Campground Review: Hersheypark Camping Resort

City/State:                            
Hershey, PA
Season: 
Year Round
Rates (as of 2014):               
Full hookups with cable: $45-$65/night; full hookups without cable: $40-$60/night; electric and water only: $35-$55/night; tent and no-hookup sites: $35-$55
Website:                               
 http://www.hersheyparkcampingresort.com/

The Hershey characters visiting the campground for kid photo ops.

One camping lesson I'm learning fast is that any campground with "Resort" as part of its name has some size issues. Hersheypark Camping Resort is the second "resort" campground we've visited in our years of camping. It has a lot to offer, but also has some drawbacks that affected our stay. In the end, we loved this campground and we had a great time, making some great memories while camping there.

Making Reservations
If you plan to stay at Hersheypark Camping Resort in your tent, R.V., or in one of its cabins, plan ahead--way ahead. Due to work scheduling, I couldn't commit to a date until three months prior to our vacation and that wasn't enough time to book a full-hookup site. We had another camper tell us they reserved their site a year in advance. I'm not sure you absolutely need to make the call that far ahead, but you sure will need more than three months if you're hoping for a full-hookup site for more than a couple days, especially if you'll be staying over a summer weekend.

You'll make your reservation by phone, but the website does include a contact email address if you have questions or want general information. Speaking of its website: It's awesome. You'll find just about everything you ever wanted to know about not only the campground, but what's going on in Hershey and surrounding cities. You'll need to make a deposit at the time of reservation and then pay your full rental cost one month prior to your visit.

Initial Assessment

Taken from the playground, overlooking the creek and community fire pit.

We arrived on a Friday at the end of July and were greeted right at the entrance by employees who confirmed our reservation, gave us our map and schedules, and pointed us in the direction of our site. It does not appear that this is the case for weekday checkins; you'll have to exit your vehicle and check in at the registration office.

Hersheypark Camping Resort is beautiful. As you're entering the campground, you see on the right rows of Class A motorhomes, Fifth Wheels and Travel Trailers. This space is called Carrousel Circle. To the left beyond that is a large patio with some tables, three pools, flowering shrubs and the building that houses the store, registration office, arcade, laundry facility and restrooms/showers. A tent yard, a little further down, sits off the right. Gravel roads split off in all directions beyond a small bridge straddling a small creek. 

Beautiful landscaping on our way to the store.

Immediately, you see that Hersheypark Camping Resort is clean and well maintained all over. It's a large campground with a lot to explore and we couldn't wait to get to it. 

Oh, by the way, you'll also realize pretty quickly that the campground is situated right next to railroad tracks. Trains barrel through at all times of night and day. If you're a light sleeper, you'll want to check the map for a site as far away from the tracks as possible and, again, you'll want to book that special request far in advance of your stay. Note that, at this time, the sites furthest from the railroad tracks are either no-hookup or water-electric only, but some are located along the river.

The Campgrounds

Cabins, cabins, everywhere! If you're not into "roughing it" or even bringing your hotel room with you (that's how I see our travel trailer, anyway), Hersheypark Camping Resort has many cabins for rent. Its Deluxe Cabins have indoor plumbing with a private bathroom and shower. Everyone else has access to at least five bathroom/shower houses. Since we ended up on a water/electric-only site, we had to use the campground's bathrooms as much as possible to avoid dumping the black tank. Hersheypark Camping Resorts has some of the cleanest campground bathrooms I've encountered in my years of camping. They even had a large stall that accommodated me and both of my boys. I have no complaints.

The campground is large. We took many leisurely walks up and down the roads both day and night. It's nicely wooded and, aside from the trains, it really does feel like camping when you're at Hersheypark Camping Resort. 

Camp Sites

Campsite 85.

When we pulled up to our campsite (#85), we didn't think our R.V. would fit. At the back of the site was a small hill that lead up to additional sites and another road. I assured my husband that I gave them the full, bumper-to-bumper length of our R.V. (28 feet) when I made the reservation. So we decided to give it a go. After all, they wouldn't have given us a site that our trailer wouldn't fit in, right?

The roads are narrow. To back our R.V. into the site, the campers across the street volunteered to move their vehicles for us. We ended up doing the same favor for other campers as they arrived. The R.V. fit perfectly in that site, and we were happy with its width. In fact, we had nice shade on this site and enough room for four adults and three kids to hang out around the campfire, as my brother and his family came to spend a couple days with us.

Campsite 175

A walk around the campground showed that not all sites were as wide as ours. In fact, before we left Hersheypark Camping Resort, we transferred to a full-hookup site in Carrousel Circle (#175) and had very little room for camping activities like making s'mores. A tree on the lot made it impossible to open our awning all the way, but with some creative arrangement, we were able to get our tables set up outside so that we could at least eat out there. We did build some fires, but we were almost on the the road to do it. This was not the case for all sites in the Carrousel Circle, however, as we walked around to compare. Some were quite spacious. It seemed to depend where the trees were on each lot.

Amenities

Pools as taken from the playground.

With two small children, you don't hang out at the campsite much anyway. Which is why campground amenities are almost more important than site size at the moment. We frequented the game room, playgrounds and pools when we weren't out doing touristy things in Hershey.

Kiddie pool.

The pools are awesome. Although one of the two larger pools was closed, there was plenty of space for campers in the one large and one kiddie pool that were open. There are also lifeguards on duty and kids are required to wear life vests. We always take our own to pools, but the campground does have stock of different sizes. Kids under a certain height aren't permitted in the pool
area without the vest, and parents must be present. Our boys loved the kiddie pool that had a depth of about 1- to 1.5-feet.

They also loved the playgrounds, which included both jungle gyms and swing sets. We visited those at least twice a day. All equipment was sturdy and clean. The campground also includes sand volleyball courts, a basketball court, shuffleboard courts and horseshoe pits. And let's not forget the creek, bustling with small fish and strewn with rocks the kids had a ton of fun trying to walk across.

Playground

As for Wi-Fi, service is pretty typical for campgrounds. Hersheypark Camping Resort had a couple of connections we could use, but they performed about the same. If you really need to get to something online, stay up late or wake up early to do it. Again, this is pretty standard for campground wireless service; I've yet to stay some place where the Wi-Fi was good enough to Facebook or check the bank account during the day. We always have to rely on our mobile carrier data plan for that stuff.

Arcade

What Hersheypark Camping Resort lacked in campsite space, it more than made up for with scheduled activities. The Hersheypark characters visited, they had a band play some fun instrumental music, and they had community movies outside with great children's titles like "Rio" and "Up." You'll enjoy crafts and other activities throughout every day of your stay, if you so choose to participate.

Local Attractions
Hershey is a tourist town. There's a lot to do and see. Hersheypark Camping Resort provides a free bus shuttle to Hersheypark amusement park and Hershey Chocolate World. Since our boys are small and we, therefore, couldn't justify the ticket price for Hersheypark ($62 per adult and $40 for our 4-year-old). If you do plan to go to Hersheypark, however, I recommend buying your tickets at the campground. They are slightly discounted and get you additional admission the day before you want to go. So, if your tickets are for Saturday, those same tickets will get you into the park Friday night for an additional few hours of fun. We did go to Hershey Chocolate World for the free tour and chocolate sample and to partake in some of its other activities. 

The chocolate factory tour is awesome. I was really impressed, as were my boys. They made me ride it twice and not for the free candy at the end. They genuinely enjoyed the singing cows and learning how chocolate is made. Me, too. So impressed, in fact, I considered the $15 souvenir family photo totally worth the cost to keep that place going. 

Chocolate World is essentially just a huge Hershey store. We picked up our share of mementos and sugar, for sure. We wanted to make our own chocolate bar, but there was a 3.5-hour wait and there was no way my boys would make it that long without a nap. So we picked up some take-home kits that ended up being disappointing activities, but delicious snacks nonetheless. You can also watch a 4D movie, take a chocolate tasting tour, and eat at the food court. Milkshakes were good.

We also visited ZooAmerica. I don't know - maybe we're spoiled by the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo back at home, but we weren't impressed with ZooAmerica at all. It only took about an hour or so to walk through the whole zoo. Wow. We thought maybe we made a wrong turn or something, but, the map confirmed we saw everything. We stopped for lunch and was also disappointed by the food selection and cost. Really, the only thing that stood out at this zoo was the funny four-man edutainment show that took place while we ate our lunch. They were creepy-cool like The Wiggles. I couldn't help but want to spare the planet of plastic bottles at the end, in a happy way.

Not far from Hershey are the Indian Echo Caverns. This was a great activity for kids, although, maybe not kids as young as ours (2 and 4). You're not allowed to touch anything in the caverns and most of the event is a verbal presentation about the rock formations and history of the site. Very interesting and cool for us, but the kids were a little bored when we stopped for too long. Fortunately, the baby fell asleep in dad's arms for half of the tour and I was able to entertain the preschooler by pointing to random lights strewn high on ledges. If you do plan to visit, print the $1 off admission coupon from the website.

Outside the actual caverns were more appropriate activities for younger children. There were a few animal pens where the kids can feed goats and chickens, and a playground that keeps them entertained while you wait for your tour to begin. At Gem Mill Junction, the kids can search for gemstones or fossils in bags of sand. We paid about $16 for two gem stone bags, which seems like a lot to me, but the kids were really proud of themselves for finding those rocks.


Other things in Hershey that we didn't have time to do:

• Antique Automobile Club of America Museum - This automobile museum was recommended to me before taking the trip and was on my "possible" list of things to do. We just never got around to it. My boys love anything with a motor in it, but they seemed happy enough walking around the campground and checking out all of the R.V.s.  

• Hershey Gardens - We also heard this was a really nice place, but didn't fit it in.

• Hershey Trolley Works -You can take this seasonal 60-minute tour of Hershey on an old-fashioned trolley.

• Dutch Wonderland - Although we didn't visit this Lancaster, PA, park, several campground patrons recommended it to us while we were chatting. It was about 45 minutes from the campground, however, so we didn't make this trip.

Conclusion
When planning a summer vacation for your family, Hersheypark Camping Resort is a great destination whether you plan to stay for a week or weekend. There's a lot to do around town and at the campground. Just be sure to book your site well in advance of your trip and, if campsite space is important, be sure to ask about site depth and width before finalizing your reservation.

Finding a Good, Free Online Trip Planner

Yes, I have our whole summer trip entered into a Google Drive spreadsheet, but it occurs to me that there may be a tool out there that can help with road trip planning. Instead of using multiple tools to plan my trips, maybe there's one that can do it all...something with a map that also provides a place to store attraction and budget information. Even in the digital age, it is possible to end up somewhere GPS can't find you. So, maybe it's not a bad idea to have the trip plotted and printed beforehand, just in case. And, you know, it would be really nice to find a free trip planner that also stored attraction information for each of our destinations.

I need a trip planner that:

• Plots multiple stops with driving directions from each location to the next
• Stores local attraction information, including links and cost
• Prints a clean, readable version of the entire trip
• Saves the plan for future reference and updating because I doubt I'll be able to input everything in one sitting
• Is free (if possible).

Now that I'm thinking more about it, it would be nice to have a tool that tracks travel time, too. That way, we'll know if we leave the house at 8:00 A.M., we'll arrive at our first location by noon, or whatever the case may be.

Here's a review of some free trip planners that I sampled that you may find useful in planning your family road trip.

My Scenic Drives

While not the most attractive interface, My Scenic Drives allows you to plan and create sharable road trips. Add multiple stops to your trip, each with its own associated activities and accommodations. An activity can be a place of interest, non-driving transportation, or your own custom-labeled event. You can add details such as cost and how long you plan to do the activity. You can even import information from a vCard.

Set up details about your trip in the Settings section, including your vehicle type, trip start date and preferences for distance, time and driving speed. If you're looking for accommodations or activities within a certain mileage of a destination, use the Distance Circle feature in the Map menu. My Scenic Drives also comes with other mapping tools, including reverse routes, optimization choices (for distance, time or stops), and views of the Continental U.S., Canada or your full road trip. Add a weather or panoramic picture layer to see what's going on at or near your destinations.

When you're finished plotting your stops, destinations and activities, you can not only save and print your road trip, but share it via email, Facebook or Twitter, and export it to GPS or iCalendar.

When you get past the interface and take the time to learn all of the features available on My Scenic Drives, it has everything on my wish list and more. I really like this tool and plan to use it in the future.

Planapple

Planapple has just about everything you need for vacation planning. Start by naming your trip, entering the first destination and setting the trip date range. You will have to create an account, but can login with Facebook, Twitter or Google+. This tool includes an optional addon button you can drag to your browser's bookmarks bar to add websites to your trip.

To add items to your trip, you must first add them to your Notebook. You can do so through the browser button, by searching the business name or by entering its website URL. Once all of your stops, destinations and attractions are entered into your notebook, you're ready to setup your itinerary.

What's really great about Planapple? Well, it can be collaborative. If you are planning trips with friends and family, they can log in and add to the trip "binder." I wish I could get my husband to collaborate on the trip planning, but--alas--I am the designated family road trip planner, so I'm on my own.

Not only can you print your full itinerary, but you can send the trip link to your smartphone via SMS. You'll need the mobile app to access this functionality. if you don't want to install it, just access the Planapple website through your device's Web browser. 

Other cool features:

• It integrates with TripIt so you can import existing itineraries.
• It integrates with Google Calendar and iCalendar to export your itinerary.
• It includes a discussion forum for your tripmates to share ideas and discuss trip-related topics.
• It includes customizable notebook categories to allow you to organize resources however you want.

There are two downsides to Planapple:

• The "Please donate" nag popups every five actions or so. Perhaps after my trip this year, I'll donate to this project because it really is a great tool!
• It doesn't print or provide driving directions, so you'll still need one of the other trip planners or map/driving direction tools (see below) to print those.

RoadTrippers

RoadTrippers is an attractive site. It's not just a trip planner, but a destination information and travel guide site. Getting started with your road trip plan is as easy as entering the start and end points and clicking "Go." Use the lookup when you don't know the exact address of your destination. There are some issues with the way it plans your trips, however.

First, the only preferences you can define for your trip is whether or not you want to use highways. We like to avoid tolls for our destination-to-destination travels because traveling with an R.V. means ridiculously high tolls.

Map attractions, lodging, restaurants and other activities with available buttons. Some activity categories allow furthering filtering. Set a distance from your travel route to see which attractions are close enough to justify detours. Click a map marker to learn more about the activity or attractions, and then choose whether you want to add it to your trip or bucket list for a future trip.

When you add it to your trip, RoadTrippers puts it in your destination list. You can drag-and-drop destiniations to reorganize the list and set dates for each. This is a feature I really didn't care much for. While it can be useful to enter activities into your itinerary, this tool makes you add your lodging site/campground back in after every activity, especially if you want an accurate fuel cost estimate and driving directions to your next destination. I like to keep my activities as a sidebar or sub-stop to the main lodging destinations, and reentering the campground over and over again was a pain. Plus, if you plan on taking public transportation or other means of getting to the activity, RoadTrippers has no way to account for that while still including the activity.

And, I just have to say that the auto-save feature on this site made me crazy as I was creating my road trip. I work fast. Auto-save was constantly canceling out my action while it saved my last.


Other cool features:

• You define your miles-per-gallon and RoadTrippers estimates the fuel cost for your trip.
• The printable itinerary is graphically appealing with activity photos.
• You can share your road trip through Facebook, Twitter, Google+, email, or by embedding it in a website or blog.
• It provides printable stop-by-stop driving directions.
• It offers mobile apps so that you can take your trip with you.
  

Furkot Road Trip Planner

Furkot Road Trip Planner offers a quick-start form wherein your enter the start and end destinations, although its type-ahead lookup in the wizard seems limited when searching business names. You can continue through the setup wizard or go straight to your map to work. The wizard lets you define your start and end dates, whether you're staying at hotels or campgrounds, and your modes of transportation.

When you get to your map, you'll find that the destination and activity search tool is more robust. What didn't work for me in the wizard, works inside the tool. Even better is that the destination information shows current weather. You can also specify how many days you'll be at a particular lodging or how many hours you plan to participate in an activity. Each destination also includes space to record reservation confirmation information and other notes.

When it comes to showing what's near you, Furkot has buttons for all the usual categories: museums, sports, and parks. You can filter in more closely by type, too. The tool offers scenic byways in case you're looking to take a ride or walk. You can also access its library of travel guides and access deals and discounts for the activities you're viewing. You can also add your own activities as stops in your trip. When you mark them as "pass through" stops, the tool automatically gets you back to your lodging. No reentry like you have to do for RoadTrippers.


Other cool features:

• In addition to a satellite view, you can see a topographical view of your map.
• Furkot does let you specify whether you want to avoid tolls or highways, and to set other trip preferences.
• Export your trip to various formats, including iCalendar, GPS and CSV (spreadsheets for Excel or Google Docs).
• Share your trip via email or publish it to the Furkot community.

Map/Driving Direction Websites
Never underestimate the value of mapping/driving direction websites for help planning your road trips. Here are a few that have features worth mentioning:

• MapQuest Route Planner - Enter multiple destination points for simple driving directions. Customize your route by selecting options for the quickest or shortest distance and avoiding things like tolls and ferries. One nice feature of MapQuest is that you can enter your vehicle information to estimate your fuel cost. 
• Google Maps - I've used Google Maps as part of my trip planning for a while now. It's so valuable when you're looking for attractions, lodging or other venues around your destination. It lets you save points of interest to your own sharable maps, as well. Google Maps has a ton of features (street view and search to name a couple) that make it a great planning tool, but not necessarily a great trip planner.
• Rand McNally - This map-maker has an online map application that will allow you to plot multiple stops. However, it doesn't appear to have the same business lookup functionality you'll get with MapQuest or Google Maps when you don't have an exact address for a business. Plot gasoline stations, restaurants, ATMs, and hotels for your route. You can print or email your route, but you can't save it.

Conclusion
The right road trip planner for you depends upon your personal preferences and needs. Personally, I like My Scenic Drive despite its minimal graphical appeal. Planapple is a close second. My Scenic Drives is a great organization and planning tool, but I wish it had some features available in the others, such as the browser add-on for bookmarking attractions and searchable travel guides. The other tools all have plusses and minuses, and I wouldn't count any of them out, except maybe RoadTrippers because I just don't like the way it creates the destination and activity list. I hope these reviews help you find one that's right for you.

Campground Review: Kool Lakes Family Campground

Since the first camping trip of the season needs to be close to home in order to test the R.V. systems, we chose Kool Lakes Family Campground. And, as it turns out, it was a great choice. It is just 40 minutes away from our home in Cleveland and came recommended by a friend who belongs to a camping club. She assured me that Kool Lakes was a nice family campground with a big playground and other amenities for the kids. She wasn't kidding.

Here's our vacation video with pictures of all the sites and the campground. Since I've used some real music tracks as background music to the photo portions of my home movie, YouTube will not play it in all countries.

City/State: Garrettesville, OH
Season: Mid-April through October 15
Rates (as of 2014): Tent site with water and electric: $25/night; full-hookup sites: $30/night.
Website: (link)

Since the first camping trip of the season needs to be close to home in order to test the R.V. systems, we chose Kool Lakes Family Campground. And, as it turns out, it was a great choice. It is just 40 minutes away from our home in Cleveland and came recommended by a friend who belongs to a camping club. She assured me that Kool Lakes was a nice family campground with a big playground and other amenities for the kids. She wasn't kidding.
We were, however, a little disappointed that Kool Lakes wasn't fully operational by mid-May. The past winter was long, and, because I live just 40 minutes away from Kool Lakes, I have some sympathy and forgiveness for its owners. Sure, I'm really disappointed we didn't get to take the boys out on a boat and that the arcade games weren't all plugged in yet, but that just meant we spent an extra day hiking at Nelson Kennedy Ledges.

Initial Assessment

Kool Lakes Family Campground was easy to find, just minutes off of Route 422 in Garrettesville. The main office/store is upfront and the staff was friendly. We received a key code for the main gate that got us into the campground for the duration of our stay. Through that gate, we passed a pavilion and the large playground on the left, with the swimming lake behind it. The dirt round followed around the side of the lake. We noticed a small beach between the lake and the playground, big enough for a few sandcastles, but not sunbathing. Past that, there was another, larger lake for fishing and boating, and then a small bridge over a thin, shallow creek.

We were impressed by the size of our campsite (E-23). Even with the picnic table, fire ring and our fully extended awning, we didn't feel like our neighbor was part of our site. I have been to campgrounds where you feel a little gross eating so close to someone else's sewer hookups, but we didn't even come close to our neighbor's at Kool Lakes.

The Campgrounds
I have two gripes about Kool Lakes. The first, of course, was that the boats weren't ready to row. The second gripe: the Wi-Fi service was terrible. I could barely check my email. Since we were camping and enjoying other activities most of the time, it really only mattered in the evening when the kids were sleeping and I wanted to post some pictures to my social network. I know that's a first-world problem, but techno-junkies may want to prepare for a little withdrawal. I had to wait until we were back home to post my pictures, but I survived.
Kool Lakes has a big ball field just waiting for a game of baseball, kickball or football. We took our football over and played with the boys. The field was a little soggy from the previous rainy week, but we had a lot of space to play.

There's a shower house with toilets right at the edge of the field for those who don't want to run all the way back to their sites. I went in to get pictures, but we were parked right across the dirty road, so I didn't use these facilities. They were average. I've certainly been in worse at campgrounds, but some better, too. Inside the main office/store, the ladies room was in pretty bad shape: an overflowing bucket under the sink and dank walls. But the new small restroom near the large pavilion, playground and beach was brand new and beautiful.
Back by the playground later in the day, my preschooler broke down social barriers by asking an older boy on the basketball court if he could play, too. Both boys bounced and giggled around the large playground, up both climbing structures and down all the slides. There was a large swingset with six or so swings, monkey bars and rocking animals, too. My boys did it all twice a day, at least.

What the boys appreciated most of all at Kool Lakes, however, were the tadpoles and snails in the swimming lake. Upon waking up, they asked if we were going to catch tadpoles today. They'd ask again sometime right after dinner. And, we did. It was a great learning experience and this proud momma loved seeing her boys explore the natural world.

Although we didn't get to take the boats out because the lake and boats weren't ready, Kool Lakes does offer them for $2 per hour. The snack bar, located inside the store, has a simple menu and dining area. On warm days, you'll appreciate a few scoops of ice cream, which the girl behind the counter told us was new this summer. She also let us know about the cardboard boat race later this summer, but we'll probably be trying out some new campgrounds. There's no reason you can't check the events calendar if you're interested in fishing contests, yard sales, holiday parties and similar events.

Local Attractions
One of the appeals of Kool Lakes Family Campground is its remote location. It's close enough to a main road in case you need something, but it's far enough away from the city to reap the benefits of nature. That means there wasn't much more to do than catch tadpoles and snails, and, sometimes, that's just what you need.

The tadpoles weren't our only connection to nature. Nelson Kennedy Ledges is a literal two minutes down the road. I had never been to Nelson Ledges (as I've always heard of it), but I do enjoy family walks. My memory of every mention of Nelson Ledges involves some great party that had once taken place there. And, Ledges? I wasn't sure what to expect with two young boys in tow. We parked our truck and strolled across the street into the woods. A sign provided path color-coding: white was toddler-friendly and red would be the worst parents in the world throwing their baby over a gorge. That's how I interpreted it, anyway.

Although we stumbled onto the blue and red paths here and there, we had a wonderful walk.We trekked through some muddy muck from yesterday's rain and found a little waterfall or two. We looked down across little wooden bridges with no railings. The guys picked out walking sticks and we walked and climbed and talked and took pictures.

We heard a bigger waterfall and could see it from above. It certainly looked like we could make our way to the bottom, so we tried to backtrack to where we climbed up. We stopped paying attention to the paint on the trees because none of it seemed especially hard for us. My husband and I took turns with the baby on sketchy paths, sometimes handing him up or down or across (they were not wide gorges, I tell you). We walked through small, cool caverns and down rocky hillsides toward the sound. A little wood deck took us out to the bottom of the waterfall, where we took a family photo.

Our second day at Nelson Kennedy Ledges was even better. We were already familiar with the terrain and took some different paths. We played with leaves and sticks and moss, we looked at bugs, and we looked at the trees growing down the sides of the ledges. We collected a couple rocks. We went to see the waterfall again. The boys loved it.

Conclusion
Kool Lakes, although a little behind on its season set up, provided an attractive campground with spacious sites, relatively clean restrooms and shower houses, and planned activities. Its big playground, lakes and local state park made it a great place to spend a few days with the family.

Campground Review: Pellicer Creek Campground

City/State: St. Augustine, FL
Season: Year round
Rates (as of 2014): Full hookup sites (water, sewer, 30-amp electric): $40; 50-amp electric service sites are $45
Website: http://www.pellicercreekcampground.com/






Pellicer Creek is beautiful. Having the opportunity to see and take photos of this awesome black-water creek, was worth missing some of the family-friendly amenities that other campgrounds offer. Besides, we planned on taking our boys to the St. Augustine beach for their first look at the ocean, so we didn't really need a lot going on at the camp site.

Initial Assessment
We chose Pellicer Creek because it participates in the Passport America camping club, which means the nightly rate was only $20. It was also close to the beach and the highway--two big pluses when you're traveling cross country during the family vacation. Pellicer Creek was easy to find and peaceful. In fact, aside from the owners, I don't think we saw any of the other campers during our overnight stay.

This campground is small (only about 30 sites) and doesn't have all the amenities you'll find at a lot of others. For example, since there are no on-site restrooms, Pellicer Creek only accommodates RVs equipped with their own. My first impression was that this was no place for kids. If we weren't in St. Augustine and heading for the beach, I would have felt bad for bringing the kids to a campground where there was nothing outside our camper to do.

The Campground
Despite its small size and minimal amenities, Pellicer Creek is one of the most beautiful places we were able to see on our trip from Ohio to Florida and back. There is a quaint swing overlooking a small dock. Both provide an excellent view of the sheet of black water. The dock is open for canoers and boaters who want a closer look at the creek.

Before we headed out, I took the boys down near the water, and we rocked on the swing and absorbed the tranquility. Then, we walked around the campground's paths a few times to stretch our legs and check the place out. We stopped at the main building, where we chased some little lizards inside. Pellicer Creek does offer a laundry room and large hang-out space behind its office. Patrons can enjoy free wireless Internet and cable television during their stay.

Local Attractions

The owner was great at providing minimal-turn directions to a public beach. We couldn't wait to take our boys for their first view of the ocean, and we could not have picked a better place to do that. St. Augustine beaches are beautiful and big. There was enough space to settle our family in to play in the sand and water without imposing on other families' activities. It also allowed us to keep a bit of distance from the edge of the water for this nervous mom's peace of mind.

This Florida town has much more to offer than beaches, even if we didn't have the time to do everything. Pellicer Creek is close to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, Ripley's Believe It or Not museum, outlet malls and other attractions. It's also just about 45 minutes to Daytona Beach, just in case you want to head down there for some races.

Conclusion
When you're looking for an inexpensive place to park your RV while you enjoy all that St. Augustine has to offer, take a look at Pellicer Creek. When you return from a day of doing this and that, and eating there, and rounding up the family for that, the relaxing atmosphere at this campground may be just what your family needs to get back to center.

Camground Review: New River Campground

City/State: Gauley Bridge, WV
Season: Year round
Rates (as of 2014): Primitive tent: $26 per night; Full hookup sites (water, sewer, 30-amp electric): $31 rear or $34 riverfront for up to four people
Website: http://www.newrivercampground.com/





On our first cross-country summer trip in the RV, our very first night was spent at the New River Campground in Gauley Bridge, WV, about 5 hours from our home in Cleveland. Despite being a bit off the freeway and not participating in our camping club, I originally chose New River Campground because of its proximity to the Cathedral Falls. My 3-year-old son loves waterfalls, so I figured this was a great way to kick off our first official family vacation.

Initial Assessment
Our GPS took us through a small town along Route 60. We had a few eyebrow-raising moments through residential areas as our 26-foot travel trailer and hitch creaked and screeched at the sharp turns and quick, steep ups and downs over railroad crossings. Although we were staring at the GPS as we neared our destination, the sign came out of nowhere as we rounded a corner and passed a gas station. Unable to make an immediate stop or fast turn, we overshot the driveway and had to travel up the mountain a bit to find a place to turn around. Fortunately, there was a small drive that we could back into to turn around and go back down the hill. Otherwise, that would have been a long, long trek because there was nothing but two lanes and guardrails winding through the hills.

When we did arrive, the staff was friendly. We backed into our site and got to work hooking up our water and sewer hoses. The riverfront site was beautiful. We were level with the New River. A big tree shaded our site from the river's edge. Across the river, treetops climbed upward along the hills. Looking up or down the river meant more tree-covered rolling hills. We couldn't wait to see the Cathedral Falls, and it was everything we hoped.

The Campgrounds
New River Campground offers typical amenities: Wi-Fi, small playground, dump station, propane and store. It was clean and quiet all around. Although we stayed that one day, we had absolutely no complaints about anything, except that the playground equipment was covered by dead bugs. I suppose you'll have that in a campground next to the river.

Seriously, when we woke up the next morning and I looked out our RV window, all I could think was: "This is a spectacular start to our cross-country trip." I cannot emphasize how refreshing it was to wake up to something other than the sounds of tires on pavement, the television or lawnmowers. To look out the window and see ducks floating down the river. Of course, we had to dip into our stash of hotdog buns so that the boys could lure the ducks to our shore.

After breakfast, we took a walk to the edge of the campground and back. There was a huge boulder sticking out into the water a little ways down, so I took the boys out there and we tossed sticks and stones in. Then, we packed up and continued on in our journey.

Cathedral Falls and More

Cathedral Falls was a 3-minute drive from the campground, with a small parking lot for convenience. Despite toting a whiny 3-year-old and a just-turned-1-year-old and our DSLR camera, we decided to climb the rocks and water to get closer to the falls. It was worth it. The boys had so much fun playing in the running water and the falls were incredibly beautiful.

There are actually some other falls nearby that we didn't have a chance to see: Kanawha Falls. Also, the New River Gorge Bridge looks like a site to see, but we didn't have time to stop there either. The New River Campground website provides a list of local attractions.

Conclusion
If you're traveling through this part of the country, definitely stop by New River Campground and the nearby Cathedral Falls. Whether you're in a tent or an RV, you'll get the full feel of camping as you gaze around the beautiful landscape.

Saving and Paying Our Way Across the Country

As I spent more time on RV message boards, fantasize about retiring on the open road, I was excited to learn that there are plenty of ways to manage money so as to cover your essentials. It was nice to realize, through all of this daydreaming, that I can apply some of this to saving for our summer trips until, you know, we can retire.

Free Overnight Parking
First, take advantage of FREE. While traveling to your next destination, certain businesses allow you to "camp" overnight in their lots, including Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Sam's Club, Costco, Pilot Flying J and Kmart. I put "camp" in quotation marks because an RVers' code of conduct applies when taking advantage of free overnighting.

• Rule one: Get permission. Call ahead or get there in time to talk to the manager. Although this is not required, it is a courtesy that you should always give for their generous free lodging. 
• Rule two: Don't really camp. That means no awnings, lawn chairs or outside fires. Unless given specific permission, do not connect to electric or water, and keep your stay to a single night. 
• Rule three: Patronize the business in the morning. Pick up some essentials before hitting the road again.

Check out Overnight RV Parking for places to park and Frequently Asked Questions to keep you in compliance with the "code."

Free Camping on Public Land
FreeCampsites.net offers a database of free campgrounds and places where you can boondock, or dry camp (no hookups). Because some sites require permits, you'll need to plan out your trips. Most free sites have a time limit for how long you can stay, but there are some that allow for long-term stays. RV Camping on Public Lands has a more than adequate list of resources related to this topic and how you can locate public land for boondocking.

Workamping
While I don't expect this next tip to be useful until we actually retire, I plan to one day be a full-time workcamper. When an RVer workamps, he or she works off their site rental by performing tasks around the campgrounds. You hang out there for a month or so, and then move on to your next job. Trade-offs might also include discounted food or other perks. You contribute the skills you have, travel the country and get to live the dream. Wow. I can't wait.

Workamper News, an online magazine, has a lot of useful information about this retirement career, including webinars and forums.If you're ready to jump in, find jobs at WorkampingJobs.com, Work Camping (yeah, some spell it the correct way), and Work for RVers and Campers. While you're at that last site, check out its Bad Workamping Jobs: 10 Warning Signs from Negative Workamper Experiences article.


Freelance Your Skills
What I'm doing now is what I do best - writing. I contacted my old boss (current friend) and asked if she had any writing jobs to contract out. She's been throwing me a job every week or so for writing, PowerPoint template set up, locating images and other odd tasks.

To fill in the time between those jobs, I applied to and write for Demand Studios. Now, you'll read all kinds of pros and cons for writing for a company like Demand Studios, but, right now, there's only one pro that matters - extra money in my savings account for our trip. In one month, I pulled in an extra $500 writing short articles. Sure, I'm staying up late to do this work, but, when we're hitting the open road this summer, I know it will have been worth it.

There are, of course, plenty of freelance sites out there to help you find gigs, including eLance and Guru. Craigslist also had a lead for me, but I never actually needed the extra work since the above two jobs keep me busy at night.


Other Resources:
FreeCampgrounds.com: Resources
RV.net: Workamping Forum
CampingRoadTrip: How to Become a Workamper
Travels with the Blonde Coyote: Boondocking 101: How to Camp for Free in Beautiful Places

Planning Our First Road Trip

We have ahead of us a two-week drive from Cleveland, OH to Lantana, FL scheduled for mid-June. Being the planner that I am, I have created a full itinerary of our rest stops, camping stops, and activities all along the way. I'm not neurotic, however, so I have some backup tools lined up just in case things don't go quite as planned.

The Plan
Because we're traveling with two small children (Channing will be 11 months and Willie will be 3.5 years), we decided not to travel for more than about 2.5 hours at a time, or 5 hours in one day. So, we'll leave at a reasonable time Saturday morning, drive for about 2.5 hours, stop for lunch and potty breaks, then get back on the road and hit our first campground. Sunday, we'll do the same, but arrive at my brother-in-law's house in Columbia, SC, where we'll spend a few nights. Then, we'll ship off Wednesday morning on the same drive schedule, camp for the night, and then hit my brother's house in Florida the next day. After hanging out at the beach for a few days, we'll pack up and head back to Cleveland, stopping at a different campground each night until we make our way home. Our last stop will be a local dump station before we head home and clean up the RV.

The Tools
Fortunately for us planners, the Web is teaming with little digital tools to assist us with our neurosis -- I mean, planning. Here's a few that I used:

• Google Docs - Where I created the planning spreadsheet that would become my stop-by-stop itinerary. I called it my "Brother Trip 2013" and added the following columns to the first sheet: Date, Time, Action, Location, Cost and Notes. However, I ended up pasting additional information and alternate campgrounds in additional, unlabeled columns. Sheet two included my cost estimation and links for the tools I used.
• Free Map Tools: How Far Can I Travel - The plan is to stop to rest or camp or visit about every 2.5 hours, so I needed a tool that would show me the area I needed to look for stops. This did the job.
• Google Maps - This web application just gets better and better as time goes on (or I figure it out). First, since I could figure out the town where we needed to stop, I could use Google Maps to find campgrounds in that area. I could also use it to look for local attractions and get distances. The handiest, feature, however, is an ability to save locations to a map for sharing. I created attraction maps for Columbia and Lantana so that we had things to do. I shared the Columbia map with my sister-in-law who is helping us figure out what we want to do.
• AllStays Interstate Exit Guide - For our lunch and pit stops, the online AllStays directory allows you to zoom in on the gas stations, restaurants and parks along each interstate, browseable by state. AllStays also provides a series of smartphone apps that make for great "Plan B" options should your plans not play out on your trip.
• RVForum - Never underestimate the value of advice you can get from people who have been doing this for a lot longer than you. Among important things I learned at this forum is that we are going to need a driveway camping "trip" so that we can run into the house for things we forget, followed by a local campground near a Wal-mart for the same reason before he hit the road. Also, there are companies out there like Wal-mart and Cracker Barrel that have no problem letting RVers park for a while or for the night. I never would have known that otherwise. They're helpful for more than planning trips, however, so I highly recommend joining one or two discussion forums related to RVing.

Camp Discount Clubs
There is one caveat to this planning because I didn't just choose my campgrounds based solely on location. According to forum members, regular campers can save some cash using either Good Sam (10% off at participating grounds) or Passport America (50% off with some strings attached). Basically, you can get a good deal on Good Sam ($25 a year) and, if you camp often enough at participating sites, you'll make your money back. Passport America is a little more expensive (around $44 per year), but the 50% discount is going to earn me that money back just on our trip, and we plan on doing a lot more camping all summer long. So, I used the Passport America and Good Sam websites to find campgrounds in the general areas of our scheduled stops, successful in 4 out of 5 stops.

There is one stop that the grand waterfall nearby trumped program participation. Willie loves waterfalls and I didn't want him to miss this one. (P.S. If you opt for Passport America, please use the link in this blog to purchase your membership so that I get credit. Thanks!)

Figuring It Out

1. So, step one was using the Free Map Tools: How Far Can I Travel to estimate where we'd be after driving for about 2.5 hours. On the first stretch of our trip, that put us around Williamstown, WV. 
2. I hopped on over to the AllStays Interstate Exit Guide to see what was available along I-77 near Williamstown. As it turns out, there wasn't a convenient stop in Williamstown, so I decided to look right across the Ohio River in Marietta, OH. There, I found a shopping center right off the interstate, the perfect place to stretch our legs and make a quick lunch. If needed, we can shop Kmart or Wal-mart off this exit and fill up the tank nearby, as well. 
3. I plugged the exit link into my spreadsheet, along with the address of the shopping center as my "midpoint" stop for the day. 
4. Then, I ran the Free Map Tools from Marietta to find out where our first campground needed to be.
5. I checked Passport America and Good Sam websites for participating campgrounds.
6. I used Google Maps to find attractions around the campgrounds and in Columbia and Lantana areas. I plugged info about these places in my spreadsheet, and also saved maps for reference.
7. I repeated this process all the way down to Lantana, FL and back to Cleveland, OH, with stops at my brother-in-law's house in Columbia and my brother's house in Florida.

So, there you have it. The tools I used to play this cross country trip! I hope you find it useful and plan your own cost-effective, family fun road trips.

We Did It - Purchased Our RV

When I was a teenager, my life dream involved a laptop, a motorcycle, pair of holey jeans, sunglasses, and hair that remained surprisingly beautiful waving farewell to everything I'd ever known. Life was going to be an eternal sunrise of incredible stories on the open road that would earn me tons and tons of money.

Double my years (and then some) and, well, I know my hair would have ended up in impossible knots. Not that that's what changed my life dream, but my dream has certainly evolved. First, my husband and two young boys would never fit in a sidecar, and I'm pretty sure now that I grossly underestimated the physical and financial investment in that type of lifestyle. When you're a teenager, everyone tells you to follow your dreams, chase your dreams - everything except BUY your dreams and, when you really get to it, dreams take some cashflow and writing on the road just wasn't going to earn me millions.

I don't regret that teenage dream fading into the shadow of my moderately romantic, incredibly fun marriage that's glued together by the love and challenge of two of the most beautiful little boys in the universe. Sometimes, when you're dreaming a dream, you have no idea the exact ingredients that will make it the happiest. I'd trade a motorcycle and beautiful hair any day to have my three boys next to me.

And, I did trade it in (figuratively, of course) for something with a little more space.

Save the Kids!
My husband, Craig, and I both love camping. We knew we wanted to take our children every year from the time they were young until, at least, they went off to college. Really, we hope to create a family tradition that lives on when they have children, and when Craig and I are long gone from this planet.

When we were three months pregnant with Willie, we took our last non-parent camping trip. It was going to be our last hoorah as a couple flying solo. We were going to hang out by the lake all day, him fishing and me reading, and then steam up the tent after smores. I booked us a whole week at Clay's Park Resort a little bit south of us in Ohio, because its website boasted "...larger campsites, secluded areas and plenty of room to roam..." That was just what we needed for our hoorah evenings. I'll spare you most of the drama of our stay, but will tell you that, depsite being told we were getting the best site in the campground, none of the sites were large or secluded by even an ant's definition, nor was there room to roam. We did our best to make the best of the situation since I already paid for the week, but, in the end, I preferred to give up four nights of money than stay there any longer.

The whole point of that story is that, at one point, a horrible storm rolled through. Craig and I had a decent-sized tent and, although we couldn't do any hoorah'ing because of the lack of privacy, we still found ways to amuse ourselves - cards, chatting, and eating. That is, until we found ourselves literally holding the tent up and together in crazy wind.  It was frightening!

"What do you want to do," Craig yelled over the howling wind.

"I wanna get the f*** outta here!"

We ran to the truck, my wonderful husband loading what he could, trudging through a foot of water.

So, when we decided to take our first cross-country camping trip from Cleveland, OH, to Lantana, FL, this summer with stops to visit his brother (in South Carolina) and one of mine (in Florida), I knew we had to get an RV. At first, the RV was a wish for next year or so because we weren't sure we wanted to take on another monthly payment. Well, first we were getting one, then we decided to postpone until next year, and then we remembered this camping trip. When we talked about that storm again, I imagined having our two small boys in that tent and how that would have scarred them for the rest of their lives. I mean, if we were that frightened as adults, could you imagine what a 1- and 3-year-old would be going through?!

The Best First Steps
Fortunately, we had already visited The Ohio RV Supershow to see what kind of travel trailers were available and to learn a little more about them. Again, we didn't have any intention on buying one that day, but we wanted to check out floor plans and sizes to see what we really wanted. This was probably the best step we took in our search for an RV.  I mean, looking them up online and reading about them is one thing, but seeing them live, inside and out is a must-have experience before making a purchase.

Not only did we find the floor plan we loved, but, by the time we left, we had our list of must-haves and must-not-haves.

Must-Haves:

• Bunks for the boys plus extra sleeping space in case grandparents wanted to come along
• A full bathroom with a small tub (something I didn't consider until I saw the shower and imagined bathing a young child in there)
• A two-door refrigerator because the other ones didn't have enough freezer space for the types of trips we planned on taking

Must-Not-Haves:

• Pop-outs because, well, we plain old didn't want to have to put them up and down every trip, nor did we want to have to deal with maintenance of canvas and nets
• Slide outs because, while they provide more space, they also result in more weight (maybe in the future we'll get a diesel truck and it won't matter)

Nice-to-Haves:

• Curtain or door on main bedroom for, well, hoorahs
• Built-in CD/DVD player or entertainment center (although I would like to do without a TV)

Next, we got our butts on Craigslist and looked all over our state on a regular basis (I mean several times a day) for RVs to get a feel for available used units and pricing. We also frequented the websites of the dealers from The Ohio RV Supershow to look at both new and used units. Finally, we got onto YouTube and Google and started our preliminary research on what it takes to maintain and use an RV.

The Fixer-Upper
After several months of looking, we decided to take a look at some fixer-uppers. Craigslist had a few that we went to see. The first was a 1970-something Holiday Trav'ler with all paperwork and title. It had two single beds on the one end and a large u-shaped dinette that could fold down into a double-bed. It had lots of storage and a full bathroom. When I spoke with the seller, he said the electric all worked, but the water system was untested. He purchased the 24-foot trailer from a family after the dad passed on. The dad purchased the unit new in the '70s and parked it at a campground where it sat until last summer.

Based on my research, I knew to ask about leaks and the tires. He said there was a leak at one point, but it had been repaired the roof resealed already; some panels inside would need replaced. He said the tires were probably original and did show some wear.

I scheduled an appointment to go see it, and then employed my good friend, Google, to seek out more info about this particular RV.  I found a lot of promising information, but also realized that it would absolutely need new tires before we moved it.  So, I priced those as well. With the asking price ($800) and new tires (about $600), we could definitely afford to buy the RV out-of-pocket, and then invest a little to fix it up...or so I thought (I really underestimated the cost of stocking and purchasing the basic water and sewer attachments, battery, etc., that comes with an RV purchase, but we'll talk about that more another day).

The second fixer-upper we found on Craigslist was a 1986 26-foot RV with a two-bed bedroom, full bath, and sofa bed. It was a little more expensive at $1,000, but we figured we'd go see it if the first one didn't work out.

Fortunately, my husband is a real, genuine handy man. He knows quite a bit about carpentry and electrical and plumbing. So I left the in-person assessments up to him, despite doing my own research on what to look for in a used RV.

I could barely contain my excitement going to see the first unit in person. They seller was a really nice guy, and he pointed out some of the flaws he knew about while underestimating (or downplaying) what it would take to repair it. In the end, my husband and I agreed it would take too much time and money to fix this one up. If we didn't have two small children and a cross-country trip just around the corner, it might have been fun to dump some time and energy into making it our own, but it was just not the right time to take on a job that big. Unfortunately, the second one was worse off and didn't have a title.

Warning: In states where registration is required, do NOT purchase an used RV without a title unless you plan on parking it somewhere and leaving it there indefinitely. All of our research indicates that it is a nightmare to obtain the title if the seller is not the original registered owner. The second seller tried to convince us that we only needed a bill of sale, but a smartphone lookup on the spot confirmed our previous research that it takes much more than that. Don't do it!

Finding Mr. Right
After a couple months of looking, our income tax return banked, and high hopes of finding something that at least had bunks for the kids and the freezer I wanted, I finally found the perfect RV. It was the same floor plan we fell in love with at the RV show, which means it had all of our must-haves. It was the right weight, the right length, and only 5 years old. Sure, it was more expensive and meant a monthly payment, but we wouldn't have to put any work into fixing it up before we hit the road.  Well, we still had to do the fun stuff, like make the beds and stock it with camping gear.

We found a 2008 Coachmen Spirit of America 26 DBD at Kamper City. It was gorgeous online and priced right. So, I put down a deposit for them to hold it until the weekend, when I could go see it in person. When that day came, we packed into our Yukon XL and headed to the dealership.

Thankfully, my husband and I spent a good bit of time learning about what to look for on used RVs.  Number one everywhere was leaks, followed by tires.

Some resources we used that may help you, too:

• Changing Gears: RV Inspection Checklist
• thefuntimesguide.com: What to Look for When Buying a Used RV

The Coachmen was gorgeous. The inside was incredibly clean and all the pieces were there, including all window dressings and the curtains that close in the bunks and the queen bedroom. Every book and piece of literature pertaining to the unit was in a cabinet. All the lights worked. It was in the dealership's garage, so we could not test the water or sewage systems, but we were assured that everything worked; that someone would walk us through the pre-sale inspection information when we were ready.

The first concern we had were the tires. They were expired. RV tires are only good for 5-7 years, regardless of their shape. We could see cracking in the sidewalls, anyway, so we knew we needed new tires. At the dealership, used RVs are sold "as-is" but the salesperson said he would see if he could work out a deal with the owner to at least split the cost of new tires.

My husband decided to go take a look up on the roof, too; Glad he did. He went up and foot-tested just about the whole roof and checked all of the seams around vents.

Pointing to the rear, he said: "This corner is all mush. It's a good thing I didn't put my weight on it or I would be inside right now."

My heart sank. This is the biggest caution: LEAKS!  Sure enough, we went back inside and, what we didn't see before on our once-through, was that the paneling in the back of the bunks was rippled and mushy, too. I told the salesperson that that was a deal-breaker and I would not purchase it in that condition.

The dealership owner came over and said he would fix the roof and the paneling inside (although the new paneling might not match the rest of the decor) and would split the cost of brand new tires. The owner brought his carpenter over for an introduction and assured us that this was the guy who did all the repairs on his personal RV. I suppose that is one advantage of buying from a dealership: If something is a deal-breaker, you can negotiate repairs, especially since they're not nearly as expensive for the dealership when they have staffed resources to do the work.

So, there it was. I shook his hand. We went ahead and filled out all the paperwork, secured the loan, got the RV breaking do-dad installed on our truck, and agreed to come back the following weekend to pick up our new RV. And, we did. When we arrived the next weekend, the whole section of the roof was repaired and resealed and they even found a panel that matched our decor!  It was beautiful. We did our pre-sale walkthrough, got it hitched up, and drove it home. We are now the proud owners of our very own travel trailer, and can't wait to start making memories.