24 Miles from Southern Palms, Eustis FL to Clerbrook Golf and RV Resort, Clermont, FL (an Encore Propery).
Cost:
4 nights @ $0.00 per night as an overflow park on our Thousand Trails ZCP
1 Night @ $24.00 with our Ready Camp Go card
2/7/15 – 2/11/2015 Days 53-57
Rocket launch – look for the white contrail inside the circled area
-Bill-
When my life was more complicated I used to play golf. I have played on some gorgeous courses and I have played on some crappy courses. The feeling you get when you arrive at the first tee on a pretty course is,”no matter what screwed up things are going on in your life, for the next couple of hours the only thing that matters is what happens on those 18 holes ahead of you”. You enter another dimension, the “golf dimension”. Nothing else exists.
The prettier the course, the deeper you fall into that feeling. I know, I know. All that “pretty” is artificial. It’s not “natural”. So what? It doesn’t change how overwhelming beautiful it feels.
So with that, I start my review of Clerbrook Golf and RV Resort. We stayed here 4 nights for free because Thousand Trails Orlando was full and this is an “overflow” park.
As we drove in and seeing the course, I got that “1st tee feeling”. I didn’t play. I didn’t walk the course. I didn’t even ask what the green fees were. The course is not Pebble Beach, and it is fairly open. But it is well maintained and pretty enough to give you that feeling, and for a few moments it brought me back.
We were assigned a site that would have been VERY DIFFICULT for us to get into. Narrow and with trees in front. I called the office and we finally found a site that was perfect. We were in the “Crossroads” Section. I kinda get the feeling these are the “cheap seats”. I didn’t have a chance to look all the sections of the park over, but when I looked at the map it appeared that the Veranda Section might be Boardwalk and Park Place, having more amenities.
Note to Encore Properties, Thousand Trails and Equity Lifestyle Properties. Lose the the trash compactors OR add trash containers to areas that are far removed from compactor OR offer on site trash pickup . Not all people have toads or golf carts. It is VERY inconvenient to walk 1/4 mile to get rid of your trash.
In any event, our site was spacious and open and we loved it. We were close to washer and dryer, a pool, rec hall and shuffleboard. We were able to watch the sun set over the park and golf course. The dusk sky was breathtaking. We also watched a rocket launch to the east. This is a very nice park. Would we come back? Yup! Faster than you could say “Clerbrook”!
-Mia-
Arrived in Clermont yesterday about 2:00 – was after 3:00 when we finally got a site and got set up. We had originally been assigned a lot (798) that was suited for a small class C or small camper. Not for our 37 ft big gal!! Trees plus a light pole in front on either side of lot and more trees across the road, so no place to pull into to get a good angle for backing up between them. Lot was very uneven, under big trees with low hanging Spanish moss. Sewer hook up would have been almost under the unit and also too high for good drainage.. –
We called the office, and the hostess apologized – it was only her 2nd wk-end doing this job. . . and we should come back to the check in and talk to her face to face. – We did. The solution was that we should drive around and pick a site that would work for us then let her know what the number of the site was. – We found a large corner site which had obviously had some recent work done on it. – Ground had been filled and leveled, and new sewer put in. Very little grass, mostly sand.
Ms. Lucy on flat sandy site in Clerbrook
Clerbrook is an Encore RV park – owned by ELS, the same parent company as Thousand Trails campgrounds. When a Thousand Trails member wants a site at TT campground that is already filled, they can ask for a site at an “overflow” park, from one of the ELS affiliates. Which is how we wound up at Clermont.
Met our “neighbors” – fellow Thousand Trails members, who have been full timing for the past five years. They told us that Clermont had tried to put them into the same lot when they had first come here. They started out with the idea of making one “grand tour” of the country which they thought might take a year – fell in love with full timing and just kept on going! We shared a laugh about getting rid of our glass / crystal wine stems in favor of unbreakable acrylic.
Another item for my “must have list” is a folding clothes “dryer”. – At the rate of $2 per load wash and $2 a load dry, that $15 folding dryer rack would pay for itself very quickly.
February 9, RAIN RAIN RAIN. Time to catch up on our blogging!
Pleased with the way this site has held up under heavy rain. Great drainage – of course now there is the wet sand – which tracks in no matter how careful you are, and gets between the toes of Little Snoopy – I have a towel just inside the door to wipe his feet off with whenever he comes back in – but the sand is insidious and gets between his tiny toes and under his nails – ugh – I’m sure it must be uncomfortable for him too.
So far, Bill liked this park the best – I think because of the lot we had, which was in the bright sun all day, no trees at all. Also, the pool and exercise rooms were very close, and we did manage to sit on the veranda there with a tall glass of white wine. Also had beautiful night skies – vast skies full of stars, and even got to see a rocket launch!
This was not MY favorite place, but it was an OK place (for me) – it’s not a good place if you don’t have a toad or a golf cart, because there was only one spot where everyone had to go to dump their trash – one place for propane, which was only manned from 10:30 – 11:30 and long lines of cars and motorhomes qued up there making a real bottleneck. It’s a VERY large park, and everything was too far away to be convenient you were walking. I am eagerly looking forward to TTO which I have heard so much about through the FB page. . .
Older than Dirt and Surviving 