BigTom

My Mother used to tell us about a camping trip she took with her parents. There father furnished a new Model A and they traveled from central Florida to California in the mid 1930s. mmmmmmmy mother and her sister financed the trip as they had just finished teaching their first year a t school and we not married at that time. Camped in a tent every night and visited a lot of places in between. She had lot of good stories about that trip, I should have written them down, I can't imagine making that trip now in a model A even with the roads we have now. They too about a month for the trip.

After tearing up few tires and wheels, you will not even think about turning too sharp on those corners. Good looking rig

I agree with all of these, especially with the storage, All campers need to be stored inside out of the weather. Nothing will destroy a camper like the weather, always should be storied under a hard cover at least.

It's not that our trucks are larger, it is because the cars they are making are getting smaller. Even a top line family sedan is a small car, don't try to put 6 adults in a car anymore. I drive a truck because it is the only thing I can be comfortable in.

Hope you enjoyed the trailer, we had a lot of good times in it.

Don't know if VA will cover one, but they are fairly cheap on Craighlist and replacement batteries are fairly cheap on Amazon. I have 2, a smaller on for indoor use and a larger one to take to parks and such, paid 300 for one plus about $70 for new batteries and $500 for the larger on with good batteries. Have ridden the small one all over Fort Wilderness with no problems, the larger have taken to Flywheelers and used for 4 days without recharging on dirt paths.

Get yourself a handicap scooter, not only will you have a place to put your snacks, etc, you also can have a seat to sit down and a battering ram to get through the crowd .

I also use a scooter at times, don't need one daily, but can not stand and walk all day, also near 80 myself. I bought my own, they are fairly cheap if bought used and the batteries are not expensive. You can get a good one for around $300 and a set of batteries are less than a $100 delivered to your house, making it cheaper than renting a couple of times. So I do not have any objection to anyone using one if they need it, but I have seen young healthy people renting them just so they don't have to walk and have seen kids being pushed in rented strollers who were healthy and old enough to walk

Another problem is they rent to anyone, it doesn't matter if they have never driven one or not. WDW is not the place to learn to drive an ECV. I think they should do away with rental ECV and strollers and require people to bring their own and enforce the rules about size and age to drive. Also the golf carts at the Fort could be on the same system, follow the rules or lose the privilege of having a cart.

I have been in 1504 with my son backed up to us in 1630. Small ditch between, has water in it during wet times, but small enough to step across. We liked the set up there, Had Jason set us up. Also have been in 2003 and son backed up to us in 2200 loop, but there is a large creek between the camp areas.

My thoughts on this matter. I have not camped at Fort Wilderness in over 2 year and even sold my camper, but I don't think anyone else will be much longer either. Think like a bean counter, take the 1500 loop, small loop, 30 some odd sites bring in app $3000 a night when fully booked in peak season. Replace it with a 6 story hotel with room on top 5 floors, 20 rooms per floor, renting for $300 each per room. Same piece of ground now bringing in #30,000 per night. Guess $5000 more expense per night so increase would be $25,000 per day increase X 365 days and potential income from small piece of

I agree, I live in the Fort Meade- Bowling Green area would not even consider living in a tourist area, although we do get a lot of snowbirds in the winter time. Florida is narrow enough that I can get to either coast in about 1 - 1 1/2 hours. Check out Homeland, Florida, small community, close to Bartow, Winter Haven, and Lakeland, not far from Tampa and very friendly people. I live just south of there and if had to move would be my next choice. Also the center of Florida is close to it. (about 5 miles away) Disney World is only 60 miles away also.

I just got a smart phone, my son thought I needed it and bought it for me and set it up. He didn't like my flip phone which worked part time.

I don't see the problem Sinead is having, you are camping and have to expect to rough it a little. She would never get invited to go with us anywhere again.

You have to show ID with Florida address for each ticket holder when picking up tickets

This what I was thinking about when starting this post, just around here are a lot of small attractions that are not worth a full vacation, but are a good way to fill in days on a trip to break up the days. Just around here, and this is not considered a tourist area, we have Bok Tower in Lake Wales, Soloman's Castle in Zolfo Springs, Royal Lippizan Stallion ranch in Myakka City, Manatee viewing area in Sun City, air boat rides on Kissimmee River, you can take swamp buggy rides, and a lot of small towns give history tours and have history museums, Bartow used the old County Court House to house

Excellent report, enjoyed the whole thing and think you are a super mom for introducing your kids to a lot of what this country has. I can't imagine my wife even thinking about a trip like that.

You know there is something about being older and wiser. All so I worked for a company that was safety centered, main idea was think what might happen and don't take a chance.

Gators do most of their feeding after dark and are wary of humans. I have been swimming in all kind of water in Florida for over 70 years and never been approached by a gator. Splashing in shallow water like that child in WDW at dusk is just calling a gator to come to supper, but you don't even see many during the day light hours, which is why most visitors to Fla will only see one. Go out late at night and you will be surprised by how many are swimming around. By to what I mentioned to start with, vacation are a good time to teach your children a little history about the places they vi

I know this board is mainly about Fort camping, but there is a lot of other things to do in Florida besides the Mouse, Harry Potter, Legoland and the beach. We have a lot of history in this state that is sometimes overlooked by theme parks. When visiting our state, check around and there may be something interesting close by. Check out Lighthouses, if you have never been in one, there are several that have been restored and made in museums you can go in and see how they were built and maned. How about a deep sea fishing trip, a tour on a glass bottom boat, or an air boat in the everglades. May

Great report, enjoyed it very much, Thanks a lot. Tom

In March, we should have oranges hanging on the trees with no problem.

You should have come down and said hello, orange season is over, but I can always find a few they missed, we call them shiners, you could have picked. I am only about 20 miles south of Legoland.

I think they have a ski show on the lake in front of the hospital one Saturday a month with the skiers from the old show for free. It is on a lake side and you need to bring your own chair.

I agree 12 and under, but age is all in your attitude. I enjoyed going to Legoland with the grandkids until they go older and had passes for several years. (We live close by) I enjoyed going through the gardens and riding the island in the sky while they enjoyed riding and other things. would not recommend it for older kids unless they were Lego crazy, but an enjoyable day without a huge crowded mess.