West vs East

[pricerj]

Just got back to Huntington Beach , CA after a 3 week 6400 mile cross country trip. My kids ages 12 & 10 needed to see Washington DC & I knew that if I waited any longer the drive cross country & back would fall outside of their patience level. They were old enough to understand the trip & young enough to put up with it.

We headed east on the southern route (Interstate 40). A night in Kingman, AZ at 90 degrees was just fine with the fans blowing. Night two found us in Santa Rosa, NM, still hot but fans worked great.

Things got different in Arkansas. Just as we crossed the border in Fort Smith (exit 5) we looked at the Overland RV park - basically a concrete parking lot for RV's adjacent to the freeway. We nixed that and travelled back to exit 3 for another campground we spotted as we drove by. Beautiful, under trees, next to a river.... but all the pop-ups (and rv's) except for ours had this humming box on their roofs.  Hot - 89 degrees but this new thing - humidiity. Fans didn't work so well.

Next stop was the old Little River campground in the Smokies. I found it through this site. The altitude cooled things off pretty good but we were still the only pop-up without AC. Bearable temps made us stay two days.

Then we entered hell. Gorgeous city campground in Newport News, VA. We were taking the kids to colonial Williamsburg. 98 degrees, 94% humidity at 730 at night. Even though the campsites were great, no one was there. Even AC (which we didnt have) wasn't strong enough for this. I was the moron from California with a pissed off wife & 2 miserable kids who was looking around at an empty fully treed area hoping that I wasnt in the Blair Witch's back yard.  "hey", I said, "they build aircraft carriers here". So we drove around looking for them, not knowing where, in the blissful airconditionining of our car.

After Newport News, Pohick Bay (also from this site - best campground of our trip) was hot, humid but bearable. A thunderstorm and a cooling trend mad our main thrust of the trip okay. We were still the only ac-less pop-up in the campground.

Time to head west, Columbus, Ohio, La Crosse, WI then Custer State Park in South Dakota. Hot, yes but that humidity thing seems to have gone away. Not only that we are at altitude. Another thing - several pop-ups without that funny box on their roof.  

Bottom line - great trip but I have learned that the age old expression (that I used to dismiss) "its a dry heat" is not only real it is paramount. From now on I plan to keep this pop-up on this side of the continental divide. Where the humidity & bug populations are low, low , low.

PS - though the focus of this post was heat & humidity, the things we saw on this trip were fabulous.

[wavery]

Just got back to Huntington Beach , CA after a 3 week 6400 mile cross country trip. My kids ages 12 & 10 needed to see Washington DC & I knew that if I waited any longer the drive cross country & back would fall outside of their patience level. They were old enough to understand the trip & young enough to put up with it.

We headed east on the southern route (Interstate 40). A night in Kingman, AZ at 90 degrees was just fine with the fans blowing. Night two found us in Santa Rosa, NM, still hot but fans worked great.

Things got different in Arkansas. Just as we crossed the border in Fort Smith (exit 5) we looked at the Overland RV park - basically a concrete parking lot for RV's adjacent to the freeway. We nixed that and travelled back to exit 3 for another campground we spotted as we drove by. Beautiful, under trees, next to a river.... but all the pop-ups (and rv's) except for ours had this humming box on their roofs.  Hot - 89 degrees but this new thing - humidiity. Fans didn't work so well.

Next stop was the old Little River campground in the Smokies. I found it through this site. The altitude cooled things off pretty good but we were still the only pop-up without AC. Bearable temps made us stay two days.

Then we entered hell. Gorgeous city campground in Newport News, VA. We were taking the kids to colonial Williamsburg. 98 degrees, 94% humidity at 730 at night. Even though the campsites were great, no one was there. Even AC (which we didnt have) wasn't strong enough for this. I was the moron from California with a pissed off wife & 2 miserable kids who was looking around at an empty fully treed area hoping that I wasnt in the Blair Witch's back yard.  "hey", I said, "they build aircraft carriers here". So we drove around looking for them, not knowing where, in the blissful airconditionining of our car.

After Newport News, Pohick Bay (also from this site - best campground of our trip) was hot, humid but bearable. A thunderstorm and a cooling trend mad our main thrust of the trip okay. We were still the only ac-less pop-up in the campground.

Time to head west, Columbus, Ohio, La Crosse, WI then Custer State Park in South Dakota. Hot, yes but that humidity thing seems to have gone away. Not only that we are at altitude. Another thing - several pop-ups without that funny box on their roof.  

Bottom line - great trip but I have learned that the age old expression (that I used to dismiss) "its a dry heat" is not only real it is paramount. From now on I plan to keep this pop-up on this side of the continental divide. Where the humidity & bug populations are low, low , low.

PS - though the focus of this post was heat & humidity, the things we saw on this trip were fabulous.

Welcome home....and thanks for sharing your adventure with us. You've got a couple of pretty lucky kids there.


They say, "The only way to truly appreciate living in SoCal is to go visit somewhere else..." :sombraro:

[magnmike]

What a great story!  I was laughing very hard.  You should write a book of your adventures as you have a great presentation style.

Being from the Deep South (Birmingham, AL) sounds like we need to head west on our travels.  We do have the funny humming box on top and it does make a world of difference (if you are sitting inside the camper).

We camped last weekend in 100 temp with 100% humidity.  Miserable if you didn't have air moving outside.  We're thinking about finding only camgrounds in middle of summer that come with a pool of some sort!  Or just head to the beach where your expected to be hot.

[PattieAM]

You made it - congratulations......

Here in the humid eastern states, very few of us are able to fully enjoy a campground without the use of air conditioners.  Pools/lakes are almost like bathtubs, and while enjoyable, not very refreshing in the heat/humidity of an east coast summer.

Although AC was a requirement when I bought my PUP, I sometimes have to help it out by spraying the roof, bunk ends, canvas with campground water which is cooler than the air and will drop the interior temps 5-10 degrees instantly.

Glad you had an enjoyable trip - and created memories for your children.