RV

Posts featuring the coach.

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

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

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

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

Our site

Our site

Our site

After setting up our griddle and furniture:

Our site

Our site

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 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

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of campground

Aerial view of campground

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

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

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

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

Birds

Birds

Birds

Birds

Lizard:

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

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

Polished and replaced exhaust tips

While in Red Bay wet got Steve Brooks, aka School Bus Steve to do a few repairs for us. He’s so-named as he uses an old school bus for his mobile RV service:

School Bus Steve

One minor fix was to polish the exhaust tips of our generator and Aqua-Hot system.

He was able to polish the generator exhaust nicely:

Generator exhaust tip

But the Aqua-Hot one was beyond hope (see it on the ground), so he replaced it:

Aqua-Hot exhaust tip

Much nicer!

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

Our 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

Our site

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

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

Camp store

Picnic shelter:

Picnic shelter

A very moss-draped tree:

Tree

The Rainbow River:

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?

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

Snuggly Paladin

Snuggly Paladin

Snuggly Paladin

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

Custom desk tweaks

While in Red Bay we got Cody Poores of Cody’s Custom Cabinets to do a few tweaks to the custom desk he previously built for us.

As a reminder, here’s the pull-out desktop he originally built. It was fine, but had a few things that bothered me:

Old desktop

Firstly, the front edge was flush with the cabinet below, making it harder to open, which also meant that when it was extended the desk chair would have to be on the edge of the carpet. Secondly, the ends of the sliders were exposed, which was untidy. Thirdly, the piece of Corian next to the desktop didn’t match the height of the others:

Old desktop

And lastly, the desktop was sloped towards the back:

Old desktop

He removed the old desktop and side piece, and had new ones made:

Removed desktop

The new desktop addresses all of those issues — it extends four inches in front of the cabinet, so is easier to pull out and the chair doesn’t have to go onto the slide carpet; it has a wider front to hide the slides, it isn’t angled, and it has a lip on the back to prevent things falling into the monitor lift area:

New desktop

Plus the piece to the right of the desktop now also matches better:

New desktop

The desk in use, with the monitor raised:

Desk

Much nicer.