A Re-cap of our summer RV road trips up and down the east coast!
If you didn’t know, my family of four has had a travel trailer for about 5 years now. We both have careers that allow us to sneak off on summer RV road trip adventures both long and short all year long! This year though has by far been our busiest and most adventurous. Check out a re-cap of our summer RV road trip travels. And let me know what we missed, or where we should go next summer! We’re always looking for new places to explore in our travel trailer.
RV Trip to Otter Lake, PA. The utter failure of a kickoff trip!
Sometimes things don’t go as planned… Our first adventure of the season was a little escape to Otter Lake Campground in PA for Spring Break/Easter time. I’ll just say that we won’t be doing that again! I didn’t even take one picture, not one!
The campground was fine, and I’m sure it’s great for the summer or fall, but man, early spring was not a good time! We FROZE our butts off. And of course, as is the norm with a travel trailer, things are often needing to be fixed/replaced. Turns out our propane regulator was broken/malfunctioning which was sending too much propane to our appliances! NOT GOOD! Of course it being an Easter getaway, nothing was open to be able to get a new part either.
We did not want to catch the whole dang camper on fire with us in it ( my literal worst nightmare) so, we used our heated blankets the night we arrived, and headed right on back home Easter morning!
I am actually happy this happened on that trip though as our next trip was the BIG one! We were off to Disney just a couple month later, and that would have been awful fixing that during that trip! All was well just a few days later with a new part and a handy man for a husband.
RV Road trip to Disney and Universal – could make a whole blog post on this… maybe I will eventually.
The big Disney and Universal Trip… this one was a LONG time coming and kind of a long story. I’ll give you the cliff notes version to spare you.
In 2018 we planned a 2020 trip to Disney with my husbands whole entire family. After months of planning, we decided to tell the kids as a surprise on Christmas morning that we were going to Disney and Universal that next summer… yes, summer 2020. I’m sure you can guess how that all worked out. Cancelled. Along with everything else. Fast forward to 2021, a new Disney and universal trip was planned with some help from Bonnie at Vacations in Sunshine ( thanks Bonnie!) just the four of us this time.
We didn’t fill the kids in though because with the always changing guidelines/travel restrictions/park closures, we were not about to disappoint a second time. We were driving all the way from New Jersey to Florida, with a stop in South Carolina. So we kept the secret, and told the kids we were headed to Hilton Head and Charleston SC.
All went smoothly… with just a few minor slip ups along the way. Dave definitely blurted out ” We should be at Fort Wilderness by 1:00 tomorrow” on the way down. Thank God my kids pay no attention to us when we’re in the car. They’re professional road trippers by this point.
Here’s how it went when we finally arrived in SC at 9pm after a 14 hour drive day.
We spent 9 days at the Fort Wilderness Campground. 3 days at the Disney parks and 5 days at Universal.
Long Beach Island – Sea Pirate Campground
The annual Jersey Shore trip is always a good one! Nice and close to home, and I always take a few sunrise sessions on while I’m down there! I love sessions on the beach! We stay at SeaPirate Campground, a 15 minutes drive onto the island, and usually head on down to Beach Haven near Bay Village. It’s our favorite part of the island! This year the water was ICE, so we hung out on the sand and had an incredible dinner at Parker’s Garage of course! I set an alarm on my phone to make the reservation right when they open 6 weeks out. Scored a perfect bayside table with a view of the sunset! and the food… omg, to die for! Highly recommend.
RV Camping in the White Mountain National Forest, New Hampshire
Our second summer RV road trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire did not disappoint! We went up to the Glen Ellis Jellystone Park with our awesome neighbors and had a blast together! Exploring the area, rented RZRs, tubed down the river, and hiked the many trails! if you like crystal clear lakes, rivers, waterfalls, and huge stunning mountain ranges this spot is a must see for sure!
A MUST stop if you’re a micro brew beer lover. Their pizzas are amazing too.
Our last summer rv road trip of the year will be the 6th annual trip to the Lazy River Jellystone Park in Gardiner NY. We’ve gone every year that we’ve had the camper as a final close to home trip. They do Halloween weekends where the kids get to dress up and trick or treat, make lots of s’mores and sit out by the crackling fire with some friends, beers and chilli. A favorite by far!
Where to Next year? Maine, Tennessee, Finger lakes? Gardiner of course! Where else? I’d love to hear your ideas and favorite spots to visit!
xx, Ashley
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the list
