Michigan to Florida, need campground ideas

[r8ingbull]

So we made reservations for Fort Wilderness at Disney for February 1-13. Looking for suggestions on campgrounds on the way or other places to stop in Florida.

First day we will be stopping somewhere south of Indianapolis but north of Louisville.

Second night we are going to try for somewhere south of atlanta, but would like to get as close as possible to the Florida line

Traveling with a jayco 165rb towed by dodge grand caravan....three kids under 4 ( they have made the drive down many times, but never towing a trailer).

Any tips or tricks would be great as well. I just installed a prodigy rf brake controller and will have a wdh before this trip.

[nbhybrid]

I would think you would have to be WELL south of Indianapolis to find a campground open in January

I would just pick a hotel for the first couple of nights. 4 hour drive with a normal car so you can add an hour towing. 5 hours just to get to Indy. Long drive with 4 kids dragging a camper

[r8ingbull]

We are seriously considering a hotel stay the first night.

We usually drive to Florida, stopping for a night in Chattanooga, tn...but figure with the camper I better give it an extra day.

I have to work until 3:00pm so I can get a good 5-6 hours in, spend th night somewhere around Indy and make day two a lot shorter.

[Grumpy]

Not too far South of Atlanta there is Atlanta South CG, further South of Atlanta we use Fair Harbor in Perry exit 135 and also Cordele KOA, exit 97. If you get to the FL/GA line there is a Camping World/Good Sam CG at exit 5 as well as Eagle's Roost.

See you at the FORT we should be in the 400 loop..

[r8ingbull]

Leaving in two weeks for a disney trip, no camper though. We are planning to spend a day at the fort and pick out a loop and type of site. Any suggestions would be great

[nbhybrid]

Originally Posted by r8ingbull

We are seriously considering a hotel stay the first night.

We usually drive to Florida, stopping for a night in Chattanooga, tn...but figure with the camper I better give it an extra day.

I have to work until 3:00pm so I can get a good 5-6 hours in, spend th night somewhere around Indy and make day two a lot shorter.

5-6hours is a long time towing ,plus adding the 2-3 times you will stop for fuel. There may be some campgrounds open but with temps that could get below freezing you are going to have to keep your trailer winterized so it wouldn't be usable anyway. I would definitely stay in a hotel.

plus don't forget to take all of your winterizing gear(antifreeze esp) with you as you will need to do it before you come back.


Good luck...you have better kids than me...lol

[Grumpy]

Depends on whether you want to be close to the pool or the Settlement and the marina. With your size unit you can definitely get by with full hook-up 1600-1900 which would put you close to the pool. And you would also fit with no problem in 100-200 (preferred) close to the Marina and Trails End resturant and the Settlement trading post. Getting 100 or 200 this late may be a long shot though. Full hook-up and Preffered are nice size concrete pad as well as a coquina pad (sand) Now the premium sites would give you an all concrete pad, but those are more expensive. In Premium the closest to the pool would be 1400 followed by 900 and 1000 and closest to the Marina would be 400 & 700.

Also check out www.fortfiends.net lots of good info and you will get questions answered by those who have been going to the FORT even longer than we have.

[r8ingbull]

Good point on the winterizing kit. It's our first camper so I am not sure yet what that entails. I will get it figured out when I winterized this fall. Make sure I take a full set of whatever.

The kids are good, they have been making long car trips since they were newborns so they can handle it. Last June we took an eight week old new born, 12 month old daughter, 11 month old son and 2 year old daughter all down to disney. They did great in the car. First day we made it to Forsyth, ga.

[r8ingbull]

Originally Posted by Grumpy

Depends on whether you want to be close to the pool or the Settlement and the marina. With your size unit you can definitely get by with full hook-up 1600-1900 which would put you close to the pool. And you would also fit with no problem in 100-200 (preferred) close to the Marina and Trails End resturant and the Settlement trading post. Getting 100 or 200 this late may be a long shot though. Full hook-up and Preffered are nice size concrete pad as well as a coquina pad (sand) Now the premium sites would give you an all concrete pad, but those are more expensive. In Premium the closest to the pool would be 1400 followed by 900 and 1000 and closest to the Marina would be 400 & 700.

Also check out www.fortfiends.net lots of good info and you will get questions answered by those who have been going to the FORT even longer than we have.

Have been studying the map of the fort, right now we are even considering a tent site. We don't use the camper toilet, but grey water will be an issue without full hookups. Definitely pool over parks people, probably won't even go to a park on this trip. I think we will pay close attention to the sites in 1600-1900 when we are there in a few weeks

[Grumpy]

Not sure if they will let you in tent sites, depends on who is at the gate. If you do go tent definitely don't ask for 2000 too far from the pool and party city on weekends.

[nbhybrid]

With only a 15 gallon gray tank, full hook ups would be necessary I think. You would be full in a day or two.

[r8ingbull]

The reservations agents seem to think the camper is fine in the tent sites. Have you heard of people being turned away? Wouldn't be worth the risk to me. The full hookup sites are only 25$ a night more...

[Grumpy]

It has happend, but on rare occasion.

The only problem will be is getting into 1500 as that is one of the smallest (number of sites) loops and this year a large group reserved the entire loop over Valentine's Day weekend. Also if you don't already know this, there are no dump stations or grey water disposal sites, everything has to be carried into the comfort station. If you don't mind the extra charge I would definitely go for 1600-1900 with heavy request on 1600-1700 & 1800.

[Plowtoy]

Sounds like a fun trip to me, but I will say it sounds too scary to me to tow the camper on snow and ice covered roads the first 1/3 of the trip...

[OnTheGo]

We usually stop at the state's Welcome Centers on the interstate and get brochures and advice from the reps when we don't know the area we're going to. It's worked really well for us. Almost all CGs, state, national, or private are listed in their hand-out material. The 15 minutes it takes to get directions has saved us much more time at the end of the day.

[Livinglife2]

We drove from Kansas to Florida this summer going to Disney. We stopped at Forsyth GA at the koa along the interstate pretty east to get into and the site was a pull through by the bath house in the back. http://m.koa.com/campgrounds/forsyth/ from there it was a pretty easy drive to fort wilderness. We stayed in the 400 loop. We were close enough to the marina that we just walked but if we would have been in the middle we would of rented a golf cart to get to the marina every day. Like said earlier no dump station so that could be a problem if staying a week or so. there are three bus routes just in the campground so plan on riding or doing lots of walking to get anywhere or rent a golf cart but for the cost of a cart you could upgrade to a nicer site close to what you want to do. I would bring ponchos for the whole family other wise Disney makes a killing off of you and pay close attention at the gas pumps for credit Card skimmers around Disney and Orlando. Huge problem in that area and Aholes like to live off of the tourist.

[r8ingbull]

Originally Posted by Plowtoy

Sounds like a fun trip to me, but I will say it sounds too scary to me to tow the camper on snow and ice covered roads the first 1/3 of the trip...

We have a plan (I hope) for this. We can leave anytime we want as my work is super flexible in September and January/February. So we can watch the weather and slip out between storms, or even pull over wherever/whenever and get a room to wait a storm out. We have driven to disney atleast twenty times in the winter so I am very comfortable with that...just never taken the camper so I am fully willing to pull over and see out a storm.

Last march we hit a nasty storm in Indianapolis, but we were in the Tahoe with 4x4 so we just slowed down to 20mph and got through it. No interest in doing that with a camper in tow

If the weather looks really bad we will take the truck or Tahoe, but we greatly prefer the minivan when possible. Better mileage and much more comfortable ride.

[r8ingbull]

Originally Posted by Livinglife2

We drove from Kansas to Florida this summer going to Disney. We stopped at Forsyth GA at the koa along the interstate pretty east to get into and the site was a pull through by the bath house in the back. http://m.koa.com/campgrounds/forsyth/ from there it was a pretty easy drive to fort wilderness. We stayed in the 400 loop. We were close enough to the marina that we just walked but if we would have been in the middle we would of rented a golf cart to get to the marina every day. Like said earlier no dump station so that could be a problem if staying a week or so. there are three bus routes just in the campground so plan on riding or doing lots of walking to get anywhere or rent a golf cart but for the cost of a cart you could upgrade to a nicer site close to what you want to do. I would bring ponchos for the whole family other wise Disney makes a killing off of you and pay close attention at the gas pumps for credit Card skimmers around Disney and Orlando. Huge problem in that area and Aholes like to live off of the tourist.

You also have to watch the pump prices too, a few stations near disney and one out by the airport are famous for not having a sign and charging $7 gallon.

After this weekend, we decided to book a full hook-up or higher, we don't have the tank capacity even for just washing dishes. Golf carts sound fun, right now I am leaning towards taking the bikes though. We go often enough that we take every chance we can to save a few dollars and the golf cart seem like a luxury. I wish I could get one for just a day, but one day at disney prices is like a week with an outside vendor...

[Plowtoy]

Originally Posted by r8ingbull

We have a plan (I hope) for this. We can leave anytime we want as my work is super flexible in September and January/February. So we can watch the weather and slip out between storms, or even pull over wherever/whenever and get a room to wait a storm out. We have driven to disney atleast twenty times in the winter so I am very comfortable with that...just never taken the camper so I am fully willing to pull over and see out a storm.

Last march we hit a nasty storm in Indianapolis, but we were in the Tahoe with 4x4 so we just slowed down to 20mph and got through it. No interest in doing that with a camper in tow

If the weather looks really bad we will take the truck or Tahoe, but we greatly prefer the minivan when possible. Better mileage and much more comfortable ride.

Sounds like you have some options. I'd really think twice about the minivan, unless it is an AWD. Maybe I'm just a chicken, but towing with a front wheel drive, and the weight of the camper, just makes be think of jack knifing on the snow and ice. All that extra weight behind you pushing you into a stop and not being able to "power out of it" because the drive wheels have no additional weight over them, just seems like a bad idea to me. The Tahoe sounds nice, but who can afford to put gas in one of those all the way to Disney. Sorry to go off topic...

[r8ingbull]

Originally Posted by Plowtoy

Sounds like you have some options. I'd really think twice about the minivan, unless it is an AWD. Maybe I'm just a chicken, but towing with a front wheel drive, and the weight of the camper, just makes be think of jack knifing on the snow and ice. All that extra weight behind you pushing you into a stop and not being able to "power out of it" because the drive wheels have no additional weight over them, just seems like a bad idea to me. The Tahoe sounds nice, but who can afford to put gas in one of those all the way to Disney. Sorry to go off topic...

The minivan handles the camper really well. We will be adding a Reese dual cam this fall to go with the prodigy rf brake controller.

We also own a 2004 gmc 2500hd, 2008 jeep liberty and the 2011 Tahoe and grand caravans. The grand caravan really just "feels" better than the truck or Tahoe and the jeep is almost scary to tow with (lift/tires). We haven't been in the snow wih it yet, but rain doesn't seem to have any effect.

We have made a bunch of two hour and one four hour tows, but I really wish I had time to do a full day tow before we head out. Unfortunately the camper will be winterized in about six weeks and then we will dig it out of a snow bank right before we leave

We drove through Hamilton on our way home from holland state park yesterday...beautiful area over there.