Camping is incredibly awesome… if you can ignore all of the great many things that make it incredibly terrible. For every “meal cooked on an open fire” and “being one with nature” you can easily identify 10 “sleeping on rocks kind of sucks for my back” and “I now have poison ivy in unique and intimate places.” Now, before all of you camping and outdoorsy people come after me with your Leki Microlite Trekking Poles, understand that I am one of you and I admit the own blasphemy of my words. I’m very much an outdoorsman. I hike often, have done multiple night backpacking treks and think sleeping in the outdoors is fantastic. But I can also admit that it’s not always shooting stars, glorious double rainbows and magnificent sunrises. Plenty of it is just a big mosquito laden pile of suck.
Being a parent, camping is a hard sell to half of my family. They are very much inclined to question why we would sleep on the ground when the bugs sleep there, and wonder how they will keep out the sunshine when they want to sleep in. The other half of us want to spend the night under the stars. We embrace the cold and want to wake to the pre-dawn chirping of birds. We were able to come up with a compromise. Instead of full campouts, we occasionally would set up shop in our minivan. We were able to lay the entire back flat and toss in a few of the mattresses from the Ikea daybed we have. This sort of “camping” was mobile, off the ground, warmer than a tent and kept the elements out far better than any rain fly would do. I was able to easily cruise back home after an early evening around a campfire in a local park and drop off some people, then camp in the back with the others. The only drawback was that we were seeing the stars through windows and not able to look straight up to them.
This setup has worked for me on more occasions than the occasionally campout. On long haul drives, I have been able to just shack up in the back of my fly minivan instead of crashing out on the couch of nearby friends. A situation that at the time seemed to be lending convenience to said friends, only to be recognized as the opposite when I’m ringing their bell to use the restroom at 3 am.
I didn’t think I would ever be able to do this with the amount of comfort that I had when I was doing it in my minivan. I’m not a tall person by any standards (except Pigmy, I’m like the Manute Bol of Pigmy’s), but even I can’t stretch across the bench in any car without being super cramped. So when I had the chance to drive around in the Kia Sportage I was really excited to see what the back, and the roof could do. When you fold down the seats, and pull back the roof, you can literally be lying down and sleeping under the stars. The seats fold down flat, giving tons of room to stretch out. Then the sunroof spans almost the entire top of the car. Even closed, you see nothing but sky, clouds and stars when you pull back the… I don’t know what it’s called… underside thing.
Aside from the awesome roof and impressively spacious interior, this car was super fun to drive. Fast when I needed it, responsive on turns and had more safety features than any car I’ve ever owned which is exciting to know about as a dad. I plan on making this my next car and once I do, the car-campout is going to be elevated to awesome new levels. Maybe with this one, half the family won’t abandon me for the comforts of home….. though, I’m not holding my breath on that.
Check out the lineup of Kia’s here. Do it. They are so rad.
Also, take a look at some of our buddies test driving Kia’s and talking about fatherhood:
*** Life of Dad has partnered with Kia for this promotion. ***