Hope you have a safe and enjoyable first outing in you pop-up. My wife and I, all 3 of our grown children, my sister-in-law and her grown children, and my mother-and father-in-law all cherish the memories of our camping trips and vacations all during the 1980's in our Starcraft 24' pop-up and their Palamino 24' pop-up. Those really were the good old days. And the grown children are now either RVer's or plan to be as soon as it's financially feasible for them. I doubt you or your kids will ever regret purchasing your pop-up.
If you have to drive in the rain, or fold your camper down with the canvas wet, when you get home, remember to raise it up, fold it out, and let the canvas and interior air out and dry thoroughly, and it should never get that "moldy" smell. Our last Starcraft pop-up, bought new and stored in a garage when not being used, still smelled like new when we sold it 6 years later. If you store the trailer outside, check it after every rain to make sure it hasn't developed a leak and gotten anything wet inside. If you keep it dry and aired out, you will never have to deal with a "moldy"-smelling trailer. Have a great time! JIM
2003 GMC Sierra Crew HD; 6.0L; Prodigy
2006 Thor Tundra 30RL-DSL; Reese Strait-Line & Dual-cam HP
2001 Honda Elite Scooter
Jim & Gayle Bryant
Murphy's Law: "Anything that CAN happen, WILL."
Bryant's Law: "31 years of RVing? Probably already HAS."
First time backing up a trailer of any sort and I got it on the first shot! Pretty proud of myself right now. I'll probably hit something next time, though.
There were PUPs all over the campground! We camp pretty often, tent and in-laws MH, and I've never seen so many PUPs. Even the guy at the gate mentioned it when we came in with our PUP. He said it looked like a convention or something!
The campground was completely full. Our "RV Site" turned out to be a tent site, so it didn't fit too well. We couldn't use the Awning or the AAR because of a tree. I couldn't back up past the tree because of the fire ring, and if I pulled forward of the tree the electric and water hookups wouldn't reach. So, we didn't use the awning or the AAR. Oh well, what can you do?
Anyway, here's a few shots if anyone's interested:
Here's the campsite from the tent area toward the driveway where we had to set up.
We don't have A/C on our PUP, and KY humidity is darn near toxic, so we got a portable A/C unit. It worked like a charm. We had to vent it out the window. Here's a few pics of that:
If you're really a glutton for punishment, here's the link to all the pics:
http://s296.photobucket.com/albums/mm192/jtbeck_2008/First%20PUP%20Camping%20Trip/
We are all totally stoked about our camper and we love it! In fact, we're heading to FL in 2 weeks. Thankfully our shake-down trip this weekend went well. I did drive off with the tongue jack still down. I caught it pretty quick though. Thank God I had the windows down and I could hear it!
Glad you had a good time. Quite often camping is about having fun in spite of adversity, since something always seems to go wrong but don't be discouraged by it. Your kids will always remember and cherish these times as I did and my kids do now. Congrats on a successful trip. BTW we just went through KY yesterday on our way home from Gatlinburg. Spent a night at Holiday Hills on Lake Barkley for a stopover. I saw some sign's for Patti's 1880's Settlement, but didn't know what that was. I guess that's somewhere close to where you were staying?
If you were around Lake Barkley, you were pretty close to me! We stayed at the Canal Campground. It's the canal between KY Lake and Lake Barkley. Beautiful area all around those lakes.
Some of the absolute best food around here. Priced that way, too! Their desserts are sinful.
The place has turned into a bit of a circus over the past 10 years or so. It just keeps getting bigger and more ridiculous all the time. But the food is still top-notch. You just have to put up with them trying to sell everything under the sun while you're waiting.
jtbeck wrote: If you were around Lake Barkley, you were pretty close to me! We stayed at the Canal Campground. It's the canal between KY Lake and Lake Barkley. Beautiful area all around those lakes.
Some of the absolute best food around here. Priced that way, too! Their desserts are sinful.
The place has turned into a bit of a circus over the past 10 years or so. It just keeps getting bigger and more ridiculous all the time. But the food is still top-notch. You just have to put up with them trying to sell everything under the sun while you're waiting.
I agree that was a beautiful area. We are thinking of making a trip just to stay there one day and maybe staying at Land between the Lakes.
I think you'd enjoy your stay. It can be as buggy and humid as any place down south, but it really is a beautiful area. Hillman Ferry, Piney and Canal are the largest CG's around here, but honestly there's probably a couple of hundred small CG's that you could use, as well.
Hillman Ferry is the best equipped CG, but in some areas you are definitely squeezed in tight.
I like the Canal the best. No camp store or anything like that, but it's a pretty, quiet and well-maintained CG for the most part. You never know who your neighbors will be, but you run that risk everywhere I guess. It's a nice scenic area. The CG is mostly curvy roads with shaded spots. You don't have that parking lot feel. There are some areas for the largest MH's that aren't much more than a parking lot, though.
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