Here and There

Scott and Jackie's Travels – Thousand Trails Reviews, Campground Reviews, Fulltime RVing, European Travel

Tag: camping

Researching, planning, reserving

grscott


I’ve always mostly enjoyed the planning part of fulltiming. If others prefer free lancing it is fine with me, but that’s not my thing. I get a kick out of searching the web for the best campgrounds in interesting places and within our budget. As has been reported on many fronts, one unexpected impact of Covid has been a surge in the popularity of RVing. Sales reached record highs and campgrounds began to experience record occupancy.

Our 2021 Adventure has been delayed a bit as we prepare to celebrate a family event but we are looking forward to getting underway in a bit over a month. Knowing that campgrounds are filling up, I have spent time researching campgrounds and destinations, planning our route, and then reserving camp sites.

I’ve written before about planning: here and here.

For instance, this coming winter we want to spend some time in Arizona. There are an amazing number of places there that cater to winter RVers. I spent considerable time checking the information on websites and reading reviews. Once I narrowed my choice down and actually called about vacancies (still 7-8 months out!) I found that many places I had marked as good possibilities reported no room in the inn! Now, if I wanted to spend $1000 a month I would have no problem finding a spot (well, probably not, since our rig isn’t new enough), but trying to stay within a reasonable budget puts us in competition with lots of other RVing retirees.

We finally settled on a spot and made our deposit. As of right now, we are booked up for practically every night the rest of the year. For even me this level of planning is a bit over the top, but it sure beats landing in an area for a week or two and being told that there are no vacancies.

Personally, I think this is just how it is going to be from now on. Not only are many discovering RVing but many campgrounds are selling sites for long term use. Like it or lump it planning is going to be a part of the fulltime RV lifestyle.

2021 – Lake Conroe Thousand Trails, Willis, TX

grscott


You might say that our February 2021 stay at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails was a study in contrasts. We arrived just prior to the record breaking Texas winter storm. We had lows in the single digits plus snow and ice. Then, a week later we had the air conditioning running as temps reached a humid 80 degrees. In addition to the cold weather the campground joined a good part of the state in being without electricity for a day and a half. We were so thankful for our Onan generator that ran flawlessly. That and a full tank of propane kept our furnaces running. We had a heated water hose, but the campground water froze up so that left us relying on on-board water. However, in spite of our running heat in our wet bay our on-board water pump froze up for a day. We were prepared with plenty of water containers filled. Really, any inconvenience we experienced was minor compared to what others experienced.

Then, almost overnight, we were back in Springtime weather. The sun came out, power came back on, the water started working and all was well with the world. We enjoyed sitting outside and taking several walks. The Lake Conroe sunsets are always a treat.

We aren’t always fans of the “new” section (called Area B) of the campground. As I’ve mentioned before the sites along the wall almost all slant down, away from the wall. That means that when you level a motorhome the front tires are left dangling and the entry steps are high in the air. People in 5th wheels end up putting blocks under their landing gear. Also, some of these sites have rather steep entry ramps. In other words, we don’t recommend those sites. Other sites in that section, though, are very good. We ended up in a huge, level pull through. With bad weather coming in we couldn’t have asked for a better spot.

One complaint we have is the lack of respect several have for this nicer section of the campground. I can’t believe how many people drive up onto the grass, leaving deep ruts. Frankly, since I was here when some of the landscaping was going on I can’t believe Thousand Trails allows it. This section of Lake Conroe Thousand Trails has some of the nicest campsites in the entire system. It is a shame to see people showing such a lack of appreciation for it.

Honestly, if you are coming to this property I suggest you not have tunnel vision about staying in Area B. There are many nice sites in other areas. They are closer to the pool, etc. and in the summer some of them offer a bit of shade. Over in “B” you will have a white concrete site that reflects the sun right back onto your camper. Anyway, it is a “to each his own” situation. Generally speaking, we have been happy with the choices of campsites in this campground and it remains one of our favorite Thousand Trails.

We have written several other reviews of this campground – you can find them here.

2021 – High View CoE – Ennis, TX – shortstop

grscott


We got away from Lake Texoma Thousand Trails on Monday afternoon, so the 140 miles down to High View CoE in Ennis, TX was just about the right distance. Knowing the Artic cold front was coming, we only hooked up electricity. As I said in my previous review, the water hookup is behind the back of the sites. My heated hose isn’t nearly long enough to reach that far. Not only that, but the water hookup is just a bare pipe sticking up about 3 feet out of the ground. By morning, the water was frozen up, so hooking up would have been a waste of time. The cold weather brought winter storm conditions, especially south of us so we decided to just stay put a couple of extra days. One of the nice things about living in a RV full time is that you always have the option to “run” from threatening weather or to hunker down and wait out challenging travel conditions. After three nights, though, we were ready to head south again.

We enjoyed the nice lake view out our front window. We also enjoyed seeing a large flock of cardinals – I counted 19 of the pretty red birds in our “back yard.”

2021 – Lake Texoma Thousand Trails – Gordonville, TX – shortstop

grscott


We like Lake Texoma Thousand Trails and have stayed here several times. This stay, though, was just a short stop before we headed south. In fact, we intended to stay a bit longer but old man winter visited with the promise of even more cold, ice, and snow in the days to come. We decided to “get while the getting’s good” and headed south after just one night.

You can see all our Lake Texoma reviews and photos here.

2021 – Lake Texoma RV Resort – Pottsboro, Texas

grscott

Lake Texoma RV Resort is one of the nicer places we’ve stayed in in our years of fulltiming. This campground is very well laid out with wide roads and easily navigated campsites. The property is exceptionally well maintained. I think this is the only place we have ever stayed that has a built in sprinkler system! This keeps the grass looking good even in the middle of hot north Texas summers.

The facilities are well done – with nice laundry, showers and bathrooms. There’s also a fitness center and club house. Everything is kept perfectly clean.

The doggie park gets a lot of use. This resort caters to adults; there’s no playground but there is a nice outdoor pool. There is decent WiFi and Direct TV.

There are several people who are there long term. Many of them are in beautiful, newer motorhomes and 5th wheels. For “long timers” large rental propane bottles are available. We were glad to take advantage of this as the winter temperatures dipped below freezing many nights.

We appreciated the helpful staff. They went out of their way to take care of their guests. More than once I saw the owner park a new guest’s RV for them. When I arrived I was glad to park my own rig, but someone was right there to guide me in and then to start hooking my utilities up.

We were a bit disappointed that there was no lake access at the resort. Still, there is a big marina right down the road with restaurants, boat rentals, and fishing guide services.

This RV resort isn’t exactly handy to folks traveling Highway 75 at the Texas-Oklahoma state line. I think it’s a little over 10 miles west of that major highway. The roads are good, but there are a few turns to get to the resort. Also, you might want to know that the campground does enforce their check in time (1:00 pm as of this writing). If you arrive before that, you won’t be allowed to check in.

As you might guess, a resort offering this level of service isn’t going to be a budget campground. At the same time, it is nice to feel spoiled once in a while.

2020 – Lake Texoma Thousand Trails – Gordonville, TX

grscott


We enjoyed another nice stay at Lake Texoma Thousand Trails, near Gordonville, TX. The August heat was intense and that kept us inside more than we would have liked. However, there was a bit of a reprieve in the mornings and evenings. We took advantage of that to get some walks in and to sit outside and enjoy our morning coffee.

The virus has limited activities at Lake Texoma as it has most everywhere. However, the pools are open. They received plenty of action, especially over Labor Day weekend. I was a bit surprised to see several nice sites unused over the holiday. I’m guessing it was the result of unseasonably hot weather plus the virus concerns.

I’ve reviewed this Thousand Trails before, so I’ll just add a few more photos in this review. We enjoy this campground and will look forward to staying there again.

All Lake Texoma reviews are here.

2020 – Green Caye, Dickinson, TX

grscott
Green Caye RV Park, Dickinson, TX

We’ve been at Green Caye RV Park in Dickinson, TX several times through the years so we pretty much know what to expect when we arrive.  Some of our favorite spots are in the cul-de-sacs of the campground.  There’s a bit of a community feel in these areas of the campground.   Most of the people in the cul-de-sacs are long term residents who get to know one another.  Since the cul-de-sacs are quieter with larger sites they are popular.  When we arrived at the campground in November we asked to be put on a waiting list for one of these sites.  It was February before a spot opened up and we were able to move in.

Our 3-4 month stay over the winter of 2019-20 turned into a nine month stay. Not only did the Coronavirus throw a monkey wrench into everyone’s plans, but we also filled in as an interim pastor at a local church. That position also lasted longer than expected.

Green Caye is a RV residential campground with lots of working people and permanent residents. The property is well cared for with a responsive maintenance staff. The grass is mowed on a regular basis and problems, in general, are taken care of in a timely way.

On the other hand, there are no activities most of us associate with “camping.” This is a place where people “live” in RVs and there is nothing “recreational” about it.

There are some nice walking areas on the property. The longer route circles a now-closed par 3 golf course that has been converted into cattle pasture land. The shorter route circles a retention pond that is well populated with ducks, both domestic and wild.

Since I’ve written other reviews and posted lots of photos through the years, my photos feature the many pretty sunsets we enjoyed during our evening walks.

Other Green Caye Reviews are here.

Six ways to battle the Texas summer heat in a RV

grscott

Like a lot of people our travel plans have been preempted by the pandemic. In our case, we had already decided to shorten our travel adventure this year as we are serving as interim pastor at Houston’s Southwest Church of the Nazarene.

And, not that this will come as a surprise to you, summers in Texas are hot! In our case, we are near the Gulf Coast, so not only is it hot but it is humid too. Not a fun mix. Not only that, but there’s no shade.

Our motorhome has two air conditioners. The bedroom a/c does a good job of keeping things cool. The living room unit, though, struggles to keep up. We’ve made six adjustments that make a big difference.

    1. Of course, we keep the front window curtains drawn. Not only that, but we have giant sunshades (similar to what people use in their cars) for these windows. We certainly miss the view out of  our big “picture window” but this is the number one thing that keeps things comfortable in our living room.
    2. It probably goes without saying, but I keep an eye on the air conditioner filters. Running as much as the units are, the filters need cleaning a couple of times a month. Our units also have “Quick Cool” (or “air dump”) vents. We open them to dump a lot of cold air straight down into the RV, rather than running air through the vents where the heat from the roof warms the air a bit.
    3. Another big improvement is adding Reflectix to several windows. This is a heat reflecting insulation that is cut to fit. We have put this product on our west facing windows as well as on other seldom used windows.
    4. The next thing we have done is install curtains the width of the rig behind the driver’s/passenger’s seats, creating a sort of vestibule. This keeps the cool air from the a/c concentrated in our living room and kitchen and helps trap the warm air from opening the front door in the front of the rig. There’s around  a 5 degree difference between the driving area and the living room.
    5. We are running a couple of electric fans that keep the air moving. One of the fans is an oscillating tower that makes a nice difference.
    6. Finally, as long as the hot wind isn’t blowing too hard, in the afternoons we leave the awning extended on the curb side of the rig. This shades the west side of the motorhome and keeps the walls from heating up.

We know that the best RV summer solution is moving to a cooler spot. However, there are times when that isn’t possible and “all the above” does help us stay comfortable.

So what are your tips for weathering summer heat and humidity in a RV?

Reflecting on our 2019 Adventure

grscott
Click on the map for details

Our 2019 Adventure was our first year in our 2005 Safari Cheetah diesel pusher motorhome. Traveling in the motorhome as opposed to the 5th wheel presented a bit of a learning curve for us. We got the Cheetah in January and put a lot of effort getting comfortable on the “camper side” of the rig. However, when we started traveling in April (and in spite of our having taken a few shake down cruises in it) we began finding mechanical issues that needed attention. Not only that, but we had a few mishaps that added to the list of needed fixes. We worked our way through them as we traveled and finally felt we had resolved most of problems.

Over all we drove the motorhome just over 4200 miles, visiting 31 campgrounds in 17 states. Our longest move day was 305 miles but our average move was just 136 miles.

Our winter stay was a bit longer than usual. Our year started and ended at Green Caye RV Park in Dickinson, Texas – 150 days total for the year. This isn’t anything close to being our favorite park, but it is near friends and family (and doctors) so it is a reasonable winter landing spot for us.

Our Thousand Trails membership continues to be a good investment for us. This year we spent 154 nights at Thousand Trails campgrounds in six states.

Our favorite campgrounds, though, remain Corps of Engineers campgrounds. Our America the Beautiful pass makes these great campgrounds a real bargain for us.

One of the highlights of the year for us was having our family join us at Hershey, PA Thousand Trails. We had a great time visiting all the sights of the Hershey-Lancaster-Gettysburg area. It was especially fun sharing with them some of our favorite attractions in the area – places like Jiggers in Mt Gretna and the Bird In Hand Farmer’s Market.

The other highlight of our year was celebrating our 50th Wedding Anniversary at Niagara Falls.  We celebrated all week, exploring the area everywhere from the beautiful Gorge to taking a boat ride through locks on the Erie Canal.  We saved our day at the Falls for the actual date of our anniversary and then went out for an excellent meal after a busy day at the Falls.

In a couple of weeks I’ll finish the year with an expense report – admittedly, it has been a pretty expensive year. Still, as you can see, we got a lot of bang for our buck!

2019 – Lake Conroe, TX Thousand Trails

grscott


We’ve stayed at Lake Conroe Thousand Trails near Conroe, TX several times and I’ve written several reviews of the place. Rather than rehash previous reviews I’m going to focus on just the new section (Section B) which is near the entry gate. It seems strange to us to be set up in a nice campground loop that we remember as a big, unused field. Even now new construction continues as vacation cottages are being built adjacent to the new Loop. There’s a lot to like about this section. The roads are very good and the campsites are all concrete, including a large concrete patio on each site. There are several pull through sites in addition to nice, easy access back in sites. As you can guess this new area of the campground is quite popular and sites in it don’t stay vacant for long.

Still, there are some things you might want to know about “B Loop.” As nice as the sites look, several are rather sloped. Pay attention to the back in sites closest to the big retaining wall. The sites aren’t all sloped, but some motorhomes had tires a considerable distance off the ground as people tried to get level. People in 5th wheels can get by better than those in longer motorhomes, but some have considerable piles of blocks under their jacks. On the other hand we were backed into a beautiful site on the north side of the section and got level front to back without much effort. I wouldn’t even try some of the other sites.

The only other thing to think about is that the new section is a ways from the Activity Center, the pool, and especially the lake. If you have children who want to spend time at the basketball, tennis, and mini-golf facilities you might be happier in a campsite closer to the center of the campground. In that case, the real plus of the new section for you is that there are more sites available in sections of the campground closer to the recreation facilities.