Open Range Camping

I thought it might be helpful to journal our trip west for anyone who might be planning one.  I know this is from Florida to Arizona/Utah but maybe it can be helpful. Day 1 Left home around 7:30PM.  I-75 North to I-10.  Stayed at the WalMart in Live Oak on I-10.  Great little Walmart..other RVers who were running their generators. Day 2 Traveled to just outside of Jackson, Mississippi.  I-10 to Hwy 67.  Hwy 67 to Hwy 49.  Hwy 49 to I-20.  Stayed over at Askew's Landing RV Park.  I think we were the only overnighters, most everyone lived there.  It was $28.00 for full hook up.  Worked out OK for an overnight stop, but honestly felt safer/better at Walmart. Day 3 Traveled I-20 to Tyler, Texas.  Took Hwy 69 to Hwy 380.  Hwy 380 to Hwy 287.  Stayed over at Walmart in Wichita Falls.  Great Walmart.  There were several restaurants nearby.  We ate at Jack In The Box and the girls went...

We finally made it!  At least for a few days ---  maybe even up to a week.  We traveled yesterday for about 5 hours from the casino campground to Flagstaff.  Since the trip was short yesterday, we were actually able to enjoy it somewhat.  The only mishap was a tractor trailer caught fire on I-40 and the interstate was shut down for some time - maybe 20 minutes or so.  A minor setback.  The weather was amazing most of the day. My boss's home has full hook ups for our RV, plus we have access to his house.  My boss is actually in Tampa so his wife met us along the road in Flagstaff and helped us get the RV in place.  It was raining when we got to Flagstaff, and with temps in the upper 50s, can I actually say we were a little chilly in late July?  After record heat in Mississippi and Louisiana, this sure felt great!  The dogs are able to run free on their property.  Pepper is barking like crazy at the horses.  I can't figu...

Another long day of travel.  We went from Wichita Falls, TX to Casa Blanca, NM. Texas was long and hot and very windy. Not much to view of interest other than miles and miles of windmill farms.  Apparently this is the new big thing in Texas.  We saw the Cadillac Ranch. It was packed with visitors.  We didn't stop though. We spent about an hour at the New Mexico welcome center eating lunch and resting.  Nice to have generators that allow us to cool the RV and enjoy a nice lunch. Right before Albuquerque the views start coming.  Our poor truck isn't loving towing this 5th wheel up these mountains.  Some of it was quite scary actually.  We hit Alburquerque at rush hour and had to deal with massive traffic. We had picked a Walmart near Grants, NM to stay at.  As we were traveling on I-40, we noticed a RV Park at a casino.  I looked it up on the RV Parky app and it got decent reviews for overnight.  So we stopped.  It was $1...

Another long day on the road with no mishaps!  That is always a good day. We traveled from Edwards, MS to Wichita Falls, TX before pulling over for the night at a Walmart.  We actually grabbed dinner out (girls went in Walmart to get Subway, the rest of us got Jack In The Box).  We cranked up the generators and let the A/C get going.  3 other RVers and 3 truckers stayed all night. The generator noise and a/c noise allowed me decent sleep for anWalmart. It was our first time running the generators all night, so Mark kept getting up and checking on them.  They did run out of gas around 2am and had to be filled up. The drive through Texas is so long!  We tried back roads to avoid going through Dallas.  Not the best decision as we ended up in a ton of stop and go traffic and hit decent size suburbs at rush hour.  The funniest thing of the day was when we were on a 2 lane road and had a parade of cars behind us.  We monitor Channel 19 on the ...

Thankfully Day 2 went very well with no real issues. We traveled from Live Oak, FL to Edwards, MS.  We traveled about 11 hours.  It rained off and on most of the day which was nice to keep the tires from getting too hot. By the time we got into middle Mississippi,  the rains had stopped and the heat set in.  Since we hadn't slept real well the last couple of nights, I found a Private campground to stay at.  The price was around $28 for 50amp and full hook ups. It was called Askew Landings. Well, if you have an entry level fifth wheel and your the nicest RV by far in the entire campground, probably best to stay someplace else. The site was set up odd and utilities shared with the site next to you. We had some locals come tell us we were setting up wrong because we backed into the site instead of pulling in.  Whatever.  We figured that out but since everyone around us were permanent residents there was no way to get our rig out. Regardless we slep...

Last week, Mark lost his job.  It was expected but not really at this particular time. Since we have a few weeks with little comittments, we decided to take our RV trip out west.  We had planned to go next Spring but now with a new job on the horizon, vacation time will be at a minimum and we won't be able to take it as planned.  We really hoped to be able to do this before our oldest graduates high school in 2019.  That is less than 2 years away. This is our opportunity that we believe God has given us. Even still on a bit of a time crunch.  Delena has to be at Busch Gatdens career camp on 8/12.  We should begin the drive home around August 4.  Hopefully this will give us around 12-14 days to visit the Grand Canyon, Zion and Bryce along with a few state parks. I hope to be able to blog our journey during the trip. Right now, we are en route to Flagstaff.  We will stay in the RV at my boss's home.  He has full hook ups that we can use sin...

Topasail Hill Preserve State Park 7/1 - 7/7 Florida Caverns State Park 7/7-7/9 We just returned from our summer July 4th vacation.  This time we opted to go to the Panhandle and visit our absolutely favorite beach - Topsail Hill. This beach is really nice, it is not crowded and natural.  You cannot access this beach unless you ride our bike or take the tram that the state park provides.  That does make it nice but also makes it a bit challenging to get all your gear and supplies for the day down to the beach area. Waves this week were just so so.  Enough to do some boogie boarding on.  My oldest enjoyed many times out on the SUP.  At times it was calm and other times it was choppy.  She was able to see giant sting rays, sharks, all kinds of fish and dolphins. One day, a shark swam right in front of our youngest daughter.  It happened so fast, all I had time to do was yell for her to look out.  The shark kept swimming and never messed w...

About six years ago, our niece was getting married.  We needed a place to stay in Northeast Georgia just for a few nights.  It seemed silly to tow our (then) Passport all the way to NE Georgia for four nights. We asked Mark's dad about staying with him, but Mark's brother had already claimed it. We asked Mark's sister about staying with her, but his other sister already claimed it. We looked into hotels but couldn't stomach the cost with food and dogs. We ended up taking the Passport after all and staying at Tallulah Gorge State Park.  We loved it and have made it an almost yearly event since that trip in October 2011.  For a few years, we hit the gorge in October.  Then the kids became involved in our homeschool group's cross country team and races are every week in October.  Two years ago, we started going in November for Thanksgiving.  In November 2015, we took our Passport.  That would be our last Georgia trip in our beloved Passport...

We discovered a little secret in Orlando --- when Disney is too expensive, this little KOA is great! We have made it a tradition to come stay at the Kissimmee KOA for the Reindeer Run at SeaWorld and to do the Christmas celebrations at SeaWorld. This park is super clean, easy to get in and out of, and has a lot of nice rigs staying at it.  It has a pool and hottub (which we haven't used), a jumping pillow that the kids love, a small playground and a small dog park.  The location is even easier to get to SeaWorld from that Ft. Wilderness.  It is small and there isn't nearly as many activities as the Fort but when we plan to run the Reindeer Run and hit SeaWorld for two nights in a row to see all the Christmas stuff....it is a perfect place to stay! KOA front campsite.  Nice paved and plenty of room. One Ocean show during the trip. Christmas carols prior to the start of Shamu's Christmas Miracle.  SeaWorld does the best, most Christian oriented...

Playing catch up is kinda fun!  In April, we spent 7 nights at Oscar Sherer State Park. I had camped here once, with a friend about 8 years ago.  We camped here in a pop-up.  At the time, I didn't really like it or the nearby beaches.  Remember though, this was early on in the camping experience and I had only ever been exposed to Ft. Wilderness.  So coming from Ft. Wilderness to Oscar Sherer was a big difference! Now fast forward 8 years and I'm ready to try it again.  I actually booked Oscar Sherer when we still had our Passport.  Thankfully I had chose a site the Open Range would fit in. We had a pull through paved site.  It was decent, nothing spectacular but was nice for the week.  We enjoyed the bike riding and really liked the Friendship Trail that had an entrance at the rear of the park.  I was still recovering from a horrible case of bronchitius so my bike riding was short and sweet. I would love to go back and spend some ...

For New Years Eve, we headed to our favorite New Years vacation spot - Ft. Desoto.  We had originally planned 5 nights here, but had to cut a night short due to the kids' football schedule.  We had a nice trip.  This was our second time at Ft. Desoto with the Open Range.  We have to be a bit more selective on sites now because of the size and being able to back the Open Range in.  Hubby had to leave once for work.  This is a good place to stay if he has to head to work.  This was my Christmas gift - a fireplace for the RV.  Hubby installed it himself and we love it!  Haven't needed to use it for heat yet, but love running the light portions!  I'm sure our next trip to Georgia will need the heat!   Taya and Pepper were a bit tired after setting up and riding bikes!

When your oldest is turning 16, and TobyMac is in concert at the Praise Wave event by SeaWorld....you head to Ft. Wilderness! (January 13-16) Nothing new here - we love Ft. Wilderness!  We arrived Friday evening after 5pm.  It was surprisingly raining.  We got set up, had dinner and gave Delena her 16th birthday gift.  (Her actual day was Sunday but...)...we got her a Nikon digital camera since she has a budding photography talent.  We wanted her to have the camera for the weekend to shoot pics at SeaWorld and the Fort. Saturday - we headed to SeaWorld for Praise Wave.  We LOVE TobyMac and was so excited he was performing at Praise Wave.  We met friends who used our friend for free tickets.  The kids rode some rides while the moms stood in line to get front row seats.  Yes, we got amazing seats!  TobyMac did an awesome concert and we loved our day at SeaWorld.  We headed back to Ft. Wilderness about 5pm and ate some quick dinner...