Tag: Morgan Hill RV Resort

Top Coaster Rides

The ups and downs you may have experienced this summer will feel like nothing once you take a ride on one of these roller coasters. August is National Roller Coaster Month, so we rounded up a few of the newest, oldest, and scariest to consider.

According to an article in USA Today, the best roller coasters of 2022 includes Steel Vengeance at Ohio’s Cedar Point. Opened in 2018, it is considered a “hyper-hybrid” coaster standing 205 feet tall and riding at a whopping 74 miles per hour. With over 5500 feet of track, which includes 30 seconds of airtime, this 2-minute ride is guaranteed to shake you up, just a bit! Plan to stay in a cabin at Kenisee Lake and you’re about 100 miles from Cedar Point.

Another USA Today list maker was the Jurassic World VelociCoaster at Universal’s Islands of Adventure in Florida. Four inversions, an 80-degree drop, 4,700 feet of track and oh, yeah, the simulated velociraptors, combine to make this one heart-stopping, stomach-dropping ride. Book a cabin or cottage rental at Orlando RV Resort or a colorful cottage at Tropical Palms and get ready to ride!

Deluxe Cabins at Pine Haven Campground, NJ
Deluxe Cabins at Pine Haven Campground, NJ

The Travel Channel has its own list of top coasters in the U.S. and they include El Toro at New Jersey’s Six Flags Great Adventure (but coincidentally was also named by USA Today as #1 in 2022. El Toro, which means the bull, is a wooden roller coaster that opened in 2006. It may be old by some standards, but it is mighty, as in mighty scary. The coaster ride starts with a 19-story climb only to drop 176 feet. It continues on, totaling one minute and forty-two seconds for the whole ride, through twists and turns and hills and valleys, just like any good bucking bull would as it tries to knock off a rider. Stay at any of our New Jersey locations to enjoy Six Flags Great Adventure.

Safari Tent at Morgan Hill Campgroud, CA
Safari Tent at Morgan Hill Campgroud, CA

Speaking of old, what about riding one of the oldest roller coasters in America? Head out for a glamping adventure at California’s Morgan Hill and head into Santa Cruz to ride the 98-year-old Giant Dipper at the Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Or, glamp at California’s Pio Pico RV Resort & Campground, just outside San Diego, to ride another nonagenarian coaster, also named the Giant Dipper and also 98-years-old, found in the city’s Belmont Park. They are still pretty swift for their age, each running at a speed of 55 miles per hour.

Giant Dipper Roller Coaster in San Diego, CA
Giant Dipper Roller Coaster in San Diego, CA

A newbie to the coaster world includes The Pantheon, which premiered this past March at Busch Gardens Williamsburg, billed as the world’s fastest multi-launch roller coaster and travels at a top speed of 73 miles per hour. Hold on to your hats, and togas, when riding this ride that is said to have the strength of the strongest Roman Gods. Book a stay in a cabin at Virginia’s Williamsburg Camping Resort when visiting Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

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National Beautiful Day

Leavenworth Tiny House Village in Leavenworth, WA.

Beauty is subjective, thus the saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” What one person sees as beauty may well not be what another person sees in the very same thing. Whatever your idea of beauty may be, make sure you celebrate November 20, which is National Beautiful Day, any way you see fit!

Tiny House Otto at Leavenworth Tiny House Village in Leavenworth, WA.

Beautiful Leavenworth: Without doing much, Leavenworth, Washington, is considered a beautiful town. With its Bavarian-style architecture, mountain backdrop, and quaint downtown it’s quite pretty. Toss in the thousands and thousands of twinkling lights during the holidays and one word comes to mind: beautiful! Plan a stay at the equally beautiful Leavenworth Tiny House Village to enjoy beautiful Leavenworth.

Yurt at Yosemite Lakes RV Resort in Groveland, CA.

Beautiful Yosemite: In a recent poll of its followers, roughguides.com asked them to name the most beautiful locations in the USA. California’s Yosemite National Park topped the list, which also included the Grand Canyon and the entire state of Alaska. Take a trip and see what makes Yosemite a list-maker. For beautiful views, check out El Capitan, Vernal Fall, and Mirror Lake. Stay in a serenely beautiful yurt or cozy cabin at Yosemite Lakes RV Resort while exploring the natural beauty of Yosemite.

Beautiful Crater Lake: Again, a list-maker when it comes to the most beautiful lakes in the US, Oregon’s Crater Lake is known for the beautiful blue color of the lake. The surrounding mountains and towering pines make the views here real stunners! Spend a beautiful day driving the 33-mile Rim Drive which offers breathtaking views of meadows, forests, and the lake.  Book a tranquilly beautiful yurt and stay at Bend-Sunriver RV Campground.

Crater Lake is in Klamath County, OR.

Beautiful Drive: The 17-Mile Drive, which runs along California’s Monterey Peninsula, is a short, but oh so sweet drive of the beautiful kind. With the coast of the Pacific as your companion, the highlights of this drive include Bird Rock (what do you think they are buzzing about?); the Lone Cypress (one of Cali’s most famous landmarks); and Pescadero Point with its fab views of Point Lobos. Check out the unique accommodations at Morgan Hill RV Resort and choose from a cottage, cabin, or safari tent.

Beautiful Sunsets: The Travel Magazine calls them gorgeous sunsets and we all know gorgeous is another word for…beautiful!  Here’s one place to catch the beauty in California, according to the magazine’s list of the 10 best sunsets in the state.  Arroyo Burro Beach in Santa Barbara, also called Hendry’s Beach by the locals, offers one beautiful sunset, over and over and over again. On the other side of the country, the sunsets are just as beautiful and some of the most beautiful can be found in Key West, Florida. And Key Westers tend to make it a regular celebration – check out the fun at the Mallory Square Sunset Celebration and catch one of Key West’s spectacular sunsets. For the east coast sunset, consider at stay in a colorful tiny house at Sunshine Key Tiny House Village or colorful cottages at Fiesta Key RV Resort, and for Cali-style sunsets, Rancho Oso has great cabins for rent.

Colorful cottages at Fiesta Key RV Resort in Long Key, FL.

Beautiful S’Mores: True, they are nothing more than some crackers, sugar, and chocolate but who doesn’t think a perfect s’more is a thing of beauty? Some fun ideas to mix it up could include substituting the chocolate for almond butter and banana, switching out the graham crackers for snickerdoodle cookies; or the truly beautiful s’more made with chocolate graham crackers, sliced strawberries, and dark chocolate. Check out some of our favorite gourmet s’mores 1927smores.com.

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Book Tour

Exeter, New Hampshire, birthplace of John Irving, the novelist.

National Read A Book Day is observed annually on September 6. We’re feeling a little bookish this month and are ready for an adventure that’s one for the books!

Take a page from our Book Tour travel guide, and head to these cities that were either the setting for a famous book or the hometown and/or inspiration for some of the most famous authors in the US.

Cozy cabins at Narrows Too in Bar Harbor, Maine.

One of the most prolific writers of horror and supernatural fiction, Stephen King was born in Portland, Maine. Plan a trip to Maine and stay with us in a cozy cabin at our Bar Harbor resorts, Mt. Desert Narrows and Narrows Too, and then head about an hour northwest and explore the town of Bangor. In addition to seeing King’s current residence, you can check out some sites related to King’s novels in Bangor that include the Paul Bunyan Statue located in Bass Park that was featured in It, and Mount Hope Cemetery which was featured in Pet Sematary.

Fisherman’s wharf in Monterey, California.

John Steinbeck was born in Salinas, California, and the area became the inspiration for so many of his classic novels. Book a stay in a cabin, cottage, or ultra-unique safari tent at Morgan Hill RV Resort and you’re less than 50 miles from Steinbeck’s California. Visit Monterey, the setting for his acclaimed Depression-era novel Cannery Row, which depicted life in the town known as the Sardine Capital of the World. Don’t miss the Cannery Row tour. The town was also the setting for Tortilla Flat, the novel that earned both commercial and critical success for the author. Steinbeck’s home and the National Steinbeck Center can be found in Salinas.

The town of Exeter, New Hampshire.

John Irving, author of many novels including The World According to Garp and Hotel New Hampshire, is a native of New Hampshire and attended the University of New Hampshire. If you’re considering a stay with us at the Tuxbury Tiny House Village in South Hampton, you’ll be less than 10 miles from Exeter, which is not only Irving’s birthplace, but also the model for the town of Gravesend, featured in the bestseller, A Prayer for Owen Meany. Fans of the movie Cider House Rules, which was based on Irving’s novel of the same name, will be interested to know that three scenes from the movie were filmed at the Northfield Drive-In in Hinsdale, which is still in operation and is about 100 miles from the Tuxbury Tiny House Village.

Tiny house Lucy at Sunshine Key Tiny House Village in Big Pine Key, Florida.

Ernest Hemingway and Key West, Florida, pretty much go hand in hand. Not only did he write about Key West in his novel To Have and Have Not, but he also spent many years living on the island. Undoubtably one of Key West’s most famous residents, the town honors Hemingway every July during Hemingway Days. Book a stay with us at the Sunshine Key Tiny House Village (where we have a tiny house named after him!) and head down to explore Hemingway’s Key West. The Ernest Hemingway Home and Museum, which is located in the house in which Hemingway lived for over 10 years, offers tours of the home and garden. The Blue Heaven saloon was a favorite of the authors and visitors today can enjoy breakfast or lunch here. Another favorite Hemingway haunt was Sloppy Joe’s. Famous for its sandwich of the same name, the bar pays tribute to Papa with an annual look-alike contest.