You have a Travel Trailer, Enjoy the Journey...

We just returned from another great trip with our trusty Wildwood X-Lite 201BHXL. It's a smallish trailer for sure but some of the distances that we travel I am often thankful for its size. This past trip we did around 1600 miles of hauling along with whatever local driving we did at our destinations. We took a different approach to our travel this time and I think we all felt better for it.

Our target destination was Michigan, Suzi's Mom lives in Saugatuck and each year they have a great fourth of July celebration so we typically meet up there with other members of her family. This year because the holiday fell right in the middle of the week I was able to take both weekends for our travel. Here was our itinerary

Saturday June 30th Leave Charlotte and overnight in Kentucky
Sunday July 1st Leave Kentucky and overnight in Indianna
Monday July 2nd Arrive Saugatuck, Michigan
Friday July 6th Leave Saugatuck and overnight in Ohio
Saturday July 7th Leave Ohio and overnight in Virginia
Sunday July 8th leave Virginia arrive Charlotte early

The overnight's were all in KOAs, either journey's or holidays. We enjoy the KOAs because they typically have good flat spots with decent amenities and clean bathrooms. We were not disappointed in any of our stays except for the Ohio one and the only reason there was because we were placed on the first spot and it was near ALL of the traffic so it was a bit noisy, we made it fine though.

The key point I want to make here is that so many times we've just bum rushed our way to our destination and not really enjoyed the journey. This time I decided to plan things out and not have any real crazy long days of driving. Our longest day was around 350 miles which really only translated into about 7 hours on the road, it really should have been shorter but we hit some traffic jams. I'd say 5 to 6 hours would be ideal but you have gas stops, bathroom stops, etc.

This allowed us to settle in a little bit at each stop, have a good home cooked meal, enjoy a beverage or three and get a good night's sleep and a good breakfast before hitting the road the next day. Most days we did not leave till 10 or 11 am and then arrive at our next location by 5 or 6. The beauty of the KOAs is that in most cases we didn't have to unhitch the trailer which made pack up much easier. Some KOAs also offer deluxe sites for a few more dollars that have a concrete patio, chairs and a grill which means we don't have to unload all that stuff from our camper and gets us back on the road faster the next day.

Here's a comprehensive list of the campgrounds we stayed at on this journey, it was a fantastic trip. I would also add that the side trip to the RV hall of Fame in Elkhart Indiana was well worth it, if you are around that area and have the time stop by!




Ashland / Huntington West - Kentucky KOA
Crawfordsville Indiana KOA
Yogi Bear Jellystone - South Haven Michigan
Buckeye Lake Ohio KOA
Wytheville Virginia KOA

The Wytheville and Jellystone are two amazing campgrounds for families, check them out. The others are great too , we really didn't have a bad experience at any of these places.

Confessions of a First Time RV Buyer

We were longtime tent campers. I think I bought my first tent as an adult around 2000 or so. At that time, I was a single dad and getting my kids away from it all was the most important thing to me at the time. The weekends were fast and furious and it was only two of them a month so I was looking for quality time. We had the basics really, the tent, tarps, coolers, sleeping bags, chairs, cooking stuff. It all fit nicely in my 1995 Chevy Blazer. It was me, my two kids (now we have a 3rd) and our black Labrador retriever named Lady. We would usually head up to some of mountain camp grounds in western North Carolina like Bear Den or Spruce Pine which is only for long term campers these days, no tents allowed.

So fast forward a bunch of years, my wife Suzi and I have a child together and we start camping with him. We upgrade a bunch of our gear and we're really glamping at this point but it's still a tent. We had air mattresses, would usually tarp the whole site in case of rain and even had power running into the tent for charging our devices. It was a nice tent with a high interior so changing clothes was easy, we had a really good air mattress and lots of fluffy pillows and blankets. The biggest complaint was that when it would rain inevitably everything would just be damp, and subsequently we'd usually be not as happy as we could be. Don't get me wrong, we loved being out there but it was just time to figure out our next move.

For about two years we looked at all of the camper information we could. We settled on what we thought we needed, I mean the real wants. Bunks for the kid and a friend, no slideouts because we had heard that they could cause trouble, a nice big awning because we like to be outside, and a relatively low weight so our trusty GMC Envoy with a V6 could tow it. The Envoy had about a 6300 pound maximum towing capacity so this limited our selection. After looking at A frames, pop-ups, pods, travel trailers, class c's and even a couple class a's (a man can dream right?) we decided that a travel trailer was our best bet. We went to a few RV shows in Charlotte which were great in allowing us to go through a lot of models and see a lot of different manufacturers in one day. We went to many different lots and talked to a lot of sales people. Firmly I believed we had done our homework and were knowledgeable about travel trailers.

We fairly quickly decided that we didn't like the customer service at Camping World. The place just seemed too big and we felt rushed and pushed quite a few times while there. We found a smaller dealer about 40 miles outside of Charlotte, NC called Country Camping Corner. It was here that we met our salesman and began to really consider the actual purchase. We had a decent idea of the layout we wanted and our weight limitations made quick work of a label scan to weed out bad ideas. We eventually settled on two models, both Wildwood X-lite models. One the 201BHXL and the other the 261BHXL

201BHXL

261BHXL

As you can see they are both bunk houses. Oh, a quick note, I learned that usually you can tell by the lettering of the trailer (model name) what some of its interior features are. BH almost always means BunkHouse. RB usually mean Rear Bath. RL usually means Rear Living, etc. Anyway, if you look at the above two models, first know that we settled on the 201BHXL. There were a few big reasons. One was the size of the outdoor awning, 14' over 12', this was a big deal as we spend a lot of time outdoors under the awning. The second was the location of the bathroom sink, if you notice in the larger model the sink is outside the bathroom, this was something my wife just did not like so that was really the big differentiation. It's interesting to note that we now wish we had the bigger bunks and the full time couch but we'll get to that later. The final thing was for me was length of the trailer. This was my first ever travel trailer and I did not want something so huge it was going to scare me every time I pulled it. So, for me the smaller size was a no brainer. Now that I've towed for a couple of years I would feel comfortable moving up to a slightly longer model. Two things that are an absolute must in my opinion for trailering, a good weight distribution hitch and a good trailer brake system, we went with both and had them installed by the dealer. I'm sure they made good money off  the accessories we purchased as we walked away with probably $500 worth of stuff from the camp store that we "needed", but that's another post for another day.

So, things that we know now that we wish we knew then.

• The length of the parental bed is important for tall people like me. I'm 6'1 and unless I put my head all the way to the top of the bed almost touching the wall, my feet hang off. 
• Lesson - My next trailer will have a full size queen bed, probably full time, not murphy bed type.
• The length/width of the bunk beds should be longer and wider. Our kid has aged 2.5 years since we bought the camper and he's probably a foot taller.
• Lesson - Get the wider and longer bunks and make sure your kid has room to grow.
• The layout of the bathroom is tantamount to comfort and ability to do your business.
• Our bathroom is SMALL. This is probably the one thing about our camper that I hate. I simply will not settle on the next trailer.
• We probably should have opted for the oven.
• Sure we can live without it but it sure would be nice to bake cookies every now and again.

Really, it's not a lot, but it is the little things that add up. We did over 30 nights last year in our travel trailer. We've learned a lot more than just this but hey, it's a blog and I have to keep you wanting more right? We will probably use this trailer for at least another 1-2 years then we will upgrade. I still look all the time online and occasionally go check them out at dealerships. Sometimes I even think about getting a class C but then I don't want to pull a car and I like to be able to disconnect so we can go explore. I hope this helps you with your decision making process and please feel free to ask me any questions about buying your next, or first, travel trailer.

Camping in Cedar Mountain, NC over Memorial Day

Camping is in our blood, we look forward to it each and every time that we can get away. This past weekend was our annual memorial day camping trip to Cedar Mountain, NC. There's a great campground called Black Forest Family Camping Resort that has been a favorite stop for us for a little over 13 years. It's one of those places that we sort of "found". A friend had told us about the area and one weekend all those years ago we decided to stop in. The resort is wonderful with a beautiful welcome house, a swimming pool, large open yard with playground, a yurt and other amenities. We fell in love with it from the first time we stayed and although some things have changed over the years, the general charm and friendliness is still there which is what keeps us coming back.

Our most recent trip over the Memorial Day Weekend of 2018 was another great trip but it wasn't without its ups and downs as all of our camping trips seem to have. We arrived on Friday around 5:30 pm after leaving a little after lunch time. Our early arrival ensured that we would be able to set up in daylight. Unfortunately the clear skies did not hold out and we were forced to setup in the rain. The nice thing about having an RV is how quickly you can deploy the awning. This gave us a place to stage stuff and not have everything soaked. We also carry one of our most favorite accessories, the Clam! The Clam is the Taj Majal of easy up shelters. Can be carried and setup by one person, provides ample space for picnic table or 4 or 5 camping chairs and has accessory walls that can be added to provide additional protection from wind, sun and rain. When deployed correctly, we have the entrance just under our RV awning and can walk from it into the Clam and have an extra room to eat, relax, play games, whatever!

After a few interesting setup challenges, one with leveling and one with the city water connection we were in place and ready to relax. Our leveling issue was really my fault, I had the parking brake engaged on the truck when we we raised the hitch and the chocks weren't in place correctly so the trailer moved when it came off the ball, always scares the crap out of me when this happens but it only took additional time to re-hitch the trailer to the truck, re-level it and repeat. Just remember that you should not have the parking brake enabled (this allows the truck to move a little bit when the ball comes off) and make sure to correctly chock your wheels before raising the hitch. I plan on investing in the x-chocks as soon as possible which will help greatly with chocking and stabilizing the rig! My other issue was with the city water connection, really the inlet on my RV. When I hooked up the water line and turned it on water was spewing out of the connection. After trying a few things I used teflon tape on the hose elbow that we use and it reduced it to a trickle. I may have to replace the water inlet soon, unfortunately it is plastic and seems to be failing.

Friday night was relaxing after setup, the rain continued. We grilled hot dogs and ate chips. It's always nice to have an easy meal on arrival day. Saturday was our big day in Brevard. The White Squirrel Festival is held every year on the downtown streets and is a great treat for everyone. Entertainment, vendors, food trucks, even a soap box derby! It's truly a small town favorite. Here's how we spent the day. After finding parking, which can be challenging, we walk all the streets and visited our favorite vendors. There are several artisans that Suzi loves to see including a wrought iron vendor and a painter. We also have to stop and see the actual white squirrel which is held right on the square in a a booth will lots of squirrel stuff to buy. After that the boys will hit OP Taylors, the biggest, coolest, toy shop that we've ever seen! The lego wall simply has to be seen to be appeciated.

We made a stop into Wine Down, a favorite bistro of ours then stops by the Gem Mine where the boys panned for "gold" :-) and this year our new favorite was a stop by Silly Willy's Caricature Booth, he drew the boys in all their glory and it is a great picture that we will cherish for years. Finally was our annual stop into Big Mike's Pizza Shop. Last year Jake won a $10 gift card in one of their arcade machines so we had to use it or it would expire. When we walked in we were a little sad to see that the arcade machines were gone but the food was just as good and we enjoyed ourselves. Afterwards we headed back to the campground to relax and play a little bingo in the yurt.

Sunday was our hiking day. This time we chose to stay closer and visit the Dupont National Forest trails. Our trip was around 1.5 hours and took us to see High Falls and Triple Falls. Saber, our trusty Labradoodle, made the trip with us and had a blast as well. Once we finished our hike the rain settled in and really didn't stop until we got back to Charlotte. A couple of other mentions, we had some really good steaks on Sunday night, grilled to perfection on our portable propane grill. We played a couple of new games that our family really enjoyed (having a good selection of games on the coach is key to getting through the rain). One was called Exploding Kittens , it's basically an UNO variant with cool cards and some interesting rules that make each round unique and fun. The other one is a variant on Yahtzee which we've always loved, it's called World Series of Yahtzee and man is it a blast! It's a speed version where you race to get the combinations that are settled on the board then buzz in after you get it, the other players have 5 seconds to buzz in their combos, you play until all the cards are gone and tally up your scores. We really had fun with this one.

Packing up in the rain is never fun, even with an RV. I'm sure if we had a giant RV with lots of room inside it would be easy as we wouldn't really have much outside stuff to pack but we don't. Our pack up was wet and took some time but we got through it, made a safe trip home and unpacked with some time to shower and unwind before our work week began. Our memorial day was one to remember for sure but let's not forget the real reason that we have this holiday, remembering our fallen veterans over the years. Thank you for your service and for keeping us free and protected, god bless!

Let's talk RV Tanks - AKA Sh*tter's Full

Tanks, The dirty little secret that almost every RV has. RV's may have up to three different types of tanks and some will have multiples of these depending on their layout. 

Fresh Water Tank - You guessed it, holds fresh water
Grey Tank - Holds waste water from sinks and shower
Black Tank - Holds the messy waste (from the toilet)

My particular model, the 2016 Wildwood 201BHXL has a 40 gallon fresh, 32 gallon grey and 32 gallon black. Your specifications sheet should tell you what size your tanks are. If you are anything like me when you first hear about the tanks it can be overwhelming and strange. So, let's try to break it down and I will talk about how we use the different types of tanks in practice.

When you make your RV campsite reservation you will often see terms "Full hookups" or "Water and Electric Only". Full hookups usually means electric, water and sewer. This is the best and most convenient way to camp but also the most involved in terms of setting up. The electric is usually simple, just a 120v, 30a or 50a plug. Be careful on sites that only say water and electric because it might mean you can't run all the stuff in your rig. If it is only 120V you won't be able to run your Air Conditioner or Microwave. If it has 30A or 50A it will run all of the electrical stuff and keep your battery charged. I will talk more about Electrical hookups in another post.

The water will most likely look like what you have on the outside of your house, a spigot as some people call it. You'll need a fresh water hose if you want to connect it to your rig and have fresh water. Here's a link to the one I bought. It's basically a 25 foot hose with a female connector on one side and a male on the other. You will hook this up to the water spigot the other end to your city water connection on your RV turn on the water and you'll have fresh water and pressure (important note, using this connection you will NOT need to engage your water pump) as the pressure from the spigot gives you what you need to push water around the pipes in the RV.

If the site doesn't have water then things are going to get a little bit more interesting. You will have to fill the fresh water tank before arriving at your camp site and use the water pump. If you don't have water then that probably means you won't have sewer or electric and you'll be "boondocking" or camping with no services. We've never camped this way in our RV so I can't speak too much to it but we have camped without sewer which can be interesting. Also note that if you use your fresh water tank you will need to sanitize and flush it before you use it for the first time, here is a link for that.

My 25' fresh water hose

The first time you fire the water up might be a little strange but don't worry. Go inside and open up the faucets and let some water run, it will spit and sputter but eventually will have water flowing. Make sure to press the pedal on your toilet too to get the water flowing there. You may hear a "filling" sound when you first open the spigot, that will be the hot water heater filling up. Try not to turn on the water heater until it is full or you could screw something up. It's really as simple as that if you have the city water connection but you can make life easier with a couple of additional accessories..

A longer 50' drinking water hose - Comes in handy if the services are further away
A filter and flexible extension - Keeps your water tasting good and protects the RV water inlet
A water pressure regulator - Keeps the water pressure consistent and can protect your pipes
A 2 way water valve - Lets you hook up another hose if needed, more on this later

The 2-way water valve

The last 3 items I use each and every time we hook up, the extension is only needed if we are far away from the services which has happened so it's nice to know I have the length if I need it. My hookup is like this. At the spigot I hook up the 2 way valve, then the fresh water hose, then the pressure regulator then the water filter and then the flex extension. One more thing that I will be adding soon is a heated hose I won't go into too much detail here but if it gets below 30 degrees for too long you will want this.

If you have a sewer hookup and fresh water spigot at your campsite that means 2 primary things. One, your tank sizes don't really matter and two, you won't need your fresh water tank or your water pump. You won't have to worry about your waste tank sizes because you can dump any time that you feel like it (although you should dump at the proper time) and you won't need your fresh water tank because fresh water is coming directly into your RV through the city water inlet. We have never dry camped so we've never filled up our fresh water tank and never used the water pump, even when winterizing, but that's another blog post for another day (hint: you have to sanitize it first).


Let's talk sewer hookups. Somewhere on your site, and it may not be obvious, there will be a white round cap about 4 inches in diameter. If you're lucky it will look like this and everything is right there, together and easy to find. If you're unlucky and it's in the fall, you may have to shuffle leaves around for awhile or even ask management where it is. Some come up out of the ground, others are perpendicular to the ground which makes accessories necessary to get the right hookup. Gravity is your friend here so getting a nice run from the RV to the sewer connection is important. In this photo you see the power, water and sewer are all nicely grouped together, just make sure you park the RV close enough before you level it so you don't have to move again.

Here's what I have for our sewer connections.

The clear sewer connect gets hooked up first to the RV side. It allows me to see what's coming out of the gray and black tanks (I know, gross, but..) and it allows me to hook up another hose (don't use your drinking water hose) to blow water back up into both tanks and flush them out. This is extremely important because most tanks have sensors on the inside that show how full or empty the tanks are. If the sensors get funked up you can get false readings and not really know how full or empty your tanks are.

Clear Sewer Connect

Hose and Sewer Connection

Sewer Hose Support

The hose and sewer connection goes next. Each thing locks securely into the next thing so there's no mess when you are emptying. Finally you can adjust the pitch of the whole thing with the support and make sure you have gravity helping you out from your RV to the Sewer inlet. If you get good at this you can probably set it up in 10 or 15 minutes after you have leveled and unhooked your trailer. Oh, one last thing, leave your tank dump valves CLOSED, for now, and until you are ready to empty, trust me, this will help the dumping process.

Alright, everything is hooked up, you're camping and you're having a great time. Everyone is washing dishes, maybe taking showers, using the toilet, it's all good. You walk by the command center to check your tank capacities and you notice that one or both tanks is 2/3rds full. Oh NO! The dreaded time has come.

First, go outside and crack a beer. Take a few sips of the beer and think about what you're about to do. Normally this stuff is transparent to you. When you're home, you flush and forget about it, well, unless it clogs but hopefully that doesn't happen too often. Out here, all your stuff is in your holding tanks until you empty them which you are about to do.

So, enjoy the rest of your beer then go find your gloves, you did buy gloves right? Put a pair of the gloves on and go around to the back of your RV. Now, find the valve that is for your black tank. Always remember, when you dump tanks, be sure to dump both tanks and always do the black tank first. Pull the black tank lever and watch the stuff go by. It will probably be nasty but watch it anyway. Look for big clumps of paper, probably some other stuff and eventually it will stop. If you want to have your wife go dump a few bowlfuls of water from the toilet go ahead and do that, just close the valve when it gets to a trickle. 

Polyethylene Gloves

Now dump the grey water  tank, the valve should be close to the one you just closed, also the pipe diameter will be smaller for the grey tank. The great thing about dumping the grey after the black is that it will flush your sewer hose out. When the grey slows to a trickle have your wife throw some more water down the sinks and then when you're satisfied close the valve, take off your gloves, throw them away and check the tank indicators. If they say empty, you're good to go, if not, you have to flush them a bit by either using your RV's flush system or if you bought what I mentioned above, a second hose connected to that can help you flush them out. Remember to do black first and then grey when flushing the tanks. Don't be afraid to use lots and lots of water as you are hooked up and have an infinite supply.

Once the tanks are emptied and the valves are closed you will probably want to throw a couple of gallons of water and some chemicals in order to control odors.

We use Walex Bio-Pak for our black tank and we use Walex Elemonate for our grey tank.

That's pretty much it. We are fortunate to have a small compartment on the rear of our coach to hold all of the supplies and I use our bumper for the hose storage. I bought these bumper caps for the ends as we lost more than a few of the original bumper caps just from travel. The ones that we use actually screw on and are hinged but I've since found this magnetic bumper cap set and this will be the next set I buy if the one we use now ever falls off.

So, there you have it. All about your tanks, what they are used for, how to empty them and things that will help with the process. I was extremely intimidated by the whole process when I had to do it the first time but it's much less stressful now. Dumping at the dump station is really no different except you're hooking it all up and disconnecting in one session. The one time I had to use a dump station I was finished in about 15 minutes. If you're not super good at the process I'd wait to use the dump station until you figure it out as you don't want to irritate the other seasoned campers. Also, if you do decide to trailer with your tanks not empty please be considerate of the extra weight. In my case if all my tanks were full that would add over 800lbs of weight (about 8 pounds per gallon) ! That's a lot when considering your combined gross vehicle weights.

Good luck and Happy Camping!

3 Things we use EVERY time we RV camp - Volume 1

This is the first in a series of posts that we hope will be easily consumable but more importantly, helpful to you the reader. Just as it was when we tent camped, after 10 years we had pretty much everything we needed to be comfortable out there in the wild but it took us awhile to gather all the necessary things. With RV sales going through the roof the last few years, according to the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association, it's no surprise that folks are looking for things to buy that will help them enjoy their camping experience. Our plan is to focus on no more than 3 items within each of these blog posts. Of the three items they will be things that we find useful and we hope that you will too. These are items that we've collected and used time and time again for various reasons. I'll explain those reasons, give you the rundown on the item and if you see fit, you can click the link to the item and pick it up off Amazon. In the interest of transparency, We will make a little bit of money on the transaction. But I hope that it will be a win-win situation as you will get a great product that you will use out of the deal. Of course you could just go straight to Amazon and search, but I sure would appreciate it if you use my links. All right, with that out of the way, let's get to the stuff in Volume 1...

Thing #1 - The Claw

Your awning is a very important part of your RV. It keeps your stuff under cover, keeps you protected from the blaring sun and chilling rain but it also provides a defined space for you outside. We like to think of the space under our awning as our living room since we have a fairly small RV. We spend a LOT of time outside sometimes even when it is raining. The Claw is what allows us to keep the awning under control even in rainy and windy situations.

This is what you get in the package but let me assure you that it is light and easily stows in one of your under carriage compartments. You're getting two claws, 6 spikes, 2 straps and a hammer plus the storage bag. It's about the size of a standard soft sided lunch box and weighs about 8 pounds. The quality of all the items is superb and this stuff is meant to last. All of the parts have held up for the last 2 years (we bought it shortly after getting our Trailer in 2016) and I have no reason to believe they won't continue to last.

As far as setup goes it couldn't get any easier, tie the top of the strap to a corner of your awning frame, pick a spot for the claw, hammer the three spikes in and clip the strap to the claw, then adjust the strap so it is tight. The trick in this thing is that the spikes are going into the ground at an angle towards each other, hence, the claw name. You repeat with the other side and you're done. We've used it at the beach, in the mountains, everywhere we take the trailer and I feel completely comfortable leaving the awning out while the claw is attached when we leave for the day on our adventures. The price is right, the product works and the reviews are great, check out The Claw and get yours before your next trip! Here's a photo of it in use on our last camping trip to West Virginia which you can read about in another post.

Thing #2 - The Foldaway Skillet

We all love cooking outdoors right? I mean, you almost have to if you are into the camping lifestyle. When we camp, I usually bring at least 2 pounds of bacon and one morning I will cook it all up so we can use it for breakfasts, sandwiches, salads, whatever. Cooking all that bacon in the coach, even with the fans cranked up, would give a real hard bacon smell to things for awhile (including our clothes) so with this handy dandy gadget you can do it outside. The Foldaway Skillet is made by Presto and is listed as a 16" skillet. This gives you plenty of room to fry that bacon and whatever else you want. I can get about 10 slices in there at a time. We've also done casseroles, reheated stuff and done grilled cheese! The best part is that it all folds down so you're not using nearly as much storage as a full sized skillet. The base comes off and the legs fold up, they go into the skillet, put the detachable cord in and then flip the top upside down. Very compact and very easy to store. Not much else to say about this one but we use it every single time we camp so it is a perfect fit for the list.

Thing #3 - Slim Fold Camp Cook Station

I simply couldn't put the skillet in this list without mentioning what we put it on when we are camping. We used to use a small roll-up wood top table that was prone to tipping over but we made it work. Now that we have this little gem, I will hopefully never have to go back. This table folds to just a few inches high and slides easily back into the box it comes in and slides right into camper compartment and leaves plenty of room for other stuff. It's easy to set up by one person and is very sturdy and holds a lot of stuff. We set this up and put the skillet on it, paper towels, salt, pepper, other condiments, a toaster and then there is still room for more. It has 4 side shelves, a bottom shelf and then middle main shelf. We post this up right outside the door against the camper and under the awning so we can cook even in the rain. I cannot recommend this table enough. This photo is from our last trip and you can see all the stuff I've got piled up on it and I'm cooking a bunch of bacon!

So, if you're still with me, there are three things that we use every single time we take our camper out into the world. We can secure our awning with The Claw, set up our outdoor kitchen area with the slim fold camp cook station and cook up a mess of anything with our foldaway skillet. I hope you enjoyed reading and I have lots more great gear to talk about as we move along. Please pass this blog on to all of your friends and family and thanks for stopping by!

West Virginia, ATVs and Poopcicles

This adventure started on a Thursday and we were looking forward to a long camping weekend. Our destination this time, Buffalo Trail in Bluefield, WV.  Our group is 12 strong, we are the only RV campers in the group, the rest of the gang is holing up in various cabins across the property. One really cool feature, a restaurant on-site that has food and drink, I will get to that later.The highlight of our trip was to be our Friday rental of a 4 seat Polaris ATV from West Virginia ATV Rentals and taking it out on the Hatfield and McCoy trails around the area.

Some of you may remember on our last big trip on 2017 we had a tire blowout. I was determined to not experience this again so I purchased a Tire Pressure Monitor System (TPMS) . If I'm being honest with myself I probably didn't check them often enough. Armed with new Goodyear tires and my new TPMS I planned to stave off the tire blowout gods. Setup of the TPMS was fairly easy, take off the old caps, twist on hex nuts then the new caps (with wireless sensors) and back the hex nuts up with the wrench to keep them secure and then plug in the display inside the car. Some easy setup for max and min for both pressure and temps and off you go. Don't forget to match up the tops with the proper tires. I was really impressed with this and probably should have gotten it when I bought the trailer but hey, I have it now so I'm good to go.

Loading up in front of our house

We left pretty early on Thursday. The resort staff recommended we get there early (well before 4 pm) so we would not have to deal with the restaurant crowd while trying to park and setup the RV.  We have packing down to a science with almost everything we need already on the coach so all we are really putting in is our clothes, food and drinks. We picked up the RV from the storage place around 6:30 AM and parked it in front of our house for loading. We were on our way by about 8:30 AM. The trip up was about 3 hours and even though I could have made it on one tank of gas I filled up on the interstate before arriving in case gas was tough to find in our destination area.

See how close the pads are to each other?

Turns out Bluefield is a decently sized town and has most of the regular suburbia stuff. Leaving the interstate and driving the 10 miles to the resort was easy. The signage was very good and we turned right in to Buffalo Trails. Pulling up the hill you pass the restaurant on the right and straight ahead are 5 RV pads. Each is about 10 feet wide by about 50 feet deep. They each have another 10 feet of "grass", a picnic table, fire ring and services box (50 AMP, water and sewer). After seeing where the RVs were parked, I am SO Glad that we left when we did. As it turns out we were all setup well before the crowds came in.

We had some issues with setup. I parked the rig too far forward and had to use both my sewer hoses hooked together and an extension cord for my 30 amp connection, also my 50 foot drinking water hose. If I had pulled all the way back I would not have needed the extra (this is an important note for later). The power breaker kept flipping on our hookup so the on-site guy worked with it for awhile and was able to fix it and he was very friendly through it all. The area in front of our camper was very muddy so he also got us a couple bales of hay and spread it for us. This helped a lot but we left our front mat there when we left as it was soaked through and we just didn't want to deal with it. No big deal, cheap to replace. We checked out the bath houses which were good, nice tile and fairly clean. 8 individual unisex rooms with a toilet, sink, shower and locking door. There was also a free ice machine here but it was broken (the bar gave us ice when we asked) and there was a woodshed with free wood which we took but never used, honestly our fire pit was very small and in the back near the sewer line, not much fun there.

One of the group's ride, I was chauffeured in this...

where the buffalo roam

Once we were all setup it was time to meet the rest of the gang at their place, not far from our campsite. I had injured my foot earlier in the week so I was picked up in a side-by-side and this was my first experience in one of the vehicles. Very cool ride and lots of torque. I asked a lot of questions of Cason, my driver (the son of one of our friends) and he answered them all and was very excited for me to get one of my own the next day, as was I. The setup where the rest of the group was located was awesome, nice large cabin with 1.5 baths, a very large fire pit next to the cabin and a beautiful view of the fields and the buffalo.


I hobbled over to where the buffalo were hanging out and was in awe of their size. A very large fence separated us and for that I was glad! There was a large bull hanging out with them and also some ducks. Ultimately this is what made me order the 1 lb buffalo burger later at the restaurant, but I digress. We hung out by the first until our 6:30 pm dinner reservation at the restaurant located on the property. This place is rustic, warm and inviting. They had a setup for on the outside area which was well insulated and warmed by several wood stoves that were stoked and cranking. The menu was very diverse with lots of options for everyone. We had appetizers of cheesy chipotle bursts (they were ok), hatfield cheese fries (these were a big hit) and fried pickles (my 2nd favorite after the fries). My dinner, as I mentioned above, was a delicious 1 lb bison patty which was delicious, lean and gigantic, I barely finished it! A few photos from our dinner at the restaurant.

My lovely wife Suzi

My youngest son Jake

The 1 lb Bison Patty

The gang of girls! I was the only adult male :-)

After dinner we said our goodbyes till tomorrow and the trails. I was pretty exhausted from driving and setting up and still nursing a bad foot. We settled in to the camper and watched Twilight Zone, the Movie, from the 80's. The boys enjoyed it and I did as well as I really didn't remember a couple of the stories, Akroyd was awesome in it as was Burgess Meredith as the narrator, remember his original episode with the books?

A couple of hours into our day, we came back for goggles.

Friday couldn't come soon enough. We left our camper around 8:30 am for the drive up the mountain to the ATV rental shop. As we drove up the mountain the temperatures dropped and the views became more and more breathtaking. Rick, the owner of WV ATV Rentals was so amazingly helpful and friendly I cannot recommend his place enough. He explained everything perfectly, was available for us the entire time we were out and even gave us a guided tour down his private path to another trail head! A couple of hours into our riding we realized that goggles were completely necessary and needed so we went back up to Rick's place to buy a couple pair. I was fortunate that I brought my motorcycle helmet which had a full face shield, it worked really well except for when we went through one large puddle that splashed us like we were on a flume ride at disneyworld! I had to slam the breaks to raise my shield in order to see, crazy stuff.

We spent a lot of time on the trails. The polaris handled amazingly well and I quickly acclimated to the driving conditions. I really feel as if my time on my sport bike all those years paid off. There were a couple of times where I might have scared my passengers so for that, I do apologize but I felt in full control the entire time as I knew the cargo I was carrying (my family) was precious and I did not need to be stupid. They rate the trails like ski slopes, we stayed on greens and blues the entire day although we passed lots of trails rated black or red/black which I assume were terrifying.

One of the really fun stops we made was in a mud pit area that was big enough to get plenty of speed and tear through and even grab a bit of air. Jake hopped in with Pam in her 2 seat vehicle and had a blast for about 10 minutes getting really muddy and jumping a few times. Here's a short clip of Jake and Pam at the mud pit. The smile on that kid's face when he got out of the car is something I will remember for a long, long time. Thanks Pam for taking him on a ride he will never forget! After some time in the mud pit we hit a few more trails and it was time to say goodbye. But not after we had to give our vehicles a good power wash!

A good shot of almost all the vehicles

Jake after his killer ride!

After the powerwash session we headed back to the resort for winding down. And we all needed showers. This was a bit of a disappointment but I understand. Remember earlier how I had mentioned that bathhouses were nice? Well after probably 50-100 people come back from all day on the trail, it can be difficult for the staff to keep up with their cleanliness so as such, Suzi and Jake had a less than stellar experience there, they said it was nasty actually. When they came back, their recommendation was for me to shower in the camper, I was glad that I did. After clean up it was time for dinner which was a great soup (white chili) that Suzi had made before we left, I also grilled some hot dogs for the boys and then we all crashed hard as we were exhausted from the day's activities. 

Saturday we had planned as a do nothing day, a present to ourselves really and we played it like a fiddle. It started with a great camping breakfast of bacon and eggs and ended with a movie marathon. In between was a visit to the restaurant again for drinks, chicken tenders and chocolate cake (all outstanding I might add). The friendly staff here I cannot say enough about, these folks really do care about their customers and it shows! As the day wound down I started to consider the incoming weather, snow had started to fall and the temperatures were dropping quickly.

Bacon Bacon Bacon

Chicken Fingers for the boys

Yep, snow in April!

Alright, so let's get to the meat of the situation. It's dropping fast (the temps) snow is coming down and we're in a camper. Things to think about... (probably not an exhaustive list)

1. Ice accumulation on the awning
2. Freezing water line
3. Freezing sewer line
4. Propane reserves to run the heat
5. Getting things out of the elements so they are not soaked in the morning
6. Potential power outage
7. Road accumulation and when we be able to leave

Ok, so probably not everything but enough to slightly start stressing about. I decided that emptying the tanks ahead of time was a good idea so I did that. I also decided to leave the water faucet in the camper dripping so the water line would not freeze. We had an electric space heater to backup the propane heat if needed. I cleared off the awning after it snowed and we were good there. I also got most of the stuff either in the truck or under the awning. So, all good, right?

Cue up 3 am, I have to pee, I get up, walk into the camper bathroom and relieve myself, hit the peddle to flush and no water comes out. Turn the faucet on in the bathroom, nothing. Oh no, frozen water line. I put my clothes on, go outside and unhook the water line from the camper and then hook up a backup water line I happened to have (Thanks Dad!) and get water running in to flush the toilet and fill up a jug. I unhook the water line that I just used, put it in a bucket and Suzi puts it inside to keep it warm so we can use it in the morning. All good, back to bed. Side note, damn it was cold out there, real feel said 10.

Fast forward to morning hours, we're all sleeping hard, we wake up and decide biscuits are in order. Someone had mentioned Tudor's Biscuit World and it did not disappoint. Really close to the campground and all it took was a little warmup of the truck and some ice removal to get me going. I was back gassed up and with food and we all had a nice breakfast. Time to start thinking about breaking camp.

First order of business, dump the tanks. Pull the black tank valve and it starts going but then stops. Uh Oh! I notice that my nice angle of hose now has a dip in it about 2 feet from the sewer intake. I have a sewer connector that is an elbow because literally all of the sewer hookups I've seen up till now have been flush with the ground or slightly raised. This one is sideways going into the box for the utilities so it created this dip. Remember i've extended 2 hoses because of my earlier mistake of not backing in far enough. As I work my way down the sewer hose I realize that it is frozen solid and/or very slushy about halfway down. Crap! Or should I say Poopcicle anyone?

Now what? I'm nervous as hell about the hose breaking due to the stress of the weight and ice inside of it so I'm gently manipulating it, really coaxing it down the sewer pipe by talking nicely and caressing it. It's moving some but not nearly enough. I try a couple of different movements and even open the valve again to try to get some movement going but nothing. It's jammed up at the elbow. As far as I can tell it's solid ice there. My first idea is wait it out but that could take hours. I finally settle on getting the space heater out and trying to melt the poopcicle into submission. I set this up for 15-20 minutes but still no real luck. Remember the dip I mentioned earlier? Well, this is what I try next. I very carefully (with my rubber gloves on) remove the hose from the elbow connection being very careful to hold it up high enough so i'm not dumping poop ice everywhere, I'm lucky at this point it is working. Suzi gets the last bit of hot water she can coax out of the system with little or no pressure and we pour it down the elbow to try to melt the blockage, it moves! I get movement going and am able to empty and back wash the tanks and put everything away. The hoses are still frozen so we end up putting them in the bathroom to melt while we drive home. After it was all said and done my pack up and leave time was around 3 hours, certainly my worst ever but no real disaster just lessons learned.

So, what are these lessons learned?

1. Always have a plan, I really didn't
2. Disconnect sewer hose when temps are dropping to below freezing, let the tanks fill up (put a bit of antifreeze in there if you like) and dump the next day 
3. Disconnect water lines and put hoses in a warm place, fill up your fresh water tanks and use your RV's water pump for water supply when it is freezing. My theory is that it will take a lot longer for a 40 gallon tank of water to freeze than a little thin hose
4. Alternative plan, buy a heated hose

This was an amazing weekend and this is what we bought an RV for. To spend time with friends and family in different places doing things that we never thought of doing. I think we checked all of the boxes. I also think I'm a more educated camper now and will be ready the next time we hit cold weather. Thanks for reading and see you next time. Leave your comments below and tell your friends to stop by and check the place out.

Welcome to Camping with the Schoon's

Welcome to my new blog, Camping with the Schoon's. This will be our 3rd year as Travel Trailer owners and prior to that we were tent campers for over 15 years. We've camped with kids, with dogs, with other adults. We've camped at the beach, in the mountains, the desert, parking lots and even in our own backyard. With all of that camping comes lots of experience that I think might be beneficial to others. Hopefully this will be a place that you'll bookmark and come back to often. We will share our stories and adventures and along the way link to some great places to camp and things that we find that are either nice to have or essential to our camping lifestyle.

We both have full-time jobs. I'm in Information Technology and work for a large computer company. My wife works for a real estate firm and sells houses in the area where we live, Charlotte, NC. We've both been in North Carolina for a lot of years. Myself since 1986 and my wife since 2000. We've both lived here longer than anywhere, we actually joke sometimes that this house we live in now has been the one place either of us have lived the longest. Life is funny like that.

The camping bug hit me early when my two oldest kids (now 27 and 25) were around 10 and 12 years old. I needed something to get us out and away from the normal routine. I had a buddy that had just started camping and I went out with him once and had a blast. I literally went to Walmart when we got back and bought everything that he had, tents, sleeping bags, cooking gear,etc. The next weekend I took the kids out and we were hooked!

Me sometime in 2003 with our original equipment, that's Lady the black Labrador retriever in the background, she's no longer with us and we now have Saber the Labradoodle.

Since then we've upgraded the tent on multiple occasions, upgraded to tarping out whole site thanks to a recommendation of a buddy of mine and finally upgraded to a small but very nice travel trailer. We've also been through 3 SUVs in that time frame. We started with a 1996 Chevy Blazer, upgraded that to a fancy new 2003 GMC Envoy and most recently moved up to a 2012 GMC Yukon. The Yukon pulls the travel trailer like a dream.

Our latest Hauler, a 2012 GMC Yukon, new to us.

The trailer itself is a 2016 Forest River Wildwood 201BHXL. The BH stands for Bunk House and XL stands for Extra Lite. LOL, I think that every camper manufacturer finds some way to say their campers are the lightest. The fact is that dry this thing weighs about 4100 pounds, the max on the Envoy was around 6100 pounds and with all of us, the dog and all of our gear it struggled on just about any hill. Once I threw the Yukon at it, with its 8500 pound capacity we were in much better shape! Of course we have the braking system and the weight distribution hitch to make things safer.

The day we picked up the trailer, hauling with the 2003 GMC Envoy.

We've done a lot of miles in the last 2 years and are planning our next trips for this year with our first one being in just a couple of days from this post. I am very glad you're here and I hope that you will continue to come back and check things out. My main focus will be on trip logs which I hope to actually write when we are out in the field or very soon after returning. I will be happy to answer any and all questions that may come up and will try to leave comments open on all the posts unless things get out of hand. I don't want to be some crazy moderator but I also don't think much of what I will write will be very controversial. For the most part this will be my place for keeping track of things and logging our adventures, I hope someday that we'll come back here as a family and this will be our photo book of sorts. Thanks again for being here and I will talk to you soon.