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Hi!

My husband  and I just bought  our first travel trailer, the 2010 14RK.  We were tent campers for 22yrs.  We then moved up to  a pop-up camper for 11 years.  We've had that pop-up as far south as Key West, as north as Maine and Canada, and as far southwest as San Diego.  Now we are planning a trip to the Pacific Northwest where the the bears are.  Any sugestions as to where to go, where to camp would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Suzy-Q

We picked up our new camper on Thursday.   We're having a ball trying to decide what and where we're going to pack in there.  Our maiden voyage will be sometime in January.  We're planning a trip down to Padre Island National Seashore .  

Has anyone camped there for more than 14 days?  We hoping to be there a couple of months.  Any input would be appreciatled. 

  Well, John & I made our Maiden Voyage (Shake down) cruise on Jan 19, 2001.  We went down to Padre Island NS in Corpus Chrisit.  Leaving behind Oklahoma City temps in the upper 30's and heading to much warmer temps in the upper 60's.  

  Padre Island was what we had expected.  It was right on the gulf, there was a line of sand dunes between the water and the campsites.  The view was incredible.  We stayed at Malaquite campground in the park.  For seniors with the NP pass it was $4.00 per night.

  Our adventure started out great and then we had minor cold front hit us, but we were prepared with a propane heater and super warm sleeping bags.  Then the breakdown cruise began, only minor things.  The grey water line outside split and we were draining soapy water on the pavement.  A trip to Home Depot took care of that.  When the temps dipped down into the upper 30's and along with high humidity our camper door wouldn't close unless we slammed it shut, we were worried that it would bother our niehbors, but then it couldn't be heard above the wind, which had been increasing over time.

  After about 3 days of this we were ready to go home, but our pioneer spirit came out and we decided to stay.  The days got warmer and sunny .  John's Solar panels were working and we were having fun.  The campers are like a little community.  At the end of the week we attended a fish fry and everyone brought something.  A lot of fun.  We met people from all over the country.

  Then something unexpected happened, a little Artic Blast that we were watching decided to venture south into Texas.  We were not THAT prepared. The STORM was to hit on Thursday Feb 2,2011, so we left the park and headed to Nueces County Park that had electricity for our heater. Hooray!!!!!
 
  On Thursday morning the Ranger came by and told us that the Harbor bridge (the only bridge from the Island) was closing at 2pm for the unexpected ICE that was coming, we headed to the grocery store and gas station. Then we just hunkered down for a nice warm night, When we woke up it was cold.

  Well,the ICE storm came…the outside of our camper was completely iced over and we had no power. Br-r-r-r

  We went back to Malaquite for 2 more weeks, it couldn't get any worse.  
We had survived the ice storm. We had gotten the perfect site (#42).  The temps were getting warmer and the days sunnier, but the winds stronger.  The entire month there we probably spent a total of 5 days outside the camper.
This is not our kind of camping. Oh, we did our sightseeing and walking on the beach, but we couldn't do it everyday.

  As soon as we get the bugs worked out in our little house on wheels we are planning a trip to Yosemite NP.  Has anyone been there recently?  Any info would be great.

Happy Trails…..Suzy-Q

P.S. Take tarps for the wind at Padre Island, you'll need them