this subject never came up before getting hitched?
I was wondering the same thing. Maybe it's an arranged marriage?
Seriously, I know others have said it, but it's true: If Momma ain't happy, ain't
nobody happy.
A couple of things occur to me right off the top of my head:
The first thing is,
you may like to camp "primitively" but that doesn't mean
she will. In fact, if she hasn't done it in the past, most likely she will not. So if you think you're going to "convert" her, think again.
You need to start off easy, that means comfort. A decent place to sleep, toilet and shower facilities. State Parks or KOAs and the like might be a good start.
My now-wife knew I liked to camp, and while she was an outdoorsy girl, the thought of sleeping on the ground or going several days without a shower never appealed to her. We went on one camping trip together sleeping in a tent in 2006. In 2007 I got a truck (Tacoma) and fitted it out with a shell and carpet kit for sleeping. We did go on a two-night camping trip in the Summer of 2007 but she didn't care for the lack of headroom and generally cramped nature of the truck. From that point on, I did all my camping solo.
Then, last January, we were talking and she asked me what I wanted to accomplish in 2012. I said "I'd like for us to go camping more, so let's figure out a way to make it comfortable for you." We looked at tents, cots, inflatable mattresses and such, and ultimately settled on this:
It's a teardrop trailer (named "Bubbles") and while ours is a "home built", there are several manufacturers out there, too. The nice thing about a Teardrop is that it's sort of like a hard-sided tent. You still feel like you're "camping" but you are in a hard-sided structure, with a locking door, and you don't have to worry about a pole collapsing in the wind or a sudden gust ripping the fly off. But it has no electricity, plumbing or any other amenities, so it's like "real camping." Pulls just fine behind my 07 4runner (my '99 had to struggle a bit to pull it.) There's enough room to sit up in it but not enough room to stand. Sleeping accomodations are great - it's bigger than our queen bed on the inside and the 4-piece mattress is super-comfy.
Wife decorated bubbles with a fish/bubble motif:
I don't know who the weird guy on the right is.
She even hand made a banner for us to hang up when we're camping:
But the best thing about the teardrop is that my wife
loves it and now she gets
excited to go camping. Even though it's often a PITA pulling a trailer, and it's not what I would choose to do if I was by myself, I love it because it makes my wife want to go camping instead of thinking of it as something she
has to do. In fact, she likes it so much that there were several times this past Summer when she would say "Hey, let's take Bubbles up to the mountains this weekend!"
Now, having said all that, I'll add one final thought: She may just not like it. A lot of people don't. And if she doesn't, that's not the end of the world, it just means that you'll have to do your camping solo. I've gone on 4 or 5 week-long solo camping trips since 2008. That lets me get my "camping itch" satisfied, gives me some "alone time" and gives the wife some as well. Just because you're married doesn't mean you have to be joined at the hip. It's healthy to have other interests and there's no requirement that you have to share all of your hobbies with your spouse.
