ependydad...Doug

I am! Right now!

Well, $10k plus your $500lk +/- mortgage cost. I'll stick to visiting for a week- maybe one day, two. I'll admit- it was pretty glorious. We really just hung out on our site and didn't leave it except to occasionally go to the heated pool. The campground offered no activities while we were there. I don't know if they usually do or not. I'm good without that stuff- ironically, I'm not much of a people person. :D It's worth putting on a bucket list and making happen. Definitely too rich to buy into for me, at least. But, I wouldn't mind being back for a visit.

That's the kind of prices that we paid for HDDR, Chef Mickey's, and 'OHanas this past summer. Love the pics. The cutest picture ever really was. The hug and smile looking at Z were precious! You're making me feel bad for not updating my TR...

You're welcome- that's very likely my fault since we're getting APs this year.

Oh and love the HP photos at Universal.

I'm in. That's a cool tent setup! And "We left our house a little after 5:00am - much later than originally planned."... in my world, there is only one 5-o-clock.. what is this "am" that you speak of?!

I'm not a Starschmucks fan, but these mugs are neat. We carry a couple of coffee mugs for coffee drinkers in the camper. We may have to pony up for new ones. :)

I was just Googling this exact thing. :)

Unfortunately, build quality appears to be luck of the draw with most manufacturers. There isn't a brand that I haven't seen a horror story or two - everything from entry level campers to moderately priced ones to the pretty expensive $100k DRVs. For me, it's more about looking at the manufacturer's track record in service and warranty support. If you can also luck into a good dealer, then all the better.

I did very similar to Norm. Because I was ordering my camper- I was able to approach 2 wholesalers to establish what "rock bottom" pricing was and then I contacted the 4 closest dealers to me that carried the brand that I wanted (ranging from 60 miles to 250 miles). I contacted each via email with a request for their best pricing for the camper with the list of options that I wanted. As much as others disagree, I also laid-out that I don't negotiate and since I was contacting 4 dealerships, they had 1 chance to give me their best pricing. Ultimately, I did still have to negotiate a bit. But, a

Maybe this will help:

I just read on a Facebook comment that this may be back on. But, you know how comments go truth- and accuracy-wise...

The ProRide and Hensley are very similar and everyone who has used one says they're well worth the money. I know I've seen them on RV forums' "for sale" pages- used for less money than new. If you can fall into one of those, I'd say jump on it. Otherwise, I'd likely only opt for the Equal-i-zer® brand hitch. Make sure it's not a knock off. BUT... I went straight from a pop-up to a fifth wheel, so all of this is hearsay and me spending your money. :)

Wow, TCD- I didn't look into that level of detail! I knew about the $12/night rental- in fact, it was the cause of a lawsuit between an owner and the RV association itself. That's why there are 2 sites for reservations - www.bluewaterkey.com and www.bluewaterkey.net. Very strange. But wow at the yearly fees and taxes. The water and electric don't seem crazy considering you have yahoos like me running 2 A/C units most of the time.

We love to *travel* the camper just facilitates that. Our Thousand Trails membership actually keeps things fairly affordable. Our entire 4 1/2-week stay in Orlando last summer costed a grand total of $135 (plus our regular $400/year dues but we use it all year long). Truthfully the camper has been decent to us- if they can just get this one slide fixed up. It's expensive but we split the cost with my in-laws. It worked out to be right about $100/night for us (right about $195/night for the site and 2 extra adults). But, in my opinion- if I was going the whole way to Key West, I was going a

We love to *travel* the camper just facilitates that. Our Thousand Trails membership actually keeps things fairly affordable. Our entire 4 1/2-week stay in Orlando last summer costed a grand total of $135 (plus our regular $400/year dues but we use it all year long). Truthfully the camper has been decent to us- if they can just get this one slide fixed up. It's expensive but we split the cost with my in-laws. It worked out to be right about $100/night for us (right about $195/night for the site and 2 extra adults). But, in my opinion- if I was going the whole way to Key West, I was going a

Watch Cracker Barrels- the spots are only 40' from what I can tell. We are quite a bit longer than their spots.

I'm actually not too far from I-95 in Maryland, but I don't have the space to let folks park.

My sister had a Gulf Stream, I think and didn't have any complaints. But they also kept it seasonally on a site.

I do recommend always asking; even if there are other RVs already in the lot. Either call ahead or go inside. Make sure to remember that you're parking and not camping. Slides are acceptable if they're where they won't encroach on drive ways but awning, grills, chairs, etc aren't.

For that area, we stayed at the Walmart in Dillon, SC.

:rofl2: Hey now.. maybe just 1 isn't a honeymoon, but I have friends who had a third. They were arranging a "commitment ceremony" for the 3rd person until things went south. I actually know 2 different trios, come to think of it.

I realized that with my daughter's anniverary, I didn't go back and respond to these. Again- thank you greatly for the kind words. I've clicked the "up arrow" on each of your responses, but I just can't even respond to each. (hugs) The wait for Sandy Claws wasn't bad at all. There were maybe 7 or 8 families ahead of us. It would have been quicker (but I wouldn't have wanted it) because Jack interacted with each family for a couple of minutes. It was easily in my best character interaction experiences. The other, remarkably, are the ugly step-sisters- we've met them a few times and have be

A woman escorted us to our site and her daughter showed up to help me park the camper. Their arms were flailing and waving and they smiled the whole time. It would have helped if they gave me an overview of what their hand motions meant or gave me an indication when they were motioning to me vs. each other. My wife have a system- they messed with it. We did get parked on the 3rd or 4th try and after they left, a friendly neighbor came over chuckling. He said he always "fixes" the parking after they leave. So we did- straightened up on the site, backed up a little more, and got it just right.

So, Tuesday, December 23 is the morning that we left from Miami to go to Key West. My goal was to leave no later than 9:30 or 10:00 figuring that if the slide gave me issues (and it did), we wouldn't be majorly delayed. If I recall correctly, we got on the road between 10:00 and 10:30, so my plan worked. I did learn to read the slide's controller and reset it and whatnot. Slightly less annoying once I was armed with some information, but still pretty sucky. I did get my first indication that it might be a wiring problem as we did "something" and it magically started "working". It was like it w