Day 43 - Committed!

Convection oven cookies. Not quite as straightforward as in a propane oven. Since we are on a 30amp connection, the heat needs to be switched to propane while the oven is being used. But, it did work. This is the third or fourth time I’ve used the oven to bake cookies. The cooking time needs to be extended around 25%. I tried to use the broiler function earlier but it just doesn’t seem to get warm enough. I’ll be trying the broiler again on Wednesday to finish off the rib roast after cooking it with the sous vide. These are the ready-to-bake cookies as I don’t need to make dozens at a time.

Back in August, 2018, before we headed out on our first snowbird trip, I purchased a Thousand Trails (TT) Camping Pass with two zones. The northwest and southwest zones plus we added the Trails Collection which gave us access to the Encore Resorts. We’ve really enjoyed staying at these parks as we were able to reserve stays 60 days in advance and stay for up to two weeks at a time. Between longer stays, we had to find somewhere else to stay for a week before we could go to another TT property. Since we are planning to go further east this year, we were going to purchase the southeast zone.

In addition to the Camping Pass, they offer memberships. Since we decided that we enjoy the RV traveling and can see ourselves continuing to do it, we decided to purchase an actual membership. These are lifetime memberships but can be resold on the secondary market. They can only be sold once. If we purchased from the secondary market, we wouldn’t be able to resell at some future date. What we get is the ability to reserve 120 days in advance. In addition, we get one year of RPI membership (another campground club) and one week cabin rental per year at any TT property. We are no longer limited to the regions or zones, can stay up to 21 days and can go park to park. That last one will be important when we visit the east coast as boondocking opportunities are supposedly very limited.

With this RV, I see us in RV parks more often than not due to its limitations which, for us, is fine. Especially if we can take advantage of no-additional-cost locations. When we stay at a TT property, we don’t pay for the site and it includes utilities. In some other locations, such as here in Needles, we pay for electricity.