Review - Walden Creek Campground in Pigeon Forge, TN

Our rv has been parked at the Walden Creek Campground in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee for almost two months now. There are a few areas where the campground is lacking, but it fit our budget. In fact, I believe it is the least expensive campground on the Tennessee side of the Smoky Mountains at $500 a month including electricity. The only other campground we could find in this price range was Bear Cove Village, which appeared to be super nice as we drove through it. Unfortunately, there was no room in the inn for us due to the July 4th holiday, so we ended up at Waldens Creek and were just happy to have an affordable place to stay in Pigeon Forge.


Location: The location is just off Wears Valley Road, a couple minutes off the parkway and convenient to all the Pigeon Forge attractions. The convenience factor is excellent, but the campground is a postage sized plot of land sandwiched between some apartments, another campground, a busy highway, and a creek. It's not exactly scenic here, not a park like setting with mature trees . . . really it's just a few small patches of grass and gravel with the plus of having a creek you can walk down and look at if you take the notion. The tent sites look pretty good, and the friendly owners have done all they can to brighten up the place, but it is what it is.

The RV Sites

A Tent Site

Facilities: The laundry facilities are okay. I've used the dryers here pretty often, but I like the longer cycles on the washing machines at the local laundry mat. Fortunately, I have a washer in the rv, and I try not to let the laundry pile up to the point where I need to wash several loads at a time very often. The biggest disappointment at Waldens Creek Campground is the bathrooms. I'm sure they clean them regularly, but at some point things (specifically tile) need a good deep cleaning or better yet, replacing. The ladies side of the bathhouse includes three showers, two potties and two sinks. I might be a little bit paranoid, but I don't like the idea of not having a secure lock on the door when using a public shower. Luckily for us, we've only needed to use their showers once.

The Laundry Room

  

The Ladies Bathhouse

Utilities: Fortunately, we have had no problems with the hookups here. They seem to be pretty well maintained. The wifi, on the other hand, has not been dependable. The kids have just started online school, so it looks like we might have to pull up stakes and move back to the campground we were in earlier where the wifi was always working. The other campground is quite a hike from Pigeon Forge, positioned closer to Townsend on "the Peaceful Side of the Smokies," but we can live with that.

Sites and Neighbors: There are a handful of long-term residents here. At least, there are several that were here when we arrived and who have not yet left. This is not an issue, as none of them have junk piled up on their site or anything like that. We have seen a nice mix of fancy, expensive rigs and older ones like ours. The neighbors have always been fairly quiet, friendly but not intrusive. The sites are tight with no fire rings but are fairly level. The owners keep the campground clean and the grass mowed.

Overall, Walden Creek Campground has been a decent stopover. I would stay again if I didn't need dependable wifi simply because of the value for the money.

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Hiking the Great Smoky Mountains - Laurel Falls

This morning, our whole family had some down time so we decided to do some hiking. I wasn't sure how much Ladybug would enjoy the experience (she prefers the indoors), so we picked the Laurel Falls hike, a somewhat easy, very rewarding trail. She loved it, as did the rest of us, so next time I'll feel good about a longer, slightly more challenging trail.

Michael and I have hiked this trail before, years ago, but there were three things about it that I was not prepared for. One, there is litter on this beautiful trail, not a lot, but enough that it surprised me. Don't people read the signs, the ones indicating that litter kills bears? (Sorry I didn't get a photo of it, but I am providing the link. Just scroll to the bottom of the page where there is a picture of one of the bears that had to be euthanized.)

Second, there are a ton of people on this trail, as in hordes of people, almost like the lines at Dollywood. I can certainly understand why it is so popular. It's located in a high traffic area for one thing. It's an easy hike. And the scenery along the trail as well as the falls themselves are breathtaking. Of course, it would be even more beautiful if I could have it all to myself.

The top half of Laurel Falls

Third, people bring strollers and wheelchairs on the trail even though the National Park Service states that the trail is "not suitable for strollers or wheelchairs." I personally cannot imagine trying to push either one up the mountain on that trail, which is rough and has some steep drop offs. However, I do commend two early 20-something young men who pushed their elderly grandma all the way up to see the falls. They definitely earned their cowboy points. So, while the trail is not suitable for man or woman powered wheels, apparently it is possible.

Laurel Falls is about 80-feet high. The trailhead is located about 3.5 miles from Sugarlands Visitor Center on Little River Road in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

From Clogged RV Toilet to Backed Up Gray Water . . . All Within 24 Hours

I'm starting to think that I should have titled this blog "1,001 Things That Can Go Wrong in an RV."

Yesterday, the big thing that went wrong in our RV was a clogged toilet. I can only begin to explain the stress that comes along with a toilet clog, especially when we failed repeatedly at dislodging whatever it was that was causing the issues. (Likely somebody stuffed way too much t.p. in the bowl. We had a guest visiting, a 12-year old guest who perhaps did not understand what I meant about only flushing small amounts of paper, but at least she did inform us when it happened so that we could address the issue.)

After several hours of unsuccessful attempts at unclogging the RV toilet, which is actually a standard household toilet with a curved pipe that makes poking around with a stick way more complicated than it should be, and eight pans of boiling water poured into the bowl as well as some laundry detergent and half a bottle of dish soap, the toilet finally began flushing again. Before the soap and hot water did their job, I sent Michael to Wal-Mart to get some Liquid Plumr and a plumber's snake. By the time he got back, my wore out self had finally gotten the toilet unclogged.

Then, later yesterday evening, the bathroom sink began draining slowly. The little plastic "plumber's snake" that came with the Liquid Plumr came in handy. I pulled up a large piece of a bar of soap, and that at least was one problem easily solved.

So, today, it's a new water issue. Somewhere along the way, Michael must have closed the valve to the gray tank and it has overfilled and backed up into the shower, right at the edge where another centimeter of water would make it overflow into the bathroom floor. At least I hope that's all it is, because I wouldn't even know where to start if it is anything more than a valve that needs opening.

Michael is off on his merry way helping out a friend today, and he took the RV keys with him, including the keys to the bays. I guess we won't know until he returns whether it's going to be an easy fix this time.

On a side note, I'd like to give thanks for my washing machine, which has also decided to start not working properly anymore, because just this once its timing for stopping mid-cycle couldn't be better. Had it finished its spin cycle without throwing the "E 1" error, whatever that is, my bathroom floor would be flooded right now.

Fried Batteries, Cable and Inverter - What Else Will Go Wrong?

"Do you believe in miracles?," our RV repairman-electrician Mr. Reece asked.

Those five beautiful words came just minutes after he announced that our Xantrex Freedom inverter was fried. And this coming after Mike, our first repairman, announced just days earlier, on our first afternoon in our very lovely RV park in the Smoky Mountains, that one of our electric plug posts and part of the cable was fried. Mike then walked around the RV and proceeded to point out that our four deep cycle batteries were also fried as he declared that they looked like they were original to the RV. I'd say that's doubtful since the rv is 20 years old, but I concede that the batteries are pretty old looking.

Four new deep cycle batteries, one repaired cable with new prongs, and one service fee equals dollar signs racking up to about $700, a load of stress and a bucketful of tears, but it does not equal an RV with working power. We hoped that all was well except for our bank account for about three days, despite the overload light on our inverter which kept flashing, just until the power from the batteries was drained and our electrical problems started anew.

At that point, after much prayer, we found Mr. Reece who was not only an RV repairman but also a licensed electrician. He's an RV fulltimer getting his business off the ground here in the Smokies, and luckily for us, he's also an honest man. So, after letting us know that our inverter was fried, he proceeded to look it over carefully. He couldn't find the issue until he took out his little mirror to check a hard-to-see spot on the inside, and boom, there it was -- one little wire that had become disconnected. So, to answer his question, "do you believe in miracles?" You bet I do, and not just because he saved us $1800.

Today I am very thankful for answered prayers, and I'm thankful for Mr. Reece's honesty. He could have taken advantage of the situation to make himself some extra dollars off our old inverter, but he was an honest person who walked away with a happy customer and a reasonable service fee. Hooray for working electricity!

Tour of our Holiday Rambler Imperial Motor Home

I don't know about you, but I occasionally get hit with a bout of curiosity regarding the inside of people's RVs. Whenever I read blogs about the RV lifestyle, I like checking out the photos that the bloggers share to see what kind of layout they have and how they use their space. To reciprocate the favor, I'd like to share with my readers some pics of my Holiday Rambler Imperial motor home. It is 40' long class A diesel pusher.

We start in the cockpit area, where you see the one and only door right in front of the passenger seat.

Directly behind the cockpit is the living room area, where we have a jack-knife couch and a small freezer. You can see our two-seater dinette in the back left corner of the photo. Fortunately, there is a leaf that pulls out so we can squeeze the kids in around the table.

Here is our kitchen, which has a decent amount of counter space for a motor home. It also features  solid oak cabinets which I would love to have painted. We have a side-by-side refrigerator, stove, oven and convection microwave but sadly, no dishwasher.

Moving on, here is our lovely bathroom . . .

. . . and shower. If you were to keep walking through the bathroom past the shower, you'd find the bedroom at the back of the coach.

But first, if you were to open the doors just past the shower, you'd find the piece de resistance, our washing machine.

The RV is an older gal, but she looks pretty good for her age.

Sagging RV Mattress Nagging for Nothing

Over the last few weeks, when the weather has cooperated we’ve been sleeping in the RV, which for the moment is still parked in the driveway. What we’ve discovered is that the center of our mattress sinks, so we both roll inwards and sleep on a steep incline. It’s definitely not the most comfortable way to spend a night, I tell ya.

I’ve been window shopping (from my browser window) for a new RV mattress, and I’ve been hesitating to purchase anything for two reasons: 1) I don’t really have the money right now to spend on a new mattress. 2) I’m afraid to purchase a mattress online without having first tried it out to make sure it will be comfortable.

Here is one that I have been considering, which is reasonably priced and sounds like it would be comfortable.

 

It’s probably a good thing that I’ve postponed investing in a new RV mattress because yesterday I made a discovery. Now, I’m no longer 100% certain that the mattress is the problem. 

Yesterday afternoon, I pulled the mattress completely off its platform because I wanted to see what was under the bed. I lifted up the platform and then pulled up the carpeted area underneath. I found out that I can access the engine right here and completely see daylight. Somehow, I thought there would be something more between the bed and the stinky engine beneath it. It feels a little unsafe, whether or not it actually is, like it could be a fire hazard. Yes, it’s been that way for twenty years, but it still just doesn’t seem right.

But that’s not the discovery I was referring to previously. What I discovered is that the wooden platform that holds the mattress sinks in the middle. It has some give to it. I’m wondering if it’s just worn out or if maybe one of my kids has been jumping on it. At any rate, it needs to be repaired. We’ll either need to install some supports underneath or put some sturdier plywood on top, or maybe we’ll need to do both.

When that’s done, then we’ll see if we can make do with our current mattress. 

Choosing our First RV on a Too Small Budget

There are so many factors that go into purchasing an RV. I’ve read countless articles that detail how to select just the right one, whether it’s a travel trailer, fifth wheel, class A, B or C. So, I won’t go into all that again. 

For our family of five – dad, mom, two teenage girls, and a golden retriever - we knew we wanted/needed a class A motor home. A travel trailer or fifth wheel would not work for us because then we’d also have to purchase a truck. More importantly, the kids fight when they’re cramped together in one spot for too long, the dog gets restless on long trips, and I seem to need a bathroom at least every couple of hours.  A motor home would give us the ability to get up and move around a little bit if we needed to and to have easy access to a bathroom.

While it would meet some of our needs, a class C also would not work for us because we need the basement storage. And a converted bus, think Prevost or Eagle, was out because even if we could find one with a purchase price to fit our tiny budget (I hear you laughing), buses typically only get about 5 miles to the gallon, which absolutely does not work for us.

Michael insisted on having a diesel pusher, which hopefully would hold up well for all the many miles we planned to put on it. Unfortunately, limiting our search to diesels significantly reduced our chances of finding not just the right rig but any rig. There just aren’t many diesels in our price range.

There were five criteria which our new motor home had to meet: 1) Cheap. Our budget was nearly non-existent. 2) Dependable. Here is the issue- cheap, as we define it, and dependable are usually mutually exclusive when talking about motor homes. 3) Diesel motor.  4) Road ready.  5) Looks half-way decent. 

Our budget was our most limiting factor. The overwhelmingly vast majority of motor homes we found that fit our meager budget could not even come close to meeting factors two through five. We were willing to sacrifice layout, size and comfort to get good bones and readily accepted that we would need to forget about luxury and go for basic.

After searching for several months, we found two good candidates. One was a beautiful, exceptionally clean, shiny 36-ft Fleetwood with two comfy fold out couches (one for each kid), a booth dinette that can sleep even more,  washer/dryer, a small bathtub (oh yeah!!) and a beautiful layout. Aaahhhh, I practically drooled over it when we went to look at it. It was absolutely perfect for our family, except for the price. Unfortunately, it was about $7000 plus tax over our budget, the dealer would not budge that much, and there was just no way we could afford it.

The second one was a 40-ft Holiday Rambler with 20 years of dust hiding in the crevices (not exaggerating), and in my opinion, an awkward layout for our family. With dinette seating for two and the only extra bed a not-so-comfortable jack knife couch, it was built for two passengers rather than for five. It has a washer and shower, but no dryer or bathtub. The dryer is no big deal, but I’ll really miss having a tub. The design of the kitchen limits us to a sectional style sofa in the living room, no room for two regular couches and no space to build any bunks. Priced at $3000 less than the Fleetwood, the seller agreed to reduce his price by $4000 more, and we stayed right on budget.

On the plus side, the coach is very roomy, has good solid cabinets and counter tops, and has an aluminum roof. It also has a bigger, more powerful Cummins engine, which will come in handy for towing our car. It has a pack brake, which we will definitely need when we descend mountain roads. Thankfully, the rv cleaned up very nicely after several generous doses of extra strength elbow grease and actually is in pretty good shape over all. Most importantly, it meets all five criteria we set. 

Yes, there are things I would like to change about it, but I feel very blessed to have been able to find something we can afford that meets our needs. And, if you were to ask Michael, the Holiday Rambler is perfect just as it is and is so much better than the Fleetwood. We agree to disagree.

Update: Since buying the Holiday Rambler, we have added one crazy cat to the family, but I’m pretty sure he can’t be pleased no matter what, so no need for me to weigh in on his preferences. And much to our sadness, our golden retriever has decided to stay with his grandparents.

Nesting . . . Can’t Wait to Get this Rig on the Road

Since the weather has started warming up lately, Michael and I have been spending more time in the RV, albeit parked in the driveway. I sit out there on sunny afternoons, what few of them we’ve had lately, and we sleep out there some nights. (My parents live with us, so the kids are supervised.) But it’s just more economical and convenient for us to do most of our living in the house rather than to run the generator a lot. 

Sleeping out there, listening to the crickets chirping at night and the birds chirping in the morning, well, it’s just about more than I can bear. We’ve been planning our summer trip to the Smokies. Erv (that’s the RV) and the family recently went off and left me to go to Louisiana for a weekend while I stayed home and worked. I keep reading all these wonderful full-time RV living blogs, and well, the travel bug bit me when I was just a little kid, and basically the road is calling my name so loudly that I just can’t take it anymore.

The last time I felt this much anticipation was when I was in my last trimester of pregnancy, and instinct made me start nesting then just like it is now. This week, I’ve pulled our dishes, pots and pans, towels, extra sheets and the shower curtain out of the attic. I spent hours re-washing everything and now all that stuff sits in the RV waiting for us to start using it again.

Sadly, all I can do now is count down the days ‘til June gets here and we make our great escape.

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Our RV's First Big Trip

Sure, the Erv (that’s what I’ve been calling the motor home lately . . . you know, Erv like Ervin, or Erv like how I would pronounce “rv” if it were one word instead of two letters) has been on a couple trips down the road since we got it. The first trip was a couple hours drive when we brought it home. The second was about an hour down the road to a festival, more of a trial run for when Erv starts traveling more extensively.

Last week, the Erv made its first big trip. Michael and the girls and our friend Kool K, who does Elvis impersonations, and his kids all traveled down to Louisiana, while I stayed home and worked to fund said trip. (Nooooo, I’m not bitter. Does it sound like I’m bitter?)  So, from our home to Louisiana and back, Erv traveled a little over 1700 miles. 

One of the criteria on our must-have list when we were looking for an RV was that it would be dependable. I did a whole lot of praying while my family was on the road, praying for safety of course, and also praying that the RV would be as dependable as we hoped it was and not break down. God was listening, and the whole crew arrived back happy and healthy with a grand, happy adventure behind them and no catastrophes to speak of apart from hitting rush hour traffic in Nashville on the way home. 

Erv did a great job and came back looking and feeling as good as it did when it pulled out of the driveway, other than one of its arm rests being somewhat broken. I guess either it was like that before they left and I just didn’t notice it, or passenger Kool K had a heavy left arm on the trip, but either way I can live with that. The trip reporters concluded that even the refrigerator that we could not get to stay cold in the driveway worked perfectly when it was level and hooked up to shore power. Erv held up just fine and proved itself to be a dependable mode of transport. Best of all, Michael reported that it used considerably less fuel than he budgeted for, coming in at a record unheard of 14.8 mpg with mostly all interstate miles and no toad. I’ll have to do my own calculations on the next trip to verify . . . I was always better at math than he was. :)