Friday, October 28, 2005
1st Camping Trial! (& It Was One!)
Completed LazyDays driving school (see last article).....
Duchess and I loaded into the 33 ft. coach and headed up I-4 in Florida from Tampa to a campground just West of Disney's wonderful establishment.
This was a "90 day free membership" type of deal in a campground company which wanted us to part with half a thou per year for "free" camping at their campgrounds East of the Mississippi......
The events of the 2 days there were not pretty.
Let me say 1st, we had some problems of our own. New to the camping thing we had yet to attach our "Toad" (small towed vehicel for local travel). That meant we were basically local for the entire time....no driving off to a restaurant or to sightsee in the area.
However, for a test flight to try a campground we were less than impressed. The site we chose (you take whatever you like from the availables), was large and easy to access. The hook up of water, sewer, electric went surprisingly well considering we were literally doing it for the 1st time with equipment we had just purchased. It all worked well.
The problems: Electric within the campground was on and off frequently. That meant we went on battery, or fired our generator when the power left. The electric to the water system also failed twice, leaving us with little to no water pressure. We switched to onboard water supply.
The problems were not limited to the amenities of the site. We walked up to view the putt-putt golf course which was nicely placed among trees and bushes. It was also overgrown with weeds, and the mats for the course floor were old, wet and in bad repair.
The club house was a small building with one lone coke machine where for the price of $1 you too could own a diet or regular drink. They served meals but mostly on the weekends. The much promoted wireless net available there (according to maps, written material, etc.) was described to us by a ranger as "dead for the past year".
We stayed two nights and pulled up stakes to head home on Friday. We missed the sales pitch, but may yet give them another chance at a 2nd park...just to make sure we are not being picky.
The coach was marvelous, and the training given by LazyDays, and their guide thru our unit was invaluable. We both felt we knew how to operate the various systems, and we had a nice checklist for both setup and departure to insure we did all the right things in the right order and didn't do one of the stupid things like driving away with our TV antenna up, or our sewer still connected.
Then home to park our baby until we can spring free for another weekend.
Duke
|
Duchess and I loaded into the 33 ft. coach and headed up I-4 in Florida from Tampa to a campground just West of Disney's wonderful establishment.
This was a "90 day free membership" type of deal in a campground company which wanted us to part with half a thou per year for "free" camping at their campgrounds East of the Mississippi......
The events of the 2 days there were not pretty.
Let me say 1st, we had some problems of our own. New to the camping thing we had yet to attach our "Toad" (small towed vehicel for local travel). That meant we were basically local for the entire time....no driving off to a restaurant or to sightsee in the area.
However, for a test flight to try a campground we were less than impressed. The site we chose (you take whatever you like from the availables), was large and easy to access. The hook up of water, sewer, electric went surprisingly well considering we were literally doing it for the 1st time with equipment we had just purchased. It all worked well.
The problems: Electric within the campground was on and off frequently. That meant we went on battery, or fired our generator when the power left. The electric to the water system also failed twice, leaving us with little to no water pressure. We switched to onboard water supply.
The problems were not limited to the amenities of the site. We walked up to view the putt-putt golf course which was nicely placed among trees and bushes. It was also overgrown with weeds, and the mats for the course floor were old, wet and in bad repair.
The club house was a small building with one lone coke machine where for the price of $1 you too could own a diet or regular drink. They served meals but mostly on the weekends. The much promoted wireless net available there (according to maps, written material, etc.) was described to us by a ranger as "dead for the past year".
We stayed two nights and pulled up stakes to head home on Friday. We missed the sales pitch, but may yet give them another chance at a 2nd park...just to make sure we are not being picky.
The coach was marvelous, and the training given by LazyDays, and their guide thru our unit was invaluable. We both felt we knew how to operate the various systems, and we had a nice checklist for both setup and departure to insure we did all the right things in the right order and didn't do one of the stupid things like driving away with our TV antenna up, or our sewer still connected.
Then home to park our baby until we can spring free for another weekend.
Duke
