Review: Two Rivers Campground, Nashville, TN

Bottom line:
Northeastern Nashville, Tennessee, close to the river, clean, shady, and close to Opryland and lots of retail.

Two Rivers Campground is right off Briley Parkway in Northeast Nashville. It's located off exit 12 on Music Valley Drive. We stopped here on July 9th, 2014. Nashville is a great city to visit, so there is plenty to do as long as you have a tow car or a small RV.

Two Rivers Campground is an averaged priced campground. It's around $45/night with a 30 amp hookup. Some of the sites are 30 amp, water, and no sewer. When we were there it was very full and all of the neighbors were really nice.

Features: 30/50 amp, cable TV, water, sewer, pool, game room, playground (very small), free wifi (at the office), propane service, and bath houses.


Overall, the service was good and the whole campground was clean. I'd go there again.

On a side note, we had lunch less than a mile up the street at Santa Fe Cattle Co and the food and service were both amazing.

Summary:

The Two Rivers Campground is a nice place to stay, and I recommend it.

I give it seven out of ten stars.
Two Rivers Campground (Official Site)

Review: Meteor Crater RV Park (AZ)

Bottom line:
Near Winslow, AZ with easy access to I-40, very clean, excellent customer service, good price, and nothing to see but the meteor crater.

Meteor Crater RV Park is on I-40 between Flagstaff and Winslow AZ. It's located off exit 233 which is where the meteor crater is located. This whole area is unpopulated, so there is nothing else to see here. We stopped here on July 7th, 2014. Even in July, the weather was gorgeous.

I made the reservation for this RV park via telephone and was surprised about how good the customer service was. I also had to call and postpone the reservation by one day during the trip. When we arrived, it was confirmed that the staff here are super nice and really on the ball. They do have a Good Sam discount, which is a nice little bonus.

The park itself is gated with code access, and an emergency/off hours exit. The grounds and bath house were well groomed and clean. Actually I believe this was the cleanest RV park I've ever seen to date.

The RV park has no cable TV, but there is 30 and 50 amp electrical hookups as well as water and sewer.

On a side note: the meteor crater itself is a bit expensive for what it is. The crater is huge and beautiful, but there isn't much to do. Even with $4 off, it cost around $50 to get  2 adults and 3 kids into the exhibit.

Summary:

The Meteor Crater RV Park is a great place, and I recommend it.

I give it nine out of ten stars.

Meteor Crater RV Park (Official Site)

Review: Fort Amarillo RV Park & Resort

Bottom line:
In Amarillo, TX with easy access to I-40, well kept, clean bathhouse and restrooms, good price, good service.

Fort Amarillo RV Park is very close to I-40 on the immediate outskirts of Amarillo Texas. We drove through and stayed on June 30th, 2014. We had planned to continue to Albuquerque, NM but the broken generator needed service and the Cummins service center had an 8 AM opening. We have another stay scheduled for July 8th, 2014 and just happened to be there.

Being in Amarillo, the RV park is not green. This is the panhandle of Texas and everything is gravel, dirt, and a few trees to liven it up. Still, everything was level, the park was well laid out and it was about 2/3rds full. There are right at 100 RV sites in the RV park, and each site has 50/30 amp hookup, water, cable, and sewer. In the center is a gift shop called Lizzie Mae's, bathhouse, rec hall, and a duck pond with about 8-10 ducks. The shop has a lot of odds and ends. Mostly art, it also has some local hot sauce, preserves, snacks, and the kinds of things you'd see in a community art of co-op store.

The pool, hot tub, and rec hall #2/storm shelter are off to the side. Everything was well maintained and clean and the office service was super friendly. The price was under $40.

On a side note, the Cummins service center in Amarillo did not honor the appointment we had with them. We waited about 90 minutes before I started messing with the generator and got it started. Likely there was nothing but basic service needed, but they said that their generator tech had to do a quick job on a semi-truck that was there for a week before starting on ours. If we had not called the day before and confirmed the 8 AM appointment I could understand the delays, but we had delayed our entire travel schedule for this appointment. The service desk was apologetic, but they could have earned high praise and a paycheck by just getting us taken care of quickly.

Summary:

The Fort Amarillo RV Park is a good place, and I recommend it.

I give it eight out of ten stars.

Fort Amarillo RV Park & Resort (official site)

The Crazy Train

Thinking about buying an RV is fun, but buying an RV is difficult.

It's not hard to walk through a house or an RV and ohh and ahh over what you see, but when it comes down to price and features... well that's what brings on a dose of reality. Once it is bought and maintenance and gas prices are calculated another dose of reality hits. There are reasons to buy an RV. My reasons are to bring my experiences to my family. Too many Americans stay where they are and don't see the country, much less the world. Also, with a family of five, flying is expensive and a painful hassle. I don't want to deal with the TSA, airports, or hotels and I believe that the trip itself, not just the destination, should be part of the experience. The cost of an RV is cheaper spread across many years, so this is my way of being able to do something every year without going into debt. In the process we will see the country.

We had a strict budget of $19k for a used Class-C RV. That's cheap, believe me. New Class-Cs are priced as cheap as a low-end starter house and it goes way up from there. We looked at a few as much as 17 years old. That's old. In the late 90's they started putting slide-outs onto Class-Cs. The motorhomes were usually built on some bigger Chevy or Ford chassis. I mostly found the Ford E350 and E450 models. E450 started around 2000 and before that was just the E350 "super-duty." The super-duty chassis simply adds more GVWR so that we can carry more people and tow more stuff with the vehicle. Some internet research seemed to indicate that the E450 with the Ford Triton V10 was a reliable and strong powertrain, which is one of the main items to tip the scales in favor of the 2000 Winnebago Minnie 31C that we ended up purchasing used. The last alternative was a 1997 Ford E350 chassis. It was arranged in a much less open way, probably because there was no slide-out. Everything was more dated. Even the one we bought is dated, but the truth is the new RVs will always look like the Taj Mahal on wheels compared to anything a few years old.

Maintenance:
We're the 3rd owner and its 14 years old, so there are items to fix as with any vehicle that old. I'll probably get into details about some of the things I fixed later on, but if you read this and have questions, please feel free to ask.

I learned out to dewinterize without knowing anything about how it was done. It's not difficult, but knowing where things are and how to access them takes some time to figure out if you're a first time RV owner and have had no instruction.
I learned something about the generator after it quit working in the hot weather.
I learned how the hot-water heater works.
I learned what I would need to buy to have the basic hookups covered.
I learned that RVs are full of ingenious ways to give us all of the comforts of home, but that means there are a lot of moving parts and can break.

Things I fixed:
A broken aftermarket rear-view camera that was hooked into the stereo.
Non-working water pump.
Basic sealing of cracks and gaps in the sides/roof.
Various little broken things like the clips that hold the bay doors up.

The Maiden Voyage:
The first overnight outing in an RV is a test. It's a way to find out if all your worst nightmares will come true. This is no matter of if things will be difficult, but just how difficult.

For instance, the boy just turned two and like most kids has a very strict bed-time habit. In the RV he'll be sleeping on the table. Of course a bed time of 8pm means that the rest of the RV needs to be quiet. It went OK, but I will say that having a good signal from a PBS station was nice because the TV was a good way to take his mind off of the different sleeping arrangements. While kids are sleeping and there is no other space, adults have to have something to do that is quiet or outside. That usually involves books, wine, computers, or something along those lines.

Forgetting stuff the first few times is just the way it is. Even with an RV that has its own stock of goods, there will be something missing. I'm not a list person, but it helps to have a list.

Quirks:
My RV has a Norcold refrigerator that runs on propane and AC power. It needs 12DCV as well and it takes forever to cool down. Ideally 12 hours is a minimum length of time it should be plugged in before taking a trip. Once AC is plugged in, the batteries automatically charge, so the DC power can be turned on so that the fridge has what it needs. Forgetting any piece or not leaving enough time makes you think the fridge is broken and maybe call for service when it's not necessary. When that happens, I put a cooler in the shower.

The generator is important. Sure, without it you have lights, stove, fridge, and hot water... but get stuck without AC in very hot weather and you're toast. I never looked at the generator the same way after mine stopped working. Maintenance is important.

The fiberglass shell of an RV is constantly flexing in the wind, sun, and rain. If you have a crack that isn't properly repaired, it WILL leak. If you don't care about your resell value, a minor leak isn't a big deal. RVs need constant maintenance to prevent leaking. Fortunately, it's not expensive to seal and maintain an RV, but it takes someone willing to be slightly handy.

Review: Rockwell RV Park - OK

The Bottom Line:
Rockwell RV Park is located in Oklahoma City, OK. It's fairly cheap (~$35), has easy access to I-40, and is of average quality.

Anyone driving through Oklahoma City knows there are a lot of bad side roads. That's what I remember when I pulled off of I-40 West bound and turned left to go over the bridge. My generator had gone out early in the day and we were all hot. It's June 29th, 2014 and mid-nineties outside. Only the driver and the 2-year-old had AC from the cab. We drove up to the Rockwell RV Park aching for electricity to power the AC.

The lady at the front desk was nice enough. We got an access card for the pool and bathhouse and a brochure and site assignment.

The park has about 126 sites that are typical gravel drives and pull-through sites with trees scattered throughout. There is a handicap accessible indoor pool and hot-tub plus bathhouse, laundry, and buffalo. I didn't verify the buffalo were there but I did see the enclosure.

Each site has 50/30 amp hookup, water, cable, and sewer.

When we were there the park was about half full. We went to the pool, which was fairly dirty. There was trash on the pool deck and I was unable to see my feet in 3 ft of water. The bathhouse toilets were filthy and needed hosing down to wash off the brown stuff. If these two things were fixed I would have found almost nothing wrong with the park.

The Camping World that used to be across the street moved some time ago and there is a McClains RV sales and service place at the same exit. Their service department was booked for three weeks and no generator repair was attempted there.


Summary
I give it 5 out of 10 stars

http://www.rockwellrvpark.com (official website)

Review: Forest Lake Preserve

For the maiden voyage in our RV (dubbed "Crazy Train"), we took the kids to Forest Lake Preserve in Davie County, North Carolina.

The criteria was simply that it'd be a quick overnight to enlighten us as to what we are up for. I'll post more about what we learned in the next post.

The campground is large. The website says 300 acres, which is very believable. The front gate is card or code operated for easy access. Check in time is 5PM or else they drop your check in package into an envelope near the gate. All of the roads were solid. In mid-May I think their must have been 50+ trailers and RVs on the property. Some of the sites were clearly permanently lived in, and there were sites that were excluded in trees or out in the open or next to the lake. We drove around the lake to find a spot that was more hidden and found one that we liked.There were about half sites with 30 amp service and half with 50 amp service and each site had a sewage/black water intake spot.

As is characteristic of NC this time of year, there is a lot of poison oak and poison ivy on the edges of the woods.

The things to do are plenty. Two pools, two club houses, a concession stand like you'd find in a bowling alley, playground, hot tub, shuffle board, tennis courts, and fishing. The pools aren't open before Memorial day or after Labor day. The playground was good and the met a full-timer family there who had 6 kids (in a Class-C!). They do sell propane as well.

The only problem we had was the lack of a fire pit. We had planned to cook hot dogs over a fire and make it more like camping for the kids. It turns out that some of the sites have fire rings (less than half) and some don't. The sites are first-come, first-served, so the sites with a fire ring were all taken. The nearest group fire ring was at least 100 feet from our site, so we fried our dogs in a pan. When we asked the staff about it, they got a bit defensive and snippy and made excuses.

Nevertheless, on the reservation page for this campground (copied today 5/22/14), there is this purchase option, which is what we paid for.

Standard   From $48.00 Per Day 

The standard sites are located on gravel surfaces with some shaded spots and some in the sun. 50 amp service available for $3/day. Size limit is 35'-45'.
• Water
•  Sewer
•  Electric
•  Picnic table
•  Fire ring

 The simple solution is what we suggested in person. Put an asterisk or some other indicator that fire rings are not available for all sites.

Summary:
Overall, this was a reasonably well kept campground. The only major thing in disrepair was the bridge across the lake, which was cordoned off.

I expected more for the price, mostly because $48 is almost as much as a hotel room, but I would go back if I needed to.

I give it 6-7 out of 10 stars

RVOnTheGo.com (official website)

Introduction

I just bought an RV and took my first overnight trip. Since I plan to take it somewhere at least once every year, I figure I can review the places I go and talk about the issues I have with the campgrounds and with the RV.

Particularly with the RV, I bought a used one and had only the most basic idea of what I was doing. I had to go through the process of dewinterizing and then fixing small issues that I found.

Hopefully the information will be useful to someone.