The big tank at SeaWorld

Tomorrow we take-off for the longest (by distance and time) of our family RV trips this year. We are going to San Diego for two weeks. My wife is off work and the kids are off school, so we are going for it. I will have to do a little work during the trip, but when you work for yourself your time is never really your own.
photo credit: kwalk628

We are going to try to be as economical as possible. Our trips to SeaWorld and the San Diego Zoo and Animal Park are already paid for because we bought a year membership to both last year (yes we did this same trip last year).

Panda at the San Diego Zoo

But unlike last year we are trying to stay at county parks and other more economical places. Last year we stayed a really special RV park, Campland on the Bay. It was a little expensive (but very cool), so this year we are going to be staying at three different campgrounds and they are all under $35 per night.
photo credit: PedroCancion

We only considered doing this again this year if we could keep expenses way down. So we won’t be eating out much and we are really going to watch everything we buy. Needless to say our biggest expense will be gas. And the next biggest expense of course will be food. I will be using every trick I know to keep our fuel use to a minimum and most meals will be at the RV. Also the trip will be one of the kids Christmas presents, as we keep telling them.

I think it will be fun to see how cheap we can be. So I will be tweeting along our trip (twitter username: FamilyRVFun).

Follow our exploits in family fun and economy. I will let you know the nitty-gritty on what we spend on and how much. And also I’ll try to pass along anything we learn on economical RV travel.

This post via the: Family RV Fun blog. Where you can get tips, tricks and valuable info on family RV travel.

The Big Holiday Trip: On the Road in Economy Class

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So we always go to the Pismo Beach area every year for the long Thanksgiving weekend. This has been the second year with our trailer. Before that we rented a house. And before that we rented an RV and spent the weekend before Thanksgiving at a Pismo RV park (we couldn’t get a reservation for Thanksgiving). This was the start of our RV bug.

Thanksgiving dinner at Avila Beach

The weather is always really good during Thanksgiving. The locals call November their Indian summer. And I have to agree with them. We have spent many a sunny afternoon on the beach. And this year we had Thanksgiving dinner on our favorite place Avila Beach, which is just a few miles south of Pismo. We had a really fun time and went to the beach every day that we were there.

We stayed at a really family-friendly RV park in Oceano Beach (just north of Pismo). It is a small county RV park called Oceano Memorial Campground. It has a little kids park at the center and it also has a very large kids playground down the street. For families with kids you can’t ask for a better place to stay. And we are definitely coming back to it next year (we made our reservation for 2010 while we were there).

So if you want to stay at the beach and be at a really family friendly RV campground. Check out Oceano Campground

A really good playground by the RV park

Having fun at Avila Beach

Ben is having fun on the beach. I think he is digging to China.

This post via the: Family RV Fun blog. Where you can get tips, tricks and valuable info on family RV travel.

Thanksgiving dinner on the beach

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My family and I spend the long weekend (from 6/19- 21/09) at Calavaeras Big Trees Stat Park. It is located 10 minutes above Arnold, CA in the Southern Sierra Nevada.  Below is the account of our stay and some tips on how to make your stay there more enjoyable.

Getting to the Campground – No Wide Turns
Upon driving into the park, we were so stunned by the beauty of the forrest that we missed our turn for the campsite and we ended up on a dead-end road, which once had been the RV dump station area (now not in service). However, that was blocked off by some very heavy logs, yes, we did try to move them but couldn’t, because making a U-turn was impossible.

As we worked on trying to turn our travel trailer around in the dead-end road, we attracted the attention of a state park ranger who came to assist us in backing out of our mess (which was about 5 car lengths out with cars parked on either side).  It was a real nail biter and we were tired of driving so it just added to the frustration of being at the camp and not yet at the campsite.  We made it though and the Ranger followed us in and helped us back into our wide and expansive site.  He was great!  Thank you Barry!

About the Sites
The sites at Big Trees are expansive and that is a plus, however, many are close to Highway 4 so they suffer from highway traffic noise (not what you want to hear at a high sierra camp site).  We have done a bit of legwork and we’ll recommend the sites we think you should look for when you go.

What we didn’t expect was a spigot that wasn’t set up to accept a regular water hose.  So while there is water…you have to find a way to actually get it into the RV.  We knew this wasn’t going to be an easy fix.  On the second day we did buy an extra water hose and we cut off one end in order to make it larger to fit over the spigot.  That helped us out but we weren’t able to really cut off all the water from spraying out all over.  We will keep this modified hose and a few clasps within our trailer in case this happens again.

We didn’t have electricity and were a little concerned if we could make the two days on the battery power we have with the trailer.  We also did not have a sewer hook up at the site and had to conserve water and how we used our bathroom.  We decided it was only for those nighttime, and early morning nature calls and that by no means would we ever be doing number 2 there.  We used the nice bathrooms that were there at the campgrounds. We did great!  We washed our dishes outside with a collapsible plastic side-by-side sinks and used our outdoor shower to clean up under so that our water usage did wash way into the ground…versus into our tank.  We left with only 1/3 full tanks and drove all the way to where we store the trailer where we can use their dump station.

All the Fun
Big Trees State Park has a wonderful camper activity program.  On Friday night we took in a sing along at the campfire area. It was quite good.  The two who were leading the sing along seemed to be regulars and had strong voices.  They did a lot to involve the children in the audience and had a round of jokes, which both our little hams (Ben 7 and Sam 4) had to participate in twice!  Though we still can’t quite figure out their jokes, they both thought they were hilarious!  The evening finished off with marshmallows over the campfire! We made smore’s as we always have to do at least once on our trips!

On Saturday morning the kids took in the Jr. Ranger programs and they were great!  Ben got to explore and find bones of little creatures that were eaten by owls and Sam learned all about butterflies and made a butterfly kite.  In the afternoon we took out our new Rockport Old Town Canoe and had fun on a small man made like called White Pine Lake, which is just a few miles from the park.   This was fun and we enjoyed breaking in the canoe and finding a nice beach to picnic on.   On our way back we went ahead and drove up to the Stanislaus River and sat along the riverbank where the kids could throw in rocks and just enjoy the sound of the rushing water.

Though not all of us got to go on hikes, I did manage to get in a walk and was amazed by the Big Trees for which this park is named.  The trees are over 2000 years old and massive giants. It was very peaceful and tranquil and would be an enjoyable 1-mile hike for any family.

On our trip the campsites were full of families enjoying the first few weeks off of school.  Our neighbors all had kids and that is where our kids chose to spend their time, playing with the other kids and that really what camping is all about for the kids… meeting new friends who are enjoying the great outdoors as well.

When we go to Big Trees again….
We’ll be sure to turn into the campgrounds….very important.

We’ll also try to go to one of the campsites 4-12 (See North Grove Campground map below). They are far enough away from the traffic noise, but close to activity areas. If you want to get really away from it, you can stay at the Oak Hollow Campground in the park. It is a few miles into the park through a narrow paved road. Though if you have a large RV (28’ plus) I wouldn’t recommend it.

We’ll seek out more hiking, be sure to take in the Campfire singing on Friday nights, go canoeing, maybe at another lake (Alpine and Spicer Lakes are close by).  Be prepared with the modified hose contraption.   We know our battery power can handle a 2-day trip, we only used 1/3 of our battery power.  All in all….we’ll be ready to have a nice, relaxing time at Big Trees again!

This post via the: Family RV Fun blog. Where you can get tips, tricks and valuable info on family RV travel.

CA Camping: Calaveras Big Trees State Park- June 19 – 21, 2009

You are itching to go and your RV is gassed-up and ready to roll. You’ve reserved and you’re excited to experience the new campground you read so much about in the travel directory. Your ready for the open road.

This is all fine and good but – what about the kids. You know they aren’t going to be angels for the multi-plus hours drive to your RV adventure. So what do you do to keep the kids occupied while you tool down the road?

Below are my ideas on how to reduce the stress and tension when traveling in your RV with the kids.

First some basic travel planning will go a very long way in making the drive time much less stressful:

1. Learn about your travel route as much as possible. Look through the route in a road atlas if you have one. If you have a GPS, program it with the correct address (Confirm the address online or by calling the destination. You don’t want the GPS to sending you to the wrong place. Believe me it happens.)

2. Plug-in your trip destination in Google Maps or another online mapping service. Print it out and have it with you. It is useful as a last resort.

3. Buy the book “the next exit.” It provides exit services info for every exit on the major US Interstates.

So now let’s look at keeping the kids occupied:

1. First the obvious. Have an on-board DVD player for the kids to watch movies. Many vehicles have them built-in these days but if you don’t have one, buy a portable DVD player with a cigarette lighter adaptor. And have a variety of movies on hand so each kid has his/her favorite available.

2. If you are open to it have video games available for the kids to enjoy. This can include LeapFrog system games so they are educational as well. But if you have “tweeners” Nintendo DS or Sony PSP will be your options.

3. Plan craft projects for the kids to do on the road. This can be done safely by having a small portable table for each kid (there are a number of them available. Do a Google search for “kids travel table.”).

4. Reading to your kids isn’t only for bed time. Maybe on a long drive the non-driving adult can read a few stories.

5. Lead road games with the kids. “I spy” is a favorite one of ours. Another one is “who can spot the most out of state license plates.”

6. Potty breaks are an important part of travel. Beside pee breaks kids need to get up and move around during long trips. We usually try to stop every two-to-four hours for a potty and stretch break.

photo credit: House Of Sims

This post via the: Family RV Fun blog. Where you can get tips, tricks and valuable info on family RV travel.

Thoughts Before Going On a Family RV Travel Trip

This is a great video that demonstrates how special family RV camping is.

KCRA a Sacramento TV station interviews RV blogger Brad Herzog about his (and his wife and two boys’) summer adventures RVing throughout the United Sates. Watching this video I had a few pangs of jealousy as he talked about their travels throughout the US.

One great idea they talked about was having the kids put together a travel calendar. The kids wrote down where they would be on what dates and what they planned to see, complete with pictures and notes.

We haven’t had a changes to do any multi-location trip longer that one week. But possibly in 2010 when Claire (my wife) has a sabbatical scheduled.

This post via the: Family RV Fun blog. Where you can get tips, tricks and valuable info on family RV travel.

Family RV Camping: There is Nothing Like It

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Welcome to Family RV Fun.

The intent of this site is to chronicle the Erwin family’s (That’s us Claire, Bob, Ben and Sam) travels in our Thor California Jazz travel trailer and offer comments and suggestions on smart RVing in the Western United States.

I will offer suggestions on traveling with kids and how to get the most out of RV trips with out busting the family budget.

I will be writing most of the posts (that’s me Bob) but Claire may add her comments as well.

So please come back often and visit our site often. I promise I’ll have valuable info you can use to get the most of your family trips in your RV or trail trailer.

This post via the: Family RV Fun blog. Where you can get tips, tricks and valuable info on family RV travel.

Family RV Fun – Welcome