Our last stop was a bit of a diversion to southern New Hampshire to visit friends that resulted in a serendipitous rendezvous – but now it was time to get back on our intended course of exploring the White Mountains.
It was consistently a top recommended spot to check out while in the area, and we felt we just shouldn’t miss it.
But first, we had some basic RVer chores to take care of before we could go play.
This post covers August 17 – 21.
Sleeping at the Dump Station
It had been since we left Melbourne, Florida in May that we last had full hook-ups. Amazing!
Our new fresh & waste tank setup is really serving us well for hopping between dry camping, driveway surfing and state park stays. We can solidly go 3-4 weeks in-between dumping our waste tanks, and only needing to refill the fresh water about every two weeks. Without much water conservation at all.
I gotta say, even though we didn’t plan the tank upgrade last summer during our renovations, it has proven to be one SWEET setup.
(For those who don’t memorize our tank stats – we had 120 grey, 70 black and 112 fresh installed. For those of you who do memorize our tanks stats.. might I suggest a new hobby? 🙂 )
We typically just visit the dump station on our way in or out of a campground that offers them, and head on our merry way.
Every other dump or so, we like to do a thorough tank flushing to make sure all the ‘stuff’ keeps moving along. We had Tornado Rotary Tank Rinsers installed in the new tanks to help with the task.
Unless the dump station has no one waiting, we generally take care of this when we have full hook-ups.
We also could use a laundromat to do several loads.
And power hook-ups to recharge from after doing a full drain of our lithium batteries (to see where their capacity is at now 5 years later after installing them – update report coming when we have time).
And we had a live video cast scheduled, so great internet was also needed.
We checked out Passport America options before hitting the White Mountains to see if there was a reasonable park on the way we could do a 2-night stay at to take care of these chores. Two nights was probably being ambitious, but we really prefer not to spend time in private RV parks if we can avoid it.
The first one we called, Ames Brook Campground (our review on Campendium) in Ashland, NH – had one last spot available for a Wednesday & Thursday night at the 50% off rate.
At $21/night, we consider it a very reasonable ‘sleeping at the dump station’ fee. Passport America comes in quite handy for these sorts of stays, as long as we’re willing to plan our stays within the park’s restrictions.
More Info: RV Clubs – Which are Worth Joining?
Two Nights Turns to Five
We showed up to Ames Brook and got backed into our spot. It was pretty spacious for the price, and the staff just super friendly. We handled our tanks, got a few loads of laundry done in their 24/7 clean & inexpensive laundromat.
And we walked around the rest of the campground, which clearly had a different flavor than the section we were parked it. The other spots all felt more like some of our favorite state parks – big wide private feeling sites.
And there was a cute little brookside nature trail.
This place clearly defied what we generally think of for a’private RV Park’. A lot of love and care went into the design.
We walked back up to the registration desk to hear the clerk telling a customer over the phone they were full for the weekend.
We asked to be put on a waitlist should there be a cancelation – we could definitely enjoy spending the weekend here instead of trying our luck at finding a first come first serve spot in the White Mountains National Forest.
The next morning, we awoke to two major breaking news stories for our site, RV Mobile Internet – both T-Mobile and AT&T were shaking up their plans. It took most of the day to cover the stories explain the new options and how they apply for RVers (and particularly, how T-Mobile’s initial new ‘unlimited data plan’ was actually NOT ideal for those of us who depend on cellular data).
All of the carriers have shaken up their plans this summer, here’s a re-cap of what each offers now and how they stack up for RVers:
Late afternoon came sooner than we anticipated, and we were exhausted. We made the decision to cancel that evening’s live video cast – we hadn’t even gotten around to testing the internet to see if we’d have enough bandwidth.
And we certainly didn’t have the energy to be ‘on’ for the evening.
We walked back up to the front desk with our biggest puppy dog eyes we could muster to see if there had been a cancellation. The owner shuck her head, but said she had an idea if we were flexible. (Us, flexible??).
Suffice it to say we ended up moving into one of those super sweet private feeling brookside wooded spots on Saturday morning for a couple nights. Our Passport America rate didn’t apply for those spaces, but we didn’t care. It was so totally worth it.
Since we had already taken care of our tanks, we opted to pull straight into the site for maximum view and privacy. (This is also the spot we filmed our quick impromptu Surviving Weekends in Campgrounds post & video.)
We got to speak with the owners and learn more about their history of taking over the park from KOA some 30 years ago – and the first thing they did was take out every other site to create more space for each camper. And then they started adding the new spots, paying particular attention to privacy at each.
We were super thankful to have a secluded little space to re-charge and continue on with our chores, including a full afternoon of draining our batteries.
By Sunday evening, we were feeling recharged enough (mentally, bandwidth and energy) to go on camera and host our live cast – covering the topic of Attending an RV Rally (the archive now available).
Extending our stay gave us the opportunity to also check out the surrounding area. Ashland is a small but quaint community. We did a motoring tour of the nearby lakes, indulged in local dining, went out Pokemon Go hunting several times and shopped at the farmer’s market.
All and all, we’d highly recommend Ames Brook Campground if you’re in the area. It’s such a treat to find RV Parks like these that are designed for maximum enjoyment, not just revenue.
What’s Up Next?
On Monday morning we pulled out of Ashland, and headed off into the White Mountains to find a basecamp for exploring. But those tales… will be in the next travelogue post.
I promise, I’ll get the blog caught up.
We just left Acadia National Park after a wonderful week long stay in the area exploring – and we have started our slow roll back south.
We’re both craving finding somewhere to hunker down for a couple weeks and getting the ‘settled’ feeling. We’ve been stringing together too many shorter stays these past several weeks, and will continue to do so for the next few weeks as we make our way to a family reunion in Connecticut towards the end of the month. These shorter stays just aren’t conducive to keeping up with our workload, exploring, socializing and having downtime.
But once October rolls around, we’ll have some open time without firm plans. We’re looking forward to it!
Cedar Key, Florida Update
As you may know, we’ve enjoyed wintering in Cedar Key several times over the past years. Last week, Cedar Key was hit hard by Hurricane Hermine. Many local businesses sustained major damage, including our favorite Sunset Isles RV Park.
If you’re planning stays this upcoming season in Cedar Key, make sure you are keeping up to date on the rehabilitation progress.
Here’s some links to follow:
- Sunset Isle RV Park Facebook page
- Low Key Hideaway
- Every Mile’s a Memory (former Low Key Hideway owner’s Pat & Cindy’s blog, where they accounted their hurricane escape)
Our hearts go out to those impacted in a place we so love.
Beautiful campground! Thank you for this post.
Question:
Which product do you use in your black tank? We’ve tried a few and have returned to Thetford’s line. We even tried a so-called “green” product, and it almost blocked up our black tank. (We use RV/marine T.P.) We’re seeking recommendations.
(Long-time reader and repeat RVMIA members)
We’ve used ‘Happy Camper’ for years – http://www.allstarhappycamper.com/RV-Store.asp
We also just use regular old septic safe TP, just don’t flush it for ‘yellow’ needs.
Thanks for sharing your NH travels. We love that area of the country, and have rented houses in the area for a number of years on both Newfound Lake and Lake Winnipesaukee. As you saw you could easily spend an entire summer there and in the White Mountains.
Also thanks for the rave review of Ames Brook Campground. When we get back to that area it will be in our RV, so we will not be renting a house and it’s nice to hear of such a great park to stay.
Sorry to hear you have already left Acadia, but cannot wait to read your write-up about your stay there. Hopefully your drive south will be leisurely enough that you catch some of the leaf changes in New England – it’s something you do not want to miss!
Also thanks for sharing some more info on living in your bus. Very interesting to hear that you have not had a full hook-up for so many months, thanks to your large tanks and solar/battery system. You have designed & built a really nice livable and flexible Motor Home – which I think is great. I find it astounding that of all the used RV’s we have looked at how few ever had any mods done to them to better fit the owner’s needs. But you have proven that customizations can be made to fit your needs – something I hope the RV industry is paying attention to.
wow that place is looking so beautiful and you recommend very good place.