Camping In A Metropolitan Area

Camping In A Metropolitan Area

When I tell my friends  that we are going camping they get jealous because they have visions of a nice RV park with perfectly manicured grass parking spots for the RV. The kids being able to run around and play ball or play in the ocean.

When I tell people that I am going camping in New York City, Philadelphia for 2019. I always get the confused look. and 2 questions 1-Where Do You Stay/What Street Do You Park On & 2-Once you get there..What Do You Do?

Where Do You Stay/What Street Do You Park ?

Nooo not there

Not there either

In a few major cities on the East Coast a few very entrepreneurial individuals or companies have outfitted old parking lots or loading docks into safe places to camp.

Liberty Harbor RV Park

• It is within walking distance of the Path Train that will take you into Lower Manhattan and The site of the World Trade Center.
• From most sites you are able to see The Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island and the NY Skyline
• The staff is super friendly and helpful
• They have on-site security 24/7

Campus Park & Ride

• You can see the Philadelphia Skyline from the park
• It is a 15-20 minute bike ride to the Liberty Bell
• The staff is super friendly and helpful
• They have on-site security 24/7l

Winter Island Park

• We haven’t been there yet…it is on the agenda for 2019.

Once you get there...What do you do?

My wife and I enjoy exploring new things  and hate sitting around watching time go by. When we camp in the mountain we will grab a trail map and off we go. When we are camping in a city in addition to the normal tourist maps we have started using the `Let’s Roam App.

The Let’s Roam App is a Scavenger Hunt that  reimagine the way you explore a city, whether it’s your hometown or a city halfway around the world! Every person on your team will have a character/role that will receive special challenges and bonus questions. (copied from their website). In our terms it is a self guided self paced tour (1-2 miles) of a particular city. During your self guided self paced tour you learn a little bit more about a particular building or landmark.

Using the comment box below:

Do you know of any other camping spots in or near Metropolitan Areas?

What other activities should we look at when camping in a Metropolitan Area?

Rambling Rants-Be Positive

I would like to think that I am a very positive and social person. The more beer/wine that I have had…the more social I become except in a  national or state park :-) In a national or  state park the more water and other non alcoholic beverages that I have the more social that I become :-)

This past weekend I was camping (park name and location are not relevant to the story)  and I struck up a conversation with another camper about the park. The conversation quickly shifted to why we like this park to the issues that he has had with his RV.

Unhappy RVer-How do you like the quality of your Discovery?

Me-I like it as with any RV you have to be a handy man in order to keep things running smoothly. Also,I tend to be as proactive as possible with repairs and saving money for repairs because i know that something is going to go wrong sooner rather than later.

Unhappy RVer-Well our RV (a nice class-c) has had problems since Day-1, I drove it off of the lot and 1200 miles later it had to be towed back to the dealer

Me-Wow.What did the dealer say (in the back of my mind I was expecting this to turn into a Camping World Rant)

Unhappy RV’er-I didn’t want the dealer to look at it they didn’t know what they were doing

Me-HMM

Unhappy RV’er-They fixed it and then I drove it to Indiana and had them fix all of the things that were wrong with it

Me-Oh Wow…The trip from here to Indiana must have been fun (my attempt at lightening up the conversation)

Unhappy RV’er-This is the 3rd RV that I have owned and I have had major problems with all of them

Me-Wow. This is our 3rd also and some required more maintenance and TLC than others

Unhappy RVer-You should join this Facebook group that talks about the poor quality that they put into manufacturing RV’s today. The goal is to get RV manufacturers to build better quality units.

Me- (In the back of my mind…the last thing that I want to do is join a Facebook Group where people complain). No thanks at this point in time and with this unit I am very happy with the quality and if i joined I wouldn’t have anything to offer.

Unhappy RVer-As fast as they are making them there wont be any campsites left for people to go camping.

Me-Yeah I read that somewhere but I haven’t done the math but I guess that it will force RV’ers to plan ahead in order to visit the sites and stay in the campgrounds that they want. It’s not ideal but it is the new order sort of like larger units like mine and attempting to find suitable space in a state or national park.

Unhappy RVer-The quality of RV’s being built today is just horrible and everything breaks. 

Me-Well if you want I can give you the name and number of the dealer and the sales rep that I dealt with and I am quite sure that he would do everything possible to get you into a quality unit.

Unhappy RV’er-No they are all crap.

By no means am I discounting Unhappy RVer's experiences. I honestly feel bad for him. If I had that much animosity  towards my RV I would never get behind the wheel again.

Without walking in his shoes I was  not able to offer a qualified solution or response to his problems. In hind sight The advice that I should have offered in a nice way was to  try and find the positive in EVERY situation.

• We are camping-->Enjoy  the moment and beautiful sites 
• Lean on the dealer for help! I purchased my existing unit from General RV in Ashland and when it is time to purchase another one I will purchase it from General RV in Ashland because of a multitude of reasons mainly because they stood behind the unit that they sold me ( I may blog about it next month)  
• if you are unable to find the positive then keep it to yourself….no need to bring someone else down.  

@GeneralRV
@RVTravel
@RVLife