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maryshus · 01-26-2008, 07:36 PM

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historyljc · 02-03-2008, 05:26 PM

Hi Folks :cool Welcome Rachel

: I've been a member of PA just about since we bought our coach a year and a half ago. On a round trip from Pensacola, FL, to San Antonio, TX, to visit family, for health reasons we'll overnight twice each way. To break the trip up more or less equally, we stop in Livingston, LA, and Beaumont, Texas. Both places have outstanding campgrounds with paved roads, level concrete pads, excellent hook-ups, very friendly helpful staff, and are an easy off easy on from I 10 (Beaumont) and I 12 (Livingston). Of the four stops over the Christmas holidays I was able to use PA on three of them. The other day was a Friday that I knew the PA would not be honored. Both these places stayed pretty well booked so I try to have reservations well in advance.
I've looked at Camp USA. For the most part, campgrounds that accept Camp USA also accept PA and PA has over twice the campgrounds.
When planning trips, in addition to the maps, I always check (on line) Woodall's, Good Sam, Passport America, and campgroundreviews.com. Woodall's gives the greatest selection (up to 50 miles around requested location), Good Sam allows members to rate the parks (I pay particular attention to these), Passport America (if available in the selected park) gives the best rate. RV Park Review is good for seeing what others have thought of the park. The system has worked well me. In reading the reviews, you will find what is one person's treasure is another person's junk. When they all agree that it's good, it most likely is.
I have no regrets on the money that I spent for my PA membership. My current card is good into 2010.

Life is journey, not a destination - enjoy it!

Rachel01 · 02-05-2008, 08:16 AM

Hi Jim!

Thank you for the great comments about Passport America! I'm so happy that it works for you and you're able to save money, which is what the PA membership is all about

If you have any questions or comments, just let me know and I'll be more than happy to help you in any way I can!!

Have a great one!

Rachel

chasfm11 · 02-05-2008, 02:13 PM

Hi Rachel,

I've read another PPA thread that referenced the Timberline CG with which we had problems last September. It seems that other member reactions didn't match ours so I thought that I would share some of the pictures that I took. I'm posting just one but there are others in the IRV2 Photo Gallery as of this afternoon from the same time. Essentially, they were pictures looking in all directions from our site. I think they speak for themselves. A number of large groups of younger people, all heavily tattooed and pierced that wondered around our site with no apparent purpose rounded out the "atmosphere." This is the only time since we bought our RV that I was glad we had "protection" with us.

Looking left from our campsite, this was the view. The single dump truck in one of the other pictures occupied the site across from us - starting at 5am. No, there was no construction going on in the campground itself.

Rachel01 · 02-07-2008, 08:06 AM

Hello Charlie

I tried to find the rest of the photos in the photo gallery, but couldn't find them. Would you mind telling me where they can be found and I will definitely show the pictures to my manager. The Timberline CG has been with us for a long time and these are the first pictures we have received on it. I would be more than happy to get those pictures from you and that will help us decide on what needs to happen with this particular campground. I hope this helps!

If there is anything else I can help you with, please do not hesitate to let me know! Have a great one!

Rachel

Hitchhiker · 02-07-2008, 08:56 AM

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">I tried to find the rest of the photos in the photo gallery, but couldn't find them. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Perhaps I can help, the photo above is titled Timberline01 in his photo album, here's the photo's he's titled Timberline 03, 04, and 05... I didn't find one titled Timberline 02

chasfm11 · 02-07-2008, 10:23 AM

Thanks, Richard. I was trying to avoid overwhelming this thread with just one CG. I'm sorry that Rachel didn't find the other photos as you did. #02 seemed redundant but it was a longer view of the trash around the trailer on our right side and I didn't bother uploading it.

Overall, we've been very pleased with Passport CGs. Some of them, like the ones in Meridian, MS, on Raton Pass, NM and in Rawlins, WY have been top notch by our standards. We don't expect a lot from CGs but a sense of security is first and foremost on our want list. We sure didn't get that at Timberline. We don't consider us to be be camping "snobs" but suspect that having the majority of the "RVs" (term is very loosely applied to the school bus) around in significant states of disrepair won't give anyone a warm feeling. You can see from the pictures that there were several of those large dump trucks parked in camp sites. Those and the milling groups of people made us very uncomfortable.

Hitchhiker · 02-07-2008, 10:55 AM

Hi Charles,

I can relate to what you experienced at Timberline, we did an overnight stop there on our way home from Kansas in March of last year. It drives home the old saying, "You get what you pay for." To say the least, it was a little rough around the edges.

chasfm11 · 02-07-2008, 11:26 AM

To us, it wasn't a matter of cost. I'd have pulled right back out of there and just left our camping fee if I'd been able to do so. We'd left West Jefferson, NC that morning, driven down I-77 to I-40 and taken that the whole way to Lebanon, TN. I don't know if you have ever driven the part of I-40 east of Knoxville but it isn't something that I'm ever going to do again voluntarily. I was totally wiped out and it was getting dark.

We decided later that a Wal-Mart would have been a better, safer alternative.

Rachel01 · 02-07-2008, 12:54 PM

Hello Charles!

I apologize for the bad experience you had with the Timberline Campground in Lebanon, TN. I have printed out the pictures and will go over them with the owner of PA and see what we're going to do about this campground. Again, I sincerely apologize for the terrible experience

I will let you know as soon as I find out how the problem is going to be resolved! It may be a few weeks because the owner is out of town right now. Please let me know if I can be of any help with anything else

Thank you and have a great evening!

Rachel

chasfm11 · 02-07-2008, 04:55 PM

Thanks, Rachel. Perhaps the Timberline owner has changed things since we were there. Actually, the front of the park didn't look bad at all or wouldn't have even gone into the office, no matter how tired I was. It wasn't until she said "go pick out your own site" and we went around back that we noticed things just weren't right.

Don't worry about our one bad experience. No organization is perfect and you cannot monitor all of the parks in the PA system 24x7. We are normally very careful in reading the CG descriptions that your organization provides and avoid those that seem questionable. We just didn't get this one right either.

historyljc · 02-07-2008, 10:09 PM

Rachel,

You might find the reviews at http://www.campgroundreviews.com/regions...e/Lebanon.html helpful.

maverik/gypsy · 02-08-2008, 02:12 AM

charlie---two thanks.

the first for info pn PA. I am looking at membership in PA and appreciated your fair and factual report complete with pictures. The second is your report on US 40. I am planning for the first of April to leave Jacksonville to ashvelle via US26 and connect with US40 and west to Knoxville to connect with I75. Noted your opinion on driving this sector. I will be pulling a 38ft Excel. Would you be so kind to alert me to the conditions of travel I could encounter. Since it skirts by the Smokeys, I thought it might be a nice sightful trip---oh the tricks our dreams play on us.

Many thanks

Maverik

chasfm11 · 02-08-2008, 04:13 AM

First, Maverik, welcome.

Second, please don't judge Passport America CGs by the one bad one we had. As you can tell from my other posts, we are overall pleased with the program and have had very good experiences otherwise. We tend to like smaller CG and shy away from the big RV resorts with all the amenities. PA is great for us. If you will search this forum, there is another PA thread which specifically shows others staying at the same CG we did in TN and they were satisfied. I used the pictures to show why I wasn't.

We don't want to hijack this thread reporting on roads but I will give you some expectations on I-40.
- From Nashville east on I-40, truck traffic is very heavy. News reports indicate that there are plans to build a truck only lane. Knoxville has the worst concentration (be sure to take the by-pass).
- the last 5 miles of I-40 in TN and the first 30-35 miles in NC is zoned at 50mph and is wall to wall trucks (they are required to stay in the right lane only and they are nose to tail there - some still pass). The lanes are narrow, the road is curvy and there is constant up and down. I was sandwiched between two trucks. I could run away from the one behind me on the upgrades but he was back and inches behind my toad every downgrade. Truckers engine brakes are much more effective than my exhaust brake. There are few places to pull off. A breakdown or a flat tire would be a total mess. There are reports of high rates of accidents among the truckers - and I believe them.
- east of Asheville is Black Mountain. I'd judge it to be around a 6% grade but it seems to go on forever. We were coming west so it was a constant climb. East bound, it would be a long decent.
- the road surface around Knoxville is great. Once you are east of there, it deteriorates and it was significantly bumpy east of Black Mountain, at least West bound.

In the very brief glimpses that I got of it, the scenery is beautiful. IMHO, however, the good does not outweigh the bad.