Finding the RV Park to fit your needs and budget

Searching for that perfect RV campground/park. One of the most important search tools for locating the RV park that meets YOUR criteria as a home away from home ishttp://www.rvparkreviews.com/ If you don’t know about this search website bookmark it now. Even if you lose the bookmark or are using a different computer you can put these words in the Google search string: RV park reviews — or Reviews of RV campgrounds.

The home page pops up with a map of the US and to the left there is a list of states. Which means you have two methods to search. You can click on a state and then the name of a town or city where you want to find RV parks.

I happened on RV Park Reviews before we left home to pick up our Casita Travel Trailer. Back then I wanted to know the price range for RV parks and what some of the rules were for staying at parks. What I discovered is that RV parks were cheaper a few miles outside of a large Metro area or city. I looked up some of the towns and cities where we stayed at motels and priced the RV parks in and around the cities.

After three months on the road I’ve discovered that we tend to stay at a certain type of RV Park, one that caters to adults, is Pet friendly and has a helpful friendly staff. Comments by people who visited individual RV Parks help me choose, quiet, pet friendly parks. One other very important necessity for RV Parks is excellent WiFi reception and Free WiFi is always a nice bonus.

Sometimes the comments are mixed — like one person mentioned that there was nothing to do for their children — yet the rest of the comments noted that the RV parks was quiet, clean, with a helpful staff and lots of places to walk their dogs.

The first RV park we stayed at told us about the Good Sams Club and the discount that many RV parks give to Good Sams Club members. (Good Sams Club is not part of Walmart). This RV park was an older park, but it was well maintained and pets were welcome.

Before we left home I had checked out the RV parks in the area and the price was economical as well as the location central our needs. As we head west I continue to rely on the advice and comments about individual RV parks.

We’ve found that RV park owners also read the reviews. At one RV park in Mesa, Arizona I mentioned to the park owner that he had overwhelming positive review except for one — and that I was guessing that there was an interesting story behind that singular nasty review. He laughed and then told us about the park visitor from hell — the sort of person we’ve all seen. The short story is that some spaces are tight to back in and after assisting hundreds of RV owners back into lots — sometimes it is a good idea to follow the directions of the owner/helper. At another park a disgruntled employee left a mean comment. It is almost always obvious which comments are honest reviews and which ones have another agenda.

There are also several printed Directories of RV Campgrounds. We cross check with these for location and other details. The Directories have many RV campgrounds which have not been reviewed on the RV Park Review website.

One feature which the RV Park Review has are links to maps of the RV Parks as well as the website of the RV Parks. The Directories also have paid ads for various RV Parks which will give additional details.

Dry Camping — this is an economical way to travel. Many State Parks and National Parks have spaces for RVs. Some even have a few spaces for the larger RVs, motor homes and trailers. We can dry camp for about 5 days. If we add a small Honda Generator, a “blue boy” for black & gray water plus jugs for fresh water we could extend our Dry Camping even longer.

Santa Fe and surrounding areas

We arrived in Santa Fe in the late afternoon and headed straight for the Trader Joe’s Grocery Store. After depending on regular supermarkets for bread — which means extensive reviews of ingredients to find something I can eat — it was a joy to find so many choice of safe food.

After reviewing two RV camping guides and an online RV camp review we decided that the RV campgrounds either in or close to Santa Fe were a bit over priced for the services we use. So we checked towns near by Santa Fe and settled on one about 25 miles from Santa Fe but also close to other places we would like to visit in north central New Mexico.  This RV park also maintains a web site and they had an Ariel view of the RV camp — showing lots of trees.   If we were gamblers we would be in heaven — because we are within minutes of several casinos. There are several reservations in New Mexico and most of the Pueblos are located in this area. Our RV camp ground choice is based on price, trees, WiFi, dog friendly and dog walking areas. Older, well maintained RV parks — minus the resort and spa facilities seem to fit the bill.

This is our third trip to Santa Fe in three years and the old road system is still as confusing as ever. Evidently old winding trails became horse trails and then wagon trails and now roads for motor vehicles. Our objective was to pick up a mail package forwarded by our mail forwarding service. Except that they didn’t forward the mail — but never mind the pet meds shipment will go out and we will pick up the package sometime next week.

Our Casita continues to be noticed. It is a cute little compact trailer. One fun story is when we visited a Jewelry supply store and the woman who was filling our order noticed my key chain with the Casita logo tab. Turns out that she is also a Casita owner.

The furkids seem to be adapting to the motel room on wheels way of life. We pack up, put them and their beds into the truck and hit for road for hours.  We stop at rest stops for walkies and for lunch and they find themselves in the same motel room (the trailer). Then we drive some more and finally stop and they get to  return to their familiar motel room with their dog bed already in place. They are fed at regular times and mostly their lives have a pattern with interesting new places to smell and investigate.

Today was a rest day — we didn’t drive anywhere. The husband made a Lexan plastic frame for the refrigerator. We knew right away when we saw the refrigerator unit in the display model in the showroom — that a slight modification was needed to the control buttons at the top front of the unit. The job required: a small saw purchased at a Home Depot, plus a small sheet of Lexan purchased at Lowes and the round file I had in my jewelry making kit — plus a few hours to fabricate the button shield.

The window in the bathroom needs a privacy curtain. I found a “fat quarter” of fabric at a fabric store in Clovis and pressed the edges for the hems and then hand stitched the edges. The curtain rod is 12 inches of a wooden dowel, placed on hooks. The curtain can be tied back when not in the privacy position. When in the privacy mode the window can be opened to allow fresh air into the bathroom and the small fan can remove stale air.

Next to the bathroom/head there is a small closet. Anyone who has a boat knows that hanging clothes don’t do well in a constantly moving environment — found on the water or on the highways. Most Casita owners opt to turn the closet into shelves. Another option is to use hanging shelves and hanging shoe racks. The motion of the road tends to dump the contents of the shelves — so we will be adding a couple more wire shelves to the door to keep the contents of the hanging baskets in the baskets.

New Mexico related facts & information

New Mexico is located between Texas and Arizona and shares borders with Utah and Colorado. A large percentage of the evidence prehistoric Indian occupation are located in the Four Corners region — which is where the corners of New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona and Utah come together. One of the premiere existing prehistoric structures is found Chaco canyon. Chaco is found roughly between Santa Fe and Farmington.

State Flower: Yucca (which did not bloom in 2011 because of the extreme drought).

Clovis- New Mexico

New Mexico is my favorite state from the first time I visited as a teenager way back in the Stone Ages. Since then I’ve traveled the world (Europe and Japan as well as 49 US states) and New Mexico is still my favorite land locked state. But I really don’t mind not being near the ocean when I’m in New Mexico — perhaps because the sky is almost always blue.

As Anthropology Students know — Clovis is important because of a the Clovis Point. Although the importance of this site has shifted with older evidence of human habitation found in South America, the Blackwater Draw site near Clovis, New Mexico retains important as the first site to prove that humans inhabited the American continent during the Paleolithic era (about 13 thousand years ago) of human development and evidence of humans was found in the same context as Mastodon bones. Imagine way back in the early days of Anthropology and the snobbery of the Patriarchal European Academic establishment. Scientific methodology was important as was critical thinking. The Europeans could place humans in Europe with Paleolithic mammals — and the males were quick to formulate theories of the human hunters. Silly males of that era tended to forget that the early human population included females who did a lot more than sit around the fire waiting for the men to return with fresh meat. As female Anthropologist joined the ranks of once exclusive men’s only clubs, the women started adding new insights into female role in the Paleolithic era. Wikipedia link to Blackwater Draw archaeological site.

At one time the Blackwater Draw location #1 was thought to be the earliest evidence of humans in the Americas.

“ Evidence of “fluted” points, spearheads also known as Clovis points (a New World invention) and other stone and bone weapons, tools, and processing implements was found at the archaeological site. The Clovis points were lanceolate (leaf-shaped) and larger than Folsom points. These artifacts are in association with the remains of extinct Late Pleistocene megafauna,including Columbian mammoth, camel, horse, bison, sabertooth cat and dire wolf ^[7]that were hunted by the early peoples who visited there. ”

Finding definite proof of humans and a new type of spear point in geological context with mammals put humans in the Americas was probably as much of a challenge to the European establishment as the time line now being established in South American prehistoric archaeological  research.

We visited both the museum and the Blackwater Draw Historical Landmark while staying at Travelers World Campground in Clovis. For me it was wonderful to see the Clovis point and the other points recovered from the Blackwater Draw digs and to be able to touch real points and replicas of Clovis points after studying Clovis points in slides during my North American Archaeology classes back in the Stone Ages.

About Travelers World Campground, Clovis

Travelers World Campground is located on Route 84 just west of Clovis. This is a well maintained older RV park. The Showers and bathroom are first rate. The staff is welcoming and helpful. The park is located between the rail road tracks and Route 84. The rail and traffic noises weren’t disturbing  as we thought they might be — we had the air conditioner going during the day and the heater on at night — plus the Casita is insulated. The WiFi worked well in both locations we parked our trailer in the park. The Price was around $20 and if you happen to be on a budget and don’t expect resort type facilities — this is a good deal.

Our criteria for a commercial RV park are excellent WiFi connection, some trees, dog walking area, as well as full hook up. Although we did stay for 3 nights in a pull through that had no sewer connection (but it did have power and water). Our black water and gray water holding tanks were more than adequate for a 3 day stay.

We would return to Travelers World Campground again if we return to Clovis. It is probably best to make a reservation — which tells us a lot about Travelers World.

Next up — Santa Fe. The closer to Santa Fe the RV park is — the more expensive. There are other RV options if your aim is to explore this part of New Mexico.

 

 

Casita our home away from home

Casita impressions week one

 

It has been almost a week since we pulled away from the Casita factory with our very own Casita. We decided to stay in the RV camp while trying out the trailers systems — like air conditioning. All the glitches have been minor and easily fixed. The faucet in the head/bathroom was leaking and the faucet needs to be replaced. The air conditioning system works great as does the heating function. The fan provides just enough noise to negate the sounds of traffic, vehicle  and train.

We choose the 17 foot model with higher ground clearance and larger diameter tires. The galley is compact and the microwave cabinet fits a table top oven quite nicely. The two burner stove is more than adequate. The refrigerator/freezer is more than adequate — it has room for a six pack of beer, bread, sandwich making supplies, meat, veggies, milk, orange juice and lemon aide. The freezer compartment has room for four ice trays and several pounds of frozen meat.

This model has two sleepers or beds which double as tables and benches. We are leaving the back section as a full time bed. Now for the question that anyone who doesn’t have a cat will ask: where is that nasty cat box? The cat box fits very nicely under the rear bed. The cat box is placed on a small rug — which can be pulled out for easy cleaning.

We borrowed one solar panel from the boat and will eventually have it up and running for boosting our electrical options. We actually borrowed several things from the boat — mostly galley cooking equipment.

It turns out that boats and travel trailers have a lot in common — especially the holding tanks and locating pump out or dump stations for our land yacht and our marine yacht.

One piece of equipment not standard are four support — needed to stabilize  trailer. We’ve had a few nights without the forward stabilizing jacks and there is a major difference when the stabilizers are added. The Casita does come with two attached rear stabilizers.  Walmart had a two set box of stabilizers, the extra set was added to the middle, or in place of the built in stabilizers.

After leaving the first RV camp we made two  Walmart stop overs in Texas. The first night we kept the trailer hitched to the truck. It was a somewhat rocky night. But the rain was falling so hard that we decided to just live with the boat like motion of the trailer.

There are other free stop over we hope to try. We learned about Casino boon docking from friends at the marina. They felt that the Walmart boon docking was noisy (which it is) so they started stopping overnight at Casinos.

Of course the bigger rigs have more room and are probably more comfortable — but we also vacation on our boat so this really isn’t that much difference from the living area of a small sailboat. Bigger RV trailers require a larger hauling vehicle and it is more difficult to pull a 35 to 50 foot trailer, 5th wheel or mobile home.

On the trip from Texas to New Mexico we encountered some rough roads — our trailer was taking the blame for a rougher ride than normal. Tonight we took the truck, leaving the trailer at the RV camp grounds. The roads are just as rough, without the trailer.

 

 

 

Tuesday all is quiet in eastern NM

Today is for resting and relaxing. It is so nice to look out the window and see the same scene in semi rural New Mexico. There are lots of things to see and do but so far neither of us have any energy to leave this RV campground. There will be a Supermarket trip later in the day.

This RV camp has great WiFi so I’m catching up on the news. Husband has decided that he needs to check the trailer’s brakes. The manual says to check the brakes after 200 miles. So that gives the husband something to do. I’m wondering if the huge RVs have a thicker manual with much more to do to maintain all the systems on their RVs? There are several acres for walking Pets — what more can we wish for?

There is a train track not far at all from us, and it says in one of the brochures that about 100 trains pass through this town every day. I guess this trailer’s insulation is working, when we close the windows and turn on the air conditioning unit to FAN — we can sleep through the night.

One of the neat things is that right out our back window of our Casita we can see a big sign for La Quinta — which is a nice Pet Friendly hotel chain. I rather enjoy paying the small fee to stay at this RV campground.

Our last experience at a Texas La Quinta was not so pleasant. We stayed at the same place in the spring — and the clerk merely asked if I wanted the room left on the same credit card I used for the reservation. (Note that I am a Gold member of their returns program). This time the clerk demanded my driver’s license. So now we have corporate identity theft. There is no way that the   CEO isn’t going to jump at the chance to sell his customer database.

This hotel was an associate of La Quinta and not a corporate LQ — so the LQ CEO isn’t the one who was demanding additional ID. This outfit has had our reservation — demanding my driver’s licence was wrong and will lead to yet another hacking of a database and the need for a new credit card number. It makes me wonder how much money the banks are losing to credit card identity theft.

The sky out my window is blue with fluffy white clouds and there is a mild breeze. Nice!

 

New Mexico

Monday New Mexico

Last week we picked up our new trailer — 17 ft. Casita from the factory in East Texas. We are now RVers — mini version. We spent three days testing the various systems on this travel trailer. Ironically the one feature we didn’t think we would need was the first system that was intensively tested — the air conditioning unit. It was HOT in Texas. There was one other new Casita in the RV park, they were also from the Northwest.

This trailer tracks well behind our pick-up. We headed north on Saturday into a major rain storm and spent a night in a Walmart parking lot. We asked and were told to park way out away from the store and away from the trucks — because the trucks come and go all night. It rained hard most of the night so we didn’t hear much except for the rain.

Sunday we managed to get closer to New Mexico and around dark we found ourselves in another Walmart parking lot. We have a Guide of all the Walmart stores.  We marked up our directory using an online list of the– No RV over nighting at Walmart. There are a few common sense guides to overnighting at a Walmart. Camp light and don’t leave anything behind (except money for purchases at Walmart). We left our trailer hitched to the truck — and it was no more rocky then being at anchor in our sailboat.

The sink in the head/bathroom was leaking and dear husband discovered the cause and called Casita. A replacement part will be mailed out as soon as possible. So far the major systems work. It hasn’t gotten cold enough to test the furnace.

One funny thing happened while we were at the Walmart parking lot. There was a man in a car who kept circling our trailer. It turns out that he was calling Casita’s 800 number on the back of our trailer. Another gentleman walked up to us as we were getting ready to drive away — he was another Casita owner and just wanted to say “hi”.

It is, of course, far more comfortable to camp at a RV campground — especially the commercial campgrounds with full hook-ups which include water, electricity and sewer connections.

Our furkids seem to be adapting well to this vagabond lifestyle. They adjusted well to tent camping and this is a step or two above putting up and taking down a tent. Mr. Cat loves looking out the window and watching the birds and people — sort of like a cat TV channel. Mr. Dog/Admiral loves sniffing new places and leaving his new messages.

The weather is good, lots of blue sky in New Mexico and warm but not HOT. The people in these temporary communities are friendly and helpful.

 

More Antelope seen along road

Sunday, SE Colorado, N. New Mexico, NW Texas

Some people have adapted to Urban living which in the West includes driving in massive freeways which often loop through, around, over, below the Urban centers. My DNA isn’t going to adapt to Urban traffic jams. Denver was nasty on a weekend, so was Atlanta, Georgia. Then there was Kansas City, Missouri — the evening commute. People drive these packed freeways every working day — and apparently many also fill the Urban freeways on the weekend as well. If at all possible I by pass the Urban Metro areas — A big city person, I am not. Probably because I grew up on US Navy Air Bases while my dad was fighting the “cold war”.

Today was a nice easy drive on the back roads of Southern Colorado, Northern New Mexico and Northern Texas. We saw more herds of Antelope in pastures, close to the road. Not once did I see any of the antelope looking in the direction of the highway, they were always looking parallel to the road or away from the road. Antelope are generally very alert (except for the young females who were grazing). Antelope don’t respond to traffic on the highways, but if a human on foot was spotted, they’d probably run away from potential hunters. These are wild animals, compared to the range cattle who are generally about 1/4 mile away from the antelope. Generally if a small herd of antelope was spotted, within 1/4 of a mile I would see a herd of range cattle.

The wild flowers were abundant along the side of the road. These could be the normal wild flowers, or perhaps the legacy of Lady Bird Johnson and her efforts to beautify America. I love the color Purple, so it was nice to see so many purple flowers along with large bushes filled with yellow flowers. I haven’t identified the species yet — but the purple flowers look like they could be part of the Daisy family.

Tomorrow we head for Eastern Texas and our new home on wheels, for a few months. We have no firm plans — except to return to New Mexico and Arizona. We’ve been to Tucson Arizona and did a bit of car camping at Catalina State Park. This park has facilities superior to any National Park we’ve visited.  It was full during the February we tent camped at the Park. We were told that you had to get to the gate early in order to secure a camp site, and that many people spent the night at the nearby Walmart. Evidently it is common for many people to boon dock at Walmart parking lots. There are common sense rules to follow when over nighting at a Walmart parking lot. Make sure that the management welcomes RV over night parking. Don’t abuse the hospitality — park out of the way. Along with the rest of the to-do and Don’t do list.

It was hot today — so the furkids enjoyed all the wind from open windows and the fly windows could provide. We kept the truck moving, stopped for lunch in a shaded rest stop and gave the furkids plenty of water and walks. If they show any signs of heat stress we keep their heads wet and tuck wet Viva paper towels under their halters. If my furkids are stressed then I get stressed and cranky.

How much I like or dislike Texas really depends on how hot it is and the comfort of the furkids. If they are miserable — we will head north to the higher deserts.

I snapped a ton of photos — from the truck as we were zooming along. Perhaps one or two might be worth posting later.

Update:

Flying grasshoppers were thick on the road to Amarillo.  These are Texas sized grasshoppers which hit the windshield with a whop. Here’s the interesting part — when we got to our motel room we were entertained by rust colored black bird type birds jumping up to snatch dead grasshoppers off the front grill of the truck. The next day at a gas stop we saw the same species of birds cleaning the grills of cars stopped to get gas. I started telling folks that I was impressed with the specially trained Texas birds cleaning vehicle grills.

Colorado blue skies and traffic

Today is Saturday and one would think that the traffic in and around Denver would be thin, especially during what would be a slack time if this were a normal work day. We opted for a by-pass route around Denver and had to endure stop and go traffic due to an accident just one exit before the exit for Rt. 76 east. Some Denver police cars have a nifty roof extension for their flashing lights which can be seen above the traffic.

There were a whole lot of cars going someplace very fast, every car except for our West Coast vehicle, were breaking the speed limit. We saw another accident — this time a motor cyclist was down — his cycle was at the side of the freeway and the cyclist was sitting in the middle of the lane. He was obviously injured. Cars stopped and formed a shield to protect him from the oncoming traffic.

The traffic remained moderately heavy on I-25 through Colorado Springs.

Eastern Colorado has changed tremendously since I drove this very road in the 1970s. What was once farm land and pastures near the big cities are now suburban crawl and shopping districts. I’m wondering where all the water is coming from to support the huge increase in the population?

It was easy to remember where I am — since the Rocky Mountains were to our right as we travel South.

The furkids slept as usual (photos coming) and enjoyed their walks at the Rest Areas.

Simply Lemon — is a new product. I heard about it being used in cookies. Real lemons are used in Simply Lemon Aid which tastes like made from scratch Lemon Aid.

Tomorrow we will be in Texas and also for the following few days we will be in Texas. It is HOT in Texas so unless the weather cools down and stays cool (low 80s would be nice) we will head into Northern New Mexico and then west to Arizona. Dear Husband want to see the Gulf — will it be cool enough for the furkids?

Wyoming and antelopes playing

This is Friday so it must be Wyoming.

The Salt Lake city to Cheyenne, Wyoming  is always a long day but it is always interesting. I’ve not seen the fall colors of this state – bright yellows, some purples, yellows multi shades and oranges. My fingers are itching for my water colors and pastels to capture the colors of  Wyoming.

We saw several herds of Antelope and one lone male without a harem. These were herds just on the other side of the fence from the freeway. How these wild animals manage to survive when  humans don’t make it easy for any wild animal is amazing. Perhaps the reference in that song comes from watching Antelopes during breeding season –” Home, Home on the range, where the buffalo roam and the deer and antelopes play.”

The first time I took  I-80 it was early December in 2003 and I was driving during blizzard conditions – the road was white. In One section several Big rig trucks were on their sides – perhaps the trucks hit a patch of ice. I checked accident reports – but there was nothing about that section of the road.

Mr.  Cat has been on this route before – so he knows all about rest stops – especially the ones with ground squirrels. He checked out the holes at the rest stop – but all seem to be abandoned – in the east bound rest stops.

Today wasn’t as hot – either it is cooling down or the altitude of Wyoming makes the Fall weather more moderate than Idaho and Utah.

Utah – home of some crazy drivers

It was hot. Why am I complaining; when the reason we are heading south, is for more sun? I like warm but not hot, real hot as in over 100 degrees. That’s what the thermometer inside the cab was reading. Of course we had the windows and vents open and wet cloths used to cool the furkids. They were fine — and learned to seek the cooling wind blowing in the windows. Mr. Cat reminded us to take lots of rest stops. He slept through only two rest stops and announced when the next rest stop was coming up. We are not sure how he knows — but he is accurate over 75% of the time. My husband was skeptical when I told him how Mr. Cat seems to know when a Rest Area is just ahead. But now that he’s has observed Mr. Cat’s uncanny ability to know the unknowable — Dear Husband is a believer. Mr. Cat has been on Interstate 84 several times — he just may have an amazing memory based on smell.

Of course the furkids sleep most of the day and we arrive tired and I’m hot and cranky — but the furkids know that as soon as we get to the motel room — they get their meal. Even on the road we try to keep to the same pattern. Which is good — because if we do forget the rituals — the furkids will remember.

Now about the crazy drivers. Most urban areas have opted for the gazillion traffic lanes to get traffic to and from the city. Salt Lake City is no different from other major metropolitan centers. My strategy to survive rush hour traffic — is to avoid the traffic, take by-pass routes or if I must endure big city traffic — choose a lane and keep with the flow of traffic. So I’m going along, minding my own business and suddenly a white car pulls into my land, just ahead of me and stomps on her brakes. So I stomp on my brakes to avoid hitting her. At that moment drivers on either side of me — decided to stomp on their brakes and then high tail it for an exit. Suddenly a car from four lanes over on my right hand side – peeled off rubber on his tires cutting across four lanes of traffic in a sharp angle ending up a couple cars ahead of me. I was lucky not to have been rear ended by someone who suddenly decided to put on a burst of speed, which narrowed the gap between my car and her car at the same time I had to break.

What we think happened was that the drivers were listening to an air traffic report which was reporting stop and go traffic ahead.  A whole lot of people were trying to find alternative routes at about the same time, while I was merely going in a straight line, completely ignorant of the traffic slow down up ahead. I must say that although the freeway traffic could have turned into a major game of bumper cars– the panic attack that came over so many individuals at almost the same time was resolved once the driver’s thinking/rational mind took over from the village idiot part of the brain.

It is supposed to cool down to about 55 degrees tonight and it will be hot again tomorrow. Texas looks ghastly — weather wise. The US Today weather map shows Texas getting some rain tomorrow (Friday). I have a feeling that if the weather forecast  for Texas remains hot — we are going to high tail it right out of Texas and head toward northern New Mexico.

It is amazing how many RV camping parks there are along the major highways. This was something we didn’t notice before we decided to buy a travel trailer. Of course our TT will be very tiny compared to most RVs we see in the RV Resorts.