was a great starter, but it was not built for a family of four with two dogs and a masive amount of camping gear. We had to downsize! Somehow we made scarfices and packed what we needed versues what we wanted and off we went on our first RV adventures. It was not long before we started to think of bigger and better things. The White Dolphin was just too small and we needed to look ahead to our next home on wheels. We glamped in the White Dolphin for four years before saying good-bye to her, but we will never forget our first RV.
Next up was Jem. Jem got her name from her license plate which began with the letters JEM. Hense her name. Jem was a 1984 26'ft Vanguard RV on a Ford E350 chassis. What a Step Up from the White Dolphin. Now Jem was also a special RV. You See Jem was completely powered by propane. When full, she carried 400 liters / 105.5gal of propane. So Jem got the nick name the "Rolling Bomb"
Jem was a dream come true. Our Glamping stepped it up a notch with this RV and we found all sorts of ways to pack all of the gear that a family of four and two dogs needed to glamp it up! Adventure after Adventure Gem gave us a Canadian Glamping experience as we hopped around campsites and explored our back yard.
As with every toy you own, eventually its time to look for the next great upgrade. Now don't get me wrong we loved Jem, but she did have some drawbacks, and one was interior space. Now Jem's layout was actually really good for the space that she had, considering there were no pop outs when she was made; But the "Race Way" as we called the center isle was always crowded and made for interesting ways to by-pass one another as we moved about the RV.
This became especially difficult on rainy days when two kids, parents, and two dogs all try to live in 26ft of RV. Regardless of the challenges we had with Jem over the years as our family grew, and changed, and matured in our glamping ways, it was time to start dreaming of a new glamping experience.
As we dreamed we fell in and out of love with Jem; but it was hard to forget the many adventures we had with her over 12 years. We put a lot of stickers on the back and magnets on the wall. As all things change, so did our taste for a bigger and more modern RV. So in late 2017 things began to change and a glamping opportunity presented itself.
At the end of November 2017 when in Calgary the weather can be down right nasty. We were looking at used RV's to brighten ourselves up, and dream of the summer ahead. When we stumbled upon an ad for a unique RV, and one we would soon come to call Jambo.
What we had stumbled upon was a 2010 32.5'ft Fleetwood Jamboree GT on a Ford E450 chassis. Now we don't see very many Fleetwoods out here with Alberta plates on them, and as we would soon discover this was an American RV and not a Canadian market RV.
As with, i think all RV or potential RV owners, we fell in love with the floor plan of this RV and its amenities. The extra space alone offered by the two slides had us in awe. After we came down from cloud nine, it was time to get serious. Unfortunately, we could not find an RV inspector that could or would go to Acheson, Alberta, so we had to do the inspection ourselves.
After two trips and spending several hours poking our noses in every nook and cranny we could think of, and testing what we could in the middle of winter, we took the plunge and purchased Jambo.
Now here we are at the end of the 2018 camping season, and we have had 4 incredible adventures in our new RV. Our trepidation over whether we had a good or bad RV turned out to be a good RV. Not to say there have not been issues that had to be fixed, but such is the case when you purchase a used RV, and that is another story. For now we are happy, and have again upped our glampur game. Glamping is about enjoying camping with the creature comforts that make you happy and comfortable. Glamping can be done on many levels and with a variety of gear and accessories. It's about what you can afford and what often incredible gear you can find to enhance the camping experience. Ours is but one story of many out there that have experienced and continue to live the glamping lifestyle. We will explore our story through this website and hope to offer a glimpse into our glamping lifestyle and maybe offer a hint or two or even a piece of gear or advice you may not of thought of. What ever you find here we thank you for your time and wish you...
Happy Trails!
The Glampurs