Technomadia

Home Base: 
High-tech nomads on the road full time since 2006.
Type of RV: 
1961 GM 4106 (35' Vintage Bus)
Web Site: 
http://www.technomadia.com
https://www.facebook.com/Technomadia
@Technomadia
143 Reviews
137 Photos
33 States Visited

Recent Reviews

Richardson Grove Campground & RV Park

2
Oct 2013

Not Bad as a Stop Over

First of all, I updated the actual location of this park - as the app led us astray. It's a bit further south than the state park, and right across the street from a couple roadside tourist shops, and the 'One Log Home' attraction. It's located right behind a Pacific gas station and convenience store.

We came here because of the Passport America Discount, and would not have been overly happy had we paid full price of $33/night.

This is a very basic park, and the pull thru full hook-up sites are a touch close together. We were a bit miffed that the electric hook-ups were at the extreme rear of the site, which almost put them out of range of our 50a cord while keeping our toad attached. Almost. We made it work.

You do hear a bit of highway traffic from 101 and the gas station just a few feet from you. The park itself is a mix of tent sites, long term sites and seems to be building up to be some sort of religious conference center. There was a bit of construction in progress of some very large buildings.

There was just a wiff of AT&T signal, that we were finally able to get our e-mail to sync via when on a booster. Verizon was unusable. The park offers WiFi, but since we arrived on a Sunday when the office is closed, there was no way to get the password. It looked like it would have been satellite anyway.

All and all.. a cheap with PA, no-thrills place to pull off the road, plug in, catch some ZZZs (if you can overcome the highway noise) before continuing on. Not many other options in the area that offer that.

Date of Stay:
 October, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $16.50

Bayside RV Park

3
Oct 2013

Simple & Basic - Great Location

Don't be expecting anything fancy here - this is basically just a big parking lot with hook-ups. It has a coastal harbor industrial feel to it, that is very authentic. The manager was very friendly and helpful.

The park is located right along Hwy 101, and very easy to pull in and out of. If you want a pull-thru (for $5 more), they just assign you two back to back spots.

The beauty of this place is what it's near. For a spectacular sunset, walk out to the big rocks at the end of the pier. You get a view of the lighthouse, the sound of the harbor horn and on our night, a pod of whales, a pod of dolphins and a pack of sealions. Stunning.

There's also a couple of seafood joints right around.

We slept well here, and felt safe. If you just need a basic stop through on your way to town, this will meet the need. Probably a bit overpriced for what it offers however.

The RV Park nextdoor looked like slightly tighter spots, but some with beach views. We didn't check into their pricing.

Date of Stay:
 October, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $28.00

Cape Blanco State Park Campground

5
Oct 2013

Absolutely Delightful!

We've stayed in a lot of parks over the past many years, and this ranks as one of the best. Huge private feeling spaces and absolutely breathtaking location.

We may be a bit biased, as we 'lived' here for 6 weeks as we were volunteer lighthouse hosts at this location. We did get one of the host spots, but we didn't notice a bad spot in the entire campground. Heck, the 'worst' spots were better than some of the 'best' spots even in other state parks we love. Some even have a peak of an ocean view (the ones just past the cabins).

There are many beautiful hiking trails here, beach access, coastal views, amazing sunsets and tours of the lighthouse and Hughes house.

All site are on a first come first serve basis, which is a unique feature. As such, definitely recommend arriving by early afternoon if you want to snag a site during peak seasons. Even into mid-October, the campground was nearing capacity.. and into late September it was completely filling up every night by late afternoon.

Be prepared coming in - the dump station is indefinitely out of order, and all non-host spots are electric/water only. It is very tempting to keep extending your stay here!

While were here, Verizon turned on LTE service up in Port Orford, and with a booster we were able to use it at our site. AT&T also has HSPA+ (4G), and it is usable with a booster within the campground. If you need to make a call, go down to the overlook along the beach & coastal trail within the campground... or what many of us came to call ... 'the phone booth'. Strong signal there, and along any of the cliffside paths, or out at the lighthouse.

Rate below is the in season rate, it drops to $16/night from Oct - April.

Date of Stay:
 October, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $20.00

Columbia River RV Park

2
Sep 2013

Ok as a Portland Basecamp

Coming into Portland for a week to visit with friends, we tried to get into our first choice park in the area (Janzen Beach), but they were full up. This place was our second choice, and they offered a reasonable weekly rate of $168 with Good Sam.

Check in was easy and friendly, and we were handed a map of the campground with a bunch of rules and regulations. Our site was in the newer back area of the campground.

The good:

- This place is immaculately maintained. The hook-up are top notch, and everything looks clean and trimmed.
- The spots are pretty approachable and many pull-thus.

The bad:

- The spots are a bit closer together than is our preference, but there is a bit of space. Just enough to park your rig and a vehicle. Although many had multiple vehicles they were trying to cram in.
- The rules. Ugh. Lots of them.
- Unfriendly vibe. We had neighbors use our spot for guest parking on multiple times, and people walking through our site. Walking around the park, hardly anyone is outside and hardly encountered a single smiling face.
- The WiFi was intermittent at our site.
- Nothing to walk to from the campground. There is no water access (the marina across the street is lined with a barbed wire fence), and there's no shopping or restaurants nearby. As we were deep in on a work project (we work from our RV-home), this made it less than convenient to go grab a quick bite.
- The neighborhood around it isn't the Portland everyone raves about - we found the environment rather run down and encountered rudeness. Such as on a walk outside the park on the sidewalk, a driver shouted obscenities at us - for no reason!
- Traffic! To get on I-5 to get into Portland, there tends to be some back-up on the ramp during rush hours.
- Airport noise - you're on the approach path for the airport, so expect lots of place noise.

When all added together, our experience here just was not pleasant. When our friends invited us to courtesy park at their place instead - we decided to forfeit 4 nights of our pre-paid stay and left early. A first for us!

If we had no other option in Portland in the future, we might return. But this place definitely did not leave a positive taste for us, and actually gave us a bad first impression of Portland.

Date of Stay:
 August, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $24.00

Memaloose State Park Campground

5
Sep 2013

Perfection!

Wanting to spend a couple days along the Columbia River Gorge before entering Portland, we decided to stop in Memaloose SP to check it out and see if we could snag a last minute full hook-up site.

It's easily accessible via the westbound reststop - although kinda weird to enter your SP via one.

The park is absolutely beautiful, and we pulled into a full hook-up site along the interstate. All sites are very roomy and well separated. The full hook-up sites on the B loop are magnificent with river views, but also tend to be booked up. We were grateful to find a site for 3 nights, and being next to the interstate really wasn't all that bad.

There's not too much to do at the park itself, no real trails and no access to the water. But we got plenty of walking in just roaming the campground.

This was a perfect stop for us.

We had solid Verizon LTE and AT&T 4G signal.

Date of Stay:
 August, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $24.00

Beyond Hope Resort

2
Aug 2013

Overpriced and DANGEROUS Electricity!!!

We decided to route down Highway 200, and at a previous park a neighbor had recommended Beyond Hope as a great waterfront park to stop in at. After not being able to score a spot at neighboring Sam Owens National Forest campground, we came here and were at first happy to find anything available for a Friday night.

The plus - due to a last minute cancellation, they had a front row spot available for the night which gave us a decent water view. The staff was super friendly and helpful. We did enjoy a swim in the lake, and the gourmet restaurant & bar onsite was a pleasant surprise. And the sunset here was amazing.

The downsides:

- They have a major electricity problem. Our pedestal was 30a, and at times the voltage sagged down to 98 volts. They asked everyone to not run more than one A/C because of their old wiring - but we could not even run our A/C. This is dangerous and is enough of a sag that it could damage your RV equipment. Word is they have electrical renovations planned for this fall.

- This is a vacation resort - especially on weekends. Our spot was right in the middle of several families enjoying a weekend campout. I don't care how well behaved kids are, when you have bunches of them around with their parents on vacation too.. well, that's a lot of rowdy parents. Thankfully, the bar and sunset kept us occupied until bedtime. But wow, all those families were up way early puttering about underneath our windows. So much for sleeping in.

- No sites have sewer, and there is no dump station onsite. If you're here long enough to need dumping, it's just their honey wagon service.

- Their WiFi was down during the time we were here. They said it was a regional wide thing as the internet company was doing work.

All and all, the sites here did not impress us - they are rather close together. Particularly one ones in the upper area. The marina looks really nice. And the onsite upscale restaurant was a complete contrast.

At a rack rate of $45/night plus tax - we expect at least working electricity!

No working WiFi during our stay, AT&T was barely usable but our Verizon LTE was able to stay online.

Date of Stay:
 August, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $45.00

Flathead River RV Resort

3
Aug 2013

Overpriced

This is a pleasant enough park, located just over the bridge from the cute little city center of Polson, MT on the south side of the Flathead Lake. The park is well maintained, and offers all full hook-up long pull-thrus with 50a service and sewer connections at two locations on the site. Plenty of room for big rigs and whatever they might be towing.

Each site is individually owned, and is thus decorated and appointed differently. You might get a grass yard, or gravel or may or may not have a picnic table. Our site had several pine trees and a 2 person table.

There is a walking trail down to the river and a dock, but most sites won't even have a glimpse of the view - as the park is surrounded by manufactured homes that all block the view from the RV Park. Walking into town is super easy, and the Mexican place across the way is pretty good and offers river view dining.

The laundry facility was clean and only a $1 a load. And everyone we encountered on staff was very friendly.

So why are we giving this park only 3 stars? The price, which isn't published on their website. We found several online reviews that referenced around $40-44/night, and thought that was a bit high but reasonable to meet up with our friends staying there. We made our reservation, and there was no mention of price until we arrived and saw the sign that the daily rate is $56. The other rates we saw must have been the weekly rate.

Their WiFi seemed to work fine, and we got decent AT&T and Verizon 4G service.

Date of Stay:
 August, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $56.00

Bernie & Sharon's Riverfront RV Park

4
Aug 2013

Convenient and Friendly

This is a nice and easy stop over point between Bozeman and Missoula. We called in the morning to make a reservation and they txt'd us our receipt - which was a really cool high-tech feature.

Make sure you know what exit to take to find this park, as there are no signs at all along the interstate - but it's super easy to find once you exit, and it's just far enough from the interstate that there's no noise.

Upon arrival, a host greeted us before we could even get out of our bus, and escorted us to our site. Nice to not have to stop and do paperwork or check-in. He even offered our cat a treat!

We were given an extra long pull through, with a decent sized 'front yard'. However, the hook-ups are all shared, so you are awning-to-awning with your neighbor. Thankfully, there was enough separation that this wasn't too bad. We had a nice open view of the mountains in front of us, and the park is pretty well maintained.

There's a little stream that flows next to the park that is not visible from any site - so don't be expecting any river views here. You can climb up the berm and find some trails down to it however.

All of the facilities are inside the main office, which they keep unlocked all night long. And they are pretty proud of their onsite non-denomonational chapel that is open 24-hrs. There's also a fun little vintage garden of old vehicles and stuff in the back corner that is interesting to checkout.

We got to meet the owner of the park, Bernie - as he also owns the same model vintage bus as ours. Delightful and fun guy, and he has a lot of heart put into the park.

The park does have WiFi, but it's satellite based - so super slow and was unusable during our stay (the park was mostly empty too). Our AT&T and Verizon got us online just fine however.

Daily price below is with the Good Sam Discount.

Date of Stay:
 August, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $27.00

Spring Creek Campground & Trout Ranch

5
Aug 2013

Perfection!

This is one of those reviews I might regret leaving - as if too many people find out about this place, we might not be able to score a spot here in the future!

This is an immaculately maintained campground on the Bounder River, and a true gem easily accessible from I-90. A former mink farm, turned trout farm that morphed into a campground over the years - you'd never guess this place is over 30 years old.

The spots are kinda a hodgepodge of selections, as this campground grew out of where people naturally camped when it was a trout farm. But each is spacious and well appointed. We were able to snag a riverfront grassy spot - and it was divine! So relaxing to listen to the babbling of the creek.

There are several full hook-up sites along the back wall of the park, which are a bit smaller in size - but we've certainly seen worse. However the park offers honeywagon service to the water/electric sites for just $10, and there is a dump station at the entrance - so if you're just staying a few days, it's well worth getting closer to the creek if you can do without having sewer at your site.

There are a couple of stocked trout ponds in the park, and you can borrow a pole and try to catch some for dinner - just 50 cents an inch if you catch any.

Super friendly staff while we were there, busily working away keeping things maintained. For instance - the swings in the playground didn't even squeak!

There are WiFi hotspots throughout the park, and we had no trouble keeping happily online during our stay. AT&T had boostable 4G service, and our Verizon was a bit spotty.

Rate below is after our Good Sam discount, and inclusive of the MT 7% lodging tax.

Date of Stay:
 August, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $37.00

Rush-No-More RV Park & Campground

2
Jun 2013

Too tightly packed in and pricey

We came here to meet up with some friends who were just wrapping up attending a FMCA rally here (not during the bike rally).

The camp host guided us into our spot, saying we'd be able to pull thru without unhitching our toad. He didn't however tell us how tightly we'd have to turn.

We pulled into our spot and cringed at how close we were to neighbors on both sides. And then the host told us we needed to move over about 8 feet, as we were in TWO spots?!? Woah.

In the front section of the park, they stagger you in really close together so that your rear of your RV is overlapping with your neighbors - but you do get a front porch that is fairly private.

The more expensive sites in the back are better spaced out, and some even have hot tubs on your site.

The facilities at this place are immaculate however, and this seems like a wonderful place to host a rally at where the focus is community. There's a great looking community room with a bar for happy hour, small pool, public hot tub and laundry center. There's also a little hiking trail up into the hills behind the park if you wander into the overflow area.

But without attending such an event - it's just not our style.

Once the FMCA rally folks moved on the spots cleared out and the management did a good job of placing new arrivals further apart.

The WiFi was pretty much unusable during our stay, our Verizon got good LTE signal - but our AT&T signal was non-existent.

The rate below is for Passport America with taxes.. crazy to think our little tight pull through has a list price of $46 per night!

Date of Stay:
 June, 2013
Rate Paid:
 $24.00

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