Trip Report-Jellystone Campground in Williamsport, Maryland (September-2017)

My 1st impressions of this park were “WOW”  & “ This Is Going To Be My 1st and LAST Time Staying Here”. When I made the reservation I was shocked at the nightly rate (after Labor Day) for a 50amp, full hook up site $78. I had the opportunity to get away with my family so I reluctantly paid the nightly fee. When I arrived at 11:55am I was told that check in is at 3pm and if I wanted to check in EARLY I would have to pay a $20 early check in fee. Early Check In Fee??? The clerk was very nice and very professional but she wouldn’t budge on charging me the extra $20. At this point I had it I was ready to leave my 41 foot Class A Motorhome in front of the check in building until 3pm (Btw this would have caused a HUGE traffic jam). My lovely and always calm wife just said pay the extra $20 and lets enjoy our day.

Enjoy our day we did! The park is themed after Yogi Bear and the Jellystone Park. The front of the campground has a normal sized pool and an even mixed of RV sites and cabins. As  the super nice park employee guided me back to my site I was impressed with the layout of the park and my daughter was enamored with the 2nd pool, mini water park area and zip line station. Once I pulled in set up was a breeze the sites were gravel but level and all of the hook ups were easy to access.

As a father of a 9 (almost 10-year old) this park is a dream come true because they always have something going on to keep families entertained from a dance party with Yogi, to a night time hay ride.

Even though my initial reaction of Jellystone in Maryland was not positive. I have learned my lesson and we will be back.

The New ETCTA-2016 Fleetwood Discovery

Well the deal is done! On Saturday August 26th we will be proud owners of a 2016 Fleetwood Discovery

Thanks For Everyones Help!

1-1st and foremost there is no way that I could have pulled off purchasing this unit with  my wallet and sanity in tact with out the help of my DW (Mrs. UrbanSuburbanRVer). 

2- David Lester, who helped me keep it “real” by providing realistic costs/values for the unit that I was trading in and the unit that I was buying. If you ever want an honest appraisal of a unit that you are either buying or selling send David an email his rates are minuscule compared to the value received. 

3-To all of the super nice, friendly and knowledgeable sales people who provided open and honest feedback about the units that I was interested in. I appreciate your service and dedication.

4-To all of sales reps that are only in it for the money or don’t fully know the product you are selling. Well hopefully one day you will see the light.

5-To everyone who has written a blog or Facebook post about there specific RV, what they like and didn’t like

The Process of Buying Our The New ETCTA ->2016 Fleetwood Discovery 40g

1-Research, Research, Research

2-Stay out of high pressure immediate buy situations

3-Be realistic

4-Get all of your ducks in a row

5-Continue to research

6-Do as much communicating back and forth via email, if possible

7-Set the parameters of the sale and when you pick up your unit

Research, Research, Research

In my spare time at work, on a plane or just down time at home I would read different blogs about peoples experiences wth their specific units. 2 of my Favorites are Habbs on the Road & Gone With The Wynns. 

Habs on the Road-Is a blog about a family who are traveling the US in the 2016 Forest River Berkshire 43b. We were seriously considering purchasing the sister unit from Total Value RV in Elkhart,IN

During my research late last year I saw 2 XLT 43b’s  with the same amenities pop up on Total Value’s Website with concurrent stock numbers so there is my deduction that is was the sister unit.

Gone With The Wynns are 2 super cool people who used to be full time RV’ers.  Weekly they post information about places that they have been (i.e. Alaksa) or product reviews (i.e. Solar Power). In one of their video blogs they did an RV Smack down Gas vs Diesel. 

Google Search-When a particular unit peeked my fancy I would do a google search and plug in “negative” at the end of the search string to pull up all negative comments or “sale” to find what units were for sale in the area and my favorite was “walk through” which showed all of the videos posted by either cheesy RV salesmen who wanted to sell a unit or someone who posted about their PDI walk through.

Stay Out Of High Pressure Situations

There is an old saying “There is only 2 things in this world that you have to do…Pay Taxes and Die”

When looking for our new unit I did my best NOT to go into an RV dealer. I found the pressure to BUY NOW or it will be gone to be an instant button pusher in a bad way. When I see or hear claims of “ We Will Finance You With No Money Down” all I can think about is 1-this jackwad doesn’t care if the new owner is strapped with a $3000 payment that they cannot afford or 2-This idiots are doing to the RV community what the mortgage bankers did to the housing industry by providing mortgages who could not afford them.

Luckily I found a sales rep and dealer who were super tech savvy and did a great job of responding to emails, texts and phone calls.

Be Realistic

Me and Mrs. Urbansurburanrver went back and forth about our needs, wants, and wishes for our new RV and then assigned a cost to each. Where we wound up was what we think a great combination of needs, wants, desires at reasonable price.

Also to bring me back to reality I enlisted the help of David Lester who was able to provide me with an accurate valuation

of my current unit and the unit that I wanted to buy. Without going into detail I was grossly overstating the value of my purchase and even more overstating the value of the unit that I planned to purchase. David provides a much needed service/reality check  for anyone who is in the market for purchasing an RV.

Get All of Your Ducks In A Row

In other words get your financial position in line. 

Make sure you know your credit score. Make sure you know your actual credit score not the one that  you think that it should be. 

Make sure you know realistically how much money you can afford to put down without breaking the bank.

If the deal goes through—>How much more will you pay in insurance,? Where will you park it?

Figure all of this out in advance of committing to buy an RV

Continue to Research 

Once you have narrowed your preferred unit  continue to research. I would start to look at dealers—>Which dealer are you going to trust for the next 5,10,15 years? Which one has the BEST customer service reputation  and has the unit & floorpan that you want available at the lowest reasonable cost?

Do as much of the communication back and forth, if possible

It provides a written trail of what was committed to by each side and cuts out the miscommunication. Also in my situation I did not have a lot of time during normal work hours to follow up with our dealer so we just went back and forth via email.

Also, when doing your research and your dealer has  less than stellar reviews this is an easy way to hold them accountable and to ensure that you do not become the next victim. 

Set the parameters of the sale day.

When we purchased our 1st 2 RV’s we had the dealer tell us when to pick up the unit & how long it would take for the PDI..etc. NO NO NO NO. 

Today YOU are the bride and it is your day! You and your significant other are getting married to an expensive vehicle set the time table based upon your needs and wants don’t let them set it for you.

Our dealer is great. I provided him with a schedule of how I wanted the day to go and his response was this is your day take as much time and space as you need.

My schedule

1-Final Test Drive

2-PDI Inspection (which we will video tape)—>In addition to the basic PDI where we will go through all systems I want the person who is doing the inspection to spend extra time on the following: (I gave them a list so that whomever is working with us will be prepared)

3-Complete al final sale paperwork. We did all of the financial and extended warranty stuff ahead of time. My goal are a few signatures, hand over a sizable check, shake hands and then we are done

4-Move out of our existing RV and into the new one. 

Just keep in mind that this is YOUR day.

Cheers,

Eric “aka the Urban Suburban RVer”

Buy Local

 

If you are a frequent reader of the Rambling Rants and Opinions of the Urban Suburban RV'er you will know that we have been in the market for a new RV for a few months.

Our 1st choice in RV's was a Tiffin Allegro Red 37pa or 38qba and our 2nd choice was a Forest River Berkshire XL 40bh or XLT43b. Any one of the units would have met our needs for years to come.

I searched high and low for a reasonably priced Tiffin 37pa or a 38qba and non were to be had. 

We expanded our search to the Forest River models and found a few units in part our or price range but the reputations of the closest dealers were horrible! After reading a few blogs and doing a little bit of research I came across Total Value RV in Elkhart, Indiana. This dealer had a stellar reputation and a lot of feedback was around the fact that they treat you like family. A few weeks ago I reached out to one of their sales reps Chad Rothrock who immediately got back to me and took his time to answer all of my questions...even though I wasn't ready to pull the trigger just yet. I researched the Berkshire and Total Value RV six ways from Sunday and I kept coming back to Forest River's tag line "Buy Local”  

At this point we were set on buying a 40bh and found that the only local dealers were either ones with crappy reputations or Camping World. Lucky me...at this point I was ready to pull the trigger with Total Value when I heard that General RV (largest family owned dealership) was opening a location in Virginia! 

http://www.generalrv.com/locations/richmond-virginia

BTW this is great news for all current  and future RV'ers in the Washington DC/Virginia area. We do not have to deal with Camping World you now we now have a choice! General RV.

I reached out to one of the  sales reps from General RV, Doc Holliday, who wanted to know about me and my family before we started talking about available units and pricing. He wasn’t pushy, he was just interested…which is a good thing.  I will document the buying process in another blog.

So thanks to Forest River I am “Buying Local” just not a Forest River product.

July 24th 

The latest rants and opinions of the Urban Suburban RV’er. Today’s rants will cover 2 topics on my mind 

1-To Trade In, Sell Out Right or Go Through a Consignment Outfit

2-What is more important a reputable dealer or a well built coach?

To Trade In, Sell Out Right or Go Through a Consignment Outfit. 

We are still in the process of upgrading our current RV (2014 Forest River Georgetown 351). We have narrowed down the brands (Forest River Berkshire, Tiffin Allegro Red, Fleetwood Discovery). The biggest issue/unknown that we are facing right now is to how best to maximize the value that we have in our current RV. Should we Trade It In? Sell It Out Right or Go Through a Consignment Outfit?

Trade It In

A few of the dealers that I have casually interacted with are eager to sell me a new unit and are not to “generous” when it comes to offering a value for the unit that we want to trade in.

Sell It Out Right

I have listed it on 3 different websites and have received over 325 views and maybe 10-15 emails asking question and offering ridiculously lowball prices (5-10K) and terms (monthly payments)

Consignment Outfit

This seems like the worst option of all. Park it on a lot and you are not able to use it…uggg what a waste.

What is more important a reputable dealer or a well built coach?

Right now our current unit (2014 FR Georgetown) is at a local non camping world owned RV repair shop getting a few minor things fixed and tweaked before we head out at the end of the week. The dealer is the closest to my home but holy cow they are horrible at follow up, being friendly  and fixing things right the 1st time.

PS-Even though they are horrible..they are a locally owned dealer and we need more of these in America so I won’t trash their name…Once i have my RV back I will reach out to the owner directly

As I go back and forth with which brand we should buy should I focus on the dealer reputation first and then the brand or should I find the brand and then hope that the dealer treats me fairly/

What Are Your Thoughts/Opinions.

PS-If you know if any reputable   dealer and/or sales reps for Berkshire, Tiffin or Fleetwood  within 100 miles of the Washington DC area please forward them my information.

RV Limbo.

Ha is there such a thing? If you have read my previous blogs you know that we are actively trying to sell our current unit and then purchase a new or like new unit. Until we find the next ETCTA we are continuing our regularly planned and spontaneous adventures.

When considering our likes and dislikes for the new unit we a few months ago we narrowed our choices down to a Tiffin Allegro Red 38QBA or Tiffin Allegro Red 37PA. 

That was a few months ago. A few factors have influenced our decision.

1-Camping World has purchased the local Tiffin Dealer. To Tiffin's credit they do not sell new units through Camping World (so much for trying to do the right thing and buy local.

2-The next closest Tiffin Dealer (Gambrils, MD) has horrible customer service reviews. In the age of the educated RV Buyer I wonder why dealers don't do more to improve their customer service. I wonder what changes the owner of this dealership would make if he knew that people viewed his business in that light? Ok scratch that thought..Look at Camping World and Marcus Lemonis.

3-After reading a few different blogs and posts from a few different Facebook Groups about everyone who travels to Red Bay to get work done. I started thinking about it being a yearly pilgrimage for all Tiffin owners...:Heading To Red Bay" Then I read a blog (i forgot which one) and the writer summed it up perfectly. All RV's will have issues, all RV's will need to go in for service. Everyone who heads to Red Bay to have warranty work done or other issues fixed is doing it because Tiffin is very particular about who they authorize to work on their units. The most important things are to have a service plan (warranty and regular maintenance) and to work with a reputable dealer.

Today

We have since expanded our choices to a Forest River Berkshire XLbh (360 hp), Berkshire XL 40bh (380hp) and Berkshire XLT 43b. I really want the the XLT 43b due to the layout, interior space and current owner feedback (Thanks Habbs) Once we sell our current unit and sit down at the table (or the phone/internet) with a reputable dealer we will see which unit above will fit into our budget.

Until then we will continue to drive ourselves out of RV Limbo.

Trip Report-Fathers Day Weekend-Hershey Pennsylvania


We have stayed at a few campgrounds/RV parks that are connected to major amusement parks and the Hershey Park Camping Resort is definitely one of the best.

When we arrived on a Saturday afternoon the registration area was packed full of people. My initial thought was that I was going to be greeted by a teenager who doesn't handle stress very well. Luckily I am camping and I was about 15 minutes away from cracking my 1st adult beverage. When it was my turn to check in I was happily greeted by an attendant who was chipper, happy and who was more than willing to have someone show us to our site. I politely declined since I knew the lay of the land.


Our site was HUGE in length and width. In a typical RV park this spot would have held at least 2 RV's

Once I backed into my site. I kept noticing workers who were either helping other guests, picking up debris or cleaning up a site from a guest who had limited camping etiquette. All of the workers either waved or said hello. This was definitely a change from the normal RV park customer service experience.


Ok the real reason why were here was because of Hershey Park. This is probably the most family friendly fun park that I have ever been to. Every thing is clean and well maintained. The roller coasters are awesome. One of the best parts about the park is that there are customer service people everywhere who will happily answer your question or politely talk to a guest who is not exhibiting family friendly behavior.


If you are in the area and have time..stop by the Sweetest Place On Earth

Well the time has come to actively start the selling process of our existing RV (2014 Forest River Georgetown 351).

Are we going to give up the RV lifestyle?..NO! Not by a long shot…if anything we are going to maximize our use of available days off and hit the road more often. We have the next unit picked out (model/floor plan) that will meet our needs for the next 10-years. Our plan is not to make  a move on the new ETCTA until we completely sell the existing unit.

Why Now?

We both decided that NOW is the optimal time  of the year due to  fact that people on the east coast  are still outside camping and would be thinking about camping. If we wait until December  peoples thought process would  be around snow blowers and skiing not camping outside.

When finalizing out plans to sell we still have a full dance card (aka camping trips planned) and we didn’t want to stop or slow down. So our plan is to list it on every RV Sale website as possible AND at the same time keep dancing (aka camping) AND keep it in show ready shape all of the time (which we do). Our motto is that Life is Too Short to Sit Back and Wonder “If”.

Our Options To Sell The Current Unit

Trade In.-> This is our last resort. This would severely limit the amount of a downpayment that we could put on a new coach and thereby reduce our negotiation leverage. Also, my thinking is that the more money that I can leave in the family budget means that we can spend more days out on the road.

Old School

Park It and Put A Sign In It- I have seen this sale tactic in a few more rural areas—>What a waste of a valuable resource! An RV (at least ours) is meant to be driven to new adventures. Our RV is  either  is sitting it is resting from the previous adventure or resting up for the next one.

On Line Ad

We decided to start with this tactic because we could maximize our investment and then increase our negotiation leverage when buying the new RV by walking in with cash.

I posted my 1st Ad last weekend on (RVT, RVTrader & Craigslist). When searching for the new ETCTA I frequented RV Trader because it was easy to navigate and I could easily view the units that I wanted to see. I very rarely used RVT because they had very limited listings of Class A Diesels. Craigslist…I figured what the hell its free and lets see what happens.

At the end of the 1st weekend I have received 

Craigslist-cant tell how many people viewed the ad…but hey it was free

RVT-29 Views (cost $35 until it sells/10-pictures)

RV Trader-23 Views (cost $29.95 for 2-weeks/4-pictures)

My plan is to give the RVT and RV Trader ads 2 weeks to run its course and then I will update the pictures with different shots. In the meantime we will keep exploring this awesome country.

Thanks for reading...If you have any suggestions, comments or advice please post them below.

The Camping World Conundrum

The Camping World Conundrum.

If you have ready any of my previous blogs.. We are passively looking for our next RV. Our preference is a Tiffin Allegro Red 37PA or a 38QBA but given then right price we would be happy with any reliable unit that meets our needs. 

The dealership where we purchased our current unit has a Forest River Berkshire 40BH that they have had on the lot since September of 2016. In the back of my mind I am thinking that this is a HUGE negotiation lever. At this point we would be  ok with the BERK not SUPER happy with it.  Also, I love to support local businesses, at this rate  if we do not happily support our local businesses the next generation of RV’ers will be able to order their RV from Amazon and have it delivered in 2 days or less with Amazon Prime.

2 months ago Safford RV in Thornburg, Virginia (where we purchased our Georgetown)  sold to Camping World…well the idea of us having a Berkshire just went out the window faster than a dollar bill on a windy day.

Last week the local Tiffin Dealer, Reines RV (6.25 miles away from my house) sold to Camping World. So now we will be looking for Tiffin Motorhomes

You are probably wondering WHY does the Urban Suburban RV’er dislike Camping World so much! Well I will break it down into 4 points. 

1-Previous experience ad follow up-Long story short they did work on our 1st motorhome which was shoddy and probably completed by someone who had no business working on a motorhome. The worst part of the ordeal is that no one in management at Camping World  of Winchester would acknowledge that their mechanic screwed up. They went so far as to want to charge me for a follow up service appointment

2-Google Camping World Service and you will read reviews  from fellow RV’ers (https://www.google.com/#q=camping+world+service+reviews)

3-Google Camping World  RV Repair  and you will read reviews from fellow RV’ers (https://www.google.com/#q=camping+world+reviews)

4-After reading many many complaints about Camping World and the follow up from fellow RV’er it appears as if the owners and leaders really do not care about providing RV’er with a quality product or with quality service.

Here is the conundrum. Since Camping World/Good Sam Club essentially has their hand in every part of every RV’er wallet  how do I avoid frequenting a Camping World location but still get gas using my Good Sam discount card? 

I guess for now I will continue to avoid spending money at any Camping World location and continue to do my research prior to spending any more of my hard earned money.

Trip Report (Harpers Ferry, West Virginia)

May 19th through May 21st

After a brief hiatus from the camping life due to school, swim and a trip to Scotland we are back on the road! 

This past weekend we stayed relatively close to home and headed up to Harpers Ferry West Virginia and stayed at the KOA.  

The KOA in Harpers Ferry is a nice place and we will probably head back again for a quick weekend get away. The positives about this place:

1-Proximity to Harpers Ferry where we you walk around and tour historical sites

2-Proximity to River Riders which is a local outfit that offers kayak, tubing and white water tours down the Shenandoah River.

3-They have tons of activities for kids (crafts, tie-dye, organized games) & adults (wine tasting and a wine shop)

The campsites are broken out into 2 sections. One section has pull through sites for bigger rigs (35+ feet) and the other section should only be reserved for units that are under 32 feet. I made a mistake and did not plan and the only site that I could get was in the non big rig area. 

The opportunities:

1-This campground has been around for 30+ years and it is showing its age. A serious makeover, upgrade is needed within the next couple of years.

2-The staff should be given a cheat sheet giving the description of each site. When I arrived they assigned me one site…if I had taken it.. where I would have had to blind side back in between 2 trees which only left me 3-4 inches of clearance on each side. Once I was in the site I would have had to position my rig so that I could access the hookups without going too far down the slope at the back.  After a 5 minute debate with myself I decided against this site and walked around until I found a few open sites that would work and then went back and politely asked to be moved.

All in all it was a fun weekend of camping, hiking and exploring and we will be back…next time I will plan ahead and reserve a site in the big rig section

Trip Report- (March 2017)-Belle Isle State Park

Trip Report

1st Trip of the Year Belle Isle State Park

This past weekend was our 1st Official Camping Trip of the Year, it should have been our 2nd but Mother Nature decided to snow on our 1st planned adventure. We decided to check out Belle Isle State Park 1-Because it is State or National Park 2-It was close to the water and 3-It was someplace that we have never explored.  After our experience this past weekend we will be back!

From a State Park perspective this place is awesome. Lots of clearly marked trails to hike, beautiful natural scenery &  beachfront access (we didn’t find out this fact until we read the trail map on the last night). 

From a campers perspective this place is perfect. The road in out and around the campground was WIDE, clean and clearly marked. The campground was immaculate, the bathhouses and showers were clean, the camping spots were WIDE and level.

 The campground host (Lee Hostetler) was super friendly and helpful to everyone in the campground. Also each site had water and electric (50-30-20) available.  The dump station was nearby.

I am assuming that when it actually turns into camping season Belle Isle will have a host of fun activities for adults and kids. 

If you would like to explore the city, state or national park near you attached are a few resources:

https://wandrlymagazine.com/article/rv-camping-state-parks

http://www.rv-camping.org/npscampgrounds

Until Next Time

Eric aka "The Urban Suburban RV'er"

RV Travel Bucket List-South/Southeast

Over the next couple of weeks until we uncover ETCTA and start the 2017 Camping Season I will share with you my RV Travel Bucket List of places and RV Parks that I would like to visit. If you have any comments or suggestions please post them below.

Our RV journey style varies FROM “Enjoy all  interesting stops on the road “TO “Put the hammer down and  get to the destination” When we want to get to a destination I follow the 5-Hour Rule which is drive for 5 hours and rest, sleep, chill out for 1. Following the 5-Hour rule allows me to stay fresh and alert and not turn into a zombie on the highway

Thanks,

Eric the UrbanSuburbanRVer

South/Southeast

1-Key West, Florida

Bucket List Campground -https://www.boydscampground.com

I have been to Key West on business trips a few times and have found it to be as much or as little as you want. The restaurants serve the freshest of seafood. The bars serve the coldest and tastiest of drinks. The western most key is great to walk or scooter around.

2-Fort Wilderness at Disney World

Bucket List Campground- https://disneyworld.disney.go.com/resorts/campsites-at-fort-wilderness-resort

I honestly think that Fort Wilderness should be on every RV’er bucket list. From the time that you pull onto the property you are transported into another dimension where everything is immaculate from the sink in the bathroom to your site. All of the sites are level, the connections are in just the perfect location. This park was designed by RV’ers for RV’ers (not exactly sure if this is true or not)

3-Gulf Coast of Florida

Bucket List Campground- http://www.campgulf.com

Who wouldn’t want to have a site on the beach and be able to look your front window and see the ocean?

4-New Orleans, Louisiana

Bucket List Campground- http://www.fqrv.com

Bourbon Street, Beignets, Bourbon Street, Muffuletta , Bourbon Street all within a small walk from your campsite

5-Tybee Island, Georgia

Bucket List Campground- http://www.riversendcampground.com

Tybee Island is a barrier island outside of Savannah, Georgia where you can get the best of both worlds…beach and southern charm.

Well its time to get back to incorporating my bucket list destinations into future travel plans.