Prepping for fall travels

[MORSNOW]

I've started prepping for our fall travels this past week.  Flushed the freshwater system, used a wand to flush out the water heater, cleaned everything up inside (where does all the dust come from?), and made another rear step handrail yesterday.  We did a big friends and family 4,300-mile round trip this spring and now are getting ready for a 1,500+ mile fall trip visiting old friends and a little sightseeing.  We park our camper for the summer to avoid the heat and summer vacationing crowds and enjoy ourselves in the spring and fall instead.  Anyone else avoid the summer heat and crowds? 

 

[HTG1969]

When we lived in Indiana we mostly camped during the summer months and avoided the south like the plague.  Now that we live in Florida we will avoid the south during the summer months and head north.  Our favorite camp spot was Charlestown State Park.  Beautiful, big park on the Ohio river across from Louisville, KY.  Lots of hiking trails if you're into that.  Very popular during summer months so we did avoid it during certain times because it was completely full and crazy busy.  We are just now experiencing colder temps in central Florida so over the next few months we will stay south and see the Everglades, Key West and other south Florida parks.

2014 Coachmen Pursuit 31BD

[Radstravel]

We just made reservations to go to Florida leaving Washington state in January. We plan on returning in April so we are now prepping for the pulling of our 5th wheel. Like the idea of flushing the hot water tank. Any other suggestions for first time cross country pulling?

[MORSNOW]

Turn on every slide out and appliance to include your stove, oven, water heater, water pump, refrigerator, furnace, and air conditioner to make sure they are working properly.  I see so many posts on Facebook where folks are out at a campsite only to discover their refrigerator or slide are inoperative. 

[opnspaces]

Looks awesome. I really need to venture out of Southern California.

[Bedlam]

We camp twice a month all year long. Our destinations are based on weather and we adjust for peak times. Right now, we are on the OR coast for 8 days. We left home before the holiday surge and will return with same type of plan.

[MORSNOW]

We did the entire Oregon coast in the spring of '23, we'll definitely be back!  We stayed at State Parks along the coast and really enjoyed them.  Next spring we are thinking of adding an offshore fishing trip on our Oregon return.  

Umpqua Lighthouse State Park

[HTG1969]

I was stationed at McChord AFB in the early 90s and we loved the Oregon coast.  Cannon Beach and Newport were favs.

2014 Coachmen Pursuit 31BD

[StirCrazy]

how hard is it to get into state parks down there?  we want to do a trip like that , but don't want to tie ourselves down reserving ahead.  

[MORSNOW]

We did the entire Oregon coast in May of '23 and stayed in State Parks every night without prior reservations.  They were busier than I expected, but we always found a decent spot with power each night.  The thing that irritated me the most was that there were "reserved" cones in front of dozens of sites that nobody ever showed up for.  The parks were all beautiful and very clean!

[opnspaces]

I also avoid summer camping. My trailer gets parked in late April and comes out again around Halloween. I'm in San Diego so I could camp year round. But don't want to deal with crowded campgrounds.

[StirCrazy]

I kind of do, in the summer I travel a littlew farther or to harder to get to places off the beaten pather to escape the heat and to be able to find sites.  we have forestry rec sites, and a good chunck of them in the interior are up logging roads or old abandoned logging roads where you are not going to tow a nice rv through.  so truck campers, and tents are the majority of the units you'll see in them.  plus with summer temps in the 110F+ range I have to drive about an hour into the higher elivations so its cool enough at night to sleep good.  I start camping in march/april normaly and finish in november.  some times I will go before or after these dates but normaly thats my camping season