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dirtanddistance · 3 months

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Grandma's Marathon 2024 Race Recap: Sometimes, you PR. Other times, you're just trying to stay out of the ER.

A wise woman once told me "a marathon in 20 miles of hope and 6.2 miles of truth." At the 2024 Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, I can confidently say I did not get a full 20 miles of hope, and certainly got more than 6.2 miles of truth.

The first question you might be asking yourself about this race report is, "What on Earth were you doing in Duluth, Minnesota? You live in Canada. Your brother who went with you lives in Florida. You are not trying to qualify for Boston. If you were trying to qualify for Boston you are a day trip away from any number of other net downhill qualifying races. Explain yourself." Dear reader, winding up spending a long weekend in Minnesota with my brother is the consequence of a pact that we made last year to run a destination race (a marathon - this detail will matter later) together every year now that we do not live near each other, and we both are very much into running far. We both compiled wish lists of sorts for marathons we thought would be great adventures to go on together, and after running the Vancouver Marathon together last year, it was my brother's turn to choose. I honestly do not know what exactly made him select Grandma's Marathon, but of course as it is a very well reviewed and beloved event in the marathon world, it made it onto his list. I did not check his math on this decision. We signed up when registration opened, virtual high fived at our brilliant decision, and carried on with our lives.

We were not fully aware of the logistics that would come for us in the ensuing months. As you might have noticed, there is no mention of 'booking flights' or 'reserving hotel rooms' in our initial description. And that would be because we did not do any of those things until about 2 months before the race. I can confidently tell you that everyone else on the internet is right when they tell you that you should be booking your hotel for Grandma's the day after the previous year's race. We were ready to book an RV 38 miles outside of town on AirBnb before I finally found a hotel room with a much more reasonable location and amenities. Holding my nose and paying for the hotel room aside, it was time to book flights. Duluth, Minnesota is conveniently located pretty much between Florida and British Columbia, which sounds like a good compromise for two people 3,000 miles apart seeking a destination to meet in. What this does not mention is the fact that flying into the Duluth airport is prohibitively expensive, and you will be flying into Minneapolis, renting a car, and driving two and a half hours to Duluth instead. Now, for two siblings who haven't caught up in a minute, this is not a massive imposition and allowed for a memorable side quest for tacky souvenirs at the Mall of America. However, it is a less charming feature when you have to get back to the airport for one sibling's 9am flight on Monday morning after the race. All of this to say, if you are considering Grandma's Marathon, do not overlook the logistical details.

Warnings out of the way, I rolled out of bed at 3am on a Thursday morning and dragged myself through YVR onto what was thankfully a direct flight to Minneapolis. After an unremarkable plane ride (as unremarkable as hurtling through the sky in a metal tube to a destination over a thousand miles away), I landed in the Land of 10,000 Lakes and lumbered off the jetway to the sight of my little brother, clad in a matching pickleball jacket and shorts set with his Pit Viper sunglasses and a coffee in hand. We found our way to the car rental counter, where we discovered our first hurdle of the trip: some kind of crisis which resulted in us standing in a line for about an hour to pick up the rental car. This left us plenty of time to commiserate about air travel and snap a selfie for our ever-concerned mother. Car keys in hand, we rolled out to find some lunch at the famed Mall of America. Now, the Mall of America is the largest mall in the United States, maybe all of North America, I don't know. I find this claim a bit spurious because while it is a very big mall which contains an entire theme park and aquarium, a number of the retail stores are DUPLICATES. Which, fine, maybe you do need multiple Caribou Coffee locations in case fatigue strikes while you're several floors and a couple of wings separated from the coffee shop, but I will draw the line at multiple Bath and Body Works location in a single mall. This is the American Excess they warn you about. Anyway, we wandered the Nickelodeon Universe and wax nostalgic about the icons of our childhood before finding our way to the food court, the ultimate lunch destination for diametrically different dietary needs travel parties. I snagged the largest acai bowl I've ever seen (it was called 'yacht' size and while I don't think it could fit an entire Leonardo DiCaprio and whichever model he is currently dating, it was still a formidable opponent even for as hungry as I was) and waited up while my brother fetched a fried chicken sandwich meal from Popeye's, which he would later admit to regretting. We then proceeded to put in our first 10,000 steps in the land of 10,000 lakes by wandering every wing of every floor of the Mall of America in search of the perfect tacky treats to bring back to our loved ones and also so that we could say we'd walked the entire Mall of America and seen everything it had to offer. As someone who grew up in a state known for its endless theme park offerings and moved somewhere known for its endless natural amenities while also having tons of large and vibrant indoor shopping malls, I can't say that the Mall of America was for me, but if you ever happen to find yourself in the Twin Cities it was an interesting stop (and there is a food for every appetite in that food court).

Several hours, a stop at the oldest Target location, and numerous gossip topics later, we found ourselves at the hotel in Superior, Wisconsin. When the race materials suggested that the entire surrounding area was really invested in this event, I was not prepared for the random Holiday Inn we were staying at to be completely decked out for marathon weekend. Balloon banners, buckets of bananas and water bottles, little party favor bags in the rooms with more snacks and sunscreen and race-day instruction printouts. I have never been to an event where the city so thoroughly embraces the race weekend energy. We settled in before exhaustedly conceding that we did in fact have to eat dinner, and dragged ourselves to the Perkins across the street where we reminisced about our family's long abandoned ritual of weekly dinner at Perkin's after church on Sunday while I picked at a rather sad collection of side dishes (eating vegan in the Midwest isn't that hard. Eating vegan at Perkins on the other hand...).

Friday dawned and it was time to hit the race expo and check out a bit of downtown Duluth. The race expo had everything you'd expect... many booths hawking Gu and related products, headbands and shirts with cheesy slogans, booths touting methods to 'reset your nervous system' and 'refresh your blood'. After doing a maple syrup shot and drinking a few different flavors of Celcius, we grabbed our packets and were struck with immediate concern at the lack of t-shirts. As it turns out, Grandma's Marathon gatekeeps its finisher shirts and you will not be collecting one unless you cross that finish line yourself.

Friday evening brought the highly touted Michelena's All You Can Eat Spaghetti Dinner. I'm not certain I've ever seen so many people eating in one location, not even in a university dining hall. The quantities of pasta served were gargantuan. You are by default presented with two dinner rolls as your starting portion, with entire loaves of bread out on the table to follow up. Choccy milk and ice cream also abounded. For the low price of just under $20, there was truly no excuse for not being properly fueled for race day.

Speaking of no excuses, we arrive at race day (yes, I know, we're far into a race report for only just getting to the actual race now. Sorry not sorry). After being rudely awakened by two iPhone alarms perfectly in sync, we dragged ourselves through a semblance of a morning routine. Being so early, and being the more morning-oriented sibling of the two of us, I did succeed in convincing my brother to adorn himself with stick on face gems, as is my custom for races these days. He quite appropriately selected two teardrop shaped gems, "one for every marathon I've killed". Boys will be boys (wholesome) I suppose. We rolled up to the parking lot at the University of Wisconsin - Superior, and beheld the bus line to get to the starting line. This is another quirk of Grandma's Marathon - it is a point to point race, and you get to contemplate the full gravity of your decision to sign up for it on a half hour or so bus ride to the start line. I cannot imagine the logistics gymnastics required to get 9,000 people to the start lines via school buses, but after waiting in line for a bit in the misting rain as busload after busload ahead of us were ferried off, we got onto a bus and the journey truly began.

The starting line was a gauntlet of finish line drop bag collection trucks and porta potties, and a nervous huddled mass praying that the rain would continue to hold off on such a gray and dismal morning. We did our rounds of bathroom and stand-around-observing until it was time to surrender our jackets to the drop back trash cans to be reclaimed at the end of our Ordeal.

We shuffled into our packed corrals, and as the countdown proceeded and the gun went off, we trotted over the start line and down the highway. Now, I will say that the marathon course is quite pretty. You run along a two lane highway for miles and miles, sometimes getting a glimpse of the (angry and gray, on our race day) lake. It is a bit repetitive. You run along Superior for... well, basically the whole race. We were running along at a brisk clip, beating our pacing recommendations without much effort, chasing PRs (for us, sub 3:56:30). We made it to the half marathon point and continued along, but I quickly started to feel the pace catching up with me. By mile 15, I was starting to feel a bit dizzy and nauseous. My brother was doing ok, and he started to pull ahead. By Mile 17, we were officially separated out and my new goal was to stay out of the med tent and avoid an expensive trip to the emergency room. I was thirsty the entire time despite everything feeling sloshy and adhering religiously to my nutrition plan. My brain was simply not prepared for the reality of grinding out 26.2 miles as fast as I could manage on the road. I was quickly discovering that sandwiching a 'fast' road marathon between two trail ultras, without doing any speed workouts and avoiding road running to the greatest extent possible, was simply not something I had cracked this time around. I patted myself on the back metaphorically for coming to terms with my failure rather quickly and for deciding to grit my teeth and get to that finish line no matter how undignified I felt about it. This is where thing became surprising. Despite the pain, and the rain, and the fact that it was kinda cold (too cold to walk for the entire rest of the race for me), the entire race flew by. Even the miles I had to walk some of. I never was out there thinking, 'how much longer?! HOW WILL I ENDURE?!" It just... went by. It didn't matter that the course was kinda boring. It didn't matter that everything hurt and I didn't feel so good. I recalibrated my expectations, trucked along, enjoyed the silly signs and cheers of the spectators (they are just as enthusiastic after hours in the rain. Duluth has an A+ cheering section for sure). I paid attention to all of the makeshift aid stations with juice or beer or fruit. The sign that said "all toenails go to heaven". The fact that from what I could tell, the same spectators were moving from point to point, which is a feat of dedication in and of itself.

As I closed in on downtown Duluth in the final mile, the desire to just walk it in mounted. It was cold. It was rainy. I was over it. However, the spectators mercilessly encouraged anyone who dropped pace and I simply could not handle being yelled at to keep running, so I trudged along. Meters from the finish, the fellow next to me goes, "we're here! We did it!" in awe, and damn if I didn't kinda start crying because yeah, we are here, and we have done it. I have no idea what kind of journey it was for him (but from his tone I might guess it was his first marathon finish), and he had no idea that I too was feeling fairly awed by my ability to drag myself all the way to the finish line in spite of the many things that fell apart for me that morning. We both made it across the finish line, me with a new personal worst marathon time, and my new compatriot very dramatically dropped to his knees with his hands to the sky. I very quickly hobbled away at this point as that was not a narrative that I wished to be included in, and finally the pain and discontent had their chance to hit me full on. As I gimped along with my medal, a photographer flagged me to "Pose with your medal!". Which I totally did because no is not in my midwestern pedigreed vocabulary, but I quickly started crying seconds after that photo was taken. I was handed a mylar blanket (or 'heat sheet' as they called it) and continued my sad, damp, sniffly shuffle to find my brother. At this point I was aware of a new dire issue, which is that the empty Gu wrapper I had shoved in my side pocket under my phone felt as though it had chafed a hole through the side of my leg, and my only remaining consolation was that seeing as I had not passed my brother on the course, it was possible that he was having a slightly better day than me.

This hope was dashed as my eyes alighted on a sad red-headed boy sitting wrapped in a heat sheet under a tree. I hobbled over and also took a seat, at which point he says "I was going to go get my drop back but I can't get up". As the rain continued to fall, we looked forlornly at the lineups of people waiting to collect their drop bags. The competing desires of 'sit forever because wow my legs hurt' and 'I am going to freeze to death if I keep sitting here soaking wet with only a mylar blanket to my name' roiled in our heads until finally, the need to get dry and warmed up won out. While we did have to stand in line for a bit to finally reunite with our jackets and some dry clothes, I will say (full offense intended) that it was more organized than the Sun Run drop back pick up.

I will not go into graphic detail about peeling off clothes that are both sweat and rain soaked in a tent full of other sticky sweaty damp people, the floor blanketed in abandoned heat sheets. I was impressed to discover that while the wayward Gu packet that I was too polite to toss on the road did not bore a literal bleeding hole in my leg, I did have a chafe so bad that in subsequent hours and days it would scab over and make it difficult to sleep. Just when you think you've mastered your chafing prevention routine, nature finds a way.

The trial did not end with getting changed, however. Now that we were warm, dry, and in pain, it was time to hobble the quarter mile or so to the finish line bus stop. Finally checking our phones, we saw our mom's request for additional photos and snapped a very grumpy selfie on the way. Every foot step was a new nightmare as every few seconds one of us thought aloud, "are we there yet?" Finally we reached the buses; I will be the first to tell you that there is nothing more enjoyable than riding an un-air conditioned school bus packed full of sticky, sweaty, damp adults.

We finally made it back to the hotel in a torrent of vague discomfort and grumbling, cleaned up, and landed in the Nirvana that was the clean hotel beds with our respective Nintendo Switch/Steam Decks and snacks. When dinner time rolled around, we ventured back out (full of complaints) to a well reviewed Mexican restaurant. When I tell you this place was sketchy as hell to find, I am not exaggerating. We got lost on a 5 minute drive to the place. The windowless venue on the side of a larger warehouse type building was menacing and did not look like a promising place to find a post-marathon meal. However, upon opening the door, we were greeted by a delightful interior and more tortilla chips than either of us could safely house in our GI tracts. Sometimes, there are secrets to be found in the unlikeliest of places.

The remainder of the trip involves BOGO sourdough loaves, 'vacation coffee', and limping around Duluth the following day which was miraculously sunny. More important than any one thing we did on this trip, though, was the chance to just hang out together. We hadn't gotten to go on a sibling side quest that wasn't a funeral or funeral-adjacent in... well, a very long time. And while those tough experiences brought us together and shaped who we are, it's only in quiet moments of mundane togetherness that you truly get to enjoy who another person is.

In conclusion, our pilgrimage to Duluth taught me a few things.

Always check the full logistics before signing up for a race.

I have to do speed workouts if I want to run PR times. Lame.

We would've crushed a half marathon. Too bad we were signed up for a full marathon.

You should consider cherishing and curating your personal worst performances with as much love and care as your personal best performances.

Just because you hit a physical wall does not mean you need to build a mental wall to match, and your ability to scale your mental walls directly correlates to how you will navigate your physical walls.

The refried beans you eat after a marathon are the best refried beans you will ever experience in your life.

Consider travel insurance if you want to embody the PR-or-ER ethos.

Having a buddy, whether or not you run together, can very easily help you find a 'why' on a tough run. And that 'why' can be 'I need to not keep my brother waiting so long that he loses any remaining respect for me so no more walking'.

Road or trail, rain or shine, PR or ER, there's always more to learn about yourself and others out there.

#fitblr #fitness #runblr #running #exercise #ultramarathon #nature #forest #trails #woods #road runner #road trip #minnesota #duluth #marathon #fitfam #run

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stormyoceans · 2 years

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i need horny puentalay rant from you now because HAVE YOU SEEN TALAY'S FACE WHEN HE ATE THAT CHIP FROM PUEN'S HAND??? HE'S MELTING RIGHT ON THIS GRASS AND LETTING PUEN TAKE HIM RIGHT HERE. OMG. AND WHEN THEY KISSED NEAR THAT GIANT TREE? I need ice, fan, refrigerator. it's too hot.

THOSE MAD MEN REALLY DECIDED THAT THE BEST WAY TO END THE SHOW WAS TO HAVE PUEN PICK TALAY UP BRIDAL STYLE AND CARRY HIM INTO THE FRIEND CREDITS RV TO FUCK ALL NIGHT THIS IS THE LEVEL OF DERANGEMENT WE GOTTA DEAL WITH

i bet puen actually dreamed to do that from the very first moment he and talay started to renovate the RV in the alternate universe..... I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY IM GETTING SURPRISED ANYMORE THAT BOY HAS A LIST OF KINKS LONGER THAN THE LYRICS OF RAP GOD BY EMINEM. btw, not to toot my own horn, but every single thing i pointed out in the previous horny puen post??? they ALL got confirmed in the span of A SINGLE EPISODE

the sugar daddy/daddy kink? GOD WHERE DO I EVEN BEGIN. puen literally rented a WHOLE FREAKING RESTAURANT just for talay and ordered all of his favorite foods, he recreated and gifted talay every item that was important to them in the alternate universe, he constantly drove talay around even if talay has his own car, he dragged talay to cook with him but in the end made only one plate and would have been perfectly content with just staring at talay eating if talay didn't offer him some of it...... WE GET IT PUEN YOU WANT TO TAKE CARE OF HIM AND SHOWER HIM IN LOVE AND AFFECTION AND FOOD AND PRETTY THINGS I SWEAR WE GET IT JUST CALM. DOWN.

puen wanting to eat talay out? I MEAN JUST LOOK AT THAT FINAL KISS AND TELL ME IF THAT AIN'T A STARVING MAN FINALLY GETTING TO FEAST. when he held talay's head with both of his hands???? no wonder talay looked SO DAZED AND OUT OF IT afterwards, puen literally kissed him until he got lightheaded and his glasses fogged over!!!!! he didn't drop, but BY GOD THAT WAS A CLOSE ONE (and no one can convince me that puen isn't into getting talay to the point where is all pliant and responsive and melting under his hands). AND DO WE WANT TO TALK ABOUT THE OPENING BED SCENE?????? puen said "i promise i'll be as gentle as possible. gentle but intense" and i was sitting there like WHAT ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH AM I LOOKING AT RN ARE WE SURE YOU'RE STILL TALKING ABOUT KISSING. adding "i won't hurt your lips" somehow didn't help AT ALL. and if you like a nice metaphor, let's not forget that while they were eating lay's, puen pointed at talay and said "can i have this lay too?" VERY SUBTLE. SMOOTH.

puen having a thing for talay's neck and for manhandling him? IM ONCE AGAIN GOING TO REDIRECT EVERYONE'S ATTENTION TO THAT LAST SCENE. but also to every time puen kissed or tried to kiss talay throughout the episode: grabbing talay's neck is basically the signal that he is read to POUNCE. and puen picking talay up reminded me of how he did a similar thing in episode 6 to get talay out of the way while they were filming the video for the association, so YOU KNOW that any time talay ends up working too much and neglecting everything else, puen is just gonna be like 'nope! time to take care of yourself and cuddle and have some sexy time!' [picks talay up and carries him to bed] NOT EVEN GONNA TOUCH ON THE WAY PUEN COVERED TALAY'S MOUTH WHILE THEY PLAYED THE PASSWORD GAME. do you know how /I/ would cover someone's mouth if I didn't want them to talk? NOT LIKE THAT, FRIENDS

ANYWAY. we talked a lot about puen because he is one very horny boy, but let me end this with one thing i actually believe talay is into, which is teasing puen with the possibility of kissing or touching him. like, maybe it's not something that he's purposely doing now that he still feels a bit shy, but look at the beginning of the episode and tell me that when talay gets bolder he won't thoroughly enjoy getting puen all worked up only to deny himself over and over again until puen is either begging him to pleasepleaseplease talay let me touch you please or pinning him against a wall so talay can no longer escape (very consensually) or both (jokes on all of us because puen is into that too)

#be honest with me from 1 to 10 how much should i feel embarrassed and go find a place to bury myself in #IM SORRY IM SORRY IM SORRY I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH #blame everyone involved in this show for making me even more unhinged than i already am!!!!!!#vice versa #vice versa the series #puentalay #m: ask

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annakie · 2 years

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A Very Star Wars Christmas

I said I’d post about this last week when I got home, but I ended up coming down with a cold instead (not COVID, I’ve tested three times in the last six days, thankfully) and haven’t felt like doing anything. So here’s a post the first post of at least two, maybe three, about my family Christmas with a lot of info about the Star Wars Galactic Starcruiser and just some family stuff mixed in.

I haven’t seen my Brother/SIL/Niblings since 2019. This is partially due to COVID and partially due to Patchy’s health and partially due to just... inertia. I don’t feel great about it.

But ever since the Starcruiser thing was announced my mom really wanted to go on it. My mom is the original Star Wars nerd in our family. She saw it in the theater as much as she could. She snuck out with a friend of hers to see Empire Strikes Back without us kids, and then the next day both my brother and I and the neighbor’s kids had “surprise dental appointments” wherein our dentist was watching Luke Skywalker find out that Darth Vader is his dad. Then we went for ice cream. It was a great day. We had similar dentist appointments for Return of the Jedi.

Star Wars (and Star Trek, even more so) were both revered in our house by both our mom (our dad liked them but was more of a fan of like, motorcycles and working on cars) my brother and I.

My SIL also liked Star Wars, and the four niblings (Oldest boy 12, then boy/girl twins 10, then youngest boy 8) have been brought into the Star Wars fold. Also along for the ride was my aunt (mom’s sister), so all told there were 10 in the family, all going to Star Wars for Christmas.

This was like, a thing my mom really wanted to do with the whole family as soon as it became a thing. We definitely do not usually take crazy expensive vacations, believe me. I wouldn’t have done this by myself because the price is eye-popping and my parents are usually pretty frugal. This was my mom doing a bucket-list item, for herself and for all of us. And we all loved it, a lot.

Gonna post pics, with faces blurred for privacy.

Back row: Dad, mom, aunt, me, SIL, 12yo, Brother. Front: 10yob, 8yo, 10yog.

Mom and Dad have a very big, nice RV they live out of most of the year. Aunt has a smaller but also nice RV she lives in most of the time (they all also have a house near-ish me they spend the rest of the time in.) They stayed at an RV park near Disney that also rented out cottages.

Bro, SIL and the kids actually went down to Florida from their more northern home state early December, and rented one of the cottages for most of December. Nothing fancy, but a small living room with a couch and a chair, a dining room table that seated 4, a small but functional kitchen (no dishwasher), one bath, one full bedroom, and a loft with four beds for the kids. It was about twenty steps from walking out of one of the RVs to the cottage so, very convenient.

My brother worked from “home” for a couple of weeks while SIL and the parents took the kids places like Kennedy Space Center, the Children’s museum, other not-too-expensive adventures nearby, and some expensive like a couple of days at Magic Kingdom, EPCOT and LegoLand. Again, once-in-a-lifetime kind of trip. They knew that this was their Christmas present from their mom and dad, and Starcruiser was their present from Grandma.

Grandpa bought them lightsabers (and Rey’s Jakku weapon) for Christmas at Magic Kingdom. The plastic kind, not the build-your-own kind.

I missed most of that because I had to be at home, working. But I flew to Orlando on the 21st. I was supposed to get there with enough time to spend time with the family that night, but the airplane that we were supposed to fly in on got grounded for mechanical troubles. Three gate changes and almost two hours later, I flew out and everyone was asleep when my Aunt came and picked me up. I had some credits on American Airlines and splurged and upgraded to First Class and yes, it was expensive but yes, it was very nice and roomy and the charcuterie plate for dinner was better than expected. I wanted a once-in-a-lifetime experience, too. And after two and a half years of not traveling (except once on the company dime), I was OK with it.

I stayed with my aunt in her RV since she likes sleeping in her nice recliner, I slept in the bedroom and was glad I brought Advil PM to actually sleep through most of the night. The next morning I got dressed in the outfit I’d created for myself out of things I already owned: the boots, pants, and leather belt, and things I bought online: this awesome shirt, this incredible vest, some leather belt pouches and bracer, some cheap but cute goggles, and my most favorite thing: a light-up Kyber Crystal engraved with my SWFFG character’s name in Arabesh. It all went together to create my Smuggler outfit, and overall, I thought I looked great and got a few compliments.

Here’s an awkward selfie I took before I got the necklace a few months ago. Wrist bracer sorta over there by Fry. :p

Anyway, I was proud of putting together halfway decent cosplay, and without the belt pouches, goggles and bracer, it’d probably be a pretty good everyday outfit anyway. On Starcruiser you are highly encouraged to dress the part, but your part is like, just Some Person Who Lives in A Galaxy Far Far Away. So you can have yourself a name (I told people my Star Wars FFG character’s name) but you aren’t supposed to be like, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Annakin Skywalker, Rey, Finn, Poe etc etc. You are a character, not the character. So here I was, a legitimate businesswoman on Starcruiser to perform totally legitimate business.

My mom, aunt and dad were envoys from Coruscant. The kids were all Jedi including my niece, who was a twilek Jedi for about the first hour until her lekku got too hot and then she basically looked like my smuggler’s assistant. My SIL made her own dress based off Leia’s from the end of The Force Awakens and it looked great, and she made my brother’s outfit. No, he’s totally not freshly escaped from Narkina 5, why do you ask?

Seriously though, first of all big shoutout to my SIL because she made all the costumes for herself, my bro and the kids and they all looked great. Also my brother’s costume killed at Starcruiser. He had people going up and getting pictures with him, yelling “ON PROGRAM!” at him, joking about how it was nice he finally found some shoes, etc. It wasn’t really timeline-fitting since Starcruiser happens between TLJ and TRoS but it didn’t matter. With Andor fresh in everyone’s minds, he was a huge hit.

So, you can’t arrive to Starcruiser til 1pm on your first day, so I did get some quality hanging out time with the family beforehand. I mostly hung out in the cottage with bro/SIL and the kids after having breakfast with my parents in their RV. We loaded up the cars a little early and made our way towards Disney. Good thing, too, because not only did we miss a turn thanks to bad GPS connection, but there was a serious lack of signs pointing towards where to go until you were close, and then another lack of signs of where to go after that, haha.

Anyway, we were still one of the first five cars to get there, which worked out for us because our group was so big (a lot of the staff went “TEN!?” when they asked how big our party was) so it took a lot to get all our stuff out of the cars, to get everyone together, to get all our stuff TO us etc.

So how the security stuff works is with the MagicBand. It’s sorta like a watch but not really. You just put ‘em on your wrist and you can pay for stuff with them, and also they’re your room key and ID to get to places. You also use them to complete quests on Starcruiser and in Galaxy’s Edge, the Star Wars part of Hollywood Studios, but more on that later.

We took that first pic of the post, then headed in... except my brother and I couldn’t because something was wrong with our magic bands and it took a good 20 minutes to sort out, and we still had to bring our ID around with us to the park the next day. Basically, originally my mom booked two rooms for the ten of us then went ahead and booked one more room for a total of three, (and yes, feel free to do the math on that. For the next-to-last time, a once-in-a-lifetime type of trip.) But moving everyone around to new rooms really glitched something in their systems and at one point my mom had a very unhelpful rep on the phone when making reservations who she thinks screwed things up. We ended up with two accounts and they had to get merged and.. hoooo boy it was a mess not only here, but a little while later, too.

SO ANYWAY. Finally we get in, about 45 minutes after we arrived. And I should say, the staff was great, they were dealing with a lot. I did gently suggest to one guy to maybe call a supervisor (in a very “hey, man, you’re dealing with a lot, is there someone who could get you some backup?” way, not a “LET ME TALK TO YOUR SUPERVISOR!!” way) and once that happened the supervisor got it sorted and we got in.

So, basically, the second you’re inside and done dealing with security, it’s like... man... you are IN STAR WARS. You’re THERE.

You get into a “shuttlepod” (elevator) which transports you from the surface of Coresaunt to the Halcyon Starcruiser. And not only does it transport you, but you can “see out” two little windows at the top and your shuttlepod flies up through the clouds, briefly jumps to lightspeed(?) and then you see the Halcyon on the screen and.. you dock. And the doors open. And holy shit, you’re on a spaceship.

I’m sorry this is the best pic we have of the experience, my mom took this one, that’s my head there with the goggles, but that’s us leaving the planet.

Yes, it’s a video on a TV screen but holy shit even that little elevator feels like a very Star Wars experience that you’re in a real little shuttlepod. Except that there’s handrails, lol.

So um, you walk out of the shuttlepod to the atrium of the Halcyon. And starting at this moment you’d better just start believing you’re on a spaceship in Star Wars because it will make your life so much easier and more magical for the next day and 20ish hours.

The Atrium is where most of the action happens. It’s where you’re going to meet the cast of characters that the story you’re about to be a part of for the first time, at least for most of them. It’s the nexus of most of the things you’re going to want to do and see.

OK let me back up.

The “Ship” (and look, I’m going to say ship even though we all know it’s a hotel, on Earth) supposedly has a lot of levels but you can only go to floors 4 through 7. Floor 4 has the dining room, the cargo bay, the “engine room”, the lightsaber training room, the “environmental simulator”, which I’ll get to later, and a few smaller spaces, and where you board the shuttlepod to Batuu (Hollywood Studios). Floor 4 might actually be ground level, I honestly do not know and wouldn’t know how to tell.

Floors five and seven I think are all guest rooms. We were on floor seven, thankfully near the end of the hall. The cast can get to the second level of the atrium from floor seven but not the guests.

Floor six has the atrium, the bar, the bridge, the gift shop, and some more guest rooms.

Honestly there might be more stuff that I didn’t even see, I don’t know. There’s a good map of it from the app here. I’ll talk about the app later.

I think that there is at least one entire level for the cast? Apparently in order to not break immersion, everyone lives on the ship while they’re working. So the actors, cooks, waitstaff, bar staff etc. don’t go home at night. They also live there. I don’t know the exact schedule but I have to think they must have two shifts of people who rotate “voyages”. Each voyage is two days. You arrive around 1pm on one day, have a full day there (well, a lot of it at Galaxy’s Edge) and leave the next morning by 10am. They have two or three hours to turn it around and start all over again with the next group. But we had the same actors, the same staff, the entire time.

We probed a little and found out a little information but the staff has to stay in character the entire time. Our waitress was Gina, we saw her at dinner both nights and also helping out during the first lunch and the late night buffet later. I really want to know like, are they one cruise on, one cruise off and it just rotates like that? I don’t know. I could possibly be wrong about this but Gina thought hard about how to phrase it and I think she was saying this for real and not giving me a cutesy Star Wars answer. BUT I COULD BE WRONG and dumb on this.

Anyway, back to it.

The atrium is a large space, and like I said, where most of the action happens and aside from the bar, the main hangout place. We spent a lot of time just hanging out there. It’s comfortable. There’s usually something going on. There’s a fancy water bar (sparkling, chilled flat or room temp flat! Look, I love just drinking water 90% of the time so I was very happy with easy access to as many cups as I wanted of tasty, cold water) or hop into the bar for a drink. You can just sit and look out to the bridge and either observe if Bridge Training is happening or just watch the stars go by, or the ship orbiting the planet. Whatever is happening in the story, you can look out of any “window” and that’s reflected. Also they often had snacks at the guest services desk if you just really needed some popcorn, pretzels, candy, dried fruit... I don’t know all of what they had, I just asked the niblings what they had grabbed when they came by with stuff and grazed off them, haha.

And in the first few hours when you arrive, many of the characters are just there, hanging out, getting to know you and you getting to know them.

Let’s look at the Atrium:

You know what? I don’t have many from when “Nothing” is happening but these two are decent. The first one is from not long after boarding, and that’s the back of Ouannii, who is a Rodian and one of the official characters. More on her in a sec.

There’s a bunch of pretty comfortable seating and some of the seating has USB/plugs so you can recharge while relaxing. It feels very Star-Warsy in a very clean, sleek, Corellia-y way. In the second pic you can see the model of the Halcyon (the ship we’re on), and above that you can see some of the windows. There was a bridge crew training happening I think when I took those so the things flying by are practice targets.

We just... hung out here for awhile before and after lunch and it was great. But upon arrival, we were swept quickly to our rooms to put down our carryons. Also so those not already in costume could get into costume. I’d say by dinner the first night like 80% of everyone was in some sort of costume. And if you didn’t bring one and didn’t mind dropping some $$ there were some to buy in the store. We were one of very few people we saw who just came in our costumes, but a lot of people probably came from the airport or other Disney resorts, whereas we came from “home”.

The rooms... were also very Star Wars.

Very cool: you have a “window” where you can continue to see what’s going on outside the ship, and one of your options is for it to keep coinciding with what’s happening in the story. ALSO I learned that depending on which side of the ship your room was on, you got a different view! You could also change it to a few things like a generic starcreen, or planetside views of Star Wars planets if you were feeling a little claustrophobic. It could be “shuttered” at night, or you could leave it on if you wanted it as a nightlight.

You could pull those orange box chairs under the window out and there were tables that would pull out, as well, if you wanted a seating area. But it was cool that it also tucked away neatly.

Bottom pic.. you can see there’s a queen sized bed and two bunks. My niece (the twilek pictured here haha) took the top one, I took the bottom one and my aunt took the bed. The room was VERY comfortable for three people, about a standard hotel sized room, way bigger than like, a regular cruise ship room.

And sleeping in the bunk felt VERY Star Wars. My only complaint was that that white rolled-up thing? It’s basically a sleeping bag, NOT a blanket. My aunt kept the room warm but I still wanted a blanket in the middle of the night and couldn’t figure out how to unroll it for awhile in the dark, and ended up just half-draping it over myself lol. But for the kids? Very cool. The bed was comfortable enough, though I missed my memory foam at home.

I don’t have a pic of the bathrooms but they were spacious and separated out so the toilet had its own space, as did the sink. The shower was a walk-in with a rainforest showerhead placed on the ceiling and falling right down. Not great for those of us who didn’t want to wash our hair, but whatevs. It was neat.

Also appreciated was that they had a big bottle of water in the room to share so I didn’t have to run down to the back of the atrium for cold water.

A weird but maybe cool(?) feature was that every room had like a “safe room” so that you could hide in case of an emergency? And then call for help so staff could help you. I think it’s so any elderly passengers didn’t have to wait in an unsafe place, and apparently each one had its own ventilation system and stuff? I don’t know how it works, just that it exists. Not like we had to use it. Yes, there were exit signs in case of an emergency, too, but apparently you could maybe survive in there in case of a fire you couldn’t get away from.

Another awesome feature of the room, I tried taking a pic but it’s a bit hard to tell...

It’s hard to see! But on that little screen is a video call with a droid! (D-3). She welcomes you to the room, and she can do all sorts of cool things. She talks to you and you can respond.. they have a very cool IVR or AI system set up, so she’ll ask your opinion on things, and she’ll remember it. She not only gives important information, but also like, she will ask you all sorts of questions, and she will answer questions, and at the end of the day you can tell her how your day was, you give her advice, and she will tell you a bedtime story or sing you a lullaby! The first night we got the story, (which, spoiler alert, was A New Hope but with R2 as the hero lol). The second night we tried for the lullaby but my niece was a bit slow answering so we didn’t get anything and couldn’t call back to ask her to do it. Slightly disappointing. It was still, very cool. Also the thermostat is there, and any emergency announcements come through that speaker and probably other stuff I didn’t mess with. We didn’t spend much non-sleeping time in the room. I’m sure there are cool bits that I missed.

The other screen.. uh... we didn’t explore it too much but when we got there it had a welcome message with our names on it (and my aunt’s spelled wrong :p). I think it had other things you could do but we never messed with it. Possibly an actual TV? idk. Why would you watch TV when you paid that much money to be IN STAR WARS?

Okay so from there, we headed to the dining room for lunch! It was like, 2:30 by then so we were pretty hungry.

More pics of the dining room later on, but this is a pretty good rep of it from the front looking back. Lunch that day and breakfast the next two were cafeteria style, all you can eat. This is the Crown of Corellia Dining room (the only dining room). Pretty big, but never felt crowded at all. Through those doors in the back was the cafeteria. We didn’t take any pics, but it wasn’t anything particularly fancy. The dining room itself though looked good in the light and at night in the dark, and the chairs were comfy.

I didn’t take a lot of food pics, this is almost all you’re going to get on that front.

Yes I tried the Blue Milk. My 12yo nephew and I both decided... we didn’t... not like it. Also didn’t actually like it? It was like.. fruit-flavored... slightly jellied... milk? Oh man, it is indescribable. Definitely something you should try if you get the chance and make up your own mind.

There was also green milk, which I didn’t get around to trying. My nephew said the same thing... couldn’t decide if he liked it or not.

The lunch buffet was great and I tried hard to not eat too much since dinner was like, less than three hours away, but there were some very good things. The little salad with the parmesean crisp on the left was fantastic. Then there was a cheese toasty (upper center, beneath the green sweetroll) that came with a little tomato soup... SO GOOD. That’s the only thing I went back for seconds for. The thing on the right was basically pizza. center bottom right was a ham and cheese roll, and the purple-blue blob stuff was a jelly-cream dessert with a bite of black cake and some kind of shipped cream. They all had very Star-Wars-y names that I do not remember.

It was all very good. But I’m still thinking of that cheese toasty.

From there we went out to the atrium. For like a full hour, my brother, SIL and the kids got tech support. All of the kids got given a very locked down iPhone, which was basically to play Star Wars Data Pad with and... oh God now I have to describe the datapad.

Let’s digress!

SO basically, when you go to Starcruiser you want to download the Play Disney App and then you go in and link your reservation to your phone (thankfully I did this a couple of weeks before we went). And the kids or anyone who doesn’t have a phone gets given a phone for this. And inside the Play Disney App as the Star Wars Datapad app on it. Which is your LIFELINE on this trip.

I am grateful my mom took this screenshot because I never did, thinking I’d be able to later.

So first of all, the app is your schedule. It tells you where you NEED to be and why. So you can see there, our transport to Batuu was at 8:10am on the second day, we had a reservation for Oga’s Cantina at noon, etc.

But it ALSO is your Quest Hub.

See the thing is, when you’re on Starcruiser, you’re not just a passive observer, unless you just wanna be. They actually want you to actively be a part of the story. And to do that, you not only show up to things like it’ll say “Muster - All Passengers, 4pm in the Atrium” (more on that later) but also the characters send you texts on the app (it’s all automated, it’s not actual people texting you but it is the CHARACTERS sending you in-character messages, if that makes sense. Much like a video game.) and you can choose to embark on quests for the characters.

And honestly, I don’t think it’s possible to do it all in one trip.

See, there’s a half dozen or more people you can ally yourself with and you can’t do them all. I went in knowing I wanted to be a smuggler, so for me, figuring out who the main smuggler storyline guy was and connecting with that story was most important. However, I also did several things for the captain and first officer.

It is literally like a mix of LARPing with the actors and being on the ship and video gaming by picking up quests, talking to the virtual version of the characters on the app and collecting stuff.

Basically, you choose the life -- Resistance, Smuggler, or First Order. Oh yeah, you can be First Order. And honestly if I ever went back, I might go that route for a very different experience. (Note: what you do in a game does not reflect what you’d do in real life don’t come at me with that, tumblr, thanks. Not that I think any of my mutuals would, but you never know who ends up reading a post.)

You can do some of each, but really, you want to commit to a storyline and make sure you see that one through, at least. And doing that is a combination of paying attention to what’s going on around you, talking to the right people, and paying attention to your app and responding in certain ways to certain quests.

That’s what your Comms is, though in the screenshot above, some of the items are main quest items, like doing stuff for Captain Keevan.

The Comms is the main quest page where you get and send messages from the characters, and you can basically also steer your quests in certain directions, like telling Lt. Cray, the First Order guy, you’re not going to help him and telling Raithe, the main smuggler guy, you’re down to smuggle whateves, whenevs.

You’ll use Tools all throughout the ship and Baatu. There’s like, a translation page so you can translate Arabesh (Star Wars Language) to English. There’s a whole scanning minigame where you want to find basically QR codes and you can collect virtual items, and unlock clues in quests. There’s a GPS tool so you can get to certain points to listen in on radio signals or transmit some. It’s minigame central with a GPS and QR scanning component, basically. But you use them in all sorts of quests.

The map is also very useful to get you around Baatu AND the Halcyon, and will point you towards quest points you’re on. It was very handy.

And the Profile will basically tell you who you’re working for, who you’re on good and bad terms with, and you collect in-app virtual items.

I will end up talking more about the app at the end. Just know that not only do you use your phone a lot for this stuff, but like my niblings didn’t have phones so Starcruiser loaned them locked-down iphones with Otterboxes on them, and it took a good hour to get my bro/SIL to get them all set up along with like three staff member’s help, thanks to both my bro/SIL not setting up their accounts ahead of time AND our reservation being a bit bungled. The staff who helped them were SO kind, patient and helpful and came up to me later and asked if everything with the niblings is going okay. I mean, it’s Disney, you expect the staff to be great, but they were extra great.

Woo! Intergalactic tech support!

During this time, after lunch and before dinner was also the main time when we met a bunch of characters.

Like here I am with Ouannii. And holy crap y’all. She only speaks Rodian, and her MOUTH MOVES WHEN SHE SPEAKS. It is a sight to behold. I mean it’s just animatronics but it is really cool looking. She walks around and talks with people, and you basically have to interpret her through pantomime but it’s such an experience. Oh, and there’s my cool light-up Kyber crystal necklace, too.

My niblings met SK-620 during this time, a droid important to the story. Yeah he just rolls around and talks (R2-D2 style) and I have NO IDEA who’s controlling him or where from but it was just awesome to see. Is there a person in there? Is someone watching from a window? He had a handler but the handler really didn’t seem like they were the ones doing the controlling. Just... really amazing and fun to be around.

I was about to talk about Muster but... you know what? This post is ridiculously long already and I haven’t gotten to the good stuff. And my fingers hurt from typing. Consider this part one of at least two or three.

Part Two here!

#star wars #galactic starcruiser #star wars starcruiser #personal post tag thingy #disney #disneyworld #starcrusier 2022

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thefakerachelray · 2 years

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Since it’s fall, aka prime Camping Season, and some people may be trying tent camping for the first time, here’s some Basic Camping Advice from me. (Keep in mind this is all aimed towards recreational camping in an organized campground and not all of it applies in all situations.)

Book campsites ahead of time if you can, especially in the fall when they’re busiest. Halloween is the absolute busiest time of the year, and sites need to be booked months in advance at some campgrounds.

Halloween is fun though! People decorate their campsites and golf carts (yes, a lot of campgrounds have golf carts for rent), and there’s trick or treating. Some even do it for a few weekends before Halloween.

Advice on picking campsites: notice whether your campground differentiates between tent and RV sites, and decide if you want your campsite to back up to the woods or not (woods give you privacy but you might also be further from amenities).

This seems obvious but CHECK THE WEATHER and be prepared. Camping is no fun when you're freezing or wet or both.

BUG SPRAY. Bring it. Use it.

Believe it or not, you CAN pitch a tent! Most modern tents are fairly easy to set up as long as you follow the directions that come with them.

Make sure the corners of your tent are spread out as much as possible before you stake it down. You don't want to lose space.

Bring a hammer. Sometimes the ground is soft enough to drive the tent stakes into with your hands/feet, but it's better to assume it won't be.

You'll want to face the opening of your tent away from the fire so smoke doesn't get inside, and you probably want to set it on a flat, grassy area.

Listen to me. Starting a fire is harder than movies make it look. Make sure at least one person in the group knows how to build and safely start a fire. And no, you can't start one by rubbing sticks together. You need a lighter. Preferably one of those long ones for candles, not a cigarette lighter.

Fire starters exist and they’ll make your life so much easier. We use these.

Most campgrounds sell firewood at the camp store, and pretty often grocery stores and gas stations nearby have it too. Your best bet is to have some with you before you ever get to the campground, in case the camp store runs out.

Speaking of firewood, you probably need more than you think you do, and you want a mix of sizes. Big full-sized logs will keep burning longer, but smaller kindling and split logs will catch faster and are good for starting your fire.

Wear gloves when handling wood as well, to avoid splinters. And sometimes spiders.

Smoke is inevitable. The smell of it will get into your hair and clothes. It will blow in your face, and as soon as you move, the wind will change and it will blow right towards you again. Just accept it. It’s part of the experience.

Please be careful around fire. Again, that seems obvious, but I can’t stress enough how much you don’t want to get burned. Also keep in mind that metal conducts heat, plastic melts, and paper ignites when they’re near fire, and those things can burn you too.

Seriously, it’s so important I’m going to say it again: take fire safety seriously. Be VERY aware of your surroundings any time you’re near a fire. That goes double if you’re drinking alcohol.

If you get air mattresses (and you’ll probably want to, they're much more comfortable than sleeping on the ground, even with sleeping bags), look for Coleman or another brand that specializes in camping gear. They're designed to stand up to the outdoors.

Make sure you have a way to inflate your air mattress too. Some have built in pumps, but not all. Inflate them while it’s still light out so you can see if they’re leaking air.

Trash bags are a necessity. I recommend at least one per day. It sucks to forget trash bags and have nowhere to put your garbage, which I know because I Have Done That.

Also, check the rules about what to do with your trash, especially in places where there are bears. I don’t think I have to explain why those campgrounds have strict rules about how to store food and dispose of garbage.

Disposable plates, cups, and cutlery are also nice to have. We keep some in our “camping box”.

Pay attention when cooking. It’s really easy to burn food over an open fire.

Reese’s Cups, especially Reese’s Thins, are great on s’mores! The classic chocolate bar version is always good too.

As my dad once said, “battling The Dark is one of the biggest challenges of camping”. Bring plenty of flashlights and a camping lantern if you can get one, and make sure they have batteries.

On a similar note, make sure your phone is charged when you get to the campground in case of an emergency. You may or may not have access to electricity at your campsite, and you’ll at least want your phone as a backup flashlight.

Campground bathhouses aren’t always very clean. Like smoke, this is just a fact of camping that can’t be avoided. You can’t really avoid going in them anyway. You’ll have to go to the bathroom at some point (and probably shower if you camp for multiple days), so it’s just a thing you gotta deal with.

Camping can be really fun, just make sure you’re prepared!

#camping #tent camping #long post

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hakesbros · 2 years

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Oakwood Homes Of Las Cruces Modular, Manufactured, Cell Homes For Sale

Information in your native housing market is on the market via the USA TODAY Network, with extra data from Realtor.com. The median listing home builders in las cruces home value in August was up about 25.9% from August 2021. Doña Ana County's median home was 2,092 square ft for a listed value of $171 per sq. foot.

In reality, new listings on Realtor.com are down 17.25% on a year-over-year foundation. Many buyers who would usually be looking to move up to a bigger house have postponed the switch as a outcome of they don’t want to give up their fixed 2% or 3% mortgage rates they've for his or her present home. Maybe you’re bored with house residing, possibly you want more room, or perhaps you’ve simply always dreamed of dwelling in a home. Whatever it's, you’re looking for homes for rent in Las Cruces to search out your subsequent home. A rental house is the perfect place to make your personal, with plenty of area for your liked ones to develop. With greater than 1 million active listings all throughout the nation, Apartments.com can help you find the proper NM house for rent near you.

Today, shops and restaurants occupy these buildings while the plaza’s heart provides a resting place for tourists and residents. At the heart of Mesilla is the Basilica San Albino Catholic Church which was initially constructed in 1851 and still stands tall close to the north end of the plaza. 4th bed room new homes las cruces provides a separate space for an office/study space with its personal entry. 2 residing areas and a cozy household room with fireplace. The Courtyard Homes at Picacho Mountain are perfect-fit homes, uniquely designed for an energetic way of life.

Moreover, forty eight.5% of the inmates are renters, with just 10.4% of homes presently vacant. The common lease for properties on this area is $984 per thirty days. Thus, you'll have the ability to choose to buy homes in Las Cruces as a long homes for sale las cruces term investment. fifty seven.2% of the homes are single-family houses, and forty six.7% of the homes have three bedrooms. The popular neighborhood in the area for property purchases are City Center, Ave De Mesilla, N Main Street, Northgate Road, Hillrise Dr, Bellamah Loop, and Spruce Ave.

On one hand, if monetary situations ease and mortgage charges fall in 2023, homebuyer demand would improve. On the opposite hand, the pandemic’s housing demand boom could’ve had a pull-forward impact that results homes for sale in las cruces nm in a slower than anticipated post-pandemic housing market. So, now you're probably wondering, “How do I find an IKEA furniture retailer near me?

When looking for RV dealers in Southern New Mexico including El Paso, TX area, you can see none that offer a more pleasant expertise than what we offer of Holiday World of Las Cruces. We are happy to be of service to you throughout your RV search. Our experienced team is here to assist with the entire process—from financing, to selling your current home, we’re right here that can help you navigate the whole course of via closing. The tempo at which homes sell in the U.S. tends to ebb and move over the calendar year with homes selling the fastest in the summer months and slowest within the winter.

This nicely maintained 2 bed room, 2 bathroom Las Cruces home is certain to please. Lots of good touches together with wood ceiling therapies homes for sale in las cruces new mexico, Saltillo tile, and more. Located on a cul-de-sac with a large absolutely fenced yard with mature timber and greenery.

#real estate

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rvtravelcentral · 2 years

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#camping #Travel #RVing #RV Rentals #RV rentals Vancouver #rent an RV near me #cheap RV rentals near me

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milliebrown580k · 2 months

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Finding Camper Vans to Rent Near Me: A Comprehensive Guide

Introduction

Renting a camper van offers a versatile and adventurous way to explore destinations near and far, providing travelers with the freedom to customize their travel experience while enjoying the comforts of home on the road. This guide serves as a comprehensive resource for finding camper vans to rent near me, offering insights into what to consider, how to prepare, and where to start your camper van rental journey.

Understanding Camper Van Rentals

Camper vans, also known as recreational vehicles (RVs) or motorhomes, are compact vehicles equipped with living accommodations such as sleeping quarters, kitchen facilities, and sometimes bathrooms. They are designed to provide a self-contained living space ideal for road trips, camping adventures, and exploring various destinations. Camper van rentals allow travelers to experience the convenience of mobile accommodations while enjoying the flexibility to travel at their own pace and explore off-the-beaten-path locations.

Benefits of Camper Van Rentals

Flexibility and Freedom

One of the primary benefits of renting a camper van is the flexibility it offers. Unlike traditional forms of travel that rely on fixed schedules and accommodations, camper van rentals allow travelers to create personalized itineraries, change routes on the fly, and explore remote areas that may not be easily accessible by other means of transportation. This flexibility enables spontaneous adventures and the freedom to tailor your journey to suit your interests and preferences.

Cost-Effectiveness

Renting a camper van can be a cost-effective alternative to traditional travel options. By consolidating transportation and accommodation costs into a single expense, travelers can save money on hotel stays, dining out, and additional transportation fees. Many camper van rentals include kitchen facilities, allowing travelers to prepare their meals and reduce dining expenses while enjoying the convenience of cooking in a mobile environment.

Immersive Travel Experience

Traveling in a camper van offers a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the local culture and environment. Whether you're camping in national parks, exploring scenic landscapes, or visiting historical sites, camper van rentals enable travelers to experience destinations up close and engage with nature in a way that's not always possible with other forms of travel. The ability to stay overnight in natural settings and wake up to stunning views enhances the overall travel experience and creates lasting memories.

Factors to Consider When Finding Camper Vans to Rent Near You

Vehicle Type and Size

Consider the type and size of camper van that best suits your travel needs and preferences. Camper vans come in various sizes and configurations, from compact vans suitable for couples or solo travelers to larger motorhomes capable of accommodating families or larger groups. Evaluate amenities such as sleeping arrangements, kitchen facilities, storage space, and bathroom options to ensure comfort and convenience during your journey.

Rental Policies and Terms

Review rental policies and terms carefully before making a reservation. Pay attention to details such as reservation deposits, cancellation policies, mileage allowances, and additional charges for amenities or services. Understand insurance coverage options and inquire about roadside assistance or emergency services provided by the rental company to ensure peace of mind during your travels.

Location and Accessibility

Choose a camper van rental service with convenient pickup and drop-off locations that align with your travel itinerary. Consider accessibility to major transportation hubs, airports, or popular tourist destinations to streamline the logistics of renting and returning your camper van. Some rental services offer multiple pickup locations, providing flexibility in starting and ending your journey based on your travel plans.

Customer Reviews and Reputation

Research customer reviews and the overall reputation of camper van rental services to gauge satisfaction levels and service quality. Platforms such as review websites, social media channels, and travel forums offer valuable insights into the experiences of past renters with different rental providers. Look for positive reviews that highlight vehicle reliability, cleanliness, customer service responsiveness, and overall satisfaction with the rental process.

Planning Your Camper Van Adventure

Route Planning and Itinerary

Plan your travel route and itinerary in advance, considering desired destinations, scenic routes, and attractions along the way. Create a flexible schedule that allows for spontaneous detours or extended stays at favorite locations. Research campgrounds, RV parks, or designated overnight parking areas that accommodate camper vans and offer necessary amenities such as hookups, dump stations, and recreational facilities.

Packing Essentials

Pack essential items for your camper van adventure, including clothing layers for varying weather conditions, outdoor gear, camping equipment, cooking utensils, and food supplies. Consider packing lightweight and compact items to maximize storage space within the camper van and ensure comfort during your travels.

Safety and Preparedness

Prioritize safety during your camper van journey by equipping the vehicle with essential safety equipment such as fire extinguishers, smoke detectors, first aid kits, and emergency supplies. Familiarize yourself with local driving laws, traffic regulations, and road conditions in each destination to ensure safe and responsible travel. Maintain a communication plan and emergency contacts in case of unforeseen circumstances or emergencies while on the road.

Conclusion

Finding camper vans to rent near you offers an exciting opportunity to embark on a memorable and flexible travel adventure. By understanding the benefits of camper van rentals, considering factors such as vehicle type, rental policies, location convenience, and planning your journey effectively, you can make informed decisions and maximize the enjoyment of your camper van experience. Embrace the freedom, flexibility, and adventure that camper van rentals provide, knowing that you've chosen a reliable and convenient resource for your travel journey. Whether you're planning a weekend getaway, a cross-country road trip, or a scenic tour of natural wonders, camper vans to rent near you offer endless possibilities for exploration, relaxation, and discovery.

#camper vans to rent near me

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mockingbirdmeadow · 7 months

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RV Park

Address:

4846 Co Rd 3408

Lone Oak, TX 75453 USA

Phone: (903) 340-9659

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.mockingbirdmeadows.net

Description: We are a family owned and operated RV Park near Dallas, TX. We are not just a group of RV owners; we have built a warm and welcoming community that feels like family. We're committed to keeping our RV grounds in top shape with regular upkeep and repair for everyone to enjoy. Throughout the year, we organize fun events like block parties, barbecues, and holiday light shows to bring us all together. We invite you to explore our community and discover what makes it truly special.

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Year Founded: 2021

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mockingbirdmeadows

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peerstorage · 9 months

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Top 11 RV Storage Near Me Seattle

Seattle, Washington, known for its stunning landscapes and outdoor adventures, attracts RV enthusiasts from all over. But when it comes to storing your cherished RV, finding the right option is crucial. Below, we’ve curated a list of the top 12 RV storage options in Seattle, complete with website links and costs, to help you make an informed choice for your recreational vehicle. Each option offers something unique, catering to the diverse needs of RV owners in the area.

1. PeerStorage

Cost: Varies by location, starting at $99/month

PeerStorage, your trusted online self-storage marketplace, provides an array of secure and convenient RV storage solutions tailored to your needs. Our platform offers peace of mind by connecting you with reliable RV storage facilities across various locations, ensuring your recreational vehicle is safely stored until your next adventure. With competitive pricing and easy online booking, PeerStorage simplifies the process of finding the perfect storage space for your cherished RV.

RV storage near SeaTac

RV storage in Bonney Lake

Storage lot for rent in Renton

11’x40′ RV or Boat storage.

2. Ballard Mini Storage

Cost: Varies by size, starting at $110/month

Indoor and covered RV storage options provide extra protection against Seattle’s rainy weather, ensuring your RV stays in top condition. Ballard Mini Storage offers indoor and covered RV storage solutions, protecting your vehicle from Seattle’s often inclement weather. Their secure facility ensures your RV remains in top condition, making it an excellent choice for those who value weather protection and security.

3. Ferguson Terminal RV

Cost: Starting at $95/month

24/7 access and on-site maintenance services make it convenient for RV owners looking for quick access and upkeep. Seattle RV Storage provides 24/7 access and on-site maintenance services, making it a convenient option for RV owners looking for quick access and regular upkeep. With competitive pricing and a commitment to accessibility, it’s an ideal choice for those who require frequent access to their vehicles.

4. Midway RV & Boat Storage

Cost: Starting at $80/month

Secure, fully fenced facilities with individual alarms for each storage unit provide peace of mind for RV owners. Midway RV & Boat Storage features secure, fully fenced facilities with individual alarms for each storage unit, guaranteeing peace of mind for RV owners concerned about safety. With affordable rates starting at $80/month, it offers a budget-friendly solution without compromising security.

5. Northwest Outdoor Storage

Cost: Starting at $99/month

Unique Feature: Spacious and well-maintained outdoor storage yards that can accommodate even the largest RVs and trailers. Northwest Outdoor Storage boasts spacious and well-maintained outdoor storage yards, accommodating even the largest RVs and trailers. Its expansive, open-air storage areas make it a great choice for those with oversized vehicles seeking ample space.

6. RV Storage Depot

Cost: Varies by location, starting at $130/month

Multiple locations around Seattle offer flexibility and convenience, allowing you to choose the one closest to your home. RV Storage Depot offers multiple locations around Seattle, providing flexibility and convenience for customers. Whether you prefer a facility close to home or work, you can find a suitable option within their network of storage sites.

7. Totem Lake RV & Boat Storage

Cost: Starting at $110/month

Well-lit, wide driveways for easy maneuvering and access, ideal for large RVs and trailers. Totem Lake RV & Boat Storage features well-lit, wide driveways, perfect for easy maneuvering and access, particularly for those with large RVs and trailers. Its layout is designed to streamline the storage process.

8. Superior Self-Storage Inc

Cost: Starting at $125/month

Flexible lease options allow you to choose the storage duration that suits your needs, from short-term to long-term. Superior Self Storage offers flexible lease options, allowing customers to choose storage durations that suit their needs, from short-term to long-term. This versatility makes it an adaptable choice for RV owners.

9. Self-Storage at U-Haul

Cost: Starting at $115/month

Self-Storage at Uhaul location with beautiful views, adding a touch of serenity to your RV storage experience. RV Storage at Seattle stands out with its scenic location, providing beautiful views while your RV is securely stored. This option combines practicality with aesthetics for a unique storage experience.

10. Metro Heated Storage

Cost: Starting at $125/month

Covered parking options with electrical hook-ups, perfect for RV owners who want to keep their batteries charged. Seattle RV & Trailer Storage offers covered parking options with electrical hook-ups, ensuring that your RV remains charged and ready for your next adventure.

11. Guardian Self Storage

Cost: Starting at $139/month

Unique Feature: State-of-the-art security systems, including video surveillance and electronic gate access, provide top-notch protection for your RV. Guardian Self Storage boasts state-of-the-art security systems, including video surveillance and electronic gate access, ensuring your RV is protected with cutting-edge technology.

Conclusion

The ideal RV storage option in Seattle depends on your specific needs and preferences. If you value indoor storage, consider Ballard Mini Storage. For those seeking 24/7 access, Seattle RV Storage is a great choice. And if security is paramount, Midway RV & Boat Storage offers individual alarms. Ultimately, the best option for RV storage in Seattle is the one that aligns perfectly with your requirements and provides peace of mind for your prized possession.

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