Show us your Post-Quarantine Campsite!!

DigPolo

Temecula. October 10th.

ADRawli

Great pic!   Almost looks like a staged photo shoot with that ballon.  Very nice.

DigPolo

@ADRawli there were 10-15 balloons up at the same time. Most were moving higher but this one was going sideways right in front of us. The people in the bucket were saying “Good Morning!”. It was awesome 

BrianZ

Last week we joined our cousins at Julian Price National Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway in NC for the 3rd annual twin T@B reunion.  It was like a replay of the first time we tested our solar setup there a couple years ago, but with even better fall color..

This was our site 11 on the E-loop, and their twin tab was nearby, just up the hill from ours..

Here our cousins are standing near our solar panel - we were under trees, but with a 30' + 15' extension cable, we were able to catch the southern sky for most of the day to complete a full daily recharge cycle.  We were fortunate to arrive after two days of rain, which we believe allowed us to switch to these nicer sites with sun.

The trees surrounding the nearby Price Lake were showing nice color too.  And of course there were the ever-present beautiful rhododendrons everywhere in the park.

We also took a ride farther south to do the Linville falls hike where we had this nice view from a mountain overlook.  On the other side was Linville falls (the smaller of several cascades)..

Another view of our site & the huge rhododendrons surrounding the campsites..

It's times like these that we fully appreciate being able to swing our T@B around 90° in the parking space.  We kept our ARB fridge in the van running on T@B battery & solar to hold food supplies for 4 more days at other parks after this - more photos to follow.

Sharon_is_SAM

@BrianZ - you are surrounded by so much beauty in Virginia!  

COcamper

Recently returned from our annual Fall Colors trip which was 3+ weeks this year in a tour from Colorado to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and back, with changes made on the fly due to weather. Not the original route planned, but, fires. OMG the fires. Here are a few glamour shots from some of our campsites along the way. Hoping I resized correctly.

Lake Herman State Park. Madison, South Dakota. A few days in to the trip for showers and power; we drained our fresh tank on the way here and made some noise winterizing at this site. 


Baker Park Reserve. Maple Plain, Minnesota. A big park with tons of sites and trails. We picked a less popular loop, had showers and dewinterized.


Portage Bay State Forest Campground. Garden, Michigan.
A 7-mile gravel road to get to this boondocking site right next to Lake Michigan. Our favorite site of the entire trip and we would have stayed longer if we hadn't needed cell service for work. Vault toilets, water, and pitch black night sky. 


Sunrise at Portage Bay. 


Muskallonge Lake State Park. Newberry, Michigan. A site right on Muskallonge Lake, walking distance to Lake Superior, and oh the wind. We winterized on the way out. 


Frenchtown County Park. Garnavillo, Iowa. A boondocking site on the west bank of the Mississippi with absolutely no facilities whatsoever, peaceful, and seeming safe. Still winterized. We'd go again. 

BrianZ

After a few days in the NC mountains, we headed northwest through Johnson City, TN & into the western Virginia leg of our trip, to complete our final 3 stays at all 23 of VA state parks offering RV campsites.

Here at Lovers Leap campground in Natural Tunnel State Park, I encountered my most challenging back-in site yet.  It had a 75-ft curved driveway, which I didn't expect to give me as much trouble as it did, but maybe that's why it was the last one left when I made the reservation.  It was nice & level and very roomy, and a really lovely park with nice sites.  Even the dump station was well made with the right slope, an extra faucet for handwashing, and even an automatic no-touch Purell dispenser (haven't seen that before).

It was just a 10 min walk from our campsite to this amazing overlook of the rock face at the entrance to the natural tunnel that was carved by a stream.  At the top left of the wall is an observation path from the main parking area/visitor center behind it.

View from the other side atop that rock face where you can see the tunnel entrance.  To the right, at the top of the white rock column is the actual Lovers Leap from local native american folklore.  Above and left of that is the overlook from which the first photo was taken near the campground.

From the deck at the visitor center, looking at the chair-lift operated on weekends for those who aren't willing or able to hike down the path at lower left & steps into the river gorge to see the tunnel.  

We walked down & it wasn't too bad.  The pedestrian path at right crosses the stream and then the railroad track for a closer look at the tunnel entrance.

It was impressive & worth seeing, but at this point we still had two more parks to visit.

BrianZ

Beautiful photos, @COcamper, especially the first one with the low angle & crepuscular light.

PS:  Your photos are too big - supposed to be 600x800 max on short x long sides.

BrianZ

Our next-to-last stop on this trip was at the unique & beautiful Breaks Interstate Park at the VA-KY border (in VA, but jointly managed by both states), out in the middle of a remote region that is only accessible by secondary roads & highways, including many that follow streams between mountains & some sharp switchbacks.

Sites are mostly wooded & a bit on the small side (since they are situated along the top of a mountain ridge) & sometimes indistinctly marked, such that it's hard to tell where one ends & the next begins.  I enjoyed our pretty site B28, and the only thing I found a bit odd was the dump station being on the passenger side of the road as you leave the campground (no driver side approach), such that we had to turn around to use it (then turn around again to leave).  Still, this was my favorite of the 4 parks on this trip, just for its unique & abundant natural beauty. 

There are multiple short hikes to rock ledge overlooks with stunning views of the river gorge below, plus hikes along the rock ledges as well as below them.

We came back to this Towers Overlook for the sunset, named for the rock formations which are surrounded by the U-turn in the Russel Fork River.

This is the Stateline Overlook, where we took the Geological Trail down below it to see some amazing rock formations in a beautiful forest setting.

I believe this areas was labeled as "The Notches" on the trail map.

The trail goes through this narrow notch too, with a large bolder wedged between the walls above you.

Looking straight up at another formation.

The sheer mass of these walls of rock was impressive.

A peaceful spot with mossy rocks & rhododendrons.

Our last overnight stop at our 23rd Virginia state campground was at Claytor Lake State Park..

The beach area was beautiful, and we stopped for a picnic by the lake before heading home.

This was also where I learned an important lesson to also do a second walk around the trailer AFTER visiting the dump station..  "What's that scraping sound?" I said, as we turned right into the picnic area parking lot, just a short drive from the dump station.  When I stepped out, I immediately knew I had forgotten to put the lid on our sewer hose storage tube.  The hose was hanging out, dragging on the pavement, and half of it had been flattened by the trailer tire & we found the connector ring in pieces in the road right where we turned into the parking lot.  So that's what the sound was!
Good thing this happened after our last night & were heading home.  I've ordered two hoses now, so I'll have a backup/extension, if ever needed.

Oops, almost forgot...  Now we've completed our collection of Virginia State Parks RV camping stickers (plus a few national parks & duplicates)..

[Tap/click above image to get a high-res view]
The last 4 state parks are the two at bottom right & two at top right.
Many thanks to our wonderful cat sitter nextdoor, Gail, who made most of these trips possible by taking care of our girls!

PNWtabber

First camp with my new-to-me 2018 T@B.  Bay View State Park, Washington state.  October 14, 2020.

JP2558

Hocking Hills KOA, nine days ago. Last trip of the year. We did manage eight adventures in 2020.

@JP2558 - please resize your photos before posting - Sharon

@Sharon_is_SAM - Oops - my bad. Let's try this again.

Tampakayaker

No site yet, heading to Disneys Fort Wilderness Halloween weekend.  Getting the T@B cleaned up and ready.

Extra Storage
Bucket light, and my version of a split backrest


More storage

Our kids got us this when we got our PUP.  Moved it into the T@B.  That's our 2 granddaughters.


Aldi table to replace the 200 pound original.  You can see my be extension mod.  There's an extra pad of foam behind the mattress.

Need to find a use for every available space

Motion sensor lights.  I used pairs of command hooks to hang them.  Have places on each side and the front.  Now if we walk up at night the lights will come on.

JPRoland

Today I drove 15 minutes to the Arkansas river to do my work via the internet from there. Just something different to break the Covid fatigue, but being safe about it.

Photo removed due to size.  @JPRoland - https://tab-rv.vanillacommunity.com/discussion/47/what-size-should-my-posted-forum-photos-be#latest

Denny16

We went to Clear Lake California, had a lake side spot with lots of room around us.

This was the lake side spot, with a park like setting.

PHOTO SIZE EDITED.


And on our last evening, a nice sunset...

cheers

AirBoss

PHOTO SIZE EDITED.

Sunset at CattleRest RV near Willcox. AZ. The Moon and Saturn not quite ready to let go. The penultimate night of an 8000+ mile, 13 state, 8 week adventure.

Do not hesitate...do not wait...do not dally. Get Out There...it is all waiting for you. An amazing country filled with welcoming folks who are more than happy to share and listen. 

It's America 🇺🇸...it is your country...do NOT let it slip through your fingers. 

Sharon_is_SAM

Beautiful!

2Cougs

@Pintoplumber - We too have a 2016 CS-S... so have the same "condiment fridge" built in.  LOVE your outdoor fridge!!!  What is it?  How heavy is it to lift in and out of the truck?  Do you love it???

Pintoplumber

@2Cougs, It is a Kuppet retro mini fridge 3.2 cu ft. My wife got it off of Amazon about 1 1/2 years ago. We couldn’t put the Teaberry ice cream in the little camper fridge, so I guess I talked her into that. It’s largely plastic with the weight of the compressor 52.8 lbs. I can carry it easily enough. It fits on the rear seat of the ‘94 suburban, or in the back of the old truck. We got a new to us 2017 suburban that has a 120V receptacle in the back. I’ll have to read up to see if it can run that. We keep the fridge in the sun room for extra food and sodas. Comes in handy at home and camping. Although we’ve only used it for Truckstock camping, the camper fridge works enough for the 2 of us for weekend or a day longer camping. We have an Outback 21RS we use when the grandkids are along camping. Dennis 

2Cougs

@Pintoplumber- Perfect!  I agree with a weekend is fine... longer needs more.  Have to decide on something like your set up (which I am leaning towards for our week to 10 days in one spot trips) or a better ice chest that will keep our block ice longer and be able to use boondocking.  Thanks for the info.

To keep with the theme of this thread, and not be accused of hijacking the thread, we have not been out of the garage since October... first trip coming up in 2 weeks and can't wait.  It was used several times while having social distanced outdoor holiday get togethers when the grandkids got cold and wanted to watch a movie... and Santa even left a gift in it!

Pintoplumber

I forgot to mention the Kuppet easily holds 3 of the formally 1/2 gallon containers of ice cream in the freezer section. Dennis 

johnfconway

Dispersed site on Forest Road in Apache National Forest near Aragon, NM. The Continental Divide (CD) Trail runs through there. Rainbow indicates it's monsoon

  

season in SW New Mexico!

Docbadger1

Bernice boon docking at Eagles Nest State Park in New Mexico. Also, have been to Heron Lake State Park, NM 4 times, and Abiquiu Riana Campground once. Enjoying the new camper so far. Will be back at Heron Lake State Park for the 4th.

AnOldUR

awahl said:

Would you tell me about your kayak. What brand is it and how is it working out for you? We just bought an Intex, but yours looks so much nicer. Thanks!

BrianZ

@AnOldUR, that kayak looks like a Sea Eagle model 420x inflatable.  We have have their 385FTA fishing model inflatable.

BrianZ

We finally got going on our first trip for 2021, which was also our longest & farthest, from Virginia to Maine, with stops in PA & CT.  We decided to take the scenic route to avoid I-95, D.C. & NY city, so we spent 3 days driving each way, and 2 nights each in CT & ME visiting relatives & friends.

Can you find our T@B here at the Pine Hill RV Park in Kutztown, PA?..

Good facilities here, including sewer hookup at each site and always a nice breeze at the top of a hill..

After a second day of 6-7 hours of driving, we stayed here at the Wilderness Lake Campground in Willington, CT, from where we joined relatives in the Hartford area for our grandson's Baptism..

This site had a wonderful view of the surrounding forest & a beautifully constructed fire pit made of large boulders.

The final and shortest leg of our trip brought us to the the most beautiful camping spot we could possibly find in Maine, for a couple days of driveway camping at a childhood friend's house..

Yes, there's our T@B parked in what I believe must be one of the prettiest and most serene spots I've ever been - right on Lake Arrowhead (about 30 miles west of Portland).  I think they found paradise when they bought this place and moved away from Boston.

And here is where I sipped my coffee each morning..

We later took that pontoon boat for a sunset cruise on the lake, with a light show that our hosts claimed to have special ordered just for us..

Their black shepherd, Holly, was obsessed with watching the waves..

This had to be the longest lasting sunset I have ever seen - it must have gone on for at least 20-30 minutes, because the sky was on fire for the entire time we were cruising around.  And it was the most beautiful..

When we weren't cruising the lake, we spent the evening around the campfire here, or just enjoying the beauty around this place..

It was hard to leave, but we'll never forget this adventure and the good visit with old friends.

rrcbov

Standing Indian Campground near Franklin NC

SLJ

Canoe Basecamp Adirondacks