Recent Blog Articles

The most expensive birthday present ever!

Ashley Longnecker / July 21, 2015

After our stay near Rochester we wanted to slowly make our way to Albany/Saratoga Springs area to visit with some of Jonathan’s friends. We stopped in Bristol for a week so that Jon could get caught up on work after having some time off in order to get the RV worked on and visit with family.

We are all in love with up state New York. It was an absolutely breathtaking drive to Bristol Woodlands Campgrounds. With my birthday coming up in a couple days I just wanted to be somewhere pretty and near a town with something fun to do.

We pulled up to the camp ground, and the hosts were wonderful. There was a small problem with the site that we were supposed to have. The guy who was in our site decided to take off and leave his camper there in our spot even though he was supposed to have moved it that morning. So, they tried to accommodate us into a site meant for travel trailers, not large 5th wheels. After many sad attempts to back it in we were getting very frustrated with the whole situation. The truck was working real hard and acting up again then I saw it happen.

It began dumping transmission fluid all over the ground. Not just a little, it was a steady stream coming out. I told Jon we need to get the trailer in there or go somewhere else cause we are loosing a ton of fluid. After a few more attempts we decided to just drive back up the hill and take a moment to figure out what to do next. Only, the truck wouldn’t move. It wouldn’t budge in any gear. Craaapp! I just knew it, we blew our transmission. Ken, the manager, drove 20 minutes to the nearest automotive store to get us more transmission fluid thinking that would help. After pouring in several gallons we tried again to no avail. 

At this point, we had been here for 2 hours and still not in a spot, and now our truck wouldn’t move...we are stuck on a hill. I called a tow truck and they said they’d be out in about an hour and a half. The kids (and I) were HANGRY, I was so upset about the truck, and Jon was so frustrated with not being able to get into the spot we were supposed to have...THEN THE RAIN CAME! The manager could sense our frustration and invited us into the office and he went to buy the kids a pizza. Again, Ken the manager is awesome.

How could we forget Niagara?

Ashley Longnecker / July 21, 2015

We totally forgot to mention in our post about our stay in Rochester that we also drove to Niagara Falls one day! Although it is very touristy, it was definately on our list of places to visit. None of us had ever been there before so it was super fun to have that experience together. We were shocked that at the top of the falls - it was so quiet. The water just fell off with out a sound. It was almost creepy how quiet it was. We got our tickets for the Maid of the Mist and Cave of the Winds and were ready to get wet!

First up, Maid of the Mist. You're packed on a large boat with a bunch of people (not too croweded) and they take you to the bottom of the falls. Prepare to get a little wet! There was so much mist it was hard to get a good shot of it, plus I really just wanted to watch it and experience it with the kids. Sometimes you need to just experience things and not take pictures.

Hamlin Beach, More Air Conditioning and Fun with Family

Jonathan Longnecker / July 17, 2015

After our overnight at the Ferryboat place, it was onward and upward towards Rochester to get our second AC Unit installed. Since we only had a couple of days before we were scheduled at the RV shop we decided to try a State Park.

We love, love, love state parks, but they often don't have sewer hookups which kind of limits how long we can stay there. They can also be really hard to get a 38' rig in. In fact, it can be so hard that certain husbands may get really angry and just give up and pout. 

To be fair, there were a host of issues we ran into. The first one being that the parkway leading to Hamlin has about 5 or 6 bridges that were too short to fit our rig under. Thankfully we got through one of them in the center (it was an arched bridge), but then had to take the long way around. Also, they didn't have water hookups so we filled our fresh tank (too full apparently) only to have it spilling out on the road the whole time we were trying to back in. We had no idea what was going on so that was stressing us out.

At this point I was super frustrated, but Ashley kept a level head and found some seasoned travelers to help us out in the next loop over. Turns out one of them drove trucks for a living and I watched dumbfounded as he backed the dang thing into the spot his first try. I will confess, I felt like much less of a man at that moment.

THEN we realized that Beebop, our F350 had burped out a couple of quarts of transmission fluid from all the pushing and pulling. Turns out we must have pulled the emergency break on the trailer making a tight turn, causing the truck to work super hard, sparks to fly out the back of the RV and everything smelled like it was on fire. We didn't realize what was going on until a few minutes of that. Can't be good, right? We took it to a local Ford dealership the next day, and they said it had just gotten overheated had an emergency overflow. Everything else looked good for a 2002 engine with 220,000 miles, they said! Turns out they were idiots - but we'll get to that in a couple of posts.

I know it sounds like of hot drama so far at Hamlin Beach. And we were just getting into our spot. But thankfully, the park turned out to be the most beautiful place we'd ever seeen (so far).

Situated right on Lake Ontario, it was like a beach, a lake and a park all rolled into one. The weather was perfect, the sunsets were gorgeous and it had a great laid back vibe. Enough talking, let me show you.

The 2015 Tiny Shiny Home Travel Route

Jonathan Longnecker / July 14, 2015

Below you'll find a map showing our travel route in 2015. Click on a marker to get a link to any articles we've written about that area. We'll keep this post updated so you can follow along with us. Enjoy!

We tried Virginia...

Ashley Longnecker / July 13, 2015

After we left Camp Hatteras in the outer banks of North Carolina, we headed north to New Point RV Resort in a small town called New Point, Virginia. Once we were about 30 minutes away from the park we thought it was really weird that we weren’t seeing any other RVs coming or going. Are we going to the right place? Did we miss a turn? What could this mean?

Upon our arrival we quickly found out that this was a seasonal park meaning that there were a whole bunch of people who live here. Either just in the summer or they live here full time. There were so many RVs with decks built onto them, and additions added on to their trailers. It had a really weird vibe from the moment we got there. But hey, we’re right by the water with a great view...once you look past the other RVs.

We check in and they tell us where our site is and we drive there to find someone had set up camp in our spot! Okay, so.... We circled around and went back to the office to see if they had made a mistake and the lady in the office drove down to see what was going on. This old lady with her super old dad were supposed to be in the next site over but since someone had their truck parked in her spot she just decided to set up camp in our spot. Surely we aren't the only ones that found that super weird. She was a bit ticked off that the manager asked her to pack up and move over. She took her sweet time, too, mumbling something along the lines of "you can have my spot but....." Umm, this was our spot, thanks, lady.

So, once we got our space cleared it was more than a challenge to get backed into this tiny spot. This resort has people packed in like sardines. Seriously, they would unhook people’s trailers and use a tractor to get them in because there is no room for the truck to make the turn. Luckily the spot in front or ours was open so we were able to back right through that one and into ours. 

After getting set up we went for a walk out to the beach. We were right on the Chesapeake Bay. It was beautiful...from afar. Upon walking down to the beach to check it out, I managed to pick up a whole handful of freshly broken clear glass that our kids easily could have stepped on. The water was covered in sea weed and the beach had trash and cigarette butts everywhere and was so dirty. We never went back after that.  At least they have a pool... We’ll make the most of it.