the traveling elish's

This place is the most convenient spot if you are staying outside of the park and only 1 mile from the Panther Junction entrance! If you get to make a vacation out of this and unplug, then good for you. If you are a digital nomad like us then I hope you remember life prior to high speed internet and can acclimate to speeds hovering around 1MBPS DL. DSL is the only thing available down here save 1 place. Read below for that tidbit:

Pros:
- Location!! Gas station <1 mile away, amazingly stocked grocery store (they have everything I'm serious) right across the street, Terlingua Ghost Town 5 miles away.

- The owner's, Leon and Bonita, are super nice. Actually everyone we met there was very friendly.

- New bathroom facilities for those who need it.

- Like all of the area, there is plenty to see just strolling around the grounds including an old cemetery originating from the mining days and vistas for days.

Cons:
- It can get a little crowded during busy season. We were packed pretty tightly with our neighbors, who luckily turned out to be awesome and now we keep in close touch with them!

- The place is a bit chaotic but the owners are doing their best and it's part of the charm anyways.

- No laundry - go to the gas station and there is a building behind it that has machines you can pay to use.

Tips:
- WIFI. Wish we didn't need it but with retirement a few decades away, we still need to pay for that gas bill. SO, if you need wifi, here's your plan:
-- You can tether to your phone on 3G and get around 3MBPS download speeds.
-- For speeds around 4MBPS-7MBPS download you can go into town and work from the coffee shop there. They close at 2 but you can sit out there for as long as you want.
-- For the hidden gem that has Google Fiber, go to the public library next to the Terlingua School. We worked from here everyday as we needed higher speeds to avoid being fired.

- Wind and sand storms pop up whenever they darn well please. So if you leave for the day, or even an hour, bring your awnings in or you may find them wrapped around your RV when you get back. Also - break your tent down. We saw someone's go flying by when they weren't around.

- It's dark here. Like you will get lost going 10 feet dark. Bring lots of flashlights/headlights/lanterns. If you have a pet, get some type of light on their collar will help you avoid having to whip up a search party when they bolt into said darkness after unknown creature and don't come back. Like one little dog I know...

There are not many options for staying in or near Savannah with your trailer/RV. If there is availability at Skidaway Island - do that. Else, you will end up like us and at the KOA. Which wasn't horrible, just wasn't our idea of camping. Most of the park is reserved for monthly rentals where everyone one ups everyone else with their patios and outdoor lighting.

The nightly/weekly rentals are kept in the front of the park where everyone drives through and where the sites are less thought out. There were some nicer sites that were on the water but we weren't offered one of these (after moving our site twice due to size and the fact that one of the sites was just in the road and just plain awful). Maybe if you ask nicely they will let you have this for some extra $$?

Our main problem was that it is farther from Savannah than it looks on a map and will take you between 25-30 minutes to get downtown. Where you will probably want to spend most of your time to get away from your life in a parking lot.

Pros:
- They bring you firewood and provide a ring! Awesome-ness!
- Store there where you can buy expensive candy and beers (aka essentials)
- Laundry on site
- Wifi was decent
- Lots of sites that can accommodate last minute reservations
- People were mainly friendly

Cons:
- FAR FROM SAVANNAH!
- Did I say parking lot?
- Expensive for what you get
- Lots of monthly renters own motorcycles... which you get to hear pass you alllll night :)
- Swans. Everywhere.

It's no lie folks! This place truly deserves all 5 stars, plus more. We stayed here for the week after Thanksgiving after spending a week in one of their cabins w/friends. The whole campground is small, which I prefer, as it was easier to relax into the peace and quiet of this mountaintop retreat without all the people sound pollution. There are hiking trails right behind the yurt sites that are nice for an afternoon stroll with the pup. The management were very friendly and ready to help. Wifi was nice and strong. OH! And you are less than 15 minutes from downtown Asheville. I mean come on! You can't get better than that - it's literally the best of both worlds!

Getting up the mountain can be impossible if more than 1 rig attempts it at the same time, so they recommend calling right before you get there so they stop traffic. Smarter than trying to reverse down that hill...

The only regret I have is not making a reservation sooner and snagging one of the deluxe sites (deluxe have valley views, premium do not) as every sunset was pure magic. They do have a seating area where unlucky premium site peeps can gather to watch it. We were frequent fliers there for sure.

We will be back and looking forward to it!

Can't get a better location than Pecan Grove for visiting Austin! Weekly rates for 30AMP are $270, 50AMP are more. Daily/weekly sites are a packed close together but you won't want to stay in your trailer when the whole city is your backyard anyways.

Pros:
- Within close walking distance to restaurants, coffee shops and breweries (Shady Grove is good, Austin Java awesome, Billy's Brewery good for beer only)
- Cheap! Like, can't believe I scored this deal cheap!
- Laundry on site.
- A nice peek into what "old Austin" was like. You will meet many long term residents here (some 30+ years!) and their unique lawn ornaments.
- Right at the start of the Lady Bird walking path! Perfect 3 mile loop for a nice jog :) Plus, a park area to let the pup run around.

Cons:
- Our site was meh. We were squeezed between 2 other nightly/weekly sites in an island in the middle of the park road.

We were tempted to pick our long term spot and plant some yard flamingos and call this place home. It is that convenient! Hope to be able to visit again!

There's a part of me that doesn't want to write this review... mainly because I want to keep this place to myself, but I can't help but share the love.

This place is the perfect spot to get away from it all. If you are looking for a hip downtown area then you want to look closer to the Port Angeles area and not here. Sure, you are close to Forks, but you will be hard pressed to find 2 different restaurants within a 30 min drive to eat at. If you enjoy beach camping, hiking, outdoorsy stuff and quiet - then you will love it here. Bring a tent if you have one and spend a night at Beach 2 which was packed with campers the night we visited.

Digital nomad review:

Overall digital nomad rating: 3

Wifi rating: 2 Public wifi was slow or non existent at campsite.

Verizon data: 4 Speeds are good enough to work from for entire stay at campsite. DL ~ 8 mbps, UL ~ 12 mbps

Workspace rating: 0 did not see a place to work from. There is a hotel with a lobby you could work from.

Access to data rating: 1 not nearby to cafes, restaurants, libraries etc.

This place was beautifully landscaped and well maintained. They have the greenest RV Park grass I have seen in a long time and each site has a good amount of space: a parking pad for your TV, a single tree, a picnic table and the sites were long enough for coaches of all sizes. There is a pool but it closed the day we got there and the restrooms had plenty of stalls and showers. The area around the park is a little lacking but we made the best of it by walking down the road to the coffee shack at Celebrities, checked out Gresham which has a cute downtown area and of course paid a couple of visits to the MUST GO --> Mcmenamins Edgefield. Check it out, you'll thank us later. Multnomah and Bridal Veil falls are a short hop away and of course you are only a $30 Uber ride away from downtown Portland or a 20 min drive. Check out our website (https://trav.elish.net) if you want a guide for all the stuff we got up to while there and a nice map to accompany it :)

For you full time workers out there... here are our stats:
Digital nomad rating: 3

Wifi rating: 4 - Public wifi available in rec room and sites (can only vouch for front sites - we were in 26). Speeds not consistent - ranged from >1 to 7 mbps DL and UL. Was strong enough to work from but dropped from time to time and definitely slowed in the evenings.

Verizon data: 2 - Connection to tower strong (as evidenced by the signal strength below) but must be over flooded with users as the speeds really sucked. As in we couldn't work from it most days and had to use the just as iffy wifi. Speeds: DL ~2.4 mbps, UL: ~ 2.04 mbps. Sometimes less, sometimes a bit more.

Workspace rating: 3 - There is a rec room but it is just that. If you had to work from here you could but it is small, dusty and not ideal for working (tables/chairs etc).

Access to data rating: 3 - If you are looking for a cafe I would head into the city or to Gresham. Fairview is more of a Target type town, not much in the ways of local owned coffee shops to spend your days at.

This is campground is a good choice if you are going to spend most of your time in the city. We stayed here in November and about half of the RV campground was full. The sites were decently spaced but all located in one small square of the park - no water views and only 4 rows of spaces. If you are planning on having a fire be prepared to bring your own fire ring or be stuck with a bundle of wood and nothing to do with it, they do not have fire rings for loan and are only available at tent sites. The squirrels are crazy here - they drove my dog and us insane with their constant attempts at scaling our trailer, pitter pattering of tiny feet on the roof and strangest one sitting at our window and staring at us while we did our thing. The park itself was beautiful with lots of roads and paths along the water, well kept benches and interesting old cabins. The train station is within a mile and parking for the day is cheap. It also offers an express train to Grand Central Terminal that we utilized many times.

Side note: Beware of any of the parkways when trying to access this campground with an RV/trailer. We were about to exit onto the Saw Mill Parkway when a nice NY resident prevented us from doing so by honking, flashing and wildly shaking her head "no". Signs for No Trucks are posted but trailers also fit this bill and you will be dealt a hefty ticket ($3000+) plus will need to back it out of there if pulled over. There are also really low overpasses on all of the parkways. We took Saw Mill Rd as an alternative route, which was longer but very scenic and didn't cost us a penny!

We stayed in Fontainebleau for 10 days in January 2018. It was great, just be aware if you are a naive tourist (like me) that Lake Pontchartrain is BIG. It will take you about 45 minutes to get to New Orleans and 30 minutes of that is just crossing the bridge. I had no idea, so hopefully you do or you will now.
Pros:
- There are 4 full hookup sites in the park and we managed to get a reservation in one of them.
- The park itself is HUGE and beautiful and well maintained. There are 2 separate areas for camping, a bike/running path at the entrance that goes for more miles than I could ever bike for and you can walk down to Lake Pontchartrain.

Cons:
- It rained... a lot. And the campground turned into a lake with small RV pad islands. If we had a canoe we could have easily paddled around in places. Just be aware if rain is in your forecast as after the water disperses the lake becomes a mud pit. Bring rubber boots.

Side note:
There were A LOT of deer. And there are some people there that sing and feed the deer. Yes, they were singing to them and then feeding them. Not sure what that was all about but it was definitely odd.

All in all we will definitely stay here again when we are in the area! You will also be close to some pretty stellar bayou swamp tours so you should definitely check that out.

This post is mainly for you digital nomads out there - as most of the vacationing and retired folk can spend their time away from their trailer/RV. But if you are like us (large monitor toting computer nerds) then you know that getting work done in a noisy cafe on a laptop is not the ideal and you would rather stay in your trailer cave.

Outside of nerdom - trying to get our 34' trailer into a spot here was the hardest parking job we have encountered during our 1 year full time on the road. Imagine that scene from Austin Powers with the luggage cart in the hallway and you have a pretty good idea of what it looked like for us to get our triple axle in.

It's close to Bellevue which felt sterile, uninviting but at least full of malls and shopping for that yearly wardrobe update. Seattle is a >30 minutes drive and full of traffic and highway closures (at least when we were there).

Now on to the numbers...
Overall digital nomad rating: 4

Wifi rating: 2 Public wifi was available but slow - did not use.

Verizon data: 5 Fast - was able to do everything on it. > 15 mbps

Workspace rating: 0 there was no different room to work from that we found.

Access to data rating: 5 nearby to cafes, restaurants, libraries etc.