Thousand Trails Peace River

We stayed at Thousand Trails Peace River in Wauchula, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

We had some concerns about staying here, based on reviews, but were pleasantly surprised.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-03-02
Check out: 2025-03-09
7 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny, a little rain
High temps 68-82°F, lows 43-63°F
A little wind, gusts to 25 MPH

Noise:

Negligible road noise
No train horn noise
A little neighbor noise

Site:

#C50, back-in, grass
Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
Very level site, surprisingly; used hydraulic leveling
Grass site about 55 feet long by 40 feet wide
Just grass between sites
Picnic table
Fire pit
Tall trees
Somewhat clean site; a bottle and a few other bits of trash (TT doesn’t clean sites)
Elevation 40 feet, front facing North

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
45 PSI water, conveniently located
No sewer connection; pump-out service available (one free per week, $15 for extra)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 10-26 Mbps down, 11-16 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
T-Mobile: 290 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
AT&T: 435 Mbps down, 15 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters
Pool
River

Our review on Campground Reviews is forthcoming.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site, in the non-sewer section; more spacious and quieter than the sewer section:

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

A squirrel on our picnic table:

Squirrel

Towards the end of our stay the waste tanks were getting a little full:

Full waste tanks

We wanted to empty them for our travel day anyway, so we went to the office to schedule the free honeywagon pumpout; they gave us this sign to put in our window:

Honeywagon sign

The pumpout truck; quick and easy:

Waste pump

Aerial views of our site:

Aerial view of our site

And the campground; you can see the more tightly packed sewer sites closer to the road, and much more spacious non-sewer sites closer to the river:

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of bridge

Office:

Office

Playground:

Playground

Pool:

Pool

Courts:

Courts

Walking path by the river:

Walking path by river

Bridge, river, kayak:

Bridge, river, kayak

Kayak on the river:

Kayak on the river

There are a couple of dump stations, but on the wrong side of the road for non-sewer sites to use when leaving, weirdly (without looping around):

Dump station

Cabins:

Cabins

Other sites:

Other sites

As I said, we were pleasantly surprised. We’d be happy to stay here again.

Travel from Clermont to Wauchula, Florida

We drove our coach 68 miles, about 1.5 hours of driving, from Clermont to Wauchula, Florida.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south (though we actually took the route closer to Lakeland):

Route map

An interactive map, showing our actual route:

Pulling out of our site:

Pulling out of our site

Line to leave TTO:

Line to leave TTO

A gate ranger collecting site tags:

Ranger collecting site tags

Can only turn right out of TTO, so we needed to do a U-turn to head south; we’d done it before, so know it’s easy for us:

Preparing to do U-turn

Another RV doing the U-turn:

Another RV doing the U-turn

Us doing the U-turn; doesn’t look like it here, but there was heaps of room, didn’t even need to go into the bike lane:

Us doing the U-turn; easy

Passing an accident:

Accident

I-4 West:

I-4 West

Route 570 toll road:

Route 570 toll road

Route 98 South:

Route 98 South

Turn:

Turn

17 / 98 South:

17 / 98 South

Paladin on the dash:

Paladin on the dash

An interesting building in Bowling Green:

An interesting building in Bowling Green

Arriving at Thousnd Trails Peace River:

Arriving at Thousnd Trails Peace River

Check in line:

Check in line

Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort

We stayed at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in Clermont, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A fourth visit to TTO, the flagship Thousand Trails park. The second of two stays here this year, totaling five weeks, separated by a week in the Disney bubble.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-02-16
Check out: 2025-03-02
14 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny, a few rainy days
High temps 62-82°F, lows 38-61°F
Occasional wind, gusts to 31 MPH

Noise:

A little road noise
No train horn noise
Little neighbor noise
Distant fireworks from Disney most evenings

Site:

#6 Hurricane Road, back-in, concrete
Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
A little unlevel site; a little high on passenger side and front; used hydraulic leveling
Concrete driveway about 60 feet long by 12 feet wide
18 feet to neighbor on passenger side (a mobile home)
35 feet to neighbor on driver side
Just grass between sites
Picnic table on 22 by 10 feet concrete patio
Some shrubs
A bunch of small trash on site
Elevation 120 feet, front facing West

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
40 PSI water, conveniently located
Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 135-165 Mbps down, 16-20 Mbps up, 25 ms ping
T-Mobile: 50-67 Mbps down, 4 Mbps up, 20 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
AT&T: 26-49 Mbps down, 3-11 Mbps up, 75 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters only in a central location
Package delivery to office, for $5 per package (we got a local mailbox)
Pools

See our previous stays here for our review on Campground Reviews.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

Birds and other sites:

Birds

Bird

Other sites

We still enjoy TTO, and will no doubt stay here again next time we’re in Orlando, whenever that may be.

Travel from Disney World to Clermont, Florida

We drove our coach just 26 miles, about half an hour of driving (plus killing a little time at a Love’s truck stop), from Disney World to Clermont, Florida.

It’s a little awkward, as check out time from Fort Wilderness is 11:00, and check in at TTO is noon (very strictly enforced), but the drive time between the two is only about half an hour. We considered waiting for a bit in the overflow area at Fort Wilderness, but it was full. We also considered going to a rest area to kill some time, but we noticed a Love’s truck stop on the way, and figured we could spend some time there. Love’s doesn’t usually have parking that works for us, but what with a long time to get through the intersection and a few minutes at the pump, it used up enough time.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading west:

Map

An interactive map:

Toading up on the way out of the campground:

Toading up

Leaving Disney World (how sad):

Leaving Disney World

Exit to I-4 East:

Exit to I-4 East

Disney-shaped power pylon:

Disney-shaped power pylon

Love’s truck stop:

Love's

Joining the very long line to enter TTO; this was at 12:07 on a Sunday:

Joining line to enter TTO

Almost to the entrance, at 12:18:

Almost to the entrance

Finally on the entrance road, at 12:20:

Entrance road

We knew it’d take a long time to get in, so I made some lunch while we inched forward:

Making lunch in the line

Paladin on the dash:

Paladin on the dash

Welcome:

Welcome

Almost to the entrance gate, at 12:54:

Entrance gate

But wait, there’s more: joining the line to get a site, at 12:56:

Line to get a site

People watching the line:

People watching the line

Almost to the front of the line, at 13:22; I waited in the truck after we untoaded:

Almost to the front of the line

Getting guided to our site, at 13:36:

Getting guided to our site

So yeah, arriving shortly after noon on a Sunday, finally getting to our site an hour and a half later. One day we’ll learn and arrive mid-week, when it isn’t so busy, though we prefer to travel on weekends to avoid impacting Jenn’s work.

Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground

We stayed at Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground within Walt Disney World, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A magical campground within the Disney World bubble.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-02-09
Check out: 2025-02-16
7 nights

Weather:

Partly cloudy
High temps 79-87°F, lows 59-66°F
Little wind, gusts to 20 MPH, but sheltered

Noise:

A little road noise (including bus on main road)
No train horn noise
A little neighbor noise (kids)
Fireworks most nights

Site:

#555, back-in, concrete
Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
Level site; used hydraulic leveling
Concrete driveway about 55 feet long by 25 feet wide
30 feet to neighbors on both sides
Trees between sites
Picnic table
Fire pit
Tall trees
Clean site
Elevation 100 feet, front facing West

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
75 PSI water, conveniently located
Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (2 2-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

T-Mobile: 230-300 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 15-35 ms ping
AT&T: 155 Mbps down, 32-55 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
Starlink: not used
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Pools
Garbage bin near site
Golf cart rental
Boats and buses to Disney World parks

See our previous stay here for our review on Campground Reviews.

Campground map:

Map

Another map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site, with our rental golf cart out front:

Our site

Not quite as long as the site we had last time, but there was room to hang off the back of the pad:

Our site

Convenient utilities:

Utilities

We rented a golf cart, and decorated it a bit to be festive, and to be able to identify it in golf parking lots:

Golf cart

Solar-rechargeable lights at night:

Golf cart

Other nearby sites in our loop:

Other sites

A squirrel trying to get into a box left on a neighbor site:

Squirrel

Horse-drawn carriage ride:

Horse-drawn carriage

A bus stop near our loop, that we used to pick up our golf cart:

Bus stop near our loop

We could have used the shuttle bus to get from one end of the campground to the other instead of getting a golf cart, but the cart was more convenient:

Shuttle bus

Playground over the road from our site; not as annoying as the basketball court we had next to us last time:

Playground over the road from our site

Golf cart parking:

Golf cart parking

Meadow Swimmin’ Pool:

Meadow Swimmin' Pool

Meadow Snack Bar near the pool:

Meadow Snack Bar

Meadow Trading Post:

Meadow Trading Post

Definitely the best place to stay when visiting Disney World.

Travel from Clermont to Disney World, Florida

We drove our coach just 48 miles, about one hour of driving, from Clermont to Disney World, Florida.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading in a deliberately long route, to kill time before check-in time:

Route

An interactive map:

Checking out of TTO; unusual to need to check out, but at TTO one needs to hand in the site number tags:

Checking out

Leaving TTO:

Leaving TTO

Clermont water tower:

Clermont water tower

An idiot driving with a flat tire, practically falling off:

Driving with a flat tire

Going through a toll plaza, entering Florida’s Turnpike:

Toll plaza

Florida’s Turnpike:

Florida's Turnpike

We stopped at Turkey Lake Service Plaza for lunch, and to kill some time:

Turkey Lake Service Plaza

KFC for lunch:

KFC for lunch

A trailer staging area in the service plaza, which we could have used if the truck/RV parking was full:

Trailer staging area

Toll plaza when leaving the turnpike:

Toll plaza

Exit to Disney:

Exit to Disney

Entering Walt Disney World:

Entering Walt Disney World

Exit to Fort Wilderness:

Exit to Fort Wilderness

Passing by Magic Kingdom parking:

Passing by Magic Kingdom parking

Entering Fort Wilderness:

Entering Fort Wilderness

Fort Wilderness security gate:

Fort Wilderness security gate

Fort Wilderness Reception Outpost:

Fort Wilderness Reception Outpost

Unhitching area, where we untoaded:

Unhitching area

Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort

We stayed at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in Clermont, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A third visit to TTO, the flagship Thousand Trails park. Actually the first of two stays here this year, totaling five weeks, separated by a week in the Disney bubble.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-01-19
Check out: 2025-02-09
21 nights

Weather:

Mostly sunny, a few rainy days
High temps 45-80°F, lows 36-61°F
Occasional wind, gusts to 31 MPH

Noise:

A little road noise
No train horn noise
Little neighbor noise
Gas golf carts going by (on the route for maintenance workers)
Distant fireworks from Disney most evenings

Site:

#49 Hurricane Road, back-in, concrete
Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
A little unlevel site; a little high on driver side and rear; used hydraulic leveling
Concrete driveway about 55 feet long by 12 feet wide
25 feet to neighbors on both sides
Just grass between sites
Picnic table on 25 by 10 feet concrete patio
No trees, one shrub
A bunch of small trash on site
Elevation 120 feet, front facing South

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
40 PSI water, conveniently located
Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 140-180 Mbps down, 12-25 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
T-Mobile: 25-30 Mbps down, 7 Mbps up, 35 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 20 ms ping
AT&T: 0.7-38 Mbps down, 0.3-11 Mbps up, 60-180 ms ping
Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters only in a central location
Package delivery to office, for $5 per package (we got a local mailbox)
Pools

See our previous stays here for our review on Campground Reviews.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

After setting up our griddle and furniture:

Our site

Utilities:

Utilities

Aerial view of our site:

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of a long line checking in, shortly after noon:

Aerial view of long line checking in

Aerial view of campground

The new section; nicely paved sites, but don’t you dare even think about putting anything on the scraggly grass:

Aerial view of campground

A line of RVs snaking around the parking lot and road by the tennis courts, waiting to be guided to a site:

Aerial view of campground

Another view of the entry road:

Aerial view of campground

Above our loop:

Aerial view of campground

TTO is very strict about only allowing checking in after noon. They don’t even let you line up on their entry road before then. So some people wait for noon on the highway turn lane, which risks getting ticketed by cops:

Waiting to check in

Check in line:

Check in line

Line to be assigned a site:

Check in line

Other sites:

Other sites

Most sites are back-in, but there are some pull-through buddy sites (that we’d avoid like the plague):

Other sites

Main intersection:

Main intersection

Pool:

Pool

Game courts:

Game courts

Group fire pit and benches:

Group fire pit and benches

Lake:

Lake

“Alligators and snakes in this area”:

Alligators and snakes in this area

Pond and birds:

Pond and birds

More birds roaming the campground:

Birds

Lizard:

Lizard

A nice thing about TTO is there is a Publix grocery store and pretty good Chinese food nearby:

Chinese food

And a Japanese restaurant:

Japanese food

Plus Chick-fil-A and pretty much any other fast food you might want within about 10 minutes drive:

Chick-fil-A drivethru

Back to TTO soon!

Travel from Dunnellon to Clermont, Florida

We drove our coach 77 miles, only about 1.5 hours of driving, from Dunnellon, Florida to Clermont, Florida.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:

Route map

An interactive map:

After exiting our (very nice) site and looping around, we passed our site on the way to the check in area to toad up:

Passing our site

Exiting the campground:

Exiting park

A fuel stop:

Fuel stop

Filling the DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid):

Filling DEF

“Welcome to Florida’s Turnpike, The Less Stressway”:

Welcome to Florida's Turnpike, The Less Stressway

Toll plaza when exiting the turnpike:

Toll plaza

Arriving at Thousand Trails Orlando:

Thousand Trails Orlando

“Welcome to Thousand Trails Orlando; We Are Family”:

Welcome to Thousand Trails Orlando; We Are Family

A long line to get sites:

Line to get sites

At TTO people go to a parking lot then are guided to a site; you can request an area that you like, and are shown to that section, and can ask for a different site if you don’t like it. Kinda a hybrid between the usual Thousand Trails approach of first-come-first-served, where you roam around and find a vacant site, and the more typical assigned sites approach of other RV parks. Though Thousand Trails is moving to an assigned sites approach.

A bunch of RVs waiting to be guided to a site; this is where motorhomes untoad, too:

Waiting for a site

Guided to our site:

Guided to our site

Rainbow Springs State Park

We stayed at Rainbow Springs State Park in Dunnellon, Florida. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A very nice state park campground.

Dates:

Check in: 2025-01-12
Check out: 2025-01-19
7 nights

Weather:

Partly sunny, some rain
High temps 57-68°F, lows 38-48°F
Little wind, gusts to 21 MPH, sheltered amongst trees

Noise:

No road noise
Occasional distant train horn noise
Little neighbor noise

Site:

#9, back-in, gravel
Needed to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
Somewhat level site; high on passenger side; used hydraulic leveling
Gravel driveway about 75 feet long by 15 feet wide
40 feet to neighbors on both sides
Thick trees and bushes between sites, nicely private
Picnic table
Fire pit and charcoal grill
Tall trees
Clean site
Elevation 50 feet, front facing SW

Utilities:

50 amp power, conveniently located
40 PSI water, conveniently located
Unthreaded sewer connection, conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

Starlink: 50-140 Mbps down, 15 Mps up, 30-40 ms ping
Verizon: 5 Mbps down, 5-10 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
AT&T: 1-4 Mbps down, 0.01-1 Mbps up, 86 ms ping
T-Mobile: 5 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 750 ms ping, unreliable
Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

Garbage dumpsters

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Beautiful state park

We enjoyed our stay here and wish we could’ve stayed longer. The sites were spacious and private, with good hookups. It was quiet most of the week, with just some noise from the weekend crowd. You do have to drive a bit to get to the Rainbow Springs headwaters area, but it’s worth checking out. The river access at the campground is nice enough on its own, with kayak rentals at the main store/ranger station. We camped at Rainbow Springs State Park in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: If you’re new to Florida and looking for manatees, this is not one of those springs. It is an easy daytrip down to Crystal Springs, however, where we saw tons of manatees….

Campground map:

Rainbow Springs

An interactive map:

Our nicely secluded site:

Our site

Can’t see any other sites from the living area of the site, though there is a path behind the sites that occasionally has a walker or bike:

Our site

Utilities:

Our site

Other sites:

Other sites

Bathrooms, with a washer & dryer just out there:

Bathrooms, and washer & dryer just out there

RV check in area:

RV check in area

Basic camp store in the building with the check-in office:

Office and camp store

Camp store

Picnic shelter:

Picnic shelter

A very moss-draped tree:

Tree

The Rainbow River:

River

Rental kayaks:

Kayaks

We’d be very happy to stay here again, and for longer.

Travel from Carrabelle to Dunnellon, Florida

We drove our coach 203 miles, about four hours of driving, from Carrabelle to Dunnellon, Florida.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading southeast:

Route

An interactive map, with potential stops marked (we actually only stopped once, at Rocky’s 98):

Toading up at Ho-Hum RV Park; we miss that view:

Toading up at Ho-Hum RV Park

Why does their bear sign look like a polar bear?

Goodbye Gulf Coast:

Goodbye Gulf Coast

Lunch stop at Rocky’s 98 gas station:

Rocky's

They had convenient big-rig-sized parking:

Convenient parking

A kitchen with various food options:

Food options

We just grabbed some super-healthy stuff for lunch (and fudge for dessert later):

Lunch

Paladin on the dash:

Paladin on the dash

Turning right in Perry:

Turning right in Perry

Paladin was feeling very snuggly on this trip:

Snuggly Paladin

“Follow That Dream Parkway”:

Follow That Dream Parkway

Arriving at Rainbow Springs State Park; we had to wait for several minutes for another RV blocking the entrance, presumably because they didn’t have the gate code; this park is unusual in that you need a code to get in even before checking in, which they provide via email beforehand:

Rainbow Springs State Park

Check in parking:

Check in parking

Office:

Office

Our site:

Our site

Sinclair Trails

The travels of David and Jennifer Sinclair, full-timing in their Tiffin Allegro Bus 40SP motorhome.

map

Thousand Trails Peace River

Travel from Clermont to Wauchula, Florida

Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort

Travel from Disney World to Clermont, Florida

Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground

Travel from Clermont to Disney World, Florida

Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort

Travel from Dunnellon to Clermont, Florida

Rainbow Springs State Park

Travel from Carrabelle to Dunnellon, Florida