The day has come!!! Maiden voyage of "The Bear Cave" !!!

Well after all the fantastic help from I've received from the members here, my rig is finally ready for our maiden voyage.
Mechanically sound, all systems up and functional (with minimal cash outlay since I did all the work myself) Still have somethings to do (roof seams and re-seal is next project, but no leaks right now, just want to make it bedda) but can't do it all in a day, I've got time! Love my new project.

Connie has stocked the inside with new beds, bedding, matching towels, dishes, etc.  I'm off to the grocery store to complete the menu since I'm the chef/cook.

Just a short hop & a skip from our home base, we are headed over to the Wekiva Falls Resort in Sorrento. Actually wanted to stay over at Wekiwa Springs State Park, just up the street from us, but they are all booked. This is on the other side of the riva, but looks like a nice place. Have to stay kinda local this weekend, as we were rained out of a charity golf tournament a few weeks ago and the make up day is Saturday. Golf and camping in the same weekend, couldn't ask for anything more with the exception of maybe "hitting the numbers" this weekend. (Can't help but "donate" to our states "education fund")

Roxie is so excited as well. She has been sitting in the rig all week out front while I've been completing the finishing touches. She knows we are about to go. She's really not all that "Von Stupid"! 

Still pondering,,, Bring the margarita machine or not? I actually prefer my Bourbon.  ;D :   Bet if we do, we'll make some new friends real fast, although we usually do anyway.

Wish us luck, and again this forum is "DA BOMB" and couldn't have ever gotten "The Bear Cave" up and going in the record time (about 3 1/2 weeks) without all the great people and information found here!

Barry

Hope everything goes well. I heard that Wekiva has new management and they have been improving the electric and water - the water really needed it, from what I heard from others (high sulfur content).

Let us know how things go and how you like the park

Thanks Gary,

I certainly planned on checking the power before I plug in, especially after reading another thread last night from the "pastor" frying some of his gear.
I'll be installing some hardwired power protection soon, another on my wish list.

Power:
Is it a fluctuation problem you've heard? Bad wiring at the pedestal? Other?

Haven't upgraded any of my electronics on board yet, but Connie has some work to do over the weekend and was planning on bringing the laptops, I was planning on throwing the UPS from the house on board for them, just in case. (Have a pretty good one W/ surge and power conditioning)

Water:
The place is sitting on a sulfur spring, so I was a wee bit weary of the water quality. I have picked up an inline filter at Wally world, maybe I'll just fill up at the house off of our reverse osmosis water. I just flushed and sanitized the water system in the coach, but not certain I ever plan to consume that water. Was planning on bringing some in bottles from the house anyway for drinking/cooking.

Thanks for the tips,,,,,,,again!

Once you've cleaned out the water system with clorox there's no reason why you can't use it.  If you put a decent filter under the sink that will take care of most tastes except in certain parts of the country that have really bad tasting water (north tends to be better than south in my opinion).  But when your tank is taken care of use it.  The more use the better.  Must admit I wouldn't want sulpur tasting water!

ArdraF

ArdraF said:

Once you've cleaned out the water system with clorox there's no reason why you can't use it.  If you put a decent filter under the sink that will take care of most tastes except in certain parts of the country that have really bad tasting water (north tends to be better than south in my opinion).  But when your tank is taken care of use it.  The more use the better.  Must admit I wouldn't want sulpur tasting water!

ArdraF

Click to expand...

I did the Clorox flush as well as a vinegar flush afterward (Read that this removes any chlorine taste) , then a fresh water flush, so I'm pretty sure it's clean and safe. Have yet to add an under sink filter (also on my wish list).
Just don't think I want to add sulfur into my clean pipes, and as we're just out for the weekend, most likely don't need the shore water.

Thanks for the feedback

The complaints I heard about the old Wekiva were loud but not technical, so I don't know how valid they were. Everything from "low power" to "crappy old power poles" to "dangerous", but none of them from people I consider to be technically knowledgeable.

As for the water, a guy I know completely plugged his "whole house" water filter in under two weeks. Bought a second one and that quickly began to plug up too. Full of yellow "dirt". He wasn't drinking it anyway (he was strictly a vodka man!  8) ), so he removed the filter cartridge and just let her run. Didn't hurt a thing.

Recent reviews are quite good and the management has spent a lot of money on improvements.  New clubhouse, paved road, new pads on some sites, etc.  Ratings have gone way up, so you should be ok.

Well the first journey was an overall success with the exception of an accident Friday evening involving two guys out canoeing on the river!

Just after arrival and while we were setting up camp, multiple fire trucks, rescue vehicles and helicopters invaded the area of the campground down by the boat ramp and new tiki bar. (Undoubtedly canceling happy hour down there)
Apparently, these guys were quite intoxicated, inexperienced, no life vests, etc,,,,, generally, being irresponsible. One of them stood up in the canoe to relieve themselves in the river, capsizing the boat. Only one of them surfaced.  :'(
Search teams there all night, TV crews outside the rear gates,,,,resumed search in the morning, body found around 10 the next morning.

http://www.wesh.com/news/23323704/detail.html
http://www.cfnews13.com/MediaPlayer2/MediaPlayer.htm?video=missingboater_050120100432&cat=Local&title=Boater%20Found%20Dead

Sad story,,,not the greatest start for Connie's first camping trip. I assured her in my many years of tent camping and backpacking that this was NOT the norm.

Friday evening, I surprised her with steak and lobster on the grill and we had our own Happy Hour at our site (other end of the resort from the commotion luckily!)
We didn't eat until around 11, had a few cocktails and made the best of it. The new mattress in the coach was real comfy ad we all settled in around 1am, well past our usual bedtime.

Was awoken by Roxie at about 4:30 am, jumping on me wanting out (Not sure why she wakes me up and not Connie) so off for a short early morning walk with my pup, then back to bed and slept till 8. For us, that's sleeping in! Coffee in the morning, a quick ride to the house to drop off the pup, then off to the golf course for a 1:00 tee time. Yes, 1:00 on the hottest day we had to date! (It was a make up day for the charity rain out) Played for about 4 hours with some good friends and we invited them to come back to the campsite for dinner.
After they picked up their young son, we all met back at the site, had dinner and cocktails (and a lot of water after all that heat). We had them stay the evening with us and had a real nice quiet (no choppers) evening.

Coffee , eggs, sausage and thick sliced bacon for breakfast Sunday morning when another of our good friends called and asked to come out for the day. We said, come on, the more the merrier!
The kid wanted to go in the sulfur spring and go on the slides, I had no inclination to go in that nasty smelling water, so off they all went and left me and my Roxie to our solitude, peace and quiet. I needed the rest after all that hosting. After about 2 hours, my buddy came back to site and we grilled some brats and dogs for lunch and delivered them to the girls (and the kid) at the new pool by the new clubhouse)

OK, here is a plus to the resort, the pool is only for registered RV site guests (not even tent campers) and they post someone at the gate all day, checking! The spring has a lot of "day people" and, well, to be honest, not our kinda crowd. I'm amazed at how some people act nowadays. The pool was nice, not crowded, nice people around and we really enjoyed the rest of the day.

While speaking to some of the people that are "residents" as well as workers at the resort, we luckily were on the "better" side (The North east, although, they mentioned that the Northwest corner was more heavily patrolled due to the new clubhouse, with a nicer air conditioned bath house). It was mentioned that if we come back, to NOT get a site in the Southwest corner, things in that area tend to disappear! Additionally we were told that the winter crowd, it a slightly more mature group and not as rowdy as some of the folks we ran into.

Its clear that the management is doing a lot of work in the campground. New clubhouse, new pool, new tiki bar, nice landscaping, security patrolling (Friday to Sunday only). The electrical hookups looked fairly new to me (I'm a specialty electrical contractor by trade) and I monitored the power and didn't have any problems. I didn't bother to hook up to the water since we were just there for 3 days and didn't want to possibly contaminate my newly fresh tank.

Overall, we had a blast and Connie is hooked on camping. Only took me almost 5 years and getting an RV to achieve this! I'm stoked. Will we re-visit Wekiva Falls? Probably yes, it's close to the house (within a 1/2 hour), friends can swing by for the day, etc.. but we'll most likely visit some other areas first and maybe go back off "summer" when the "day campers" and locals aren't so prevalent. I know there are much nicer, non-resort, natural sites that we'd prefer.

Oh yeah, Happy Camper, 50% off the nightly rate, that was a plus! (only 10% off for Good Sam)

Glad to hear your first trip went well, Barry. Thanks for the report.