November 25, 2007 by steve.

Three years ago the CurbCrusher clan decided that they’d start a new Thanksgiving tradition and go camping on Thanksgiving weekend. We piled the gang into the fifth-wheel, and went to Payne’s Prairie Preserve State Park in Micanopy, Florida. We had a great dinner and then went bike riding around the park. Little CurbCrusher went over her handle bars and knocked out one of her brand new front permanent teeth. We spent the better part of Thanksgiving at Shand’s Emergency Room, and ruined Thanksgiving dinner for two pediatric dental interns. Little CurbCrusher has been adamantly opposed to going camping on Thanksgiving since that time.

So after staying home the past two years, we ventured out again on Thanksgiving, this time to W.P. Franklin North Campground near Ft. Myers, Florida. It was about a three hour drive from the CurbCrusher estate, and done on Thanksgiving morning. The traffic was lite and the driving easy. W. P. Franklin is a Corp of Engineers park, something we’d never stayed in. This campground is located on an island off the north bank of the Caloosahatchee river. Opposite the park is is the lock that raises and lowers boats that are moving up the river toward Lake Okeechobee. The campground has 30 sites with water and electricity, all are paved and all but three are right on the water. The three not on on the water are in the middle of the island, and still have a great view of the water, but they are close together. Each site has a fire ring, and a raised grill, and a picnic table with a cover. The sites are paved, and have gravel around the picnic tables, making for a dry site when it rains. There are two bath houses, and they were very clean and roomy. In addition, there are eight boat slips that have power and water. A single dump station serves the park.

After enjoying a nice Thanksgiving dinner, we awoke Friday ready to do some tourist stuff. We drove the fifteen miles or so to the Edison and Ford Winter Estates. Thomas Edison spent winters in Ft. Myers starting in 1886, and his home has been preserved. At some time, Henry Ford bought the place next door, and spent time in Ft. Myers also. The local preservation group has preserved both houses, and a laboratory that Edison worked in to try and determine a method of extracting rubber from plants that would grow in the U.S. Little CurbCrusher had been wanting to see something related to Edison after studying him last year in school, so this was a great opportunity to work in a field trip.

Following the tour of the Edison home, we wandered over to Sanibel Island, which is located a little further south. We had two reasons for wanting to visit Sanibel. One is that it has great beaches, and Little CurbCrusher likes to play on the beach. Secondly, Lady CurbCrusher wanted to check out the Periwinkle Trailer Park and Campground to see if it was a place that we’d like to camp in the future. We walked about a mile of so beach and collected shells and a slight sunburn. We then stopped at the Periwinkle campground and took a look around. This place is more of a permanent living location with lots of park models there, but there is a loop or two for camping. It is the only campground on Sanibel Island, but there is still a good walk to the beach. It might be a good place to stay if your destination was the beach, but we left not completely convinced that its a place we want to camp.

On Saturday we made a trip up to the Ortona lock. There is another campground run by the Corp of Engineers here. This campground has 51 sites, and is a bit larger than the one at the W. P. Franklin lock. They are a bit more relaxed at Ortona lock, and they let you walk across the damn and the locks to the other side of the river. While there we were able to see the lock in operation as a couple of boats came through headed east. It was pretty neat watching the lock in operation.

We then drove back down to the W.P. Franklin Lock and Recreation area. This is located across the river from the campground, but you have drive 12 miles to get to it. There is a beach, boat ramp, and observation deck to watch the lock in operation. When were there there was only about a two foot difference in the height of the river on each side of the damn, so it was not as impressive as watching the Ortona lock where there was more like a five foot difference in the river height.

Pictures from the trip are located here.

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November 21, 2007 by steve.

So the CurbCrushers were at the point where they wanted an RV, they just needed to decide what to get. At the time the CurbCrushers owned two vehicles, a GMC Sonoma S-10 Pickup, and an Olds Minivan. The S-10 was not made for a family though as it had two sideways facing jump seats in the small extended cab area behind the two bucket seats, so that left the minivan. The initial thought was to buy a towable RV that could be towed with the minivan. Well, when CurbCrusher started researching the towing capability of the minivan, it quickly became obvious that they only option would be a small pop-up.

The first decision was whether to get a drivable RV (motorhome) or a towable. The CurbCrushers thought they wanted a motorhome, so after asking around, they set off to Lazy Days. A very patient salesman showed them some low end new Class A motorhomes and then some bigger used Class Cs. One of the big drawbacks to the Class A was that the only place for Little CurbCrusher to sleep was the couch or the dinette. So it seemed as though the Class C might be more appealing, as some of them have the bed over the cab. So off the family went on a test drive in one of the used Class C motorhomes that day at Lazy Days. After the test drive, Curbcrusher didn’t like the visibility to the back and sides (although this may have just been because I wasn’t used to driving something that large at the time) and the whole family didn’t like the visibility from the living area out the front. A example is that if Little CurbCrusher was sitting at the dinette while traveling and Lady CurbCrusher said “look at that”, there’s no way for Little CurbCrusher to look out the front window. So at the end of the Lazy Days browsing trip, a disappointed CurbCrusher clan was not sure what they were seeking in an RV.

The CurbCrushers started visiting RV shows and dealers on the weekends. At some point a trailer that had a bunkhouse in the back was encountered. That seemed ideal. It gave Little CurbCrusher a place to sleep that didn’t interfere with the adults staying up late, and it also meant that one didn’t have to put a room back together before eating in the morning. So the field was narrowed to trailers that had bunk houses.

There was still the matter of the tow vehicle. It was time to replace the S-10, so the CurbCrushers next thought was to get an SUV and tow a trailer behind it. When CurbCrusher started researching the towing capacity of SUVs, he was quite surprised to find that they were much lower than he’d imagined. It shortly became apparent that to get any decent towing capacity, it was going to require the purchase of a full size or a heavy duty pickup truck. After reading and talking to a few people about the differences in towing between a fifth-wheel and a trailer, CurbCrusher suggested that if a pickup truck was going to be the tow vehicle, why not go to a fifth-wheel.

At about this same time the CurbCrusher family saw the Salem 32BHSS unit at a show or on some dealer lot. Lady CurbCrusher and Little CurbCrusher fell in love with the RV, and started lobbying for it. CurbCrusher had really wanted to stay with a unit that was thirty feet long or shorter, and this thing was thirty-five. In the end the women won, and the CurbCrushers had picked out their first RV.

Before getting the RV though, a tow vehicle was needed. It was apparent from the RV selected that heavy-duty pickup was going to be required. CurbCrusher has always been a GM guy, but he read up on the GMC 2500HD, the Ram 2500 and the F-250. One of the factors in the decision was whether or not it would fit in the garage, because CurbCrusher likes parking in the garage. The Ford was about 4 inches longer than the GM or the Dodge, and that was the difference between being in the garage or out. With the Dodge you could get a Cummins diesel, but on the GM the Allison Transmission was available. After doing some research on the engine/transmission combinations, CurbCrusher was convinced that the Duramax/Allison was the way to go, and ended up with a GMX 2500HD Duramax.

And that is pretty much how the CurbCrusher clan ended up with the Fifth-Wheel.

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November 18, 2007 by steve.

I promised a few months ago that I’d related how the CurbCrushers got started with an RV. To begin, we should probably start with once upon a time with the formative years of CurbCrusher and Lady CurbCrusher.

RV/Camping Experience
CurbCrusher had limited camping experience as a child. This was primarily due to Pa CurbCrusher’s opinion that since he was in the United States Army, he was a professional camper, and there was no way that he was going to camp on vacation. There was one abortive attempt at camping when CurbCrusher was five years old. CurbCrusher, his uncle and a cousin went out into the woods of Northwest Florida and set up a tent. Pa CurbCrusher was to come out a bit later and join in the fun. But, an afternoon thunderstorm rolled in, and CurbCrusher, the uncle and the cousin decided there was no need to stay in the woods when there was a warm, comfy house back in town, not to mention a good hot meal at Grandmother’s house. Since this was in the days before cell phones, Pa CurbCrusher ended up in the woods at night looking for a non existent campsite. Following this incident CurbCrusher was never involved in another camping trip.

However, during his first two years of college CurbCrusher did come in contact with Rving. CurbCrusher participated in an extracurricular activity known as “Speech and Debate.” Now Debate teams are ranked somewhere below basket weaving clubs on a college campus, and therefore unlike the sports teams that travel in style in a bus or plane to a completion, Speech and Debate students are lucky if they aren’t hitch hiking. One of the girl’s family owned a Winnebago, and through some sort of arrangement that offered her dad a tax write off, CurbCrusher and his teammates got to drive around the country and stay in RV parks while competing in speech and debate tournaments. Now this is not to say that CurbCrusher fell in love with RVing at this time, as trying to put ten college age kids in a motorhome that is advertised as sleeping eight doesn’t exactly leave one with memories of the spacious luxury of a modern day RV.

Meanwhile in Central Florida, Lady CurbCrusher was growing up in a family where vacation and camping were synonymous. Every summer her family spent a couple of weeks at Moss Park camping in a tent. In addition, as big scouting family, there were a number of other camping trips for this family. Even today, Lady CurbCrusher’s dad spends a number of nights each year camping with Boy Scouts, and has a pop-up camper. So Lady CurbCrusher viewed CurbCrusher’s aversion to camping as being based on a basic character flaw.

RV Fever

When Little CurbCrusher was about four years old, a number of events occurred that started us down the path of RV Ownership. The first was when Mrs. CurbCrusher went out and bought a tent and assorted other camping gear. She was determined to overcome CurbCrusher’s anti-camping character flaw. She planned a trip in the middle of summer to Moss Park. Lady CurbCrusher’s dad also was going out and took his pop-up camper. Well, lets say that it was a pretty miserable experience. It was hot, it was humid, there was no real point to it other than to be miserable. Not that there wasn’t some redeeming qualities. It was sort of nice to sit around in the evening in the woods, and Little CurbCrusher had a great time playing in the woods.

The second event was a trip to North Georgia where CurbCrusher’s cousin had just purchased a cabin. He’d invited a number of other relatives, turning it into a small family reunion of sorts. Two of the other relatives had a trailer and fifth-wheel. After touring the rigs, and talking with the relatives, CurbCrusher began to think that maybe he could handle camping if it was done in an RV.

A second camping trip was planned with Lady CurbCrusher’s dad and his pop up. This time the destination was Fort Wilderness, the Disney campground. While better than the tent camping trip, this was a bit of a mess also. It rained for most of the weekend. The three adults and one kid in the pop-up seemed way too much. Considering that CurbCrusher is not a small man (He’d not Adre the Giant sized either, but lets put is this way. If you are sitting on a plane with an empty middle seat next to you, and you see CurbCrusher coming down the aisle, you’ll probably be saying a quick prayer that he’s not the guy with the seat next to you), and neither is his father-in-law, and throw in the other two people trapped in a 6×8 space and it’s not pleasant.

So, we were left with two camping trips that weren’t great. But, and its a big but, CurbCursher could see that there was something there. Something that needed to be experienced and something worth while. It was obvious though, that it didn’t need to be experienced with canvas though. The bug was caught, and the CurbCrushers were on their way to getting an RV, the question was what would they end up with.

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November 5, 2007 by steve.

The CurbCrushers were on the road again this last weekend. Not for long, but on the road nevertheless. All of 18 miles up I-4 and west on State Road 434 to Wekiwa Springs State Park. This park is located on the Northwest side of Orlando, and is a fairly nice place to spend a weekend. Add the fact that the temperature dropped into the upper 50’s each night, and the humidity was low, and it makes for a very nice weekend of camping.

There are two camping loops at Wekiwa, each with 30 sites featuring water and electricity. A single dump station servers the entire campground. About a mile away from the campground is the natural spring that gives the park its name. The sites are well situated with a decent amount of privacy. There are probably only five to six sites that would be too small for anything but a pop-up.

There are a number of hiking and biking trails throughout the park. In addition, there is a concession that rents canoes and kayaks. You can go down the Wekiwa river and come back, or there is a five hour trip where you ride down to a spot called Katies Landing and then the concession folks will come and pick you up. Wekiwa is bear country, and there are a number of warning signs over the park, and we know a number of people that have seen the bears on their stays.

The CurbCrusher’s camped as a family on Friday night. On Saturday at noon Little CurbCrusher’s Girl Scout troop showed up and set up tents on the site next the motorhome. The girls then went on a 2 hour canoe trip down the Wekiwa. After the canoe trip the girls spent some time on the playground, and then came back to camp to fix dinner.

CurbCrusher fixed his own dinner, and watched the girls make smores and actually read a book, a first on a camping trip. In addition, since the rest of the CurbCrusher family was camping with the Girl Scouts, CurbCrusher was able to control the temperature in the RV, and had a great night’s sleep.

Wekiwa is a good place to go anytime of the year. If it’s hot outside, the springs are a great place to cool off. And when it’s cool there are great trails to walk.

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