About Us
Who are the Dampened
Enthusiasts and what is this site about? Lisa and myself,
Russ,
are the Dampened Enthusiasts, and this site is dedicated to our
love of traveling, camping and the many wonderful places we have
been fortunate to visit. We thought up the name “Dampened
Enthusiasts” during our first camping trip together to Minnesota in 2003. The trip started off hot and muggy, and by the end,
we had been rained on during the night, while taking a long ride
on a bike trail, and even while out on Lake Itasca in a canoe;
but we didn’t let that dampen our enthusiasm for adventure.
Both Lisa and I have
a long history of camping. Lisa grew up in a family who enjoys
and appreciates the wonderful things that nature has to provide,
and I was fortunate enough to belong to a family that camped
quite regularly along the Mississippi from La Crosse, Wisconsin,
down to Clinton, Iowa. Many a summer I remember spending time
in the backwaters and sloughs of the Mississippi, “drowning
worms” as my father would put it. Unfortunately, I as I grew
older, the amount of time I was able to spend camping declined
significantly. Lisa, on the other hand, continued to have the
opportunity to enjoy the great outdoors through her service in
the Iowa National Guard.
Throughout our
lives, both of us have spent a considerable amount of time
traveling and visiting some interesting places. Lisa spent a
couple of years in California and Texas, has traveled quite a
bit of the western United States, and spent some time in
Washington DC. She has even had the opportunity to visit
Russia, and more recently, spent a bit of time in Iraq, when her
unit was deployed to the region during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Though I have not
been outside of the United States, I have spent quite a bit of
time exploring it. When I was younger, my family took two
summer trips, one to the east coast and the other to the west
coast. As an adult, I’ve continued to enjoy traveling as I have
driven to Florida three times, Texas, Wyoming and Montana, and
several trips to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and a couple of trips
to Washington DC. As a matter of fact, the summer just before
Lisa and I met, we had both visited Gettysburg within a month of
one another.
Although we still
enjoy taking one long trip every year, we spend most of our time
in northeastern Minnesota and Wisconsin. One of our favorite
places to visit is along the North Shore of Lake Superior;
Duluth, Split Rock Lighthouse, Two Harbors, and a few miles in,
Bear Head Lake State Park.
Camping for us has
taken on a new form. In August of 2008, we
purchased our first camper. We had the opportunity to stay in
an RV one weekend, and the storm that night convinced me that I
enjoy staying in a hardened shelter. Within a few weeks we had
traveled to the Scamp
Dealer/Manufacturer in Backus, Minnesota, to look and see
what Scamps were all about. Needless to say, on the way home
from that trip, we were the proud owners of a new 16 foot
Scamp.
As I mentioned
before, this website is dedicated to our love of the great
outdoors, traveling, and exploring. While most of the focus of
this site is on camping, we will be expanding this site with
more information for those who love to travel, whether they be
campers, or those who stay in hotels. Also, we have filled this
site with pictures of our many camping trips, locations, and
campgrounds that we have visited, and even chronicled our
experience with our Scamp camper.
You will also find
links to the various
campgrounds we have stayed in, as well as
links to some of the places we have visited. The
Our Travels page maps our the various
places we have visited, and links on the maps will take you to
photos and other information about those areas. We have
also included numerous Photo Albums of different trips we have taken over the
years.
Finally, I would like to add that we are not
affiliated with Scamp, or any trailer
manufacturer or reseller of any kind.
This is merely an informational site about
our experience with our Scamp, as well as
travel information regarding camping,
campgrounds, places to visit, etc. from our
own personal travels and point of view.
We do not endorse, nor do we discourage, any
of the places that we have visited. We
lay the information out about the places we
have visited and encourage people to travel,
explore and decide for themselves about
these places. As for camping equipment
and trailers, if you have any specific
manufacturing, or purchasing questions, I
would like to direct you to either Scamp for
Scamp Trailers, or the manufacturer or
retail seller of the type of equipment you
are searching for.
We hope you
enjoy our website and are inspired to get out and explore places
like these on your own. We would also love to hear from you, so
if you would like to share some of your own adventures with us,
please feel free to contact the Dampened
Enthusiasts at
Information@dampenedenthusiasts.com or
russ@dampenedentusiasts.com.
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