Looking for some help deciding on a destination

[Grassy]

We have now retired and will be heading south this November however, we are having problems deciding on a destination.

While all out friends seem to be going to Florida, we would like to explore Texas and New Mexico.

One require we have is that around Christmas, we would like to be within an hour of a major airport so our kids could fly in.

Any RV parks that you recommend ?

Thanks

Ian. 

[SWharton]

A lot of people go to the Rio Grand Valley for the winter. Not sure about airports. New Mexico, based on our limited experience along I10 is cold in the winter. A lot of snowbirds are in Deming, NM but temps at night get very nippy, day is fine. Tuscon and Phoenix are other snowbird options. 

Your problem might be getting reservations this late. That may dictate where you go.

Escapees have several parks in TX, NM and AZ. You might want to check into those.

Good luck and have fun.

[NDBirdman]

Lived in southern NM '85 - 92.  Got snowed on twice but clears up pretty fast.  Most winters at coldest, maybe mid 30s at night to 40-45 during the day.  We lived at lower elevations, the higher up you go, the colder it gets.  Summers are scorchers.  After 20 years in ND winters, we may head there to winter after  better half retires.  Would be warm winters for us.

[Bill w/bus]

A suggestion or two. Why not explore the Gulf Coast from Florida panhandle to the Rio Grande Valley? Some fairly inexpensive campgrounds and some free. Rainsbow End is about 25 miles north of Orange Beach, AL would make a great base for exploring from Pensacola to Mobile. Don't forget the old railroad station in Foley which is filled with a model railroad. Then move on to Biloxi area. Go into Cajun country. Then Beaumont and the Bolivar Peninsula with the free ferry to Galveston. 

The Valley, as known to the Winter Texans, is great. Weather good, some years better than Florida and some years not. Last year I whined loudly when the morning temp was 52 degrees, 65 two hours later. And sometimes we couldn't use the pool because of air temps for three or four days. Look around at the parks on the net. We stay for 5 months at $1250 plus electric. Lots of activities and the friendship of a smaller park , max 325 sites. 

Two nearby airports which in the winter season have great connections to the north. 

 

Good luck, 

Bill

[Barbaraok]

It is Rainbow Plantation in Alabama.  Rainbows End is in Livingston, TX.

If hugging the Gulf, don't forget to spend some time in the Coast Bend area of Texas - lots of neat things in the greater Corpus Christie area including Fulton, Rockport, Aransas Pass, Port Aransas, Mustang Island, Corpus Christie, etc.   I think it is nicer than the RGV.   

[chirakawa]

It is Corpus Christi in Texas.  Don't know where Corpus Christie is.  😛

[FL-JOE]

Early on in our retirement we tried a month one winter on South Padre Island.  I had lived in NM for a short time when younger and we wanted to see how that part of Texas compared.  A little chilly for my liking, but the prices were pretty good.

What we have found is around Sarasota south in Florida you will have really great winter temps.  If you are on either coast that far south you will have higher CG fees in season.  Up further in the gulf coast of Florida and Alabama is will be cheaper in the winter but the temps aren't that great.

My vote would be either southern Florida or Arizona if you are looking for great winter weather.  We camp within 20 miles of an airport where my DW can catch flights for $150 to $200 round trip north to see grandkids in the winter.

[Grassy]

Too late for reservations ?  Wow...

Our first year or 2, we don't want to stay anywhere for a long time..

Thanks for all the info.. we will be going through all info..

FL-Joe..  what campground did you stay in ?

Thanks..

[Kirk W]

6 hours ago, Grassy said:

Any RV parks that you recommend ?

Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale, AL

Rainbow's End, Livingston, TX

Dream Catcher RV Park, Deming, NM

Pleasure Island RV Park, Port Arthur, TX

Galveston Island State Park, Galveston, TX

Quintana Beach Co. Park, Quintana, TX

Matagorda Bay Nature Park, Matagorda, TX

Mustang Island State Park, Port Aransas, TX

Sanddollar RV Resort, Rockport, TX

Woody Acres, RV Resort, Fulton, TX

All of these are parks that we have stayed in, although for some of them it has been several years ago. In each case, I linked to the reviews of them as those are more current than our last visit but none of the reviews were significantly different than what we remembered. We particularly like Mustang Is. State Park.

[Grassy]

Kirk,

Many thanks. this helps a lot.

One of our other members,  Jason, is helping us  with the route.. we have a tiptrik done and I think they have put us through every major city and toll road

With this new adventure, we feel like newbies again..

Ian

[Pat & Pete]

12 minutes ago, Grassy said:

Kirk,

Many thanks. this helps a lot.

One of our other members,  Jason, is helping us  with the route.. we have a tiptrik done and I think they have put us through every major city and toll road

With this new adventure, we feel like newbies again..

Ian

So , you've done this before and you still want to go through major cities and pay extra for the aggravation ? 

[JRP]

Grassy,  my advice is, if you want to explore TX & NM, don't let others convince you otherwise. We all have our own travel style, favorite locations & CG preferences. What suits others may not suit you. From anywhere in TX or NM, you can easily move to within an hour of an airport. One of my base camps is in southern NM and although it does occasionally get cold overnite, it never lasts long and the sun comes up quickly to warm things up again. I much prefer being a little chilly than sweating in the heat of southern AZ, south TX or south Fl. In my 4 yrs of fulltime RV'ing, I never made a reservation. Of course I never wanted to stay where thousands of others wanted to be. 

As a newbie, your best bet is to move around a lot and explore different areas each year. Then after a few years you can make your own choice of favorite areas & CG's.  I don't have any CG recommendations for you. I'd rather see you pick your own, that's part of the fun, learning which ones fit your preferences or not. Lots of internet sites to use for researching campgrounds in any area. If you end up in one you don't like, its easy to move on down the road. Don't sign up for any long term stay in the same park until you learn what your preferences are.

[Kirk W]

21 hours ago, Grassy said:

One require we have is that around Christmas, we would like to be within an hour of a major airport so our kids could fly in.

There is a major airport in Mobile that would be near Rainbow Plantation. In TX you can fly into either Dallas/Ft. Worth or Houston from pretty much anywhere but would have connecting flights to most other cities. San Antonio has a large airport but not as many direct flights. If you have grandchildren flying alone, we always preferred to have them come nonstop. Ours started flying to us at age 5 and I believe that they could have connecting flights at about 10 or so. 

[SWharton]

AAA is great for cars, not even close to good for RVs. I wouldn't use their Triptik unless you like driving challenges. If you are concerned about which roads are best get a Truckers Atlas and follow the trucker roads. Many of us have online route mapping programs that have the option of RV. 

How do you program a Triptik into your GPS. Do they give you a thumb drive or file so you can load the Triptik onto your computer and then load into the GPS? I was surprised they even made Triptiks any more.

If you don't have a GPS you should seriously consider one. many of us have Garmin as they have RV and Truck GPS' where you can put your vehicle height etc. and it will route you around a majority of obstacles.

 

 

[Grassy]

No, we are *not* keen on going through cities and  toll roads...been there, rather avoid it from now on. We are not happy with the tiptik and are now playing with google maps.. as I mentioned, Jason is from Tx and does the run on a regular basis..

I believe the Garmin 770 is the one everyone likes. We recently had an experience if being funneled into a 1.5 wide lane road to a one lane bridge that we had to grease the trailer to get through. Once we realized what was happening it was too late (and impossible) to back up. The bridge was just a tad higher than our rig and it had no allowable weigh notations..very uncomfortable.

We want to explore rather than stay long term in any park so we can explore the states.  We also want to reevaluate our 5th and truck as well.  Locally, we are probably pushing the limits of size but I suspect we will be small there...  when we get back in the spring.. the house gets sold and we move closer to our kids. 

Thanks for the airport info..  my son is Army (EGS) and is based out of CFB Gagetown at the moment and my daughter is about 45 minutes from Toronto.  I suspect my son will have to fly to Toronto before heading south.

We appreciate you comments.

Thanks..

BTW, would it be worth joining the Escapees since we can only spend 6 month is your country ? 

[ms60ocb]

I stay north of San Antonio in the Hill Country. Yes it has cool nights in January but last winter was a cold spell that hadn't been equaled since 1945. It stayed below freezing 3 days while the the Midwest had sub-zero temperature. Normally it gets into the 50 even on the bad days. March is one of the busiest months as the Rio Grand Valley heats up, the birds start north.  

I use  https://www.allstays.com/    as guide to Campgrounds but don't rely on the reviews.

Clay

[Kirk W]

2 hours ago, Grassy said:

BTW, would it be worth joining the Escapees since we can only spend 6 month is your country ? 

The Escapees have many Canadian members, several of them active on these forums. We also have members from several other countries.

[FL-JOE]

On ‎7‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 4:10 PM, Grassy said:

Too late for reservations ?  Wow...

Our first year or 2, we don't want to stay anywhere for a long time..

Thanks for all the info.. we will be going through all info..

FL-Joe..  what campground did you stay in ?

Thanks..

Last year we used Upriver RV Resort (North Ft. Myers).  We will be going back this winter for 4 months (Dec - Apr 1).  We paid our reservation fee last month and I suspect they are booked up, however you can go on a waiting list.  There is a newer CG (Labelle Woods Resort) in Labelle Florida.  It is about 20 miles inland from the Ft. Myers/Cape Coral area.  Some friends of ours booked there and we heard they are not full and adding more sites.  Both of these CGs will run you between $1,000 and $1,200 a month in season.  

I would say if you are wanting to move around between December and April then SW Florida could be difficult.  Not all CG's, but most will book up with a minimum of 3 month reservations during that time.  They don't even want to talk to you if you are asking for a site for a week.  

When I originally spoke of the colder temps in parts of Texas and NM, I certainly wasn't trying to discourage you from spending a winter in either of those states.  If my vote was the only one that counted we probably would not be in Florida every winter and would camp somewhere in NM.  But the DW thinks she has to have beaches within driving distances.

[SWharton]

I know most of us do not get much in snail mail, but we still get some. Do you have a mail service to forward your mail to you? If you plan on much traveling you will probably be needing  that. The other consideration is will you be needing full timers insurance? You will need to check with your insurance company as to what length of time on the road they consider to be  full time. Medical in the US might need to be considered also.

I have also read where Canadians have problems with our gas stations. Many require a zip code at the pump, not sure how that was resolved.

 

[Kirk W]

51 minutes ago, SWharton said:

Many require a zip code at the pump, not sure how that was resolved.

If using a credit card. Never seen that happen with a debit card or cash.  😉

[SWharton]

The numerous threads I have seen this mentioned did not clarify what type of card they were using. Never had a debit card so no experience with them and we use little cash. Didn't know a debit card didn't need a zip code. I thought the zip code was a form of verification, why wouldn't you need to have verification on a debit card. I would think that verification would be more critical on a debit card since the money comes right out of your account as I understand it.

[Pat & Pete]

2 hours ago, Kirk Wood said:

If using a credit card. Never seen that happen with a debit card or cash.  😉

 

7 minutes ago, SWharton said:

The numerous threads I have seen this mentioned did not clarify what type of card they were using. Never had a debit card so no experience with them and we use little cash. Didn't know a debit card didn't need a zip code. I thought the zip code was a form of verification, why wouldn't you need to have verification on a debit card. I would think that verification would be more critical on a debit card since the money comes right out of your account as I understand it.

We have a combination debit / credit card . We get asked for a zip code once in a while . 

Generally when we're on the road between longer stays . 

And , always when making any purchase and designating the card as debit , we have to supply a pin # .

[Grassy]

If needing a zip...I can always use the most famous one..90210

We do have a US Visa and a US bank account in a US Bank. 

In Canada where I usually go to the truck stops because of dual pumps and larger nozzles and room..,  I *have* to use a special Irving card.. do truck stops i the US use usual CCs or will I need to apply for a special card ?

We are trying to stop all snail mail now and go electronic. We will have a house checking service and i think they do normal mail pick up as well..if not, we will do a "hold". All investment stuff will go to our investment dude..

Internet / satellite seems to be an absolutely mystery up here for Cdns in the US since companies seem to be blocking at the border..  so far, we are just going to change the sim cards in our phones.  I have a first cousin in Tennessee if we need an addy.. 

I hear good things about the Escapees so we will probably go that route.  We presently are members of GSs and CAA(AAA).

Is this the best unit to buy for the larger trucks ?   Garmin RV 770 NA LMT-S GPS

Thanks

[chirakawa]

If you use a credit card to pay at the pump, you'll need to enter your zip code which matches the billing address for the credit card.  If you use a debit card, your pin # is sufficient.  Most pumps ask if it is credit or debit.

Worst case scenario, go inside to pay.

[Kirk W]

10 hours ago, SWharton said:

I would think that verification would be more critical on a debit card since the money comes right out of your account as I understand it.

Debit cards have a personal identification number(PIN). That is more secure than a zip code.

4 hours ago, Grassy said:

Is this the best unit to buy for the larger trucks ?

I have been using a 660 (just like the 770 but 1" smaller) for two years now and really like it.