Rich and Gladys Janssen: Stitching An American Dream

Eight months ago, Rich and Gladys Janssen bought a Lance Camper with a Stable-Lift system.  Since then, they’ve traveled over 14,000 miles. ... ... ... ...













The excitement we hear from newbies waiting to buy their first truck and camper is palpable.  Sometimes they’re saving up.  Sometimes they’re waiting to retire.  And sometimes they’re searching for exactly the right truck and camper.

We certainly remember the anticipation of finally, at long last, assembling a truck camper rig and hitting the open road to adventure.  Do you remember that feeling?  The freedom.  The wonder.  The possibilities.  What a rush.

Rich and Gladys Janssen have no trouble remembering that feeling.  After all, it was just eight months ago when they got their first truck camper.  Since then, they’ve traveled the country, explored National Parks, visited their children and grandchildren, and shopped at antique and quilting stores from one small town to the next.  But the Janssen’s travels are about so much more than adventure.  They’re sewing their dreams, one stitch at a time.



























TCM: Tell us your camping history.  In your email, Rich, you said that you’ve been camping since you were six months old.

Rich: My folks loved to travel.  When I was six months old, my parents took a trip to Colorado and drove up Pike’s Peak with me.  They got close to the top  in a dense fog and stopped to read a sign on the other side of the road.  It read, “This road is impassable – DO NOT USE.”  They enjoyed telling me this story.  That was my initiation to travel and camping. 

Growing up, my family did one to two week camping trips to various parts of the country.  One time we took a three week trip into Canada, Washington state, into California, and back to our home in Illinois.  We were tent camping in a four person tent.  My brother, parents, and I each had a cot.  We also had regular camping equipment like a stove and lantern.

Gladys: Rich and I talked about different kinds of travel for years.  When we first moved to Texas in 1982, we were poor and couldn’t afford to take a vacation.  Eventually we decided to camp with our three sons.  It was July and we went camping in Texas.  There were lots of bugs and it was very hot, which was not much fun for me.  After that I said, “No more” and we waited a long time to go camping again.

Rich: As a long haul team truck driver, I covered six to seven thousand miles a week for ten years.  I didn’t see much off the interstate.  Now Gladys likes to see small towns and local interest type stuff.  The truck camper makes that easy compared to a bigger rig.

TCM: How and when did you get into truck camping?

Gladys: We had been talking about getting a camper for years.  At first, we went to RV shows and looked at fifth wheels.  We were thinking that we might sell the house and live in a fifth wheel for a few years before buying another house in Oregon.  Our oldest son and Rich’s brother live there.  His brother has had a truck camper for years and had been steering us in the truck camper direction.

I didn’t know if I’d want to sell the house and not have a house.  We talked about it for a long, long time.  One thing we wanted to do was to be able to stop different places and not worry about a big trailer behind us.  Rich’s brother used to be in the forest service and likes to boondock.  He would tell us what we could do with the truck camper.























TCM: Go anywhere.  Camp anywhere.

Gladys: Right.  So we thought about it.  I had my priorities.  I wanted a bathroom and a stove with an oven.  We found that you could have those amenities with truck campers. That’s when we decided that we would go that way if we could find a truck camper that would work for us.  We wanted something that wasn’t too expensive just in case we didn’t like the lifestyle.

Rich: I started looking on Craigslist.  It took about a year before we found the camper we wanted.  We found the truck after the camper.  The guy we bought the camper from delivered it to a storage area for us.  About a month later, we found the truck we wanted.  Then we started truck camping.

TCM: Did the Lance camper come with the Stable-Lift when you bought it?

Rich: Yes, it did.  I had never seen anything like it before.  I asked the guy I bought it from what it was.  He loved the Stable-Lift system.  He really liked the fact that the camper was very stable when off the truck.  Off the truck the camper really doesn’t move at all with the Stable Lift system - even in strong wind.  I really like it.  My wife likes it because the camper feels like it’s not going to tip over like it might on just camper jacks.

TCM: Tell us about your lifelong dream.

Rich: Going to the Little League World Series was an experience of a lifetime.  Before going, we looked up campgrounds in the area and found one that was about thirty minutes away from the Little League World Series.  It was called R.B. Winter state park, which is a really nice park. 

I found backroads from the park to the World Series which were quicker than the main roads.  We took the camper off the truck and drove the truck there and back.  The World Series was two weeks long.  The cool thing is that we didn’t even know there was a team from Texas in the World Series and they made it to the final game.

TCM: Other than attending the Little League World Series, what do you like to do when you go out truck camping?

Gladys: I like to stop in little towns and look in quilt and antique shops.  If we had a great big fifth wheel, it wouldn’t be easy to do that.  We can also stop for lunch in small towns. 

Rich: My wife is avid quilter.  She even quilts in the camper.

TCM: How does it work quilting in the truck camper?

Gladys: I have a Featherweight sewing machine which is a Singer sewing machine made in the 1950s.  It’s popular with quilters who go to retreats.  I just put it on the dinette table.  I have a plastic box with a bunch of different projects that I work on.  I work on the dinette table and then put it the sewing machine and projects away. 

The sewing machine is small so it works.  I also do hand sewing and embroidery work while Rich drives.  I might make a pillow or picture frame with my cross stitches or embroidery projects.  I also like to make little quilts to put on top of the table or desk.  I’m addicted to sewing and embroidery.  I can’t stand to not have something to work on.

Rich: We also like to work trade shows.  We just did one in Pensacola and try to sell things we have.

Gladys: We use Etsy.com.  It’s an online shop (Logcabinmercantile.etsy.com)  where we can sell handmade items or vintage items.  We also sell things at different craft shows.  We’re trying to do that more while we travel, too.  It helps to have a side business.

TCM: You’ve only had your truck camper for about eight months, but you’ve already traveled more than 14,000 miles.  That’s an amazing amount of traveling in a short span of time.

Gladys: When I retired a year ago, we decided that we were going to do as much as we can, as long as we’re both in good health - because you just never know.

Last year we had three trips; the first was in April for three weeks.  Then we took two trips that were five and a half weeks each. 

We went to Arches National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Grand Teton National Park.  In August, went to Colonial Williamsburg and the Little League World Series.  We are originally from Illinois, so we even went to Rich’s fifty year high school reunion when we traveled through Illinois.  We were also able to find some family history information when we went to where his grandparents live.

























TCM: Tell us about how you use your truck camper to visit your children.

Rich: We have three sons who live all over the country.  One is in Little Rock, Arkansas, one is in Pensacola, Florida, and the other is in Oregon.  It’s nice to travel and park in their driveways.  We couldn’t do that if we had a bigger rig like a fifth wheel.

Our son in Little Rock has two sons.  Our grandson’s great interest was to eat lunch every day in the camper.  He was excited to do that.  Having our camper there makes it fun as grandparents.

With our son in Oregon, we can camp in his driveway as well.  We don’t have to pay a fee for going to a park and we can spend a lot of time with our sons.  The camper makes it possible to do that.

























TCM: With 14,000 miles under your belt, where are some places you’ve been with your Lance camper that you would recommend to others?

Rich: There were a lot of places that were really nice.  It really depends on the kind of scenery you want.  The scenery I really enjoyed was at Arches National Park.  There’s so much to see with all the natural beauty of the rock formations.  We could have spent a lot more time there.  That’s the one place I would pick as my favorite.

Gladys: It’s just amazing at Arches.  With the National Parks, we have the Golden Age Pass.  With it, we get in to the parks for free and stay in the campgrounds for half price.  That’s good for us.  Plus, the National Parks are wonderful. 

We also really like staying in state parks or state forests in Illinois where our grandparents were from.  We like staying in smaller towns, not just passing through them.  We look around the towns, visit the quilt and antique shops, take in the scenery, and enjoy the feeling of not having to travel everyday.

TCM: What advice do you have for truck camping newbies?

Rich: I would suggest that people decide what they want in a camper before they go out and start looking for one.  It took us over a year of looking at Craigslist and a couple other places before we found what we wanted, so patience is important.  Decide what you want in the truck and camper combination, then get what you want.  Also, reading TCM online was a big help.  It helped us make the decision to go with a truck camper.  You do a great job.

Gladys: We pretty much have everything I want in our truck camper.  We have a built in generator, a bathroom, an air conditioner, and two thirty gallon propane tanks.

Rich: When I first got the camper, I started to fill the fresh water tank.  I hooked it up and it wasn’t filling.  I couldn’t figure out why it wasn’t filling.  A guy came along at the dump station and said, “You’re never going to get it filled that way!” and laughed.  I had hooked it up to the city water instead of the fresh water tank.  He told me the fresh water tank was the opening next to where I had hooked it up to.

TCM: That’s a classic newbie mistake.  We had our fair share of those too.  Is there anything I didn’t ask that you would like included in your interview?

Rich: The one thing that we’re glad we did was join Passport America.  It’s all over the United States now.  Most of the time you get fifty percent off the nightly camping fee.  We’ve really enjoyed having their card with us.  It has saved us a lot of money.  We’ve also got Good Sams, but it doesn’t give as good of a discount as Passport America.  If people are looking for ways to look for ways to save money, I recommend that.

TCM: Good tip.  Thank you Rich and Gladys.  And keep on traveling!

Rich and Gladys: You’re welcome.

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