Dang RV

Heading off to Utah, I followed I50 across. The huge mountain I had to go over was a bit of a surprise. That was the steepest climb I had ever done with my trailer in tow and I almost pulled over at one point to cool off the transmission which was hot but not in the red zone yet. Happily my SUV did very well and made it over with the trailer still attached.Whew! Let’s not do too many of those again.

I needed a place to stay for the night and stumbled on Blue Mesa Recreational Ranch in Gunnison, CO. Very lucky for me I noticed in the office it was a member park in one of the other discount camping clubs which had just become re-affiliated with my Coast to Coast group. They had no problem with me just showing up without a reservation and happily provided me a nice space cheap for the night.

The campground is built on a hillside overlooking a lake. My site was still level and the tiered spaces let everyone have a great view of the lake which is very popular for boating and fishing. The park has one outdoor pool and one indoor pool with a hot tub. There is a hall to gather in and eat. They do have wifi. I wish I had more time to stay there. Will definitely have to go back some time.

Off to my home park, Breckenridge Lake Resort, in Crossville, TN off I40. In order to join Coast to Coast,  RPI or other clubs, you must buy into a home park first. This can cost anywhere from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars and there are different levels. The cost depends on many things such as location, amenities, closeness to major tourist meccas, etc. I bought my home park membership on Ebay. The buy in was low and the yearly maintenance fee is low (watch out for those) so it is perfect for me. I don’t need a bunch of amenities either. I like the location which, while not near my home area, is a very nice place to play and relax with a warm lake nearby, waterfalls, great food at the state park restaurant, a Mennonite community, the home and grave of Sgt. Alvin York nearby, the famous Cumberland Playhouse, and more. If you love the 4th of July and fireworks, these guys are fireworks crazy! The park is plain jane average but it does have full hookups, excellent wifi, a clubhouse, a pavilion, laundry room, and a group fire ring. I can definitely recommend the laundry room which is inexpensive and has dryers that actually dry in one pass. Best of all, it costs only $2 a night to stay here for up to 3 weeks as a member. If you leave for a week, you can come back for 3 more weeks.

I headed in toward town and stopped at The Tower. It was built to house government offices and a water tower during FDR’s New Deal when he opened a homestead project here. These were not your average homesteads. The government did not just give them land and homes. Out of many applications, able bodied men were given a chance to learn a good trade such as carpentry, plumbing, electrical, masonry, etc. and use those skills to build barns and homes. They earned credits toward the purchase of their own homes for their families. Families lived in the barns at first while the homes were being built. While the government called the project a failure due to cost overruns, bickering, many who left for good jobs rather than buy a home, etc., to those families that stayed it was a major success and a godsend. Many of their children’s children still live in the homes they built.

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Off to check out the Gulf of Mexico near Gulfport and Pass-Christian, Mississippi which are popular snowbird destinations. I went to 5 Star Resort in Pass-Christian, a C2C-RPI park. Don’t let the name fool you. It is an average park in a great location. The Gulf and white sand beaches are minutes away. Stennis Space Center, boat tours, casinos, Jefferson Davis’s last home, a national seashore, Lake Ponchetrain in Louisianna, New Orleans, etc. are close by.

The park itself has a clubhouse, pool I never saw used, hot tub, bayou for boating, many permanent residents in a separate section, etc. The staff were nice. Given the choice of a very treed area, partially treed area, or open grass area, I chose one of the easy level pull-thrus in the grassy area to use my satellite dish. My Verizon air card got lots of signal though I still needed to use the external antenna to get any stability. They provided a key to the clubhouse so I had the wifi in the clubhouse as a backup for work.

I hit the beach first thing. Parking was easy with many many turnouts provided to park as well as free parking lots. Beach Blvd./US90 is a wonderful drive. The water is warm and waves very little. You have to walk out a ways to get in deep which was nice. Here and there are piers to fish and places with jet skis anchored in the water ready to rent. I waded way in for a while and flew my kites over the water. An RV couple seemed to be camped out in one parking lot with their motorhome across several spaces door to the sidewalk, awning and chairs out, sipping drinks and watching the sea.

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Sunset King Resort is one of those idyllic lake resorts we all dream of going to with fishing, a wonderful heated swimming pool, a porch with lots of rocking chairs overlooking the lake, cabins for rent, active clubhouse and restaurant, pavilion, miniature golf, it’s own chapel for Sunday church services, crafts for sale, private combo bathroom/shower rooms, cable TV, very good Wifi for a fee, etc. It was quite relaxing and enjoyable. It has earned top honors from campground associations and deserves them.

I was definitely buggered that I couldn’t go in the pool due to an injury. It was perfect. One night I sat on the porch above it rocking while a lot of kids were in it at 8pm. It reminded me of growing up with our own pool in California. We used to go swimming before bed time on hot summer nights. It’s guaranteed to make you sleep sound. I sure wish I could have joined them.

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I thought I would check out Bee’s Resort in Clermont, FL since it seems to be popular. It’s a C2C/RPI park. I found it to be a typical warehouse type park with very close sites packed in. It is out in the country away from shopping but very close to the Florida Turnpike to go to all the Orlando attractions. Despite the drought, their tiny lake was nice to look at with it’s 24 hour fountain and porch swing next to it. Some of the owners have added lights and decorative blinking lighthouses along the edge. The pool is cold but nobody seemed to mind during the hot days.

I got there in time for an all-you-can-eat chicken dinner. Holy cow! They plopped so much delicious different foods on my tray that there was no need for seconds. There was plenty of room and tables for everyone and a screened porch to eat out on as well.

For fun, I drove into Kissimmee. Thank goodness for the Sun Pass on my windshield while driving the turnpike. It really is so much easier than scrambling for change. I went to a huge outdoor store and got lucky. I found the adjustable rack needed to hold my BBQ when sites don’t provide a table and it can double as the trash bag holder I have been needing for my annual document shredding. I also found a tent pole which I plan to use as an antenna extension. I have external antennas for both wifi and my aircard which I plan to clamp to the pole and extend them above the trailer roof for better reception.

Just down the street I found a Disney outlet store where I snagged my Disneyworld Tshirt. They are just too expensive to buy inside Disneyworld and there are lots of these stores near there.

Back down to Sun Resorts in Apopka to celebrate my birthday at Disneyworld FREE! I’m no fool. Somebody offers me a $79 ticket free, I take it! OK, so I had to pay for dinner, a scooter, and my nick knacks. Big deal.

It didn’t start off well. I got to the resort in very fast time and they let me check in early. However, despite having a reservation 2 months in advance which is something I never do, they put me in the woods area with no sewer or cable hookups so no TV. Just getting into the spot was impossible because the road inside the resort is so darn busy and narrow. Luckily, a real relaxed pro came along and slipped it into the site for me. Whew!

The office told me reservations make no difference when using C2C to camp there. You get what is available when you get there. Geez! I was not at all happy since I even took vacation time off for this one and it was special. I spoke to someone else in the office the next day and was able to move into the other area with still no sat dish through the trees but cable hookup at least. Sewer hookup was nice too though really not the issue for just a week. While in that spot, I got to help a young man fix his electrical issue. Poor guy was not an RVer and just staying there in someone else’s rig. I showed him where the breaker box was and that he had tripped the breaker.

I spent an entire day at Disneyworld from 9:20am to 10pm. I wasn’t that crazy about going alone but hey, IT’S DISNEYWORLD! The line to check in for a free ticket was actually somewhat long. A lot of us were born on that day. Talk about a party! They gave us each a special pass card and a birthday button with our name on it. Wear the button no matter how old you are. I got told happy birthday by name at least 1,000 times that day by every visitor and staff member in the place. Not once did I feel alone that day.  I also got sung to by the staff at the Disney restaurant, a first for me, and candles in my apple pie and ice cream. It was great! I highly recommend spending your birthday at a Disney park this year.

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It may not be spring vacation, but I just had to see what the big deal about Fort Lauderdale is. The drive down there from Apopka on the Florida Expressway was extremely expensive with all the constant tolls and paying extra for my trailer. I did finally manage to find a mini Sun Pass for $4.95 at a rest stop to pay tolls automatically but of course it was too late to actually be able to use it that day. You can use the I95 instead to avoid tolls but it goes right through every major city on the way which will really kill your time. I did eventually get on over to the I95 when I ran out of cash on hand near Lauderdale.

I popped into a C2C-Encore park in Fort Lauderdale, the Sunshine Holiday Resort. I hadn’t made advance reservations but  a call to the Encore folks got me in that same day anyway. Finding the park was not at all easy since it actually is in the big city off a busy street behind commercial buildings.  The park has the stangest and least convenient layout I have ever seen. The spaces are very close together with 2 rigs sharing each pad in opposite directions with utility hookups on the wrong side for both. Arrows on the pad tell you the direction to enter the space you want. The pool and sundeck looked nice enough but I didn’t see a clubhouse and if you don’t speak french you can forget about mingling since this is a very popular winter destination for French Canadians.

While there, I went down to the Riverwalk. It was nice to walk around watching all the yachts tied up and the water taxis coming and going.  The draw bridge rose several times for passing boats. It is clear from there that you are in a city of money.

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It’s time! I put on my magic snowbird wings and entered Florida for the winter. I’m hoping to stay 6 months in the warmth and see everything I missed last time. A stop at the Florida Visitor’s Center at the border is a great idea. Grab some free Florida orange juice and bunches of brochures with coupons off the numerous walls. For any questions, staff at the desk can help and they have bags for your brochures.

Driving through Jacksonville got a little crowded but the city is lovely from the I95. The drive took me right past Daytona International Speedway as well. I arrived in much appreciated 80 degree weather at Sun Resort RV Park, a C2C park. The sites are well shaded while mine provided a nice hole through the trees for my satellite dish. The long pull-thru space made it easy to navigate into a good position for my dish. The site is level and sandy with a concrete patio and table. From the looks of the electric boxes, the park has been around awhile. The pool is very large and has music playing. The bathhouse is very clean though old. The location is only 10 miles from Universal Studios theme park and 25 from Disneyworld.

While I was there, I took a day to go tour Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral just a week before the launch of the Endeavour space shuttle. With your ticket, you get 2 days to tour the facility which you really will need because there is just too much to see and do. You also get free admittance to the Astronaut museum nearby.

Getting to go inside a real shuttle was wonderful! The Shuttle Experience Simulator is an absolute must. I could ride that over and over. Tip: have a quarter on you to rent a locker. Loose items are not allowed on the simulator. The Rocket Garden was pretty cool. I got to walk on the same gantry there that Neil Armstrong walked on for his historic fight to the moon. Leave plenty of time for the tram tour. They take you out to the observation tower to see the launch pad. I saw the Endeavour loaded and ready to go on the pad. You will also see the Assembly building on the way and the Saturn V History building. They have great displays of the shuttle science modules and quarters as well as a view into a clean room where items are assembled to go on the shuttles. There are several places there showing IMAX films. I highly recommend hitting the picture booth there as well. I dare you to try and leave without a souvenir. It just isn’t possible after seeing the many gift shops there.

The Cape is a wildlife refuge btw. You will very likely see an alligator or two in the culverts along the road, possibly a manatee, and lots of buzzards. According to our guide, you do not want to be anywhere near the animals particularly alligators during a launch. The vibration of the engines really pisses them off!

For more pics click here.