TB and camper

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May 13, 2012
599
18
Considering trying out for some A teams in our area. Been playing B level local last 3 yrs. DD last yr of 14U, age up nxt yr. Looking at all sides of equation. Most SB A teams here seem to be 70%+ 4 hour's away for tourny's. A lot of cost is lodging plus food. Camping could help with some of this.We wondering how many of you use a camper for your TB softball out of town. Considerations would of course be that campground be close to game site. I would consider 15-20 min drive max in order to utilize camper for meals.
We just about always use my truck which is crew cab full size when traveling since getting the "trunk" dirty dosen't matter. So vechicle doesn't change with or without camper.

Pro's as I see them
1. Savings on lodging, One night very little if any, two nights break even or save, three or more nights savings add up. I base this on my hunting trips to ohio(extra fuel pulling camper vs better mpg + room) and the town I hunt in has some pretty reasonable prices on rooms. I have compared cost of both.
2. Food, acess to hot meals staying away from resturants. Meals on long breaks instead of concession stand or buger joint if close enough.
3. My bed, my shower, my floor etc.

Con's
1. Stay and Play, no option. I hate those, seen several in Travel VB and ticks me off every time
2. No campground close enough.
3. Laundry although some campgrounds have laundry matt.
4. Being stand off parents by not staying with team at hotel. This would just depend on team members and parents, could see it going either way.
5. Same as 4 for DD not building relationships with team members by staying else where.

While we can afford to stay at reasonable hotel rates just dont see need to spend extra money if there is a way around it. Didn't camp in VB due to time of year and will not pull camper in snow so never considered it since that runs Dec thru March. Any experiance and thoughts appreciated.
 
Feb 17, 2014
7,152
113
Orlando, FL
Considering trying out for some A teams in our area. Been playing B level local last 3 yrs. DD last yr of 14U, age up nxt yr. Looking at all sides of equation. Most SB A teams here seem to be 70%+ 4 hour's away for tourny's. A lot of cost is lodging plus food. Camping could help with some of this.We wondering how many of you use a camper for your TB softball out of town. Considerations would of course be that campground be close to game site. I would consider 15-20 min drive max in order to utilize camper for meals.
We just about always use my truck which is crew cab full size when traveling since getting the "trunk" dirty dosen't matter. So vechicle doesn't change with or without camper.

Pro's as I see them
1. Savings on lodging, One night very little if any, two nights break even or save, three or more nights savings add up. I base this on my hunting trips to ohio(extra fuel pulling camper vs better mpg + room) and the town I hunt in has some pretty reasonable prices on rooms. I have compared cost of both.
2. Food, acess to hot meals staying away from resturants. Meals on long breaks instead of concession stand or buger joint if close enough.
3. My bed, my shower, my floor etc.

Con's
1. Stay and Play, no option. I hate those, seen several in Travel VB and ticks me off every time
2. No campground close enough.
3. Laundry although some campgrounds have laundry matt.
4. Being stand off parents by not staying with team at hotel. This would just depend on team members and parents, could see it going either way.
5. Same as 4 for DD not building relationships with team members by staying else where.

While we can afford to stay at reasonable hotel rates just dont see need to spend extra money if there is a way around it. Didn't camp in VB due to time of year and will not pull camper in snow so never considered it since that runs Dec thru March. Any experiance and thoughts appreciated.

We are based out of Central Florida and had one player from Tallahassee about 250 miles away. So nothing was local fro them. They used a camper and seemed to have a good time with it.
 

KCM

Mar 8, 2012
331
0
South Carolina
Get the camper and enjoy the time away with the family with a bonus of softball games. I use ours when we road trip for softball games. Now my daughter is changing teams next week and they have to stay at the hotel with team but I am still taking my camper. New team requires the team to stay together and once we drop them off at tournament they are under the care of team.
 
Jul 26, 2010
3,567
0
I think you listed the pro's and cons pretty well. Now you have to base your decision based on your data.

Your family budget is your family budget, that's the bottom line. If money saved is better spent elsewhere then you have to consider that. If however the money is not needed, then you have to take into account that time>money. We only ever loose time, we gain and loose money, so make decisions based on time well spent.

Some things you can consider are to invite friends/teammates to stay with your daughter to build bonds, as well as taking turns sharing kids (you don't need to go on every trip especially at that age), and the fact that "stay and play" tournaments usually have a minimum number of rooms required per team that is under the roster number, so kids with roomates and people camping can be accomodated (even if it means booking in Jan and cancelling later so long as the cancellations do not go under the minimum, communicate this with the team coordinator).

-W
 
Mar 28, 2013
769
18
Had a motor home for a while and found that for the cost of gas, typical 300 to 500 mile round trip is was way cheaper to drive a car and stay in a hotel and pay for meals instead of having to cook them and clean up afterwards, along with when I get home in the car I park it in the garage and pull out some gear instead of washing an RV dumping the head and shower, cleaning the inside, taking out all the food fixing what broke ect.ect. also maneuvering from field to field in a car, grabbing ice, and so forth is much easier. Most fields we go to do not allow overnight camping so for those 8:am starts we all know and love we don't have to get up extra early, collapse all the jacks and try to make a good breakfast while rumbling down the road. And last but not least I don't have to endure the evil eye from my DD when she is stuck with her boring old parents and her team is busy having fun depreciating some poor hotel. Don't get me wrong I admit some advantages, love That game break under an awning with the team hanging out at the RV. Just much less work and money when its somebody else's.
 
Oct 3, 2011
3,478
113
Right Here For Now
Considering trying out for some A teams in our area. Been playing B level local last 3 yrs. DD last yr of 14U, age up nxt yr. Looking at all sides of equation. Most SB A teams here seem to be 70%+ 4 hour's away for tourny's. A lot of cost is lodging plus food. Camping could help with some of this.We wondering how many of you use a camper for your TB softball out of town. Considerations would of course be that campground be close to game site. I would consider 15-20 min drive max in order to utilize camper for meals.
We just about always use my truck which is crew cab full size when traveling since getting the "trunk" dirty dosen't matter. So vechicle doesn't change with or without camper.

Pro's as I see them
1. Savings on lodging, One night very little if any, two nights break even or save, three or more nights savings add up. I base this on my hunting trips to ohio(extra fuel pulling camper vs better mpg + room) and the town I hunt in has some pretty reasonable prices on rooms. I have compared cost of both.
2. Food, acess to hot meals staying away from resturants. Meals on long breaks instead of concession stand or buger joint if close enough.
3. My bed, my shower, my floor etc.

Con's
1. Stay and Play, no option. I hate those, seen several in Travel VB and ticks me off every time
2. No campground close enough.
3. Laundry although some campgrounds have laundry matt.
4. Being stand off parents by not staying with team at hotel. This would just depend on team members and parents, could see it going either way.
5. Same as 4 for DD not building relationships with team members by staying else where.

While we can afford to stay at reasonable hotel rates just dont see need to spend extra money if there is a way around it. Didn't camp in VB due to time of year and will not pull camper in snow so never considered it since that runs Dec thru March. Any experiance and thoughts appreciated.

Like BP, we had a RV as well and found that the cost of fuel and poor MPG made it unfeasible to use for just a weekend trip to tournaments. We have since sold it and are now looking at travel trailers like you.

Let me take this as you list them.

Pros
You pretty much summed it up. Hotel savings, taking and parking the TT on the tournament site as many do around here will result in food savings and you get to relax in your own unit.

Cons
Between Good Sam's campgrounds and KOA, you have a good selection in many areas. If for some reason there isn't something close, Sam's/Walmart encourage travel trailers and RVs to stay in their parking lots and they are everywhere. If you purchase a self contained unit such as what we are looking for, this becomes a very viable option. We have two families on our team that have/use TT when we travel. They spend much of their time with the team at the hotel. Even if the parents go back to the campground, their DD will normally end up with the team swimming or doing whatever the team is. Many times the girls will even spend the night with their teammates and a family. Nobody is considered stand off since in TB, as you well know, we spend an awful lot of time together and even then, the parents are usually with us. The one thing I'm a little envious of is being able to get away for a little peace and quiet. In a hotel with 6 teams of girls, that sure would be nice to have my own refuge to retreat to other than a 12x15 stuffy room.
 
May 13, 2012
599
18
Thanks for the replies. I know the cost's since I use our camper for hunting in Ohio every year. The potential savings all depends on factors already mentioned. I was more worried about the social side. I have experianced B level kids and parents and 99.9% has been wonderfull. I assumed that A level would be the same and staying elsewhere would be no problems and from your statments it doesn't seem like it will be. Now all we have to do is make one of the teams, wish her luck and thanks.
 
Jun 22, 2008
3,731
113
Another thing you have to take into consideration is if the tournament you are playing in requires you to stay in one of their hotels? Dont know how prevelant it may be in your area, but many of the CA tournaments require the team to stay in an "approved" hotel or pay a penalty in order to play in the tournament.
 

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