The Maine and Eastern Seaboard Trip, Just the Facts, Maam!

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an RV or an interest in RVing!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
jagnweiner said:
The lowlight was when I desperately needed to use the facilities after a subway trip, so I ventured into a NYC subway station men's room. 

I agree Scott! I was feeling like I could need the facilities as well, I just couldn't bring myself to venture in one. 

blw2 said:
Wow, that really is a "you're there for the destination" sort of campground, isn't it?

It sure is, and they make no bones about it. But they don't mind hosing you down for the privilege though.

Tom and Margi said:
I was feeling claustrophobic just looking at the pictures!  ;D

Yeah, it's not the place to go if you are not into crowds. Everything is packed, and every place you want to go, a few hundred people got there before you.

 
I was born and have lived in WNY 56 yrs .Never set foot in NYC.Hope I never do.
 
Everyone should visit the Statue of Liberty at least once. Even more important is Ellis Island, which pretty much tells the story of America.

Christmas time used to mean taking the train into NYC: checking out the window displays, the tree at Rockefeller Center, Times Square.

I will admit that the city lost its appeal after 9-11. I'd only been back a few times for work, and had no desire to visit. We finally went to the 9-11 Memorial and located the names and photos of a couple friends lost that day. That was pretty special. Maybe we'll even go back for Christmas.
 
SargeW said:
NYC definitely has it's appeal. But you really have to WANT to put up with the rest of the stuff.


Marty


That sort of sums up our thoughts. We enjoy Braodway shows and some of the sights but it gets harder to endure Liberty Island each time we go. Stayed up in Florida, NY a couple of times but it is 2+ hours of commuting so we did West Point and some of the sights up there.
 
Yeah, we considered a place further away, but we knew we were going to make almost daily trips into the city for a week. And part of it is we don't like leaving the pup in the rig for more then 5-6 hours tops.  I didn't want to burn half of it commuting in and out of the city.  So we bit the bullet and stayed in Jersey. It was a trade off.
 
We were recently at Liberty Harbor to visit NYC. I have to say this was the first trip to NYC that I have enjoyed. I made many many trips to NYC for business (often twice a month for 5 years) and never enjoyed going. Not having to stay in hotels, fight crowds at the airport, find taxis in the rain or snow made taking the Path Subway and staying at Liberty Harbor was OK. Particularly since I got to stay in my own MH. Liberty harbor RV Park was exactly what I expected as was the traffic to get there. But the drive to Liberty Harbor certainly doesn't rank as one of my favorites!

That said, having done the sight seeing we wanted, any return trip would be for Broadway plays and I might just stay north and take the train.

ken
 
Timberlane Campground
117 Timberlane Road
Clarksboro, NJ 08020​

After leaving Liberty Harbor, it wouldn't have taken much of a RV park to improve on our last stop.  We were only making a 3 day stop to visit an old neighbor that used to live across the street from us in Ca.  We didn't have a lot of choices as we were trying to stay within a certain  area to be  close enough for our visit.  We were a little sketchy about this campground because some of the reviews it got were pretty rough.  In fact one reviewer called  it a ?dump?. 

But we figured even if it was a bit run down, we were not going to be there that long.  So we rolled in expecting the worst.  What we found was not that bad. The worst part about the park was that the sites were pretty close together.  As for the condition, it looked pretty well taken care of.  The grass was cut, and the facilities were freshly painted.  The pool and spa were clean and in good order. 

The restrooms were clean and handicapped accessible, although a little dated.  There is wifi offered,  but our Verizon air card worked acceptably. There is a front and a back loop,  and the back loop sites are a bit bigger than the front.  However, the back is also heavily treed, and we preferred a more open site. We paid $44 a night for a FHU with a gravel pad. The electric was a little weak, but this time it was on Line 2, so we never did have too much of an  issue with it. We just metered our use of the rear AC and the washer/dryer, and  didn't  run them both at the same time.  Not a great park, but fortunately  not as bad as other reviews had stated. 

Cherry Hill Park
9800 Cherry Hill Road
College Park, MD  20740​

Our next stop was really highly rated, and we were anxious to check it out.  And this was going to be our base camp to check out many different sites in DC.  Maybe our expectations were too high for this park, because we were not that impressed with it.  The park itself was huge, and this was one place where an escort to the site would have been  nice.  The roads were paved, but all the sites are gravel. We paid $70 a night for a premium site.  The other site that were not ?premium? looked almost identical to ours. The difference  was a small brick patio on our site was a $10 a night bump.  We had a FHU 50 amp site, and all utilities worked well.  The bath house was clean and handicapped accessible. However, we saw no handicapped accessible camping sites.  All the sites were loose grave and would have been tough to get around on with a wheel chair or walker. 

The pool and ?splash pond? for the kids looked nice, but with all the trips into DC we never got the chance to use them. The maintenance around  the park was a bit lax, and the grass was long and weedy. One of the regular complaints about the park was that the employees seemed a bit aloof.  That was especially true for the office staff.  I had to go into the office several times during the stay to pick up packages.  We always got the feeling that we were bothering them.  There is a small on site gym that we used one day. However the AC never came on, and the temps and humidity was a killer. It was a one time experience.

Our Verizon air card worked amazingly well here, but a cell tower was located right next to the park.  One downside to the park was that it is pretty noisy. There are freeways all around the park, and there must have been some construction going on nearby as well. Several times during the night we were awoken by a low rumbling noise that was similar to a low bass speaker.  It would continue for an hour at a time, stop and then restart randomly.  We never did locate the source of the noise.  The park itself is also not located in the best of neighborhoods, so for casual dinning or grocery stores you  needed to travel a ways. 

To get into DC we drove to College Park Metro station about 4 miles away. We bought a Metro Card that you flashed at the turnstiles to gain admittance to the trains. The system was pretty easy to figure out,  and it cost us between $3 and $4.50 one way to get to the Metro station that was closest to the ?Mall? area. From there we walked to Lincoln's Memorial, Washington's Memorial, and the American History Museum.  The crowds were not bad, and getting around the city was a breeze compared to NYC. On another day we drove the Jeep to the Pentagon Memorial, and Arlington National Cemetery.  All the sites are remarkable, and some quite moving.  DC is one place I could come back to again as even staying a week we just scratched the surface of the things to see and do.  Our next trip to visit DC we will search out a different place to stay. 

One thing I did get accomplished while here was I changed out the hydraulic pump motor on the rig.  After much searching to try to get my motor rebuilt, I soon learned that getting replacement brushes for a 12 volt, high amp motor is like finding hens teeth.  And I spent one whole day calling around the country talking to various rebuilder shops.  The copper triangle shaped brushes used in this motor make it an anomaly.  I finally found a distributor in Texas that stocked the motor.  Best part was that I purchased it for less than half of what Camping  World wanted  to sell me for.  I had it shipped to the RV park for just over $200.  Camping World  wanted $480 to have one drop shipped to me.  It's installed and all is happy in RV land again. 

Diane has just updated her blog, and has lots more details and  pics.
 

Attachments

  • Timberlane Campground.JPG
    Timberlane Campground.JPG
    158.2 KB · Views: 26
  • Cherry Hill RV site.JPG
    Cherry Hill RV site.JPG
    158.7 KB · Views: 25
  • Cherry Hill premium site.JPG
    Cherry Hill premium site.JPG
    163.9 KB · Views: 25
  • Lincoln Memorial.JPG
    Lincoln Memorial.JPG
    146.9 KB · Views: 17
  • Pentagon Memorial.JPG
    Pentagon Memorial.JPG
    156.7 KB · Views: 17
  • Pentagon 9-11 Memorial.JPG
    Pentagon 9-11 Memorial.JPG
    147 KB · Views: 18
  • Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.JPG
    Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.JPG
    155.4 KB · Views: 16
  • Changing of the Guard.JPG
    Changing of the Guard.JPG
    155.8 KB · Views: 17
Gettysburg/Battlefeild KOA
20 Knox Road
Gettysburg,  PA 17325
After leaving DC we headed back to PA to make another visit to Gettysburg.  We were here 6 years ago and enjoyed it then.  Plus this time we wanted to make the drive to the Flight 93 memorial to see the last of the 3 memorial sites from the 9/11 tragedy. 

We picked the KOA over the other campground in town because of stellar reviews.  Nope, fooled again.  I wouldn't say that this is a bad KOA, there was just nothing special about it.  When Diane had made the reservation a few months ago, she requested a deluxe patio site, and one that was not too heavily treed.  Well we didn't get either when we showed up.  It turns out that there are only 3 patio sites in the park, and all are long term seasonal people.  And there is no such thing as a “lightly treed” site in the park  either.  The whole park is kind of “tropical” looking with large trees blocking out the sun (and breeze) and foliage between most of the sites.  Kind of a good thing/bad thing kinda feature is that the whole park is heavily graveled, which keeps the dust down.  The bad part is that every car or person that passes by the rig sounds like they are going to drive right into the living room. 

Getting to the park is a bit dicey as Knox road is on a blind corner.  So making a left onto Knox road requires a great deal of attention to any traffic that may suddenly appear. This is especially true if you are turning with your slow moving RV (like me). 

Our deluxe site ($60.00 a night) was FHU and came with a new glider style rocking chair, and a fire pit (the 90 degree days insured that it was not going to be used).  Our Verizon air card struggled to get signal amongst the heavy trees, but it was still miles ahead of the free Wifi offered by the park.  In fact their campground brochure stated “the Wifi may not be reliable, but it is free”.  That usually means a small personal size router in  the office with a guest channel.  One positive of this park is due to it's location, the nights were dead quiet.  And with the heavy trees, pitch black at night.

The upper bathroom was handicapped accessible, but getting there through the gravel would have been a chore.  They do have the usual “family oriented” activities, but some were a little difficult to use. The “pedal cars” that rent for $5 for a half hour are usually pretty popular, but because most of the park is on a steep gravel incline, kids usually lost interest after pedaling once up that hill. 

Satellite was also impossible from anywhere in the park so we reverted to cable. Unfortunately the cable signal had most likely been split so many times that all the channels were fuzzy at best.

On the up side, the park is close to Gettysburg making many day trips easy.  We toured the battle fields, Soldiers Cemetery where Lincoln gave the Gettysburg Address, and one day made the 2+ hour drive to the Flight 93 memorial in the farm country of PA.  The memorial is very well done, and the visitors center, although  difficult at times because of the graphic reality of the event, is excellent. 

Like Washington DC, I would return to Gettysburg again as there is so much to do and see here. But  I think I would search out a different RV park,  as this one was overpriced for what you get. 

Diane has also updated her blog, and has even included an uncharacteristic “rant”.  I love it!
 

Attachments

  • RV Site.jpg
    RV Site.jpg
    52.4 KB · Views: 34
  • Diane, cute photographer!.jpg
    Diane, cute photographer!.jpg
    16.5 KB · Views: 37
  • The route of flight 93.JPG
    The route of flight 93.JPG
    136.7 KB · Views: 34
  • Bricks are set along the flight path.JPG
    Bricks are set along the flight path.JPG
    151.2 KB · Views: 32
  • The boulder marks the spot of the crash.JPG
    The boulder marks the spot of the crash.JPG
    150.1 KB · Views: 32
  • A sobering place.JPG
    A sobering place.JPG
    160.9 KB · Views: 31
  • Lincoln's Gettysburg Address memorial.JPG
    Lincoln's Gettysburg Address memorial.JPG
    150 KB · Views: 23
  • Many sacrificed without recognition.JPG
    Many sacrificed without recognition.JPG
    159.5 KB · Views: 28
Artillery Ridge RV Park is a couple of miles from downtown Gettysburg. One of the nicer PA parks at $30.00 per night during the week.
 
KOAs do not appear to even read the comment you put in the reservation system.
Our last stop was a KOA in Streetsboro, OH (Cleveland). I had requested a satellite view site (they had quite a few) in our online reservation made months ago, but the site they gave us did not have a satellite view. They said they had no other sites available for the 5 days that we were gong to be there and they were unwilling to take the trouble to "juggle" reservations even though they admitted they missed the comment. A camp ground worker even showed me the reservation info they got from KOA. He said they often don't see the comments because there at the bottom of the form, but it was clearly there and easy to read. I was told by the same worker that I need to call the campground if I have a specific request. So much for KOAs online system. Second bad experience with KOA this trip ( actually 2 for 2).
 
That seems to happen often enough that KOA corporate should be stepping up.  It seems to boil down to the competency  of the person reading the reservation request.  Some are really good, many are not.
 
WILDEBILL308 said:
Where are you headed next? What rout are you taking?
Bill

Currently, we are just north of Richmond, Virginia at Americamp.  Our next stop is unusual and I'd love to hear if any of you have stayed there before.  It is "The Colonies RV Park" in Fort Monroe, Virginia.  It appears that it used to be part of a military base - but is now open to the public.  There are only 13 sites....all named after the original 13 colonies.  I am watching the weather closely - especially the tropical storm working its way up the eastern coast - because this park (and the whole peninsula is rests on) is prone to flooding, according to their web site.  We don't arrive until early next week so hopefully by then the threat will have passed. 
 
Glad your continuing to enjoy the extended version of your Yellowstone trip.  Ours ended two weeks ago after 14 weeks on the road.  Today we're headed to the Jojoba Escapee park in Aguanga for a few days.  Grandsons Bday on Sunday and then back to the big city.   
 
SargeW said:
All good things must come to an end, unless you are retired!
Even retirement comes to an end. A very abrupt end. ???

I hope you are driving west Sarge. Right now is not a good time to be on the east coast. Hermine is coming your way.
 

Latest posts

Forum statistics

Threads
131,670
Posts
1,382,735
Members
137,455
Latest member
MtnRV
Back
Top Bottom