teen cross country camping trip?
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Anonymous
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When I was 15, I went with a youth group across the US for 5 weeks. There were 40 of us plus 6 chaperones on a bus. We had 10 tents, 4 cook stoves and mess kits, and we traveled across the country, camping (mostly) and staying at youth hostels and other places that would put us up for the night. We had to cook and shop for ourselves (we were given money each week to go to a store) in our "cook groups" of 5 girls and 5 boys each, and did our laundry in our "tent groups" about once a week at a laundromat. We saw the sights, hiked, visited cities. It was awesome. When we got to a city, the bus would pull up into the downtown area and they dropped us off and told us when and where to meet the bus. No cell phones!! We got our mail at "Mail Drops" along the way, and made a few collect calls from payphones, probably at the laundromat.
Does anything remotely like this exist nowadays? I can't take my son on a cross country trip, but would love for him to go and see it with other teens. We can't afford anything like the fancy "teen luxury" programs I see advertised, or Outward Bound type stuff. This was budget, but really fun and a great maturing experience. Going away to college was a piece of cake after this. |
Anonymous
| bump... anyone have any ideas? |
Anonymous
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No ideas- but my state (Arkansas) got funding when I was in high school for lots of free outdoor/ educational camps. I went camping for 3 weeks with a group of maybe 25 kids and we traveled all over the state studying rocks, land formations, geology. It sounds boring but it was a blast and we learned so much about outdoor life (edible berries, setting up campsites, making a fire, cooking outdoors, etc.). I picked it because it was the longest camp they offered and it was free so my parents couldn't balk at the cost.
I know this isn't helpful to you but at the time, it was really a random program that not many people knew about so it may take a bit of digging for you to find something as I'm sure things like this do still exist. |
Anonymous
| I did this at 16 and loved it. It was luxurious but wasn't cheap either. http://www.bicycletrips.com/ |
Anonymous
| Did you check outward bound, NOLA and the like? |
Anonymous
Yeah, a lot of it is too expensive for me. I don't want my kid pampered either! And he really isn't outdoorsy, wanting to gl climb mountains. Just to see the country. When we went, we camped because it was the cheapest form of lodging. |
Anonymous
Sorry. Was not luxurious. |
Anonymous
| Overland. Not cheap though. |