RE: Can you live with slides in?
We have a class C with 4 slides. Sometimes when we stop for a quick overnight, we don't bother to put our slides out, and obviously the slides are in while we're on the road. We have access to everything important - the bathroom, the entire kitchen and all storage except a few drawers in the bedroom. We have two sofas in the main area, and we can't pull out the sofa bed on one with the slides in, but we can jackknife the other one. So instead of being able to sleep 8, with the slides in we can only sleep 7. Not a biggie since we rarely have 8 people along.
RE: Myrtle Beach Kid Friendly Campground - Week Long Trip Summer
We spent a week at Lakewood a couple summers ago. I had wanted to go to Ocean Lakes based on what I read online (including here), but they were booked. We liked Lakewood - nice beach and plenty to do. While there, I checked out both Pirateland and Ocean Lakes, and didn't see much difference between the three. Ocean Lakes had a newer, nicer game room, but I'm trying to keep my kids out of the game room. Their concrete sites were nice, too. Pirateland had a nice pool and lazy river. All had nice beachfront. I'd be happy to stay at any of them.
RE: NASCAR Sets up Camp at RV Resorts.
I looked up the existing Morgan resort in Wisconsin on rvparkreviews, thinking we might have to check this out, and it got pretty bad reviews. It doesn't sound very resort-like from what I read. Does anyone have experience with the Morgan resorts?
RE: Fort Wilderness Check-In
If your site is ready, they'll let you in early. I can tell you that we've arrived early about 6 times and never once has our site been ready. In fact, our site hasn't always been ready by 1:00. If you get there really early in the morning, you can park in the overflow parking lot at FW and go to one of the parks and check in when you return.
RE: DisneyWorld
If I didn't have to worry about school schedules myself, I'd go shortly after Labor Day. Kids are back in school, and even parents who are willing to pull the kids out of school for a Disney vacation don't like to pull them out right at the start of the school year. Plus it's still plenty hot, which I like. January can be chilly. Our usual trip to WDW is during Thanksgiving week or spring break, when it's plenty crowded, and lasts about a week. I'd like to be able to go for a couple weeks so that I could spend more time at Fort Wilderness and still have time to visit all the parks, Downtown Disney, the Boardwalk area, etc. For us, the key to being able to do everything we want to within the parks at busy times is to get there really early and have a plan. One of these days it would be nice to go at an uncrowded time and actually get to sleep in now and then.
RE: Specific Yellowstone Q's
We visited YNP for 3 days in August 2008 and stayed at Grizzly in West Yellowstone (which we thought was a very nice campground). Maybe crowds were down because of the economy or something, but we did not encounter traffic worth speaking of driving in from West Yellowstone on any of the 3 days we did it (and 2 of those days were first thing in the morning). Most of the big backups we ran into within the park were caused by bison in the road as opposed to tons of vehicles. From what others have written, it sounds like we were lucky.
RE: South Dakota Trip for 2010
We were in the Black Hills the week after Sturgis in 2008. We stayed at Rafter J and thought it was fine. I didn't see any other campground in the area where I'd rather have stayed. Of course, we're somewhat limited in that we have a 44' motorhome; if we were shorter I might have liked to stay within Custer State Park. We were in the Base Camp section. I liked it because it was located near the office, store and pool, and a quick walk from the trail rides and the area where the horses were, which my kids liked. We had the closest site to the pancake breakfast, which was nice. This section also has pull through sites - always good if you're long and pulling a trailer.
RE: Class A and kids
I agree that he who writes the check gets the best bed. However, although I like the back bedroom for privacy (and the best storage), I have to tell you that the pull-out sofa with air mattress in our motorhome is nicer to sleep on than the queen bed in the bedroom.
RE: Class A and kids
We have a Super C, but I think the floorplan we have would work with kids even without the cabover bunk. We have a queen bed in the back, two facing sofas and a dinette. One of the sofas jackknifes and the other pulls out into a queen size bed. The jackknife sofa can open with the slides in; the sofa bed needs both front slides out in order to open. You're looking at a long unit to get this configuration, but it will sleep 8 if need be (and 6'1" DH can fit on both sofa beds). A floorplan with bunks might work better with small children, but you have to make sure that the bunks will still work once the kids get older (and longer). Likewise, a jackknife couch or dinette bed only works for two kids if you have two kids willing to sleep with each other.
RE: Driving miles or time in a day?
We go from Illinois to Florida and back a couple times a year. We are limited in time, as we go during school breaks, so we never spend more than 2 days on the road. If we leave first thing in the morning, DH will drive 15 hours (6am to 9 pm). If we leave later in the day, he usually will drive 8 to 10 hours, depending on what time we left. We've never seen most of the campgrounds we stay at on the way to and from Florida in the daylight. If we had more time, I'm sure we'd go at a more leisurely pace.
RE: Electric Space Heaters OK?
We use electric heaters because I don't like listening to the fan from the propane heater cycle on and off all night. We've never been to a campground that prohibited them or charged extra for them.
RE: Need a Last MInute Gift Idea
Thanks everyone! I especially liked that Prevost suggestion, although with only 5 days left until Christmas I don't think I could pull that off (heck, I couldn't pull it off if there were 5 years until Christmas). DH has a ton of stuff, but I still got a few ideas. I know he doesn't have the Ready Wrench or a gravity chair. I think I'm going to try JDeLauter's idea for the future - I hate the last minute search for a gift for the guy who has almost everything.
Need a Last MInute Gift Idea
I'm searching for last minute gift ideas for the DH. Anyone have any RV related ideas? Is there something you've gotten for your RV or your travels that you particularly like?
RE: Got my new Garmin 765T GPS.......have a question?
I was thinking of getting one of these for DH for Christmas, but in reading up on it I couldn't find where it had the ability to upload custom POIs. If it's got that, I think I'm going to go buy! Those who have this unit, how do you like it? How is the antenna? One of the problems with our current GPS (a StreetPilot 2720) is that we lose the satellite fairly frequently when we're in the motorhome. Our rig is a class C on a Freightliner Coronado chassis, and I think maybe the overhang on the cab blocks the satellite or something, because I have no problems with losing satellite reception when I use it in my car.
RE: Yellowstone trip
When we were out that way the summer before last, we stayed at Rafter J while in the Black Hills area, and at Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone while visiting Yellowstone. I would have liked to stay in Custer State Park or at Fishing Bridge inside Yellowstone, but we have a 45' motorhome so it wasn't really an option. Both Rafter J adn Grizzly were quite nice, and I'd be happy to stay there again. We were there in August, so I can't comment on June.
RE: Honda Odyssey - Yes I know again
Is the Odyssey towing issue one for 2005 and later vehicles only? We're looking for a toad to pull 4 down, either something new or something we already have. Our Suburban is one option, but it's quite heavy. Another vehicle we already own is a 2001 Odyssey - I had always thought no Honda other than the CRV could be owed 4 down, but reading this thread, it sounds like it might be a post-2005 issue only. Correct? I checked the Motorhome Magazine Dinghy Towing Guide for 2002 (2001 wasn't available) and the Odyssey wasn't listed, although there was language in the lead-in article about one manufacturer who only recommended one vehicle for towing but let customers and dealers know that any of their vehicles could be towed 4 down. I'm guessing that manufacturer is Honda.
RE: Heating the Behemoth going down the road.
We use the furnace, but that's because we don't have electric heat. We generally run our generator while en route for other things. We mostly stay in campgrounds with hookups, so going down the road is a good time to fire up the generator and let it get some use.
RE: Rent Versus Own RV
I'm not aware of anyplace close and convenient to us that rents RVs. Most of the rental places within a reasonable drive require reservations far in advance and also require that the unit be picked up and dropped off at times that don't work for us. We often can't plan much in advance, and there has been many a trip that we planned and had to cancel for work related reasons at the last minute. That doesn't work real well with renting. Also, our motorhome is stocked with its own linens, towels, dishes, kitchen utensils, toiletries, food staples, etc., so it's not too difficult to pack for a quick trip. And then there's the knowing who slept in your bed last thing. I don't consider myself a germophobe, but I've seen enough unsettling things in hotels that I don't like to frequent them, so I wouldn't be wild about a rental RV, either. For us, owning a motorhome is not at all cost effective, but we do it anyway.
RE: HOw many days with a 30 gallon black tank?
We just got back from a trip, and our 60 gallon black tank lasted 6 days before I had to dump. That was for 7 people - 6 females, 1 male, all over the age of 10. Two of those days were travel days, with no one using anything but the on-board facilities, for the rest we were in and out. After I dumped the tank still registered as one third full, so I know my sensors are off.
