CJHokie

So, I finally got a Cameo. My SIL sent me a hot tip on a good deal on Amz last week. It just came today but I haven't taken it out of the box yet. Gotta find a spot in my sewing room to put it! I have joined 4 different FB groups (2 specifically for beginners) and have looked for tutorials on YouTube. It is overwhelming.

We did 7 weeks out west and back in '14. We made res for the whole way out and then just winged it on the way back. There were a few campgrounds we didn't make it to for various reasons and had to call other places on the fly. We found some great places that way. Sometimes we got the last possible spot, but we were never stranded anywhere without a place. Obvi we had to have res in the very popular places (i.e. Yellowstone) but there were campgrounds to be found. 

We are having flooding here in Concord, NC, today, and my parents are having it in SW Va. right now. 

Sorry you all are so dry!

Here's my hometown in Va. 

River flooding

On 3/23/2017 at 11:30 PM, LONE-STAR said:

What's so bad about this type of accident  is when you leave enough room to stop your load safely people just get in front of you and feel the space.  On our trip last week it is uncountable how many times small vehicles pulled right in front of me filling in my safe stopping distance. But so many people have never pulled a trailer especially one with any real weight behind them. So they just don't understand and think everything stops like a small car. I Sure feel for that family though, we saw so many bad wreaks on our trip last week.

Yes, I can't tell you how many times someone has cut right in front of our motorhome when we're trying to keep a safe distance. And one time we were just driving along the interstate, and there was a truck pulling a travel trailer and a small SUV stopped on the shoulder. I kid you not, they both pulled out directly in front of us. Mr. CJH had to slam on the brakes and we ended up about an inch from the SUV's back end. Our dog slammed into the front dash. Mr. CJH laid on the horn and then changed it to the loud horn and laid on that again when we passed them. The guy pulling the camper actually laughed at us. 

Just now, Tri-Circle-D said:

It's too late to tell you this now, but you were supposed to put all 8 in at the same time.  Not over a few days.

TCD

I know, we did that twice, so I lost 16!  First time was Christmas Eve and my son, who was 14 or 15 at the time and tasked with the job, called the phone no. on the machine and then waited there for someone to come fix it.  When we finally realized he was missing, we found him waiting there. After convincing him no one was coming that night, he came back to the camper with us. Then we tried again a few days later thinking surely it was fixed by now or they would have put a sign up. Nope.

So, does this mean you will get ice? Last time I was in 500 I put in a lot of quarters over a few days and never got any ice.

1 hour ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Speaking of tattoos, I took this photo in December while waiting for the Christmas parade on Main Street.  Does anyone know who is depicted in that tattoo?

TCD

Well the one on the left looks like it might be Mickey Mouse.

(sorry, couldn't resist)

17 hours ago, ftwildernessguy said:

The KOA in Jonestown, PA.  They will deliver the chicken meal to,your site.  We like to do it on the day we set up.

I think we overnighted at that one on our way back from ME this past summer. Off I-81 and do they call it Hershey North or something now? Do they have horses and a giant jumping pad?

We got there late and a neighbor promptly came out and helped us get in the site. The site had a dead tree branch sticking out that scraped our side as we were pulling out the next day. We got an email saying something like sorry you never made it here. Uh, we were there!

IIRC, the wifi setup was every 15 min you have to do a free trial.

I know nothing about the chicken meal.

I want to like Jamberry, but I have better success with drugstore nail stickers or whatever you want to call them.

2 hours ago, keith_h said:

Here's a review with some pics of Carowinds I wrote up last year.

http://www.fortfiends.net/topic/17376-carowinds-camp-wilderness-resort-charlotte-nc/#comment-483836

Thanks, for the link. My review is piggybacked in there too.

3 minutes ago, Seals said:

I think time to come to pressure for the Instant Pot depends on whether you use frozen and also how much liquid. The other day I dumped in two packages of frozen Italian sausages, a can of diced tomatoes, some water and a bag of frozen peppers and onions. The result was delicious, but it took a lot longer to heat up than previous things I've cooked in it.

I'm sure you are right about that. 

That sounds delicious. Did you use just regular diced tomatoes or Rotel?

Sounds fun, but "precious treasures" made me LOL.

2 minutes ago, Travisma said:

We have an electric pressure cooker that works great.  Guess since it only does about 5 things it's not a real instant pot.

Only drawback to these type of things is they cook real quick, but the cool down/pressure drop time almost feels like it's longer than the cooking time.

I have yet to use mine for many of the functions, so a pressure cooker would be fine. I think I used the rice function once to test it, but I have a nice Pampered Chef microwave rice cooker that's easier to clean and faster. I use the poultry button and have used soup or stew, so while those are counted as separate functions, they could be done under just manual pressure cooking. I haven't tried the slow cooker function on it. 

I always use the quick release pressure unless the recipe specifies not to so the food keeps cooking, but I think the heating up/coming to full pressure takes a long time. It's been a while since I used a stove top pressure cooker, but my cousin assures me those take longer to heat up.

I never did get to try it BCD (Before Celiac Disease). Looks delish.

I've found some good Instant Pot or pressure cooker recipes on Pinterest.

This Mongolian beef is really good. http://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-mongolian-beef/

Also made some mini cheesecakes that turned out great. http://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/pressure-cooker-heart-shaped-cheesecake/

I usually just use it for stewing frozen chicken. I did also pin instructions for cooking ground beef in it straight from the freezer. It actually worked and tasted good. Great for people like me who can never remember to thaw things.

Those don't look cozy enough inside to be called cabins.  IOW, I agree with whoever said in another thread that these interiors are horrible.

My boys loved them back in Christmas '15. They were told in the safety briefing to not put their hands over the side into the water. I said, is that because of gators?, and he said yes.

Hope they still have them.

On 11/24/2016 at 9:04 AM, PghBob said:

Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.  Many of our friends from New England traveling south to Florida will avoid I 95 in the north.  They usually take I 84 east to Scranton PA, then get on I 81 south to I 77 south to Columbia SC.  Then get on I 26 to I 95 south.  This bypasses the big cities and traffic and tunnel restrictions and allows a more calming drive (relatively speaking).  

Often, we will stop at the halfway point of our drive just south of Charlotte at the Fort Mill KOA.  There is a huge new Publix next door for getting supplies if necessary, and a couple of gas stations nearby.  If you have enough gas, try to make it to the Rock Hill SC Flying J, which has the cheapest gas we have ever found along this route.

Have a good safe and fun trip.

That's the route we took to/from Acadia and Charlotte last summer.  It seemed to work well.

I have not seen the KOA in Ft. Mill, but Carowinds has a campground that would be a great overnight, right off I-77, pull-throughs. 

On 12/22/2016 at 9:04 AM, Tri-Circle-D said:

I think you're right about Duraflame logs- they are toxic.

This is one of those Darwin things.

TCD

There are Duraflame logs specially made for roasting/cooking.

On 10/24/2016 at 2:34 PM, Katman1356...Jason said:

Another reason to wipe the table unrelated to dogs is birds, squirrels, and lizards. 

Yeah, I don't use a picnic table at any campground without a tablecloth.

Edit: wish I could just delete this. I need to pay attention to where I'm reading in the thread and any replies after before I jump in.

Wish I was there! I would totally hit some with you even though I'm just a 3.5 (well a friend and I joke that we are 3.75s). Good luck getting some tennis in and enjoy your stay at the fort.

10 minutes ago, caveat lector said:

If I am, you will be integral 

Ditto

Hey y'all, looking for ideas for a group camping spot for the first week of Apr. 2018 with 4-5 families (kids will be 14-18). There are travel trailers from a tiny Alto to a 32 ft., and then we are the biggest problem in our 40 ft. Class A. We are all in the Charlotte, NC area. We live in a different county and don't always have the same spring break, so I don't know where all they've gone in the past without us but know a few locations (Jekyll Isl., Myrtle). Last 2 years we did Camp Gulf in Destin, but that's a far drive for us. 

My one friend and I who usually do the planning talked briefly about it. She would like to try St. Augustine area. My husband is afraid it will be too cool that time of year, but the other families have done many a spring break north of there. We did overnight once at Bryn Mawr and know it's 1) tight for us and 2) a lot of permanents so would be hard to get spots near each other 3) and it was spring break and indeed a little chilly. I have also ridden through North Beach Camp with my Jax Beach SIL who's a big fan, but I've read the comments here about all the dirt and remember the dirt roads. I'm also a little concerned about the kids crossing A1A to get to the beach even though they are all teenagers. 

I love FL state parks but don't want to do a week without sewer hookups.

I also kinda looked at some Space Coast campgrounds. Somehow on Google Maps that was only 40 min farther drive than St. Aug. Is that right?

Does anyone have any recommendations at a beach or any other ideas besides beach in FL or GA? The obvious answer is Ft. Wilderness. :D I might float that idea but not sure if everyone is willing to pay what will surely be high $ for Easter week.

I would totally do a week in Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, but I think everyone else wants to go somewhere warmer.

I know there is a lot of camping experience here and a lot of folks with FL knowledge esp., so thanks in advance for any tips/ideas/etc.

Just now, Beckers said:

The only time I suffered the boat is still moving was after a 7 day cruise. I was sitting at my desk the next day and it felt like I was out in a canoe in a hurricane. It was brutal. For some reason I felt worse after the cruise that during it.

 

I also can't tolerate being being in a pool if there is a lot of kids jumping and it makes the water bounce me around (like a regular pool not talking about a cruise ship one). 

Yeah, mine was after a 7 day cruise. The effect lasted from Sat. - Wed.

So, we have a pool in our back yard. It is about half the length of a 25m pool. I decided to swim laps one day after lunch. I felt so sick afterwards. I told my husband maybe I shouldn't have eaten before and he said, "you are probably seasick." After reflecting on the state of the water while I was swimming, dang if he wasn't right.  

3 minutes ago, Tri-Circle-D said:

Tendering.

That "the boat is still moving" sensation doesn't happen on every cruise.  I've had that sensation after cruises where the weather has been a bit rough, but on our last couple of cruises we had very smooth conditions, and none of us suffered from that after we got back.

TCD

That is good to know! Not sure my husband will ever do another cruise though. He has an irrational fear of stomach bugs and has to point out every time he sees a story about a Norovirus outbreak on a cruise ship. To be fair, he & my oldest son get stomach bugs more often than normal. The only way I talked him into doing the last one was that another family we know was going too.  They ended up not going because their son (who also gets stomach bugs easily) was throwing up the day before.  So, true story - my husband actually got sick on the ship!   We had seen a lady he worked with the day before who said half her family was in the cabin all day sick, but he thinks maybe it was food poisoning instead. But yeah, pretty sure I will never get to do another cruise.