Solamom

On 7/17/2017 at 4:08 PM, ependydad...Doug said:

Coming back, you could take I-70 east.

1. We stopped in Goodland, KS at the KOA there. There was a cool rock formation called Monument Rocks near-ish there that was really pretty.
2. I'd take a night or two to get to St. Louis, MO. We stayed at the Casino Queen in East St. Louis, IL. It has a view of the Gateway Arch and train access to get across the river. While East St. Louis gets a bad rap (as does downtown St. Louis after dark), we didn't feel uncomfortable while we were there. It's expensive for what it is (blacktop pull through spots, a tiny bit of stone between the sites, and not much else). But it was a good exploring place. If you have extra time, the City Museum gets rave reviews and the zoo is free (and nice!).
3. Mammoth Cave in Kentucky would be nice if you aren't pressed for time. Otherwise, bust down to Nashville or beyond to get a good day's drive in.
4. From there, pick your poison for getting home.

Hope that helps... maybe?!

How is I-70 going through Colorado?

Thank you so much for all that information!!!  We have been in Flagstaff since Friday and leaving Thursday to head into Utah, so we are using this information!

Hi All!

So my husband lost his job. We were kind of expecting it, but didn't really expect it to happen right now.  Since it is summer and we are in a down time of sorts, we have decided to take our RV and head to the Grand Canyon and hit some of the parks in Utah.  Even still, we are on a time crunch because we have to be home by August 12th for my oldest to attend career camp at Busch Gardens (she wants to be an animal trainer at SeaWorld and everyone says attend the camps).  We plan to leave tomorrow.  I'm looking for any suggestions on campgrounds in Utah or on the trip out/back.  Any ideas in Utah that don't book up or might be available last minute? This is super stressful for me because I am a planner.  We had planned to take this trip in May 18 but now that my hubby has to get a new job, I'm sure that won't happen as he won't have enough vacation time.  I don't have one signal campground reservation, we are totally winging this.  My oldest graduates in 2 years and we really want to jump on this chance to take this trip because it really looks like we won't be able to go out there before she is done w/ high school.  We have thought about other ways of going, but w/ dogs, food, etc...it still is cheaper to take the RV.  Any suggestions on where to stay, what to avoid (roads especially) would be greatly appreciated!  I'll be checking in while packing :) FYI, we are near Tampa and heading to Flagstaff first.  Then go into Utah and head home from there.   My boss lives in Flagstaff and his home has RV hookups, so the days in Arizona are covered, it is Utah and the travel that we need advice on.

I posted this on another thread as well…we do WalMart when we travel (unless we need a/c).  There is an app for the iPhone called All Stays ONP for WalMart. I  love this app because it will first of all tell you if a particular WalMart allows parking.  It also has a review area where other RV'ers give their experience.  We've passed on ones where things were reported stolen or the train tracks ran close by. 

We have stayed at Reed Bingham State Park in GA. It was about a 7 mile or so ride off I-75.  GA parks though require a 2 day minimum on the weekend, which makes it hard to stay overnight if traveling on the weekends.

We also stayed at a KOA in Tifton.  It was way scarier than WalMart :)  

Not made it north of Atlanta on 75 w/ the RV (yet) so no insight there.  We did however travel I-95 to Washington DC back in May and stayed at WalMart going up.  Coming back, we had to go to a KOA because we needed A/C.  This particular KOA we stayed at - everyone there was overnight while traveling.  

We stay at WalMarts a lot while traveling.  There is an app for the iPhone called All Stays ONP Walmart.  We've found it to be very accurate and it has a lot of useful information on staying at WalMart.  We always still call ahead and double check that it is OK to stay the night.  Always had a good experience at WalMart.

I'd bring bug spray but you'll probably most likely only need it at dusk and right after it gets dark…unless we get a lot of rain….then they will be crazy.  

In Florida, besides the Fort, we have two we love:

Ft. Desoto in St. Pete.  I love it here because you can camp right on the water and its super easy to go kayaking and fishing right from your campsite.  Also, the beaches are beautiful and its a great place to run or ride bikes.  A lot of times we camp for a week here, my husband will set us up and he will commute from the campsite to work, or work from camp.  We go here several times a year.

Topsail Hill in Santa Rosa Beach is another favorite.  I thought our gulf beeches were the best until we saw the beaches around Destin.  Gorgeous!  This campground is nice and clean.  It was a private campground at some point I think before the State of Florida took it over.  Some of the campsites could use some repairs as the slabs on several are cracked and breaking apart.  You have to plan to get to the beach because you can't drive to it and it is about 3/4 a mile from the campground.  They do have a bus that takes people down.  We just use our bikes and tow an old baby trailer my husband took apart and made it a fishing cart.  We've gone early in the morning and late at night and seen deer and other wildlife.  We can't go up that way this year, but planning to go next year for July 4th week.  if you go, plan to take the 2 hour drive to Pensacola to visit the Naval Air Museum where the Blue Angels practice.  Worth the drive, and it is free!!  My kids enjoyed it way better than the air museums in Washington, D.C.

We will be there, either Tuesday 10/28 or Wed 10/29 until Sunday 11/2.  Have Tuesday booked but trying to figure out cross country schedules for the kids to see when we can head over :) Haven't been in 3 years for Halloween so really excited.  Has anyone seen a schedule yet?  Need to book dining for mine & DH's 18th anniversary but don't want to miss anything fun at the fort either :)  

When we camped in a pup (borrowed from a friend) we also took one of those one up shelters that had the solid sides and we kept a lot of things in there, like suit cases, etc.... And we used it for a changing room and to hang up wet towels and bathing suits.  It worked out nice :)

Congrats on the pup though, you will enjoy it! 

Our second favorite campground is Ft. Desoto in Tierra Verde (near St. Petersburg).

We love it for a few reasons.  First, on the dog loop, we typcially go for a waterfront site which makes Kayaking and Canoeing and Fishing so much easier!  You launch your kayak right from the campsite and plenty of waters to explore. Plus when the kids get tired, they can just go back to the campsite.  Makes things much more enjoyable than loading up the kayaks and driving somewhere only to have them complain ten minutes later that they are done and tired! 

We can also fish right from our site, hubby spends A LOT of time fishing when we go here.

Also, the bike path is awesome!  We love to bike ride and this is a favorite. 

In addition, the dog park has a huge fenced in area as well as a dog beach.  Although our Aussie is grounded from the dog beach since he decided to leave it, and run down the fishing pier. 

And of course, when you get tired of kayaking and fishing waterfront, you can head over to the beach.  We will be there for Labor Day weekend and right after New Years for 6 nights.  On the flip side, there is no sewer hookup and the water front sites are hard to get.  I have to be very purposeful in planning trips there, always thinking 6 months ahead and getting up at midnight to book sites! 

This is the back of our campsite.  We just keep our kayaks right here and go out whenever we want.

This would be from a kayak looking at the back of our site from the water.

Picture of the dog beach.  This was taken last August after Tropical Storm Isaac went by, the waves were expceptionally high and it was really windy. 

Last August also, we had a Dolphin that wanted to come in the little bayou area.  I loved to get on my kayak and play around with him. 

Hubby fishing and kids switching out kayaks on the back of the campsite.

Sunset

Does anyone have any favorites in Georgia?  We're moving to the Augusta area and we are really looking forward to using the TT more than the 3 - 4 months you get in upstate NY. 

We love Tallulah Gorge State Park.  We are going there in October for 8 nights.  This will be our third year in a row going there.  The hike to the gorge from the campground is super short, and we hike it almost everyday taking the dogs on a walk.  And its pretty centrally located, easy ride up to the Blue Ridge Parkway as well as hitting some of our favorite hiking spots in NE GA.  Plus, my FIL lives about 20 minutes away so we can swing by and visit with him as well. 

We've done it in Georgia some at the State Parks. Most recently, we did it at Anastasia State Park over Thanksgiving. The kids enjoy it but haven't found "fun" stuff in any of the caches. At the GA state parks, we keep a log in our camper of what we have done and once you do so many you get patches from the parks.

What is the earliest we can check in?

We are coming to the Fort for Memorial Day weekend, arriving Thursday. The main point of the trip is to attend the Homeschool Convention at the Gaylord. Thursday morning at the Convention is the Leader Forum and I really want to go but not wanting my poor hubby to have to tow the camper, kids and dogs over by himself. So just wondering if we could check in early morning (say 8is??) then he can set up while I head over to the Gaylord for the Leaders events.

I know, silly question .... :)

That looks nice! We love to go to Georgia to camp too.....about where is this located? Near Gainesville or the NE side of GA? I know Lanier is big and my hubby's family lives in the NE part so we like to camp close to them. Were heading to Tallulah Gorge in October - hopefully see some leaves but would love to check these places out while we are there!

It is 36.00 a night. Other than the no sewer hook up - it was perfect.

Wow! Beautiful! We camped there when I was a kid over the Christmas holidays in 1977. But I don't remember much about it, except getting into my mother's slow gin fizz and getting pretty buzzed at 9 years old. LOL! Hey, the stuff tasted like kool aid.

:laugh:

Well, we took an entire year to plan this trip - and its already over! We have been home almost a week from our week - long trip to the Florida Keys.

Let me say that we LOVED this little campground. It was small, only 28 sites. No sewer hook up. But we had site 16, right on the Atlantic Ocean. Our site was narrow, barely had enough room to set up the One Up Canopy but thankful we had it and the screens because the bugs were AWFUL!! The comfort station was decent, the showers were hot and the campground hosts kept them clean. Funny thing, they didn't have flushing toilets. They were located on the second story and underneath the building was where all the "waste" went - but it never stunk! It was always decent to go in - other than the mosquitos.

We had daily visits from large blue crabs and iguanas that have invaded the state park. The day use area was small - most of the park was the campground. We could fish and launch our kayaks right from the beach area. Had a nice sandy beach, could fish right from the shore as well. The water was at times HOT, not refreshing and since the bottom was filled with sea grass, it wasn't great for swimming. We would kayak almost daily out to a sandbar at low tide and snorkel and swim. The sand bar had soft nice sand in areas and other areas had coral and fish. It was nice to snorkel - just not very deep. My son caught the only "keeper" fish - a mangrove snapper!

We enjoyed the Keys very much and may go back next summer! We did a snorkel excursion from Bahia Honda State Park to Looe Key Reef. It was really cool but the waves were high and the water was murky. Also visited Key West - ate lunch at Sloppy Joes - not impressed :)

Anyway, here are some pictures:

Here is a view of our site (16) from the second story of the comfort station. The comfort station was located right across from us.

This is a view of the back of our campsite from the beach. Site 16 is the closest to the ocean.

Not at the campground, but a quick picture from our snorkel excursion at Bahia Honda.

A fellow camper caught this nurse shark right on the beach shore behind our campsite one evening.

View of the back of the campground from the beach area.

This is the sandbar area we would kayak too. Lots of power boats would anchor off as well and hang on the sandbar.

My son, Caleb, snorkeling on the sandbar.

Kiddos the morning we were leaving.

Another view of the back of the campground.

so you can see how narrow the site was. If we would've had an outdoor kitchen, would've had to given up using the kitchen or the canopy! The canopy was a life saver w/ the screens and the bugs!!

I will quickly add that we did check the campground at Bahia Honda out. This one was by far nicer. It was on the ocean and quiet and had a beautiful view! Bahia Honda was noisy, on an inlet of sorts and had a view of the old bridge. I know its super popular but we really liked Curry Hammock better.

Were thinking of going next July, the week the 4th lands on if any local fiends would like to go as well. We will need to book this month, 11 months in advance to get a waterfront site.

We had a really good experience at Lazydays. But yes, it probably had a lot to do w/ our salesperson. We REALLY liked him and he treated us wonderfully even though we were only looking at Passports :). I would probably buy from them again - if they had something we liked. Right now, they don't really carry bunk house TTs we like (i am in love w/ Open Ranges....which only Bates sells around here). When we bought our Passport, we were limited by weight because we towed w/ a Suburban. We now have a Ford 350 and have much more options for TTs. You'd think a dealership that big could carry something other than Passports and Laredos for families. Just last weekend, DH and I walked around the lot w/out a salesperson to check out a couple of TTs we saw online. We went to Bates a couple of weeks ago to look...just wasn't anything like Lazydays.

I actually just spent the weekend there at the campground for a "girls" weekend away (it was all homeschool planning stuff, so really wasn't super exciting). But it served the purpose, my one friend is anti camping so having sewer hook up and free wi fi was a must.

I agree, CW is in a weird location but it has been nice to have it close by. Even when DH set up the TT for me on Thursday evening, he had to make a trip over to CW to get a few things. We could've gotten by w/out it, but it sure was easy :)

BTW, I need to be banned from the RV Supershow.....saw the Mesa Ridge there and haven't been the same......

Thanks for the replies! I don't want to do anything at all that would hurt him or cause other behavioral issues.

He has camped with us, and the intent is for him to camp always with us but we haven't had to leave him alone. He used to bark at our house when we would kennel him to the point it set our house alarm off. I think that has calmed down some - we don't leave him alone often.

We did leave him alone in the camper while we kayaked and went to the springs on our last trip and asked a few camping neighbors if he was an issue and they all said "no" but he was only alone for an hour or two. I'm most concerned about the one day in the keys when we will be gone a good portion of the day.

We do lock him in a kennel and close all the blinds so our Scottie doesn't bark and get him barking. We did leave the A/C and fan on and the TV. I was just concerned if he started to bark while we were away.

I did find an animal hospital in Marathon that offers boarding so I will call them to see if they can keep him the one day and the rest of the time he should be OK while we are doing things around the campground. We just got a walky dog for the bike in hopes of wearing him out so much that he sleeps :)

Just don't take the modem home with you! DH loaded it in our truck to drop off on our way out and guess who forgot to drop it off? We get all the way home to find it sitting in the truck -- had to drive it back to the Fort so they wouldn't charge us. Thankfully, we only live an hour away!!!

Has anyone used these?

We have a 9mo. old Aussie who doesn't like to be separated from us. We are going to the Keys to camp on June 30th. I had hoped, after our trip Memorial Day, to leave him with our breeder but she isn't able to keep him. So it looks like he is going to have to go with us. Besides being a pain in the truck, I'm afraid when we leave him in the camper - he will bark and drive the other campers nuts.

I'm looking for a doggy day care for our snorkel excursion and trip to Key West but was curious if anyone had used these collars. He has a LOUD bark and if he gets to barking while we are away, everyone will hear it!

Very cute! And big.... :)

Great pictures. We are thinking of camping there sometime soon. Is it true we can't bring our own kayaks in the park?

Dana how far is it from here, I would love to try someplace different, but for a weekend it can't be to big of a trip. Looks like you had a good time thanks for sharing

Lorna, it took us about 2 hours to get there. We just took I-4 to 429, right before DW, and took it to Orange Blossom Trail where 429 ends. 429 was a real nice ride, no traffic and you can see the front side of DW....we saw Everest, the AK lodge, Dolphin, EPCOT and the Contemporary. Kids were so excited. It would be nice for a weekend trip :) It will close in July though, not sure how long it will be closed.

He's beautiful!! Only 9 months old? You may need a bigger TT. ;D

I'm trying to convince hubby we need a bigger one!!! We've been "looking" --- a slide in the bunkhouse would be ideal, especially since the kiddos get the dog cage set up in their space :)

Thanks! Florida has beautiful state parks! I wonder if it is busy like that ll the time, or is it because it was a holiday weekend?

I think the weekends stay really busy there. The campground is closing in July - I hear they are putting sewer in!