Yesterday was a short travel day for us. In fact, one of the shortest we’ve had in a very long time.

We enjoyed our time at The Great Outdoors in Titusville, Florida, and I took a photo of our Winnebago in Peter and Connie Bradish”s lot before I started unhooking our campground utilities in preparation for leaving.

This is a very upscale RV resort, where you can buy your own very nicely groomed lot, and enjoy every amenity you could imagine.

The resort has several small lakes, and I’m told the fishing in them is good, but I never got the opportunity to check that out.

The resort even has its own church! As you can see, most of the homeowners drive their golf carts everywhere, even to church!

We left The Great Outdoors just after 10 a.m., traveled south to the next exit on Interstate 95, and took State Route 407 a short distance until it merged with State Toll Route 528, which took us west around the south side of the Orlando metropolitan area to Interstate 4. We traveled just a mile or two south on Interstate 4, exited onto U.S. Highway 192, then took it west a few miles to U.S. Highway 27, where we turned north a couple of miles to the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve. Peter Bradish had given us the directions, and they were perfect. 

Well, the directions Peter gave us were perfect. The directions we got from our GPS were not so perfect. We had entered the address of the Thousand Trails into our GPS, so we wouldn’t miss the turn into it, because somebody had told me that a condominium complex next door hid the sign until you were right on top of it. According to the GPS, we had over a mile to go, when I noticed the Thousand Trails sign, which was indeed hard to see. By then it was too late to make the turn.

U.S. 27 through here is a wide six lane divided highway, with designated left turn lanes. We drove a couple of miles, looking for a place to turn around, but I wasn’t sure that we could make a U-turn with the van in tow. I finally pulled into a left turn lane, and decided it would be too tight to make the U-turn, and the last thing I wanted to do was be jackknifed across three lanes of busy U.S. highway, even on a Sunday morning. There was a divided driveway leading into a housing subdivision on the far side of the road, and I told Terry I was going to pull into the subdivision instead, and we’d unhook the van from the tow bar and get pointed back in the right direction.

It wasn’t until we had pulled into the driveway that we discovered that it was a gated community. So there we were, with a locked gate in front of us, two cars that had pulled in behind us, and no place to turn around. Can you say “oh crap?”

Fortunately, the fellow in the first car gave us the gate code, we punched it in, and the gates swung open. I pulled in, parked along the curb, we unhooked the van, and got the heck out of there. A GPS is a handy tool, but never trust one completely.

We had never stayed at this Thousand Trails before, but I have to say that we’re impressed. The 255 acre campground has 850 full hookup RV sites, a swimming pool, activity center, and a 60 acre spring fed lake. The property also backs up to Lake Hancock, a large lake that is supposed to be home to some massive trophy bass.

We choose a site on a corner at the end of a road, with some trees on one side of us, a pasture behind us, and the sites next to us and across the street are empty. Gee, no neighbors. Maybe I’ll just run around in my BVDs. No, Miss Terry says maybe I won’t.

A sky writer was posting this message for us when we got into our RV site. Isn’t that nice? I love you too.

Even with the unexpected detour caused by the GPS, we drove exactly 70 miles, and I was in the office at the Thousand Trails registering by noon. That’s a short travel day!

Once we were parked and hooked up, we drove down to the campground’s boat launch at Lake Hancock, to check things out. It was windy and chilly, but the weather is supposed to improve by mid-week, and getting out on the water is a priority for us. Our kayaks haven’t been wet in over a year, and we need to correct that.

I bet some whopper bass live in these lily pads!

The lake isn’t home to just big bass. I don’t think I’ll be dangling my toes in the water!

Terry and I walked out on the floating dock, and we heard a loud thumping sound and a big splash of water in this little lagoon. Then several fish jumped. We didn’t see the gator, but we knew he was there.

We’re looking forward to doing some relaxing here, getting some paddling in, and I may just buy me a fishing rod and a license, and see if I can tempt one of those big bass to bite!

Thought For The Day – A bargain is something you can’t use, at a price you can’t resist.

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We’re leaving The Great Outdoors in Titusville, Florida today and are going to the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve, which is actually in Clermont. We owe a big thank you to our friends Peter and Connie Bradish for hosting us on their lot here for the last few days. We really appreciate your hospitality, dear friends.

We’ve had a nice time during our visit, and look forward to coming back here again one of these days. There is so much to see and do in this area that we could keep busy all winter long fishing, kayaking, touring the local attractions, and sampling the fare at the many area restaurants.

Though we sometimes find ourselves spending as much as two months in one place, especially when we visit our family in Arizona, we usually stay no more than a week or two in one location before we move on. Much longer than that, and I get bored and hitch itch sets in.

One complaint I hear frequently from fulltiming women is that their husbands are always in “go mode” and never want to slow down. I’m guilty of that myself all too often.

Sometimes Miss Terry has the need to settle in for a while, so she can do some serious cooking, get a shopping fix in, and just decompress. I think a lot of RVing couples are like us; the husband wants to be on the go all the time, and the wife needs to slow him down so her needs are met, too. It’s important to recognize each others’ needs, and to be willing to compromise so those needs get met. 

Once, while we were teaching at Life on Wheels, a wife told me that they never spent two nights in the same place. She said they drove over 500 miles, nonstop, to visit her sister in Maine. She said they arrived at 6 p.m., parked in the driveway, had dinner with her sister and her family, and at 7 a.m. the next morning they pulled out, because the husband was ready to go someplace else and see something new.

Another husband once bragged to us that they had been on the road for over a year, and had not spent one night in an RV park. It was always truck stops, WalMart parking lots, and roadside rest areas. He was having a ball and bragging about how much money he was saving. One look at his wife and you could see that she was miserable. Her idea of retirement was not seeing the world through a windshield, and living at Camp WalMart. I haven’t heard from either couple in a long time, but I wonder how long those relationships lasted in the fulltime RV lifestyle?

Of course, the flip side of the coin are the wives that “can’t be away from my grandbabies,” and insist that their travels never be too far away from wherever those young ones are. One fellow told us that he has always wanted to see Arizona, but never will, because his wife insists that they return to Illinois every few weeks, even in the winter, so she can see their grandchildren and keep track of what was happening in their adult daughters’ lives.

We have met more than one fulltiming woman who reluctantly gave in to their husbands’ desire to travel, but were damn sure going to make him pay a price for it. Nether the husband or wife was having a good time, and it was obvious in every case that they probably wouldn’t be on the road very long.

I’ve toyed with the idea of having a panel discussion at one of our rallies on Staying Married (And Happy) In An RV. What do you think?   

Thought For The Day – People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel.

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It started raining late Wednesday night, and it rained hard most of the night here in Titusville. By morning the rain was really coming down, and NASA postponed the space shuttle launch again. Now they are aiming for this afternoon.

The many delays may be frustrating for those who are waiting to see the space shuttle blast off, but the local merchants sure appreciate it. The stores and restaurants are all very busy.

I used to do a lot of fishing, but it’s been years since I dipped a line in the water, except for one outing a couple of years ago with our friends Wes and Jan Chilson on their boat in Aransas Pass, Texas. Lately I’ve been wanting to get back into the sport.

With yesterday’s launch canceled, we visited a couple of shops so I could look at fishing equipment. The stuff I had years ago was getting beat up in the bus bays, and never getting used, so I finally gave it to my son-in-law. I’ve been away from fishing so long that I need to reeducate myself on what kind of gear I need.

I’m pretty much a catch and release angler, because I like catching fish a lot more than I like eating fish. I don’t plan on doing any deep sea fishing, so I don’t need super heavy duty stuff, and I don’t want to spend a lot of money, because I’m cheap. I’m leaning toward a Shakespeare Ugly Stick rod and spinning reel combo I saw at WalMart. My friend Al Hesselbart from the RV Hall of Fame Museum in Elkhart is a dedicated angler who’d rather fish than eat, so I called him for his suggestions, and Al thought the Ugly Stick was a good choice for my needs.

After looking at fishing gear at a couple of places, we stopped in at a little used book store in town, because we can never pass up a book store. But, the owner was closing early because she had to get to an appointment, so we only stayed a few minutes. We’ll have to go back on another trip to this area.

It was still raining, and obviously wasn’t going to clear up anytime soon, so we decided to have an early dinner and then head back to the motorhome. Somebody had suggested Valentino’s, an Italian restaurant in the shopping mall on U.S. Highway 1 (Washington Street). The place wasn’t fancy, but Terry and I agreed that it was absolutely the best pizza we have had in more years than we can remember.  The service was fast and friendly, and our total bill for bread knots, a medium pizza, and drinks, was $20. You can’t beat a bargain like that!

The weather is supposed to clear today, and we’re scheduled to have lunch with our friends, and hosts here, Peter and Connie Bradish. If we get done in time, we’ll run back to the riverfront and try to find a parking place among the crowds. NASA says the shuttle launch is back on schedule for 3:03 this afternoon, and I really hope we get to see it this time! It’s one more thing to cross off my bucket list.

Thought For The Day – It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.

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We had already planned our trip to Titusville and The Great Outdoors RV Resort when we learned that space shuttle Discovery was going to be launched for its final mission on Monday, November 1. So that was like icing on the cake.

Since Titusville is right across the Indian River from the John F. Kennedy Space Center, we’re in the perfect location to see the launch.

Well, Monday came and went, and the launch was delayed until Wednesday,  due to mechanical issues. Those issues were resolved, and then an electrical problem caused the launch to be rescheduled until this afternoon. Then, late yesterday, NASA said that there is an 80% chance of the launch being postponed again, due to bad weather that is moving in. So I guess time will tell if it flies or not. We’re scheduled to leave here Sunday morning, so I hope the launch goes off before then.

We have not been doing any exploring on this trip to the Space Coast, because my dear friend Tim Moran has been having some very serious health issues, and I’ve been spending as much time with him as I can. Miss Terry and Tim’s wife Ann have been running around a bit, doing some shopping and having girl time while I stay at the house and keep Tim company. It’s hard to see somebody you love suffering so much. Folks, live every day to the fullest, because life is very tenuous, and the time goes by way too fast.

When we leave here Sunday, we’re going to the Orlando Thousand Trails preserve, which is actually in Clermont. This is a big campground, and one we haven’t stayed at before before. Our friends Dennis and Cindy Henderson are at the Thousand Trails, and we hope to get a chance to get our kayaks in the water and do some paddling with them.

Our annual Thousand Trails membership dues give us 50 nights of “free” camping a year, and any nights over 50 are $5 a night. We’ve had the membership for five years now, and this will be the first year we have used our whole 50 nights. We knew going in that it would take us a while to have the time to really get the most out of our membership, but since we basically got it for free, we were okay with that.

This is a good example of why I always tell new fulltimers to wait at least a year before they buy into a campground membership, because it will take them at least that long to define their camping and traveling style. And I always encourage RVers to look for used campground memberships, because you can save literally thousands of dollars. Our nationwide Thousand Trails/NACO Platinum membership sells for a lot of money brand new, but on the resale market one can be picked up for pennies on the dollar.

Do your homework before you go shopping for a campground membership, and understand that a membership may not be right for you. Many, many RVers we know get by just fine with a combination of Escapees campgrounds, Passport America RV parks, Corps of Engineers campgrounds, and such. A membership is only a good investment if you use it enough to get your money out of it. Only you can decide that.

Bad Nick couldn’t let the mid-term elections go by without having something to say. Check out the new Bad Nick Blog post titled The People Have Spoken and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits.

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I got an e-mail from a couple who have been bitten by the fulltiming bug and would love to sell their home and hit the road. However, they are afraid that they cannot afford the lifestyle. Their concerns are expressed in the following paragraph, cut and pasted from their e-mail:

“We have been looking at RV park websites here in our area of Ohio, and near our son’s home in Pennsylvania. With daily rates of anywhere from $35 to $40 for a full hookup site at  Surf Campground in Marblehead, Ohio; to $31 for a water and electric site at Huron River Valley Resort in Huron, Ohio; to $40 a night at the Kinzua Pennsylvania KOA near our son’s home, we just don’t see how we can afford it. That comes out to about $36 a night, or $1100 a month, or over $13,000 a year. That is about half of our retirement income.  Are most fulltime RVers really paying that much every night? If not, what is the secret to making it affordable?”

My first reaction to their e-mail was that they are looking for camping in all the wrong places. I looked at the websites of the three campgrounds they mentioned, and all three seemed more like weekend or vacation spots than the kind of places most fulltimers frequent.

Most fulltime RVers we know are paying a lot less than $36 a night. In fact, for most of our years on the road, we have averaged less than $5 a night, and we know many fulltimers who average $5 to $10 a night. Sometimes we do pay more per night, on rare occasions much more. But, the savings we get most of the time offset these costs and keep our nightly average low.

How do we do it? Through a combination of free campgrounds, weekly or monthly rates at commercial RV parks, discount campground programs, a Thousand Trails campground membership, camping at Elks and Moose lodges, camping at fairgrounds which have RV hookups, occasional nights dry camping at places like WalMart and truck stops, and occasional nights parked in the driveways of friends and relatives’ homes when we are visiting them. I think most experienced fulltimers would tell you they do things about the same way, with some combination of some or all of these options.

There are many, many free or very low cost campgrounds nationwide, usually located in small town city parks and county parks. We publish a guide to over 1,000 such places, and the Escapees Days End listing is also a good way to find many of them. You can find info on our guide in our RV Bookstore.

Most fairgrounds nationwide have RV hookups, and many of them make these sites available to the general public, usually at rates much lower than area RV parks. We also publish a guide to fairgrounds camping, which is available in our RV Bookstore.

We have belonged to Passport America ever since we hit the road, and it has saved us a lot of money. Members get a 50% discount at more than 1,600 campgrounds nationwide. Most are Mom and Pop type RV parks, and many of them have restrictions during their peak times, but if you read the campground guide and work within the system, it can be a real money saver.

Membership campgrounds can also save you money, if you use them enough to get your annual dues worth. The secret here is to know you’ll spend all of the days in the system that you can, under your membership, and not to buy a new membership, but rather to do your homework and buy a low cost resale membership directly from the previous owner.

I belong to the Elk and Moose, and many lodges nationwide either have an actual campground, or at least allow traveling members to dry camp in their parking lots overnight, usually for free or for a small donation. I’m also a VFW member, and we have found many VFW posts that allow us to park overnight, usually for free.

When we are on the road from Point A to Point B, we seldom pay for a campground, since all we plan to do is get some sleep and go on down the road. Our motorhome is fully self-contained, and all we need is a safe, level place to park overnight. We have spent many nights at RV friendly businesses like WalMart, at truck stops, in highway rest areas, all for free, and all of which helps us keep our nightly camping costs down.

We also save money by parking in the driveways of friends and relatives. Sometimes we don’t have hookups, but usually we can at least plug into a 20 amp outlet in a garage to keep our batteries charged up, and we can find a water outlet to fill our fresh water tank. It’s nice to visit people and enjoy their company, then be able to retire to our own home on wheels, giving them and us both our own privacy.

How about some of you other experienced RVers? What do your nightly camping costs average, and how do you keep your costs low?

While I was taking a nap yesterday afternoon, Bad Nick took over the computer and posted a new Bad Nick Blog titled BP = BS. Check it out and leave a comment.

Thought For The Day – The five most essential words for a healthy, vital relationship are “I apologize” and “You are right.”

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