After our initial shakedown cruise, we went on another short trip.  When we bought the camper, the dealership gave us some coupons for free camping.  One of them was a free night at nearby Sun-N-Fun in Sarasota, FL.  Of course, you can’t go for just one night so we paid for another night.  Let me say that this is not the type of campground we normally look for – anything with “resort” in the name tends to be pricey (we paid $58 for the second night).  However, they had a ton of things to do, but first, let’s talk about the campsite.

We had a premium site which means it’s a back in with a concrete patio.  I misunderstood when I called which is why we were in a premium site.  I actually just wanted a standard site (no concrete patio) in the shade.

Anyway, that big tree behind the car is on corner of our site along with big ol’ roots that I had to back over.  Then there’s the concrete patio on the other side.  Also, it’s on a weird intersection – it’s at an angle and there’s a telephone pole that I had to make sure I didn’t hit.  Add to it our general inexperience in backing up and it took some doing!  We finally got backed in and leveled and started hooking up…more problems.  Our water hook up is near the front of our trailer and the campsite water was at the very back of the site.  There was just no way to make our 25 foot hose reach.  We thought about hooking up and backing up some more, but even then we’d still be too far away.  We talked about filling our water tank, but the hose still wouldn’t reach unless we backed up some.  Then we realized that our sewage hose probably wouldn’t reach either.  *sigh*  Happily, my parents had given us an extension for our power cord so at least we had electricity.  WalMart was only 15 minutes away so I made a trip there, located a drinking water hose and a sewage hose extension.  Finally we were all hooked up!

Then we went to check out the real reason we were here – the pool!  It’s an olympic size pool and it is huge!  Since it’s summer, there weren’t nearly as many people as I imagine there are in the winter when all the snow birds are there (there are around 1700 sites).  Our kids had a blast swimming and hubby and I swam a lap or two (did I mention that olympic size pools are huge?!).

On our full day there, we bought water slide passes for the kids and I ($5 each).  I wasn’t going to get one, but the kids wanted me to so I did (they didn’t have to twist my arm!).  I went down a few times, but the kids – they definitely got their moneys worth!  Climbing 4 stories of stairs over and over tired them out!  The water slide isn’t a super fast one, but you can get some speed if you lay down (just remember to pinch your nose at the bottom – I got a nose full of chlorinated water the first time.  Bleh!).

One of the many paths all around Sun-N-Fun

They also have a mini golf course, ping pong, bean bag toss, carpet ball, tennis courts, disc golf, and foot golf (that we saw while walking around – there may be more).  They supply all the equipment.  There’s also a playground.  Plus there’s a gym for an additional fee.  There is no way to be bored at Sun-N-Fun!

Do you like staying at resort style campgrounds?

As I mentioned here, the first trip you take in a new camper is usually your shakedown cruise.  Typically it takes place close to home.  The idea is to see if you’ve forgotten anything that you can’t live without and to make sure that everything works right.  So, after we got our new (to us) camper home and loaded, we headed off to our new favorite camping spot for a two night shakedown cruise.

My new favorite view.

When I made reservations, I had a chance to pick a pull thru spot.  I was tempted, but I also know that I need to learn how to back in.  Our camper is only 21 feet long (our pop-up was 21 feet when it was all opened up – I think it was only 10 feet when it was closed).  However, when I’m trying to back into a spot, it seems like it’s so much longer!  I realize that I just need practice thus the back in spot.  I actually did pretty good this time and the sites are pretty level so no leveling boards required.

I managed to get us nice and close to our hook ups. Plus, we had a visitor wander through our site.

Setting up this camper is so much easier!  The beds just fold out, the slide is a button.  No cranking it up!  We get all set up and then wonder if we forgot to do anything!  We did forget a few things, but nothing major (garbage can, dishcloth, hot pad, paper towels just to name a few).  Honestly though, we managed – plastic store bags make good garbage cans, a washcloth can work as a dishcloth and a hot pad, and we had plenty of hand towels, just nothing disposable.

We were very grateful for the air conditioning!  It was a typical Florida day – hot & humid!  We tried to get out early to do our bike riding and geocaching, but it warmed up pretty fast!  The bike trail was a lot harder than I anticipated – sandy & grassy (in my defense it started out as packed sand).  It was a three mile ride and the kids did awesome (even though my middle child was certain he wasn’t going to make it to the end of the trail).

We enjoyed our new camper and are planning our next trip – also close to home just to be sure we really have everything.  Then we’re planning a couple longer trips.  What about you – do you camp?

Since we sold our camper, we’ve been looking for a slightly bigger one.  We didn’t want to buy a new tow vehicle, so we knew we’d have to find a lightweight one.  I’ve been stalking craigslist and a couple local RV sites.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to go the craigslist route (although that is how we sold our pop-up).  Before we sold our pop-up, we went looking at a local RV dealer just to see what was available.  Big mistake!  We found one we liked, but knew that we couldn’t afford it right then.  We were really just looking to see what was out there that would meet our needs.  It was hard to convince the salesman though.  We were a little gun shy after that!  I went back to stalking websites.  There was nothing!  I thought we wanted a bunkhouse preferably a single over a double (like the one we saw at the dealer).  We looked at a couple trailers at a local RV dealer, but they were a little too used!  So, I went back to craigslist and found one that looked so cool – it was trailer, but it had beds that popped-out from the sides.

The kids’ beds (and our bike carrier).

A little more looking and I found a nice used one at a dealer.  On the website, it looked like it was at a dealer about 2 hours from us.  When I called to get more information, they said it was actually at a dealer near us…the first one we had been too and weren’t sure we wanted to go back.  This time around, we knew someone who worked there and so we went through him.  We asked lots of questions – how much does it weigh, are the brakes and tires good, how much cleaning did the dealership do (the camper was spotless – apparently they don’t clean them much so you get a feel for how the previous owner cared for it), how big are the water tanks, is there anyway we can take our bikes (turns out there is)?  We learned how to hook up a weight distributing hitch and sway bar.  We learned that the beds are held out by cables (I had to google how much weight they can hold – over 1,000lbs!).

This is the front bed.  I like that it’s away from the kids’ beds.  At night we can still use the dining room table and not disturb the kids.

Even though it’s a used camper and it’s 5 years old, it’s in excellent condition.  We can’t get over how much bigger it seems inside – there’s so much more room & storage (pictures coming in a future post)!

The slide has our dining table and benches in it.

We’re looking forward to lots of camping adventures this summer!