Re: [A/S] Cost of Camping

[Jim Dunmyer <jdunmyer@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Rich,
 We just returned from a 2-month sojurn, going East, then South, ending
in McAllen, TX before heading home. My wife did all the planning and
routing, using a combination of resources:

She had a Rand-McNally Atlas from Wal-Mart, Microsoft's Streets & Maps
on her laptop computer, regular State maps, obtained at the information
center as we entered each state that we passed through, and Trailer
Life's Campground Directory for the Year 2000.

We stayed in quite a variety of campgrounds, some good, a couple that
were not-so-great; we stayed in NO KOAs. The most expensive was one in
League City, TX, just outside Houston at $25.00/night. For an extra
$2.00/night, they turned on the phone line at the site, so we could surf
the Internet all we wanted. She found many State Parks, most were
$12.00/night. Some had 3-point hookups, most had only water & electric
with a dump station on the way out. As long as our stay is less than 3
days, I don't consider that a huge disadvantage.

The Trailer Life guide has VERY specific directions to each C.G., down
to "go north off Exit 192 for 1.7 miles, turn left onto Oak Ridge road,
go .5 miles, turn right into campground".

One municipal C.G. had most sites winterized, with only electric
available, but if that was satisfactory (it was!), the price was only
$10.00. Although some C.G.s had laundry facilities, most were minimal,
but we usually used off-site laundromats.

Most of our C.G. stays were for one or 2 nights; we stayed at League
City for 4 days, and at Charleston, SC for a week. This last place cost
$132.00 for the week.  I might look for better amenities if we were
going to stay for a couple or 3 weeks. We found that price had nothing
to do with how quiet the place was, some were adjacent to a major
highway (handy, but noisy), others were several miles off the
Interstate, so were quiet but harder to get to. We found that the
convenience of the sites varied: A "pull through" in one State Park was
curved such that our rig (Dodge P/U with 25' trailer) was nearly falling
off one side while the truck was right on the edge on the other side. A
"back in" site would have been better. The Kentucky Horse Park had all
"back-in" sites, but they put the (narrow) sites at a right-angle to the
road instead of at an angle, so it was a bugger to back in, and about
impossible without getting onto the grass at least a little bit. That
expensive place in League City was fairly close to a major highway and
the sites were very close together and short; it was hard to park the
truck once we unhooked. The $10.00 municipal park had a nice, level,
concrete pullthrough site and was a long way from any noisy highway.
IIRC, they had some 3-point sites available, but that would have been
$18.00 or thereabouts.

Most commercial C.G.s had a phone line that we could use for a quicky
Email send/receive. Even the municipal C.G. allowed us to connect. Most
truck stops have phone lines at the restaurant booths, but most allow
calls only to a 1-800 number. Fortunately, we had signed up for
EarthLink, including access to their 1-800 dialup number, but used it
sparingly. (at about 5 or 6 bucks/hour)

Mind you, our objective in most cases was NOT for the C.G. amenities, we
wouldn't use a pool or hottub if they were available. We only wanted a
place to park for the night(s). Even the road noise wasn't that big a
deal because we had the trailer closed up and the electric heater
running full-time.

We can highly recommend the Trailer Life directory, and I think there
are a couple of others.

This trip was very educational for us, as it was the first long trip
that we had ever taken. Yet, we encountered no real surprise because we
had prepared ahead of time. Much of the preparation was helped by having
followed this and the Vintage A/S lists over the past couple of years,
paying close attention to those who have Been There, Done That, and
Gotten the Tee Shirts. One thing that you must remember is that there is
NO "Right Answer" to many questions. It all depends on YOUR particular
situation, and even the particular DAY. For instance, we'd look for a
commercial C.G. (with phone connection) if we had stayed in C.G.s w/o
phone lines for a day or 2. Or, find a truck stop.

A friend has never put water in the tank of his A/S, he always stays
where he has full hookups. The fact that we use our F.W. tank and pump
all the time came in real handy when we had trouble finding WARM
weather. While in Charleston, we filled the tank every day and emptied
the grey water tank at the same time. Others were fighting crunchy hoses
and no water in the morning. Ya gotta be flexible and open-minded. :-)

                                               <<Jim>>