Travel from Sugarloaf Key to Ohio Key, Florida

We drove our coach just 19 miles, less than half an hour of driving, from Sugarloaf Key, Florida to Ohio Key, Florida.

This was a late change, to avoid bad weather; we decided it was better to do most of the drive a couple of days earlier, then just a very short drive on the bad weather day. As a bonus, we got to experience another RV park in the Keys.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading back up the Overseas Highway in the Keys:

Route map

An interactive map:

A map showing the storm; the worst of it was past by the time we left:

Weather map

Departing:

Departing

Toading up outside the resort — which we did out of habit, though it occurred to us after we’d done so that we didn’t really need to for such a short journey. But it doesn’t take us long, so doesn’t matter:

Toading

An Overseas Highway bridge:

Bridge

Pelican:

Pelican

Another bridge:

Bridge

An old decaying bridge, slowly falling apart:

Old decaying bridge

Old decaying bridge

Old decaying bridge

Arriving at our destination:

Our destination

Arrival area, where I untoaded while Jenn checked in:

Arrival area

Heading to our site:

Heading to our site

Pulling in to our site:

Pulling in to our site

Travel from Clermont to Homestead, Florida

We drove our coach 289 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Thousand Trails Orlando in Clermont, Florida to Everglades National Park in Homestead, Florida.

Here’s a map showing our route, heading south along Florida’s Turnpike:

Route map

An interactive map, showing potential stops:

Leaving TTO:

Leaving TTO

Toll plaza:

Toll plaza

Sinclair Road:

Sinclair Road

Toll plaza:

Toll plaza

Entering the Florida’s Turnpike toll freeway:

Florida's Turnpike

Service plaza rest stop:

Service plaza

Our coach in traffic cams:

Our coach in traffic cam

Our coach in traffic cam

Our coach in traffic cam

Service plaza lunch stop:

Service plaza

Service plaza

Earl of Sandwich; it was a very nice sandwich:

Earl of Sandwich

Earl of Sandwich

Earl of Sandwich

We bought and activated a Sun Pass toll transponder for our truck:

Sun Pass

Another traffic cam shot:

Traffic cam

Florida’s Turnpike:

Florida's Turnpark

Fuel stop, alongside another Tiffin Allegro Bus (slightly newer):

Fuel stop

Fuel stop

Fuel stop

Hard Rock guitar building:

Hard Rock guitar building

End of the turnpike:

End of the turnpark

Entering Everglades National Park:

Everglades National Park

The entrance station, with a lot of traffic (other times we went through only had one or two cars):

Everglades National Park entrance

The ranger in the booth loved seeing Paladin on the dash:

Everglades National Park entrance

The turn to the Long Pine Key campground:

Long Pine Key

Campground entrance:

Long Pine Key entrance

Our site:

Our site

Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort

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

TTO (as it’s commonly called) is the flagship Thousand Trails park, with over a thousand sites.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2024-01-07
  • Check out: 2024-01-21
  • 14 nights

Weather:

  • Mostly cloudy, some rain, mostly drizzle
  • High temps ranging between 63-80°F, lows around 35-65°F
  • A little wind, gusts to 38 MPH

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train noise
  • Some neighbor noise, dogs and kids
  • Distant fireworks from Disney some evenings

Site:

  • #178, back in, asphalt
  • Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
  • Rather unlevel, high on right and front; used hydraulic leveling
  • Asphalt driveway about 50 feet long by about 18 feet wide
  • Passenger side to next site’s driveway about 10 feet
  • Driver side to next site’s driveway about 20 feet
  • No picnic table (but apparently available upon request)
  • No fire pit
  • Steep drop-off next to rear of site
  • Mostly clean site

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, very inconveniently located; needed to use my extension cord
  • 75 PSI water, inconveniently located
  • Loose sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • Starlink: 47 Mbps down, 6-14 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
  • T-Mobile: 24-30 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
  • AT&T: 1 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 80 ms ping
  • Verizon: 2 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
  • Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

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

Our review on Campground Reviews:

The flagship Thousand Trails park

It’s good to know what’s what before showing up at TTO. Half the park is older, with rundown pads and a kind of state park feel, and half the park is newer, like a perfectly manicured RV resort. And if you’re used to the usual Thousand Trails “first come first served” rigamarole, you might be confused by how they do things here. I prefer the orderly check-in process with the rangers knowing what sites are available and guiding you to what’s there. This place is so huge, that you’d be crawling the lanes for hours before finding one on your own. I hate having to find a place at other TT parks. Our site was on the “older” side of the park, backed up to some trees, which was nice. There was a bit of a drop-off at the end of our pad, but it was long enough for our 40′ coach, and we were able to park our truck on the grass alongside it. It was kind of downhill in a hollow, so cell reception was not great but Starlink was just fine. We camped at Thousand Trails Orlando RV Resort in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

Map

An interactive map:

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

A rather steep drop-off:

Our site

I needed to use my power extension cord for the first time ever (other than at Mom’s):

Power extension cord

I had fun tossing a ball for this very good boy whenever I went to top up our water tank or dump our waste tanks:

Dog

The nearby bathrooms were closed the entire time, but they had portapotties for the few people who needed them (and I did use one once, as we sanitized our fresh water tank while here):

Bathrooms

There were a few big storms that rolled through; here are a couple of screenshots of one (with a potential tornado southwest of us!):

Storm screenshot

Storm screenshot

Big checkers board:

Big checkers board

Rec center:

Rec center

Rec center

Mail info; they charge $5 per package, and suggest alternatives:

Mail info

Group fire pit:

Group fire pit

Mini golf:

Mini golf

Pickleball courts:

Pickleball courts

Boat launch:

Boat launch

Hibiscus flower:

Flower

Tortoise:

Tortoise

Grasshopper:

Grasshopper

A large crane-like bird:

Bird

There were several that roamed the grounds:

Birds

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Bathrooms

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

One section has buddy sites:

Buddy sites

A massive campground. We’ve already been back again since this, and no doubt will be back more times in the future.

Travel from Carrabelle to Clermont, Florida

We drove our coach 263 miles, about 5 hours of driving, from Carrabelle, Florida to Clermont, Florida. Our first travel day of 2024.

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

Map route

An interactive map, with possible stops:

We pulled our coach out to toad up:

Toading up

Bye beach:

Bye beach

Look out birds; you can come back to your tasty roadkill after we go by:

Birds

Birds

We stopped in front of a gas station for lunch:

Stop in front of gas station

Stop in front of gas station

Stop in front of gas station

Gas station lunch; not ideal, but not bad:

Lunch

Joining I-75:

I-75

A traffic cam, showing our coach:

Traffic cam

A rest area stop:

Rest area

Joining Florida’s Turnpike toll road:

Florida's Turnpike

The Villages:

The Villages

“Florida’s Turnpike, The Less Stressway” (maybe if they improved the road surface a bit):

Florida's Turnpike

Another traffic cam:

Traffic cam

Toll at the exit; our Freedom Pass transponder worked:

Toll at exit

Toll at exit

Toll at exit

Citrus Tower:

Citrus Tower

Arriving at our destination, Thousand Trails Orlando:

Thousand Trails Orlando

Thousand Trails Orlando

Thousand Trails Orlando

Normally in Thousand Trails parks you roam around to pick your own site, but TTO is different; they have people guide you to a site. We were directed to this parking lot to await a guide:

Thousand Trails Orlando

Guided to site:

Guided to site

Arriving at our site:

Site

Not ideal, but nice to not have anyone behind us:

Site

Mt Hood Village RV & Camping Resort, again

We stayed at Mt Hood RV & Camping Resort in Welches, Oregon. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our second visit to this nice Thousand Trails Encore park; we stayed here last year in late July.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2023-06-30
  • Check out: 2023-07-09
  • 9 nights

Weather:

  • Sunny
  • High temps ranging between 74-90°F, lows around 50-61°F
  • No significant wind

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train noise
  • Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

  • Hemlock Meadows #97, back in, gravel
  • Needed to disconnect toad; parked beside coach (on gravel)
  • Unlevel; used blocks on the front jacks
  • Fairly large site: gravel about 50 feet long by about 22 feet wide, plus about 20 feet wide weedy bark area
  • Picnic table and fire pit on gravel

Utilities:

  • 50 amp power, conveniently located
  • 55 PSI water, conveniently located
  • Good sewer connection, a little inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • Starlink: 22-83 Mbps down, 5-11 Mbps up, 35-110 ms ping
  • T-Mobile: 11 Mbps down, 0.5 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
  • Verizon: 10-13 Mbps down, 5-8 Mbps up, 150 ms ping
  • AT&T: 6-8 Mbps down, 6 Mbps up, 90 ms ping
  • Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

  • Garbage dumpsters
  • Closed indoor pool
  • Onsite restaurant

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Excellent campground near Mt Hood

This was our second stay here, and still really love it. We were originally assigned a site in the Vine Maple Loop that would have been too small for us, so we asked if there were any open sites in the Hemlock Meadows section, which is a more open area with bigger sites. The helpful staff member at the front gate gave us a couple of choices and told us to let her know which one we picked. Seeing as it was the weekend of the 4th of July, we were so relieved that there was availability. We picked site 97, which was on a corner and gave us a large living area backing onto trees, with a good view of the sky for the Starlink. On a side note: We had dinner at the Dragonfly Cafe, which has really good food, but they seemed to be having some massive staffing issues. It took nearly 2 hours from ordering to checkout, and I’m pretty sure the one and only waitress walked off the job while we were eating as the one and only cook had to act as cashier. We never went back, fearing a repeat, which is a shame because I’d been dreaming of their eggs benedict for the past year. We camped at Mt Hood Village RV Resort in a Motorhome.

The campground map:

Map

Interactive map:

Our site was nice and spacious, and we made use of our new flagpole for the Starlink dish (and you may notice something different about our truck; more on that on Monday):

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Steak and potato salad, watching a Mariners baseball game on the outside TV from the tent:

Steam, potato salad, watching TV

Our site

Our site

Our site

 

Our site

Unlike normal Thousand Trails parks, Encore ones assign sites. We had originally been assigned a different site, but asked when checking in if they had other options, since we thought this wouldn’t fit us; they agreed it wouldn’t be a good fit.

Looking at it later (the left one in the following picture), we were definitely right to change; it was narrow and very sloped:

Original site

Original site

The main plaza area, with the (closed) indoor pool, rec center, offices, and cafe:

Plaza

We enjoy when there’s an onsite restaurant; this campground has the Dragonfly Cafe:

Dragonfly Cafe

Dragonfly Cafe

Dragonfly Cafe

Dragonfly Cafe menu

Dragonfly Cafe menu

Dragonfly Cafe menu

We went there for dinner on our first evening (always nice not having to cook on a travel day). Which was a rather drama-filled experience; we waited over an hour for our food, then the server walked out partway through, and the cook had to come out and accept payment from us and others. It was tasty, though; burger for me:

Dragonfly Cafe food

Prime rib for Jenn:

Dragonfly Cafe food

Laundry:

Laundry

Other sites in the Hemlock Meadows loop:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

See our previous visit for lots more pictures of other loops.

We enjoyed our stay here, and would definitely stay again in the future.

Travel from Buxton to Welches, Oregon

We drove our coach 77 miles, about two hours of driving, from Buxton, Oregon to Welches, Oregon.

This is the start of our eastern migration, as we head from the west coast toward the east coast, ending the year in Florida.

Here’s the map route, heading east:

Route

Interactive map (no stops):

We drove our coach and truck separately to the welcome center, as a convenient place to toad up:

Connected truck to coach

Toaded up

Leaving the state park:

Leaving state park

Roadworks, replacing a bridge:

Roadworks

Heavy traffic near the Vista Ridge tunnel, as usual:

Heavy traffic

Traffic map

Freeway tunnel

Freeway tunnel

Freeway tunnel

A bike and pedestrian bridge over the Willamette River:

Bike and pedestrian bridge over Willamette River

Jenn driving, with a glimpse of downtown Portland beyond:

Jenn driving with Portland beyond

Portland downtown:

Portland downtown

Overpasses:

Overpasses

Freeway with the convention center towers in the background:

Freeway with convention center in the background

Bridge:

Bridge

MAX light rail station:

MAX light rail station

A water tower and a glimpse of Mt Hood:

Water tower and glimpse of Mt Hood

A plane coming in for a landing, and Mt Hood:

Plane and Mt Hood

We took NE 238th Drive, which used to be unsuitable for RVs and trucks, but was widened a few years ago:

NE 238th Drive

Some somewhat close trees:

Trees

Our RV GPS kept warning of 40 foot length limits, which no longer applied since the road was improved. It’s a nice feature when up-to-date, though:

40 foot length limit message

Totally fine, though:

NE 238th Drive

Turning on to Burnside Road (with some roadworks; good thing we didn’t want to go straight):

Turning on to Burnside Road

US-26 highway:

US-26 highway

US-26 highway

Downtown Sandy:

Downtown Sandy

Our homestead was somewhat near Sandy (25 minutes away, but it was where we went shopping). But we never made it to the rather distinctive Joes Donut Shop:

Joes Donut Shop

Mt Hood Pet Resort was where we took our dog for playtime and boarding, often grabbing a coffee at Mountain Moka Cafe next door:

Mt Hood Pet Resort and Mountain Moka Cafe

Interesting structure:

Interesting structure

A glimpse of Mt Hood:

Glimpse of Mt Hood

Glimpse of Mt Hood

Glimpse of Mt Hood

Motorcycles:

Motorcycles

Our destination, Mt Hood Village:

Mt Hood Village

Mt Hood Village

Driving to our site:

Driving to our site

Our site before parking:

Our site before parking

Our site before parking

Our site before parking

When we get into a site, we are always careful when opening cupboards and the fridge for the first time, as things can shift. On this occasion, our fridge was rather full, and an expensive bottle of bubbly, some juice, and some food fell down; if we had just pulled the fridge door open without being careful, they would have smashed on the floor, and we would have been very sad:

Fallen items in fridge

Thousand Trails Oceana RV & Camping Resort

We stayed at Thousand Trails Oceana RV & Camping Resort in Ocean City, Washington. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Another Thousand Trails park, with a path to the beach. Quite nice, other than only being 30 amp and no sewer.

Dates:

  • Check in: 2023-06-04
  • Check out: 2023-06-11
  • 7 nights

Weather:

  • Partly cloudy
  • High temps ranging between 58-66°F, lows around 47-53°F
  • 37 gusts on first day, less on subsequent days

Noise:

  • No road noise
  • No train noise
  • Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

  • #C31, back in, gravel
  • Needed to disconnect toad; parked next to coach
  • A little unlevel, but not too bad
  • Medium site: about 50 feet long by about 40 feet wide
  • Picnic table on gravel
  • Tall trees
  • (This site is planned for a cabin, but they haven’t installed it yet)

Utilities:

  • Only 30 amp power, somewhat conveniently located
  • 40 PSI water, very inconveniently located
  • No sewer

Internet (in usage priority order):

  • T-Mobile: 5-7 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up, 50 ms ping
  • AT&T: 9 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 30-130 ms ping
  • Verizon: 6 Mbps down, 1 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
  • Starlink: not used
  • Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

  • Dumpsters
  • No pool
  • Path to beach

Our review on Campground Reviews:

30A, no sewer, still loved it

Thousand Trails parks are a study in compromise. We could have had a 30A FHU site at the front of the park by the main road but opted for a larger site without sewer, away from the noise. There are minimal 50A sites, and they were all taken; they also have no sewer. So we watched our power consumption and our tank levels while still thoroughly enjoying our location. The staff were all very friendly and helpful, but the pathway to the beach absolutely made this park a favorite. The mosquitoes do get a bit ravenous, so make sure to pack your repellent. We camped at Thousand Trails Oceana RV Campground in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: There are several units of Olympic National Park nearby that make for excellent day trips. Be prepared for a gnarly wait if you go to Hoh Rainforest.

Interactive map (zoom out a bit to see how close it is to the beach):

Campground map; the three circled sites were apparently the only 50 amp ones:

Map

Our site:

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

Our site

The water tap wasn’t very close; technically in a tent site that isn’t on the map:

Water

Only 30 amp power available:

30 amp power

So I used a “dogbone” plug adapter to connect our 50 amp surge protector and cord:

Power

The power, water softener, and water filter:

Power and water

Entrance:

Entrance

Dump station:

Dump station

Other sites:

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Other sites

Long-term sites:

Long-term sites

Tent sites:

Tent sites

Bridge:

Bridge

Bridge

Bridge

Games:

Games

Playground:

Playground

Path to the beach:

Path to the beach

Path to the beach

Path to the beach

Path to the beach