TT Resorts, We Joined!

While we were in Florida last winter I had my education in the ins and outs of their organization and, a long story short, we are now members of TT at their Platinum Level.   The level is very important, as I will show later.

Our first experience with them (TT), was really when we bought our first new RV from Lazydays in FL.

If you don't already know about them, well, they are the largest single RV/Camper sales site in the country.  If you go to their web site , they typically boast of an inventory of New/Used units in the range of 1000 to 1300, at any time.  They participate (host?) the annual area RV show, and it is a good thing to go to, considering the size and number of vendors and new units being shown.

Anyway, We bought a new RV from them, and as we were (very efficiently) run through their sales process, on of the stops is a 5-minute stop with 2 TT reps, who tell you about the details of the "free membership in TT".  During the interview, they tell you of the $9000+ savings if you sign the papers right then, and take advantage of free 90-day use of any TT site you want to go to, after your 4-day/3-night demo visit to Orlando that is "just up the road".

When you actually read the fine print, you will find out that; 1-the membership is only a (basic) membership for your choice of the East or West TT sites. [And when I think back to the sales pitch I did hear all of these words in one form or another, I just did not hear the details explained .  Also, as a "Basic" membership, you have limits like; a maximum of 7-days at a site, with a following mandatory "out of their system" for 7-days before you can camp with TT again, and then only at the East or West sites that you selected.

When you do go over for your 4day/3night stay at Orlando, you check in with the sales people first, before you can actually check in to the CG.  You start to know something is up, when the sales people see your green TT folder from Lazydays, and they all smile and tell you that YOU will be handled by Blank-Blank the special sales guy for Lazydays people. You sit for a few minutes and HE shows up and smilingly ask you when you want to meet with him and after you decide that day/time, he helps you pick a site, and you go on to your site and set up.

At this point, either you are a very smart guy who has just agreed to listen to a sales person for an hour, with no intention to buy anything, and stay free at a really nice campground.  Or, you are seriously interested, and finally you meet for his pitch.

The meeting will be probably the best hard-sell 60-minutes you will ever go through. He will take your folder, set it aside, break out a pad of paper and start asking about 5-minutes of in-depth questions about you, your spouse, where you live, what you do, what your camping history is, what type of unit you have, some estimate of your earnings, etc, etc, etc.

Then he starts his pitch with this info, and starts writing down numbers on the pad.  After the first number (assuming you don't just pay the top price and you are in there asking hard questions, and asking for more information on other options) he will start another column (or more) until he has a starting price for all of your options, and then starts the real hard sell, using statements like; These prices are only good for today, I can't go any lower without talking to my boss, Sorry, that is not available anymore.  These are actual statements I heard.

Well, to make a long story short, we walked out.  I get really queasy when I sit through such a hard sell, and start to fel suspicious, and the sales guy really lost me with the "Food for Today Only" part of his pitch.  I ran!

I went back to my campsite and started canvasing my fellow campers and ran across several that were members of TT, and spent the next week grilling them un-mercifully.  Here is what I learned:

• First, you need to know that there is a TT annual fee in the range of $500-$600 you must pay, regardless of your membership level.
• Second there is a pretty good turn in existing memberships, if for no other reason than members get older and die.
• TT allows the resale and transfer of memberships FOR A FEE!
• There are several web sites where you can post your membersjip for sale.
• There are several good brokers who will handle the re-sale of existing memberships, at prices that are a lot lower then the original TT pricing, even with the TT fee they charge for approving the transfer.

It turns out one of the  biggest brokers for RV Resort club memberships was located nearby, and I made a visit.

The process was smooth, the cost was very low, and I ended up with a membership, that has paid for the annual fee for this year already, and will next year also, if we travel as planned.

On the Road .... Again

IT feels SO GOOD to be on the road again!

Helen and I spent all day yesterday loading the RV up with our stuff.  It actually turned into a bit of a challenge.

You see, we both have a lot of Family and many old Friends in Lynchburg VA.  We were both born and raised in the area, and sad to say, we do not get back there as often as we should.  So, we will try to get in all of our Holiday visiting with people early, before we head to Florida.

Because we were going to Lynchburg for a couple of weeks, we needed to pack at least a few strategic pieces of clothing for the Cold, while saving as much of our storage for our warm weather clothing that we will need when we get to Florida.

We finally got the clothing thing done, and then we packed all of those things you believe you will need, but you rarely end up using.  Then late last night we loaded all of the perishables we might want over the next few weeks, and finally finished around 6:30 PM.

We got a good nights sleep, and were up, and at it, this morning at 6:30AM.  You know, doing those last few things that you forgot the day before.

We said our Goodbyes to our friends, and hit the road.

It was a pretty uneventful trip, except for the last couple of hours as we neared Lynchburg.  The wind had gotten up, and I was doing some of that White-Knuckle driving.  But all ended well and we are now all hooked up at our daughters house.

One thing that might be of interest to you RVers.

We retired to the Myrtle Beach area of SC, and our previous most efficient trips were up some back roads, over to US-95, and then onto US-40, and then taking NC-86 from Hillsborough over to Danvile VA, where we took US-29 to Lynchburg.

I had been told that US-74 was completed from Lumberton, NC over to Rockingham,NC.  so I put it into my GPS software, and boy was it a nice drive.

So our new route will be from our home over to Chadbourn, NC (about 35 miles of 2-lane).  At Chadbourn, we took US-74, all the way to Rockingham, where we then took US-220 to Greensboro, NC.

Greensboro itself has about 6 miles of dangerous driving (narrow roads, heavy traffic, several lane swaps, etc.), but you are out of there in just a few minutes, and then it is smooth sailing all the way to Lynchburg.

And, according to my Garmin, it was about 15 minutes quicker than the old way.

Starting Out in Camping ------ AGAIN!

Helen and I are in our sixties, and we worked hard all of our lives, saving what we could along the way, while raising three kids.  Finally, our physical conditions forced us to retire several years ago, and we sold our home, and bought a nice retirement home in the Myrtle Beach area of SC, and settled down to enjoy ourselves and enjoy the good life, as they say.

We did all of the things new retirees do the first year or so of our retirement, and after a while we began to tire of most of them. And, it did not take very long before we developed a case of "cabin fever" and we both knew that we had to come up with something productive and interesting to do, or we would go crazy.

Considering both of our physical limitations, we finally settled on getting back into camping.  This was something we did for a number of our early years of marriage, that we and the Kids had really enjoyed.

Once we decided on camping, we started to research the world of camping and campers to pick what level and type of camping we really wanted to do, and that could we afford!

So, with both of us on the web daily, and subscribing to camping-centric magazines, it only took us about six-months to settle on what we really wanted, and those were:

• we wanted a Class-A or Class-C Motorhome
• we wanted minimal setup and shutdown labor involved
• we wanted nice day-to-day comforts --- no HE-MAN wood chopping, mud, cold, etc. (Been There and Done That in our younger years!)
  
• we wanted something that we would drive, and be able to take advantage of the Wal-Marts, rest areas and parking lots of America when traveling and feel safe and comfortable when we pulled over to rest and eat.
• we wanted a nice Kitchen so we could prepare and eat our favorite meals, and continue to experiment with new foods and new recipes, as we are avid cooks and LOVE Good Food.
  
• Oh, Yeah, and we needed room enough for my wifes clothes!

We felt we could get these and others of our needs filled with a Class-A, and then the big "BUT" slapped us in the face.  You know -------"BUT we knew nothing about Class-A RVs; not manufacturers, not models, not pricing, not values, NOTHING!"

What to do?  What to Do?

On to the Orlando TT Campground

I just looked at the title I have for this Posting, and I realize that I have fallen into the same trap as so many other people who live or work in a specialized field.  I have as many acronyms as words in the title.

I think this may be a good subject for a future posting, so you will probably see it here soon.

Until then, for the uninitiated, TT stands for Thousand Trails, which is a private RV Resort Club, and CG is just that, a Campground.

Anyway, we arrived here on the 9th, and got set up and comfortable that day, and then we decided to decorate for Christmas.  The restriction we put on ourselves was that all ofthe decorations had to fit into no more than two medium sized Totes, and ideally, only one.

This has caused a good amount of heated discussion, but finally settled on what we are going to use now, with an eye towards improving on our selections in the future.

Our first purchase was very gaudy and some might say, ugly, lighted Palm Tree for outside.  We then came up with the idea of a couple of Santa hats on the mirrors, along with a pair of Santa pants.  A very nice combination. Try it.

Along with these, we have a nice collection of little plush Christmas animals for our dash, that look very nice, and we finally got a couple of those rope light strings.  We decided on the multi-color ones, and will use them throughout the year, as so many other campers do for accent lighting.

We are still looking at other ideas, but for now this is it.

As far as TT CG's go, we prefer Peace River over Orlando, but that doesn't mean that Orlando is a bad CG.  It is actually, a really good upper end CG, that I would recommend to anyone.

It is just that although the Orlando TT CG is right in the middle of every type of entertainment you might want, the peace and tranquility of Peace River is much nicer to us, most of the time.

Well, we are going walking up to the Clubhouse, to see what is going on today, so more updates are coming.

DON and HELEN

Campground Cliques

We are still staying in the CG Southern Aire, near Tampa.

We have become accustomed to the CG, and the people here, who are mostly, by the way, older than us, and have their own cliques.

Actually, there are three distinct groups of people here, it seems.

First, there is the group who set up their camper or trailer on a lot ten to twenty years ago, added a sun room, and settled down to the good life in Florida.  They keep mostly to themselves, are in charge of most of the clubhouse activities, and are distantly friendly.

The second largest group (or, so it seems) is the group of winter workers.  These people have nice campers, fifth wheels, trailers, motorhomes, etc. and are the source of the noise you hear from 6AM to 7AM as they fire up their cars and go off to their seasonal job.

Many of them are full-timers, and as you already know, this provides them withthat extra income they need to pretty much travel the contry and enjoy their retirement.  Usually, you can tell their sites, because they are decorated very nice, with enough stuff that it will obviously take them more than a couple of hours to pack up to leave.

The third group, are those like myself.  We come down here to Florida for the winter in our RV, and stay at one or more sites, each for a month or more, and have a home base somewhere in the US that is sitting vacant until we get back there after it turns hot, and the mosquitos come out, here in Florida.

Of course there is the sprinkling of those RVers who come in for a period of a day to a week, generally just passing through on their way to somewhere else.

The people coming down to Florida for a week of vacation, with or without kids, are not evident here.  This CG just does not have the entertainment or facilities that would draw them here.

I use the Gym, Pool, and walk the streets for exercise, and the Laundry is clean, well lit and everything is functional.  Other than that, we are enjoying the privacy, and will be here until the 30th, and then we will go over to the TT in Clermont.

Y'all have a good day now! Ya Hear!

Don and Helen

Campground Critique - Southern Aire - Florida

OK, This is my first shot at a CG review, so I will try to put the pertinent information in a simple to read format.  By this I mean, pertinent to me as a 60-something, married, owner of a Class-A RV, who wants to get a good deal for my money, but at the same time have all of the appropriate comforts provided by the RV Campground.
And, I want to state that, these are my own personal views and impressions, and someone else might feel totally different.

Reservation process:

I made reservations for a months stay in January, back in the August time frame, as I was planning my winter in Florida.
THE First months rent was required up front, and in full, and was non-refundable.

Warning:
This CG is a Wilder Resort, and the pictures that they show are over ten years old and possibly even older.
They show open fields that now have elbow to elbow converted tag-alongs and fifth-wheelers with sun rooms added. And they have not moved for many, many years.

Check In:

Once I got over the shock of how the CG looked, I checked in, and two guys escorted me to my assigned site.
This was necessary because they had to direct me into the site very carefully, as my 38-foot RV actually only had one foot behind my RV, and 3-feet between the front and the street, as well as two feet betwen the drivers side and the RV.  Tight to say the least.

Site Status:

The site, and all sites have a concrete pad.  Or at least what is left of a concrete pad.
It was around ten-by-8, and the edges had been driven over so often that only the center was solid, while the edges were all broken away.
The concrete itself was so old that it had been worn down to the stones.
I could open my slides on both sides.
The electric was on a meter, and they required a $25 down payment for the month and they read the meter when I checked out, and had to pay another $9.
The water was palatable and had good pressure.
Also, we had no problem with the Sewer connection and usage.

Streets:

The streets were at some time, long ago, in the far past,  hard surface streets.
But, they had been patched so many times, and also had so many bare areas, that it actually made it a little dangerous in places to walk. And I walk daily, weather permitting.

Laundry:

We used the Laundry regularly, and compared to other CGs, the equipment was in average condition, and a broken Washer or dryer was fixed promptly.
Some of the equipment is very old, one lady stated to me that she had been staying there over ten years , and half the existing machines were there when she moved in.

Pool and Jacuzzi:

The Pool was heated and kept cleaned, and functional for the whole month we wer there, and the Jacuzzi was also functional.
The pool area was kept clean.

Club House:

The Clubhouse, includes the Gym (old equipment), the Mens and Womens Bathrooms (only ones at CG), the Office, 2 pool tables,  and the social area for all events.
There is another small building that houses a nice little Library of books.
There are lot of planned activities, and they all happen in the one building.
This was a nuisance to me because if you wanted to use the Gym equipment, you had to plan around the social calendar for the people who reside there either full time or seasonally.

Summary:

They are actually an old trailer park with a number of open sites that they rent to the unknowing RV traveler.  The only advantage of this CG to me was that it is relatively close to Tampa, off of US-4 and is thus near a lot of entertainment and activities.  After my stay, and basing my decision to reserve there on their pictures on the web, I will have doubts that any other Wilder RV Resort is any better than this one.  What a shame!  Great location, but an old, worn out CG.  And---- Not that Cheap!

Wauchula TT Campground - the Dark Side

Yes, the Dark Side of going to the TT campground in Wauchula.

You see, we went there in November of '09 for three weeks, and had a great time.  We had just left VA and our kids, and drove down to this CG and stayed for 3-weeks.

The CG was not very crowded. and we were able to relax and go into a Zen mode.  By that I mean, we were able to slow our BP down, drop into a healthy eating regimen, and truly relax.

Within two days we were walking several miles before lunch, reading and writing in the afternoon, exercising in the heated Pool and Jacuczzi before dark, and talking over a couple of glasses of wine and a light dinner each night.  There is nothing to do in Wauchula, but we really did not care.

We were Chillin'and enjoying it!

Well, it turns out that the peak season at CG's in FL is Jan thru Mar, and we finally ended back at Wauchula for the last two weeks in February.

What a difference.

It turns out that the campground has approximately 200 campsites that are on higher ground, and all of them have full service.  That means water, sewer and electric connections.

It also turns out that the CG has 200 sites, that are in the flood plain, down next to the river, that have only water and electric connections.

What this means is that when you call for a reservation, you end up playing the "Mud Hole Lottery"for several days.

Let me explain;

They overbook the full hookup sites, from what I can calculate, by about 30%.

So, when you check in, they send you down to the Mud Hole, where you can park without sewer hookup and play the lottery for a site with full hookup.

Now, this is not so bad normally, but the "lower-200" is a flood plain, and it had rained for several days of the past week before we checked in.

So, when we pulled in, we were handed a piece of paper that stated that they (TT) "were not responsible if you got stuck in the mud, and had to be towed out."  Then I was told to "pick a spot, down there, that was not too muddy!"

I was given another piece of paper that explained the lottery; and senton my way down the hill.

Simply stated, it said that when I checked in, my name was put on a list, and each morning at noon, a list of available sites were posted that had opened up when people checked out that morning.

I was my responsibility, to go around and look at the sites and decide which ones my RV would fit into.

Then at 1-O'clock the Lottery would occur.

The Lottery meant that they would go down the list of people that had checked in and call out names in the order of check-in.

When your name was called, you had to pick one of the remaining sites, or pass.  To pass meant that you dropped to the bottom of the list for one more round of calls, and if you did not pick a site then, you were permanently in the Mud Hole.

If your name was called, you had a choice of what was oped up and not picked by others ahead of you that day.   Good or Bad!

What this did was turn a lot of very civilized retirees into overwrought and over-stressed couples who had no feeling of control of where they would camp.  In the trees, In a wooded area, In the Open, In the Mud? Good Satellite, No Satellite, Good TV, No TV? All a mystery.

T make things worse, the list of people was long enough that it took from 3 to 4 days before you were even called for site.

Take the typical member who, at this time of the year has a maximum of 2 weeks and for many, only 1 week of member stay reserved, the lottery only added a new level of stress.

It took 3 days before we were called, and I got a pretty good site, but one thing I did notice. The charm and relaxed atmosphere was shattered by this Lottery.

Whether you wanted to or not, you got pulled into the new attitude of "Hurry", followed by a feeling that you had just been screwed by someone.

Add the colder weather, and overtaxed support system at the CG, and it was just not the same CG we enjoyed back in November.

I, personally will try to avoid the "Wauchula-TT-CG Mud-Hole Lottery" next year.  It is like staying in a different world during the Jan-Mar period. And one day ..... TT itself, and the Wauchula site specifically, will suffer for this Lottery of theirs that denigrates the whole meaning of TT and Resort camping, itself.

Well ..... Have a nice Day!

Don and Helen

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