Planning A Cross Country Travel Adventure

Here are some tips that might help make your planning you cross country trip easier!  

And don't forget, that you can travel across country and stay at cabins instead of with an RV!  

If you haven’t tried the KOA Trip Planner, we highly recommend it.  You can bookmark it at (https://koa.com/trip-planner/). It is a great tool for planning your trip. Simply enter your starting address, and your ending address, and press the “Get Directions” button.

What pops up next is a map with every KOA within 5 miles along that route. Your can change that option to 10 miles or some other distance, if a particular area doesn’t seem to have a KOA right along the route, but remember to add that extra travel time and expense to your trip travel calculations. 

Next, click on the KOA’s along the route that you estimate might be about 5 hours of travel time away. Then, Google the distance between those two destinations, until you find a KOA that is about 5 hours away. 

If you stop every couple of hours for potty stops, fuel, or meals along way, the 5 hours on the GPS equates to 8 hours of travel time a day. So we’ve found that 5 hours of travel time works about right for us, and equates to about an 8 hour day. If you spend an hour on lunch, or don’t want to be on the road for 8 hours a day, then lower the miles to 400 or whatever amount will work for your travel style. Fatigue becomes an issue if you travel more than 8 hours a day, and then of course, you run out of daylight too. So we try to arrive at or before dusk, so we’re not trying to get into an unknown campsite and set up in the dark.

Then, simply repeat this process over and over until you’ve completed your whole trip. If you’re planning a cross country trip, don’t forget to download The KOA Camping App! It is available for download at the Apple App Store and Google Play sites. It’s a great way to have 500 of the best campgrounds in the USA and Canada at your fingertips. For more information or to view a special video on the KOA Camping App, go to http://koa.com/get-the-koa-app/. It’ll help you find KOA’s across the county, and provide you easy access to their addresses for your GPS. It’s a great idea to carry that paper KOA directory too for backup just in case you need written directions to get you to the campground or RV Park.  Unfortunately, there are places that the GPS can’t find, and places where there is no cellular service. So until technology catches up, a plan “B” is always a great idea! 

In addition, “stuff happens”. There will be traffic jams, or high winds which means you need to slow down, so you can’t make your desired destination for that travel day. When that happens, you may need to find another park along the way to get you off the highway that became a parking lot, or out of the bad weather. So a physical directory and the app, will help you do both!

By Robyn Chilson                                                                                                              

Tim & Robyn Chilson own and operate Meadville KOA Campground.  Robyn can be reached at 814-789-3251.     

Our Featured Kamping Family for July 2017

We want to introduce you our featured kamping family for 2017! They are Michael and Sue McAndrews from Tonawanda, NY!   They stayed with us in July of this summer.  

They were kamping with us because they are on a mission to camp at as many KOA (Kampgrounds of America) Campgrounds as they can in one summer!

The McAndrews tell us that they have been to the Houghton/Letchworth KOA, Canandaigua KOA, Chautauqua Lake KOA, and Natural Bridge/Watertown KOA.  All of which and in the lovely state of New York.   We’re so glad they decided to wander a little south of the border and check us out! 

During our discussion, they also mentioned that the had camped out west in Utah’s three KOA's which were Cedar City KOA, Green River KOA, and Panguitch KOA without there RV.  They camped in their cabins!  These folks take this KOA kamping thing seriously, don’t they?

They were camping in a 2015 Whitewater Retro (lit looks like a 1950’s camper!) that they purchased from Colton RV in North Tonawanda, NY.  They were towing it with a small SUV.  They said it made it easy, affordable, and fun!     

Michael is a retired hardware store manager, where he had worked for 31 years.  Sue works at Trader Joes.  They just love to camp and RV at KOA Campgrounds!

We were the furthest KOA from their home base that they had travelled to!  We’re sure glad they decided to camp with us at Meadville KOA.  It gave us a chance to see their awesome Whitewater Retro RV and to meet a really nice couple who just love travelling and camping in their small RV!  They really put the kamper in KOA Kamper!  And of course, we took this opportunity to invite them to our vintage RV Rally next June!  

We hope that you’ll come see what’s behind the yellow sign at Meadville KOA this summer, bring the family and spend your vacation enjoying a campground where modern convenience meets nature! 

Until we see you, we wish you safe and happy kamping, where ever your travels take you!    

By Robyn Chilson

Tim & Robyn Chilson, CPOs, who own and operate Meadville KOA Campground in Meadville, PA. Robyn can be reached at 814-789-3251. 

Meet This Featured Meadville KOA Kamping Family!

We want to introduce you to a camping family that stayed with us back in June of this summer.  They are Al & Janice Geniviva, and their daughter, Juliet!

They are from Gibsonia, PA and camped with us on their “shake-down cruise”.  A shake down cruise is a camping trip taken by purchasers of a new RV to make sure they’ve “worked all the bugs out” before a big trip!  Nothing ruins a vacation any faster than vehicle or RV trouble while traveling.  So most prudent new owners do a trial run to help prevent such catastrophes! 

You see they purchased their new 18’ Bambi Airstream Trailer in Greensburg, PA from Airsteam of Western PA (pictured in photo)!  Known for their quality and value, Airstream trailers generally have few, if any bugs to work out.  But it’s always better to be safe, than sorry.  After all, we all know that “stuff happens”!  And according to these folks they believe in that old adage that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  

They are planning a week-long vacation in late July to Belfast Maine!  They wanted to make sure they were good to go before taking off on a long distance trip like that.  We could tell from our brief conversation that they were very much looking forward to this trip, and wanted everything to go well.

When asked why they purchased an Airstream, they answered that they tow it with a small truck, and wanted something that was light weight, high quality, and would hold its value.  Airstream trailers certainly have a reputation for meeting their criteria.  But moreover, they just love the Airstream and what it had to offer them. 

New, first time campers or campers with new RVs aren’t anything new to Meadville KOA.  We escort every RV camper to their campsite and help get them parked.  It's part of our customer service and hospitality services. It gives us a chance to help teach people some basics about backing an RV up, or positioning their RV on a campsite.  Our staff often shows campers how to hook up utilities, level, dump tanks, etc.  Of course the best time to do a shake down cruise or first time outing is in the spring or early summer when campgrounds are less busy.  But even on busy weekends, our staff tries to take the time to answer questions, and help new RVers learn the ropes.  We’re honored to have so many customers come camp with us to try out their new RV and ask questions.  It’s just another part of paying it forward and helping our campers. 

We hope that you’ll come see what’s behind the yellow sign at Meadville KOA this summer, bring the family and spend your vacation enjoying a campground where modern convenience meets nature! 

Until we see you, we wish you safe and happy kamping, where ever your travels take you!    

By Robyn Chilson

Tim & Robyn Chilson, CPOs, who own and operate Meadville KOA Campground in Meadville, PA. Robyn can be reached at 814-789-3251.  

Staying Safe While Camping

There are a lot of things to take into consideration when camping.  Don’t be lulled into thinking that just because you’re in a tent, cabin, or are RV camping in a private campground or RV park a few miles out of town that you’re safe, and that the laws of your nature don’t apply to you!

Camping history is full of stories about bears getting into bird feeders, coolers, and tents.  These encounters are generally a young bear, newly kicked out of the den because mom now has a new cub, and who now has to fend for himself.  They quickly learn to associate campers with an easy meal.  The teenage equivalent of a McDonald’s drive-thru.

The food source can be campers who leave food on their campsite picnic table that can be right up under the awning of the RV, unburned food scraps in a fire pit, or forgetting to put the cooler away, a bag of garbage they failed to take to the dumpster before nightfall, bird feeders they have out, and even grease from a BBQ grill or dumped from a fryer.

These simple things can attract bears.  And the last thing you want is you, your children, spouse, or pets having a face to face meeting with a bruin.  While attacks by black bears are rare, they can happen and it’s important to remember that you’re in their territory.  They were here, in the woodlots of Pennsylvania, long before RVs and campers were. 

As their guest, we need to make sure we’re doing our part to not cause them the heartache of being trapped out and relocated.  It isn’t fair to the animals.      

So please follow these simple safety tips when you are camping to ensure your safety.

1. Never, ever allow your children to take food in their tents.  If the children are sleeping in a tent, they need to eat at the picnic table, or in the RV.  Never, ever, never take food in the tent. 
2. Never leave food out on your picnic table, especially overnight.  Put the cooler in the RV or trunk.  You become a McD’s dive thru, remember?  It’ll entice them to come right into your campsite for that easy meal.
3. Never place food scraps in the campfire.  All food scraps need to go into the garbage bag and to the dumpster every evening.  Cooking oil from fryers needs to cool, and then go back in the bottles it came out of and placed in the dumpster.  Never dump oil in the campground.  
4. Take the garbage to the dumpster each night before retiring.  Never leave garbage out overnight.  A bag of garbage will attract, skunks, raccoons, bears, opossums, dogs, etc. that can quickly turn a fun, family outing into a bad experience.  Not only will they make a mess, but they’ll be back, and they become ever more aggressive to get their meal.  That can place your family at risk of being bitten by a raccoon, skunk, bear, dog, etc.
5. Never try to feed or entice bears or other critters.  While they may be cute to see at a distance, they aren’t cute if they bite you and you have to go through a series of very painful rabies shots. 
6. If you see fresh bear skat while hiking, make sure you talk to your friends loudly or if you’re alone talk to the bears loudly or sing a song loudly, keep your head up, and be on the lookout for the bear.  If you encounter a bear, give it lots of room, and keep your distance.  Never run from one. Back away from the situation if you can.  And try to keep yourself positioned so you’re never between a sow and her cub.  That can be very dangerous.
7. Don’t forget that you need to know how to identify snakes too.  You could encounter them while hiking, camping, fishing, etc.  Make sure, like bears, you watch where you’re walking, and know your venomous snakes from non-venomous snakes.  Never play with snakes.  Even a non-poisonous snake bite can be nasty and require medical attention.
8. Make sure you know your surroundings and keep your pets leashed.  Small animals like cats and dogs can and do become prey for coyotes.    
9. And last, but certainly not least, know your plants.  Teach your children the old adage “leaves of three, leave it be”.  Watch for and stay out of poison ivy, poison sumac, and other plants that can cause very uncomfortable skin rashes.       

The best way to have a safe and fun camping adventure it to remember that the outdoors can have hazards that can be difficult to navigate if you forget that you’re a guest in the great outdoors!  So have fun, but be smart and stay safe!

By Robyn Chilson