Next phase of camping

[toomanytents]

We took our own advice (an unusual move for most people, right?) and made a decision when the timing and the decision was up to us instead of as a reaction to some unforeseen catastrophe.

Getting in and out of our trailer and my truck was getting harder for DW and getting down on my knees was getting harder for me, so we sold the trailer and the truck this month.  I bought an SUV for me one size larger than DW's.  Next phase is using the "deluxe" cabins & yurts - those with kitchen & bathrooms inside.  We have everything we need from tent->popup->travel trailer supplies, it just needed sorting & repacking and getting rid of extra stuff.  Turns out you can store one and a half truckloads of stuff in all the great storage we had in the trailer!  Two of us don't need three kitchen's worth of pots & pans and place settings for 12 either.

So our first camping trip of the next phase is in two weeks!   And I'll still be here and checking in on PUX.

[GoneCamping]

When I gave up the house to live FT in the 5th wheel, I had to get rid of almost everything I owned. It was tough, sold some stuff, gave away a bunch of other stuff, and trashed a great deal of still useful stuff, plus took anything made of metal to recycle company for the price of scrap.

I have 2 plates, 2 plastic drink glasses, 2 coffee cups etc. Scaled everything down to almost nothing. My biggest draw back in all this is my tools, I just couldn't part with them. I carry around an awful lot duplicate tools and some stuff I should just do away with. I've been at this 4 years and only used my compound miter saw twice, so I'm thinking I need to sell that off too.

[4Campers]

Well Dave, the wife and I have been talking about that too. The last 2 years have not been good health wise for me. Not sure if we can handle that old pup anymore.
Full timing will never happen for us, as much as that was our dream almost 40 years ago. If I had to sell all my tools now that would probably make a nice down payment on a cabin, LOL.

[toomanytents]

We've got several trips planned with "deluxe" cabins & yurts at state and county parks.  "Deluxe" means it has a bathroom and sort-of-kitchen inside.  State park definition of a kitchen is a sink, microwave and small fridge.  That should be good enough - we have a toaster & coffee maker of our own.  We'll see how it all goes and I'll let you know.  We don't want to give up camping, just make it easier.  Like you, I don't think full timing is ever in the cards for us.

[GoneCamping]

If you're going to do a lot of cabin/yurt camping, you might want to at least look at the Thousand Trails Cabin Pass. It could make cabins affordable. I've never used their cabins, but I've had to do maintenance on them over the years, most are very nice Park Model campers.

https://thousandtrails.com/cabinpass

[4Campers]

May have to look into the TT Cabin Pass. Some of the state parks around us have let the cabins deteriorate to the point they taken many down. This is going to be a new experience searching for cabins.

[GoneCamping]

I don't know if you remember "TrailBlazer" from earlier times (here and PUX), but he's got an upgraded Thousand Trails VIP pass, and comes down to Florida every winter. We keep in touch, usually stay on the same street at TTO. Our memberships differ a little, I can only get 14 night stays during "High Use Restriction" period, his VIP allows him 21 nights, so our itineraries differ. I'm at TTO right now, he'll probably be back here on Tuesday. We did "Meat Bingo" together with him & his wife a week ago, I had to come down from another campground for that.

[toomanytents]

I've looked at Thousand Trails online.  There are two of their campsites semi-nearby but I have not gone to look in person yet.

We stayed in a state park "deluxe yurt" (round tent with vertical walls).  It was about 24 ft diameter with kitchen and bathroom.  Overall it worked out well.  Campground volunteers were super helpful.  Only problem was in logistics.... the person in charge of loading (that would be me) intentionally left a storage bin at home after looking in the top and seeing the pots & pans.  Since you could not cook in the yurt (microwave only or grill outside), I left that container at home.  Bad move!  Under the pots & pans was the coffee maker.

Before the next trip, we'll do some repacking of containers!