Fancy a LITTLE camping ???


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Bedford Motor Home,Yorkshire Sep 2012.The only way to go Camping.

First trip of the year - to Florida to thaw out! Took three days to get down here, but it is a lot easier that way when you are towing a house. First location in Florida is Bonita Springs for a week

Well, after getting the dog, we decided the old truck wasn't big enough for us, but that rather than buy a new one we would just look for a good deal - well, I found it at the local Dodge dealer! Sam

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Well, it looks like RVing is done for this year. Not too bad - since June we have stayed in it 42 nights, and put over 7,000 miles on the odometer! Campgrounds have varied from "O.K." to "Brilliant", but we have not had any we would call "bad" - and everywhere have had great service and met wonderful people!

Already lined up the next trip - I am off to Daytona Beach at the end of January to watch the Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona. I have "infield" camping for the race - which should be a lot of fun. Then, rather than come home to the snow, I'll be staying in Florida possibly until the end of March. Mary wants to camp at "Frontierland" at Disney for a weekend in the middle of Feb. so my thoughts are to find a resort near Sebring after that for a few weeks (more racing!). State Parks in FL are a bargain - and many have full hook-up facilities, so I may give them a try too.

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Still got at least 2 more sojourns to go this year.

I'm taking SWMBO and the kids down to see her 'bessie' mate in Milton Keynes for a couple of days over half term week, (She's not seen them since our wedding in 1999) we'll be staying in a Premier Inn as I recieved a promotion code to get a room for 4 of us + 4 "As much as you can eat breakfasts" for a total of £32.24 . You can't stay at home for that !!

We also get a bit sneaky at the breakfast table and purloin a muffin and a yoghurt each (for lunch !) Mind you I wouldn't say we're actually the last of the great larcenists as the full cost of the breakfast should be £36.00p on it's own !!

I'm then taking them out into the Cotswolds to get a bit of family history (My mum was born and bred there ) and we'll be visiting a lot of the old hidden villages where she was raised. (She was passed around a lot of relatives as her mother died whilst she was a toddler and her dad was 'called up' in the war) There's loads of history to pass on to my family round there, and I'm really looking forwards to it.

Then in November I'm over in Nott'm for a falconry course and a bit more aviation with Rog and my mate Alan.

I've managed to put over 5000 on to my mileometer since February with at least another 1000 to go !! (I've just been out to re check that figure and I'm rather perturbed by it !! (Way more than I've told the insurance people that I do in a year ....LOL) Going to have to alter that figure with them next year !

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But I bet you get a lot better than 9 miles per (US) gallon!

Although, in the end, the cost/mile for fuel is probably about the same! :blush:

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I get around 60 mpg on a good run (And I've got a lead foot!) and around 35mpg urban.

Diesel has just gone down to around £1.35 a litre which is = $8.03c per US gallon (I've just done all the conversions) at todays exchange rates !!

What's a gallon cost over there now ? (It was around 45/50 cents in 1994 (I can't remember how much it was last time I was over (2002)

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I think your memory is going bad - gas wasn't 50c here since about 1975! It was about 70 to 80c when I got here in 1978.

Right now it has come down a little - and is around $3.40 to $3.50/gallon. Not too bad - but the RV has a 50 gallon tank!

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We have plans for Sharm-el-Sheikh Egypt some time over the winter.

No RVs I am afraid. Hotel, 5 Star All Inclusive. :)

And I did see a QE2 Luxury All Inclusive Cruise to New York from Cunard that I would like to try.

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My mistake , obviously I meant around 50

pence a gallon

And as for the cruise Mick, make sure everything is included !

We went on one ages ago and it looked great till you realised the price of stuff you had to pay for! (£3.00 a pint and that was in 1996!!

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I have heard that complaint a lot regarding cruises. They try to get you to think it is "all inclusive" but typically alcohol is not included. On the US originated cruises, they give you a "charge card" when you embark to charge booze, etc. to your bill - but they do NOT tell you the price of the drink when you "charge" it. I know folks who ended up with a bar bill that was in excess of the cost of the cruise!

We prefer to go to an all inclusive resort in Jamaica (Couples Negril, since you ask). There everything IS included - and you can be kicked out for giving tips! They actually pride themselves in stocking "brand name" alcohol. However, the only beer they have is Red Stripe - but who wants that when Appleton Rum is available!

We like Couples resorts because they only allow "couples" - so there are no kids. The last thing Mary wants is to be lying on the beach only to have kids running up screaming "Mrs Marshall". Yes, it happens almost everywhere we go - including once in Heathrow Airport!

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Re the "50 gallon tank", one of the silliest selling points I ever saw when looking for a van was that by a bloke selling a suzuki supercarry who wrote on ebay "fill the tank for £25" (or whatever it cost at that time) what's that got to do with the price of fish! if he'd have said "does 300 mile to a tank full it would have said something?" Incidentally what are you guys paying for insurance? best quote I had for my fiesta is £104 a year fully comp, that's with £50 excess + £250 vol excess, do away with that,. no excess at all and it goes up only to £116, add another £15 and I get agreed valuation of £1300,

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2 cars & a Motorhome $2200 per year No tickets or accidents fully comp

Petrol creeping up again $3.78 gal

Just got through polishing the motorhome my arms are dropping off, 92 ft of waxon waxoff + all the bloody windows

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  • 3 months later...

Sorry to have been absent for so long - but I am on an extended road trip!

Left home on Jan 26th heading for Daytona - had infield camping for the Rolex 24hr race - which was amazing. Camped less than 100ft from the track and the noise was unbelievable, could not hold a conversation INSIDE the RV! Even so, slept well only waking up when there was a track yellow and the noise subsided! Walking pit lane at 4:30am was also impressive - watching the crews change four wheels, all the brake pads, driver and fill up with fuel in about five minutes!

Went Daytona to Disney World - camped at Fort Wilderness and Mary flew down to join me. Picked her up at the airport on the motorcycle - which got some funny looks from the traffic cops! Had a great weekend, temps in the 80's and not too full of tourists - except for the Magic Kingdom, which was heaving! One of the employees told us that Disney made $3 BILLION in profit in the last quarter, they had projected $2.8 billion - I thought there was a recession!

From Disney I came down to Sebring, FL and will be here till March. RV park has WiFi so I am typing this from the RV and should be able to be more active. Good to see the board is so active though!

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  • 3 months later...

Well, after owning the "Wendy Mansion" for a year, we have decided we like the RV lifestyle, but need to have a vehicle Mary can drive when we are at a campsite, So, we are moving up - just put a deposit on a 35ft Fifth Wheel trailer (Montana 3150RL to be specific) which we will tow with a brand new Dodge RAM 2500 with a Cummins Turbo Diesel engine (350HP, 800ft-lbs of torque)! I plan on adding a "swivel wheel" trailer so we can take a motorcycle along too!

Truck should be here by the end of May (had to order it - the diesels are hard to find, and more expensive used than new!) so look for a new rig photo then! Already have trips planned for the east coast and next winter in Florida!

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I just got back from 5 days in San Fran ,No power had to run the gen all the time =1/4 tank about 20 gals ,Still cheaper than $200 a night hotel room.

Went to start the generator sun morning battery dead ,So Eric watch the heater it sucks all the power at night when you have to turn the gen off for noise.

Lucky i had the jumpstart thingy in the car. Best things on the market $25 at walmart come already charged have them in all my things except for the Rv as that has 5 batteries, Didnt think i could flatten all that lot.

BTW Eric you made the right choice going with the Dodge , never had a prob with mine except for a $20 antilock brake sensor

At first you only get about 7 mpg when new after about 30,000 miles you start getting decent mileage.

The Fords are having Probs my mate has one.

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Ever since I worked for Volvo Truck, I have been a fan of Cummins engines - so the choice was pretty easy as only Dodge have them. With the new version, and a 4x2 truck, I am told I could get up to 20mpg around town with it unloaded! RVers with the same setup told me to expect between 11 and 15mpg towing the fifth wheel! That compares to the 6 to 8 mpg I get with the motor home! Pretty good!

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When i got mine i did end up taking it back the second day as it ate a tank of fuel in 170 milesI,They reprogramed the software in the puter & it was a little better but not by much, Then i was told you see the good mileage at around 100,000 ,

I have 84,000 now & its 10yrs old. I just put new rear tires on it today they were the one's it came with not worn out but starting to crack on the sidewalls.

I see the dealers are offering $20,000 off new trucks

Btw they have to be smogged now in Ca.

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  • 2 months later...

After a couple of months use, I am now easily getting 15mpg out of the new truck around town, and about 19mpg on a short distance run. I can get better than 20mpg on a long run! Towing the RV I am easily getting 11mpg and have seen as high as 12.5mpg - not bad when you are pulling this at over 11,000lbs!

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Dressed up for our "RV warming/Queens Jubilee Party" - which we held in our driveway - and it was a HUGE success!

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Could do that easy in me Austin 7, towin' the eccles 8ft cara'.........................................................

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