Tip Toe Through The Tulips

Today Kim and I made the 40 mile drive up to Skagit County, WA to visit the Tulip Festival in the LaConner/Mt Vernon area.  This has been on my bucket list for many years.  If you are in Western Washington in late March or early April, this is definitely worth a visit.  There is a Thousand Trails RV Park in LaConner, and one in Bow (about 10 miles north).

And I found this lovable guy in amongst the red tulips.

And I found this as well

Who leaves a shoe in the middle of a muddy field?  We won't even talk about the pair of underpants I saw (but didn't photograph) in the mud.

Until next time.......

Thousand Trails LaConner: Bad News, Good News, and Mediocre News

We've just returned from 6 days up at the Thousand Trails Preserve in LaConner, WA.

Bad News:  No cell service, no internet, no satellite reception.  Of course, this all came in the middle of a week of drama and urgent situations with family and friends.  To be totally out of communication was a big challenge for me.  Now it is not the park's fault that cell reception in the area sucks.  If we were lucky, we would get one bar of cell service, but the reception was horrible and calls were often dropped.  They do advertise wifi at the family clubhouse.  And we were easily able to connect to the wifi router, but the router rarely connected to the internet.  There was a sign in the clubhouse saying "The Internet Is Working" but it wasn't.  Only one morning was I able to get and stay connected.  The speed was equivalent to dial up.  To get a decent connection, we had the option of using free wifi at the LaConner Library, or driving to Starbucks in either Oak Harbor or Burlington.  It is about 5 miles into LaConner (and parking is not easy to find in my opinion) and 10 miles into Oak Harbor or Burlington.  You can pick up strong 3G or weak 4G once you hit Highway 20, and even better the closer you get to I-5.  We could not pick up any satellite signal from our site due to the trees.

Good News:  It is a beautiful park with lots of trees and shade.  Two playgrounds.  Mini Golf.  You will see squirrels, chipmunks, eagles, birds and bunny rabbits.  The grounds are well maintained.  There was a fair amount of privacy between the sites.  The sites were of varying size, but I think more than half of them would accommodate our 33' fiver.

Mediocre News:  There is no pool, but there is a hot tub/spa.  There is salt water beach access, but it is a rocky beach with many barnacle covered rocks.  One of our grandsons took a tumble and got cut. It is great for the kids who love to explore tide pools and look under rocks.  There is no place to really swim or play in the sand.

If you are familiar with Thousand Trails, you will know that although they advertise full hook ups, it really means that there are "some" full hook ups, but most of the sites are water and electric only.  In this park, I would say maybe one-third of the sites have full hook ups.  If you have FHU, you won't have a beach view or satellite reception.  If you want the beach view (they are limited as well) or satellite reception (also limited due to the trees), you will not have a FHU site.  If you know this ahead of time, you won't be disappointed.

I found the park staff to be limited, and not particularly friendly.  They were not rude by any means, but either they were just having a bad day when I asked questions, or they did not enjoy their jobs.

The bathrooms were clean, but could be updated.  Water pressure was low but that could have been due to the warmer than usual weather we are having in Western Washington, and water conservation in general.  I saw a notice about some septic back up issue they were having as well.

The Whidbey Island Naval Air Station is nearby, so there is noise from fighter jets, during the day and sometimes at night.  The Blue Angels were in town for Seattle's Seafair Celebration, so we heard lots of jets flying overhead.  For me, this was cool (although we rarely could see them due to the trees), but I could see how this may bother some people.

There were a few annually leased spots in this park.  Most were poorly maintained, and did not compare at all to the annual lease holders we have seen at Thousand Trails in Mt Vernon and Leavenworth.

Bottom Line:  If we decide to try this park again, we will wait until after the high season and the park is not so full.  We will try for a water view site, and hope for better cell reception.  Being totally off the grid did not work for me.  I can go without Facebook, Words with Friends, Candy Crush, and TV for a week, but I prefer not to.  What was really an issue for me was the lack of phone reception.  I had a few instances that week, where I needed to speak to family and friends, and I could get no signal.  That was a deal breaker for me.  However, I am willing to give it another try, during a less busy time at the park.

Some park photos:

I couldn't get a decent picture of our campsite, but this what I looked at from my chair outside each morning.  Lots of green (something I miss when we are camping in Arizona), big trees, and shade.

These two beach pictures were taken from nearby the family clubhouse, I think.

From of the decently maintained annually leased sites - obviously a train buff.

There were quite a few tent sites with great beach views!  I was a little jealous but I don't do tent camping anymore.

One of the salmon spawning streams on the property.

Our son's family came to visit one day.  This was taken as we walked back to the campsite, after a rousing game of mini-golf (more of a cross between bowling and golf), time at the playground, and some beach exploration.

Camping and Pinterest

On our recent camping trip to Thousand Trails in LaConner, Washington, I tried out two things I had found on Pinterest.

1)  Roasted marshmallows dipped in Baileys.  This was a definite keeper, and something I will try again.  We roasted the marshmallows over the barbecue and it really is not the same as doing it over a campfire, but the Baileys was quite tasty!

2)  A DIY bug spray to discourage mosquitoes.  Fill a 4 oz spray bottle with original Listerine, and spray around the campsite, on the chairs, rugs, tents, etc.  We sprayed our hats and our shoes as well.  This worked fairly well, in combination with a citronella candle.  I'm guessing that Deep Woods Off works better, but if you do not like the idea of spraying these chemicals on your skin, give the Listerine a try.

More Thousand Trails Previews

We took a day trip to check out some of the Thousand Trails RV Parks within 2 hours of our house on Tuesday of this week.  (I was having some minor surgery on Wednesday, and it was a great way to keep my mind off of it.)

First up was Grandy Creek Thousand Trails/KOA in Concrete, WA.  I have read mixed reviews on this park.  There are sites specifically for TT members, and then the public sites.  I personally thought the TT sites were better.  Be sure to follow the directions on the website.  We had one GPS that wanted to take us totally the wrong way - apparently there is a Grandy Creek National or State Campground a few miles away.  Look for the Thousand Trails/KOA signage on Highway 20.

This was not the park for me.  The sites did not appear to be kept up.  It could just be that it is early in the season, and they have not spruced things up.  There did not appear to be much space between the sites, and no privacy.  But that said, I think this would be a great campground for families with kids.  Although the park is fairly good sized, it is open enough that you could let your kids run around, and you could probably find them pretty quickly.  There was a great playground.  A bouncy jumpy castle type thing.  The pool looked small but it was open.  There was a hot tub.  They had just opened their new solar power restrooms and laundry building.  Kim checked it out and said it was pretty cool, and clean.  They had fairly new looking cabins for rent.  There were some annually leased spots that were a little junky looking, but not bad.  (I'm doing this comparison on what I saw in Leavenworth, which were annually leased sites that were very clean and well maintained.)  I had decent cell service in the park, and we saw people with satellite dishes out, but you are in a forest, so reception could be iffy.  The staff was very friendly.  I think it would be a great family campground, but so much for us old fogeys.

Next up was an Encore Park which was included in our Thousand Trails Zone Membership.  It was called Friday Creek in Burlington, WA.  Pictures I've seen were not what I experienced.  Again, it is early in the season so maybe they have yet to do their annual clean up.  I think big rigs would have some problems with low hanging branches, and tight campsites.  It is a small park.  There was no one around to ask questions.  Not one RV or tent camper in sight.  Just one RV by the welcome center, which I assume was the camp host.  There was a check in box - the type where you register your name and camp site and put your payment in the lock box.  I would not go back in our rig, but some of the camp sites on the creek were very peaceful looking.

We down the road a bit we came to the Thousand Trails Bow (Mt Vernon) Campground.  We have reservations here in a few weeks, so I wanted to check them out.  There are only a few FHU spots, in the A section, mostly near the restrooms and the rental cabins/yurts. They do have a dump station, and also personal pumping service for a fee. This is a large campground.  It borders on one side onto I-5, with a tree buffer zone.  We had out windows down as we drove through the park so see which spots we might try to get when we come back with the rig.  Most of the spots have some degree of privacy.  The spots in the B area were my favorite, but we also found a few in the G section.  They have a huge pool, which must be heated as we saw people swimming - of course they were much younger than we, and the sun was out, but I doubt it was warmer than 72 degrees outside at that time (early afternoon).

Heading south down I-5 to LaConner Thousand Trails.  We had visited this park before on a day pass when Kim's aunt and uncle were renting a cabin here.  It is huge, well kept with friendly staff and decent amenities.  No pool, but there is Puget Sound waterfront.  There is one section in this park that has FHUs, but most had water and electric only.  I love that on their map, the sites for good satellite reception are clearly marked.  Most of the sites offer some privacy.  I'm looking forward to our stay here at the end of July.  (Of note, if you are visiting this park during the summer, you may want to avoid the route that takes you through Conway.  The drive is pretty, but they are constructing a round-about at one intersection and we sat there for 30 minutes waiting for the flaggers to let us by.  Continue north, instead, and take the Anacortes exit.  It is a straight shot from there on decent roads.)

By the way, there is a nice little campground attached to the Swinomish Casino.  No privacy, but a great view, cement pads if I recall, and nice grass between the sites.