2020 a brief review

Robin and I have been talking about creating a blog for months and with the calendar turning to 2021 it seems like the right time to get it started.  

We took possession of our brand new 2020 Apex Ultra Lite 293RLDS on March 28, 2020 from Bob Ledford's Adventure Motorhomes, Greer, SC (thank you to our OUTSTANDING salesperson, Kathy Flowers).  Since then we have put 3,127 miles on the trailer.

Our trips to date have been (I may expand on some of these in later posts):

May 2020- Lake Wateree State Park, SC (shakedown trip)  I learned on this trip to pay close attention to not only the road but also the TREES!  I came within six inches of brushing our new camper up against a small oak tree in the campground.

June 2020- Cliffs of the Neuse State Park, NC.  Robin and I learned a valuable NC State Park lesson.  They LOCK the gates at night and DO NOT give you the combination and do not open them until the next morning.  I won't go into details but suffice it to say we got some late night walking done that night and I had an early morning walk the next morning to retrieve the truck.  The park is very small and isolated.  We only chose to stay there because of the proximity to New Bern, NC (where Robin and I lived right after we got married).

July 2020- Hungry Mother State Park, Va.  I was a little concerned about towing the trailer up I-77 in Va (Fancy Gap) but I must say, the Tundra did great!  Hungry Mother is a nice park (we were in the old commercial campground) but the sites were a little cramped.  Tolerable though.

August 2020- Fall Creek Falls State Park, Tn (longest distance trip so far, 380 miles).  I had fun driving the trailer along a two lane twisty mountain road for the first time.  25-30mph max and a lot of time in third gear but we made it with no problems.  We stumbled on a much easier route to get home though (Hwy 111).  Fall Creek Falls is supposed to be one of the best Tn state parks but we we not overly impressed.

October 2020- Mistletoe State Park, Ga.  Nice park and fairly close to home for us.  Right on Clarks Hill Lake.  

November 2020- Lake Wateree again.  We really like the campground (old one, not the new one with full hookups) at Lake Wateree.  It's a half hour drive from the house to the campground and it's a really nice, quiet getaway if we just want a couple of nights in the trailer.

November 2020- Roan Mountain State Park, Tn.  Really liked this park (so much so we'll spend the weekend after Thanksgiving there again next year!).  We learned that there are some pretty long, steep grades on I-26 between Asheville, NC and Unicoi, Va.  Again, we took our time and the Tundra handled it like a champ.  This will always be remembered as the "Did you bring tomatoes?" trip.  We had planned to make chili that first night.  Talked about it and went shopping for everything we'd need.  Somehow I completely forgot about needing tomatoes.  Luckily we were saved by a (read this as THE) local grocery store.  Apart from that one hiccup, the trip was wonderful.  We even had some reception with the portable Dish system so that was a bonus!

December 2020- Calhoun Falls State Park, SC.  LOVE this park!  I will say that some of the sites are a little bit funky though.  Our trailer has the fixed steps that fold down from inside the door frame.  Because of the "curb" around our site we had to jockey the trailer a bit in order to make sure that our slides (both sides) and the steps would all fit between the water spigot, power hook-up and curb.  We liked this park so much we immediately booked a return trip for March 2021.  With the leaves having fallen from most of the trees we were able to get our Dish to work this trip as well.

  We have had no significant issues with the trailer which is, from what I have read on FB, a blessing.  Here are the minor issues we have had:

First trip-small leak (drip really) at back of toilet, one bad overhead light in the bedroom & leaking LP regulator.  All issues were very quickly fixed by our dealer.

Roan Mountain Trip our hood fan above the stove died.  I decided to replace this myself.  It cost me $15 on Amazon and twenty minutes of time.  While I could have gotten it fixed under warranty, it would have cost more in fuel to haul it there and back than it cost to do it myself.  The day I replaced the fan the light in the hood died.  A couple of dollars to Amazon for an LED bulb and everything is fine. 

Apart from those minor issues the camper has been wonderful!

Here are our NON- Camper trips for 2020 (some I will write more about in other posts):

March 2020- Tent Camping Edisto Beach State Park, SC

June 2020- Tent Camping Smokemont Campground, Great Smoky Mountains National Park

September 2020- Deep Creek Campground, Great Smoky Mountains National Park  Robin's favorite tent camping spot!

September 2020- Stonewall Resort State Park, WV

October 2020- Shenandoah National Park (Skyland Resort).  Robin and I love Shenandoah.  This was our second time staying at Skyland but only because we had never been to Big Meadows Lodge.  If we ever stay in a lodge at Shenandoah again, it will be Big Meadows.  We hope to haul the camper up to Shenandoah for a week long trip next fall but we can't try to make reservations before April (they have a six month window).