We took three days to get to Disney

We took three days to get to Disney. There is a good reason for the long journey. It is much more difficult to travel with four legged children than the two legged variety.

Since we have had dogs, I’ve never felt very comfortable making them ride 12 hours before we get to camp. Of course when the kids were little and we traveled we put on a ton of miles everyday. Occasionally we would pull an “all-nighter”; which is what my daughter Jennifer would call driving all the way from Wisconsin to Florida non-stop. However, Dogs are different from children, because you need to predict what they need. My kids never had a problem voicing when they wanted to stop at a wayside for a bathroom break. They also had no problem telling us that they were hungry or just bored. With the dogs we have to regularly schedule stops for potty time and water breaks. We have do this apart from gas station stops; because usually there is nowhere to walk your dogs at a gas station.

So, the result of all of this is that if Garmin says the trip a trip will take 7 hours; we know it’s going to take at least 8. Making the dogs split up the trip to Disney into two days would in reality probably wear us all out. I prefer to pull into a campground before 4:00 PM. This gives Tammy and I some time to relax before we start the whole thing over again the next day. There is no doubt in my mind that Hannah and Kendra need that type of down time as well.

So let the trip to Disney begin:

Let me start by saying that heading up to the Disney trip we had nothing but torrential rains in Texas. To see our post “no stop to the rain” click here. Had we not turned our trailer around several weeks before the trip we would never have been able to get hooked up. I would have easily sunk into the back yard trying to get to the camper. Even the night before the trip it was raining heavily on and off; so loading the trailer was a challenge.

Leaving early we drove through rain for most of the morning. Our first destination was Baton Rouge Louisiana, at an equestrian park. The folks that handle the reservations, which cannot be done over the phone or online, told us to be there by 4:30 PM. On the way there Tammy called ahead and asked if their camping area was going to be too wet to camp. Tammy is told that the camping area is fine for our travel trailer.

After a pretty uneventful day of driving we rolled in just a little shy of 3:30; but that is when it became a confusing mess trying to figure out where to go to register. It took ten minutes and a phone call to figure out what building to register in. Then we were given the site number and we pulled in and started to hook up but the electric box was locked. This results in yet another call, and another 10 minutes before it is unlocked. Although it was a little frustrating the site was really nice. The weather was cloudy but dry, which for us after weeks and weeks of rain was a really nice change. It is a nice quiet place to camp.

The last thing I will say about this camping venue is that it is more pricey than your would expect. The camping site cost almost $40.00. With it being quite a distance from the highway made it, at least in my mind; undesirable for the return trip. I told Tammy that I would prefer to stay at an easy on and off KOA for the same price. That way we would have a cement pad and less of a side trip for just an over night stop. So on the way home it would be a KOA near Baton Rouge.

The Farr Park Equestrian Campground in Baton Rouge

The next morning we headed out pretty early. Our next destination would be Coe Landing County Park Campground in Tallahassee, Florida. This leg of the trip would be about the same distance as the first leg. So about 450 miles or eight hours with stops for gas and breaks for the girls. Again, it was a very uneventful ride. The advantage on this leg is that we gained an hour on the trip; which put us into the campground around 3:00 PM.

Coe Landing County Campground is a nice but very small campground which is bordered by lake Talquin. If you want to stay here you can easily make reservations on-line; but be careful because there are only a few sites that can handle longer travel trailers. The road that goes around the campground is narrow and there is not a lot of room to back up (there are no pull through sites). Our spot was located kiddy corner from the dump station. So I pulled into the dump station road thinking it would make backing up easier. Due to the bushes and trees next to the dump station, it actually made things worse. After a little jockeying we were in our site and hooking up.

The only complaint that I had on this first stay was that the water hook up leaked profusely. As a result I called the county campground phone number and they sent someone over to look at it. The maintenance guy was new to the job and didn’t have the necessary parts to fix it. He left promising that it would be fixed before we returned on our way home, and it was.

Coe Landing County Park

This was a nice campground with very respectful campers so it was quiet and relaxing. In addition it must be a pretty good fishing spot because the majority of folks were heading to the lake with their fishing poles. I inspected the campground bathrooms. They are clean and appear to be well maintained. This is a nice campground, and would be a nice place to stay for more than one night. It is water and electric for $24.00 per night, and that makes it a real deal.

The third leg of our journey started about 7:30 AM. Pulling out of our spot at Coe Landing was easier than I thought it would be. The next stop would be our final destination, Fort Wilderness. This leg would only be about 5 hours of driving, but it would be the most crowded driving of the tri. Everyone and their brother seemed to be on the way to Orlando.

The nice thing about Fort Wilderness is that you can pre-check in so that you get a text to just go to your spot at the campground and avoid a lengthy check in process. When we went in 2010 I felt the check in process was a nightmare, and it was hot, and the girls were in the back of the truck (Kaela and Hannah on that trip), and they had pretty much had enough of traveling that day – we all had. This was so much better; I just rolled up, showed the guard my pre-check in text and off we went.

I have to say, it wasn’t as nice as I remembered it, and the road in front of the campsite didn’t seem as wide and it was difficult to back in because everyone’s tow vehicles were right up to the edge of the roads. But we eventually got in with some help from a bystander and the guy across from us moving his truck. We made it! FYI – camping at Fort Wilderness in the off-season will cost you 135 per night…my personal feeling is that this will be the last time we stay here given the cost. With kids and a multiple day pass at Disney it would probably be worth it, but it’s just Tammy and I and the girls, so we can do just as well but much cheaper elsewhere.