First Time Experiencing Harvest Host

Last August, Tim and I were making decisions on what organizations to join to help us save on camping fees. One that we chose was Harvest Hosts. This membership program provides a list of wineries, breweries, farms, and museums across the country that allow members to park overnight for free on their property. All they ask is that you support the host’s business with a purchase during your stay. I didn’t think supporting wineries and breweries would be difficult for us.

I think the annual membership cost us $69 although I see that the current rate listed online is $79. Most of the locations, they say, can accommodate larger rigs. You just need to be self contained as it is typically “dry” camping so no hook ups. I thought we would use this to break up trips between campgrounds. Unfortunately we had difficulty finding campgrounds with availability where we wanted to go last fall and ended up booking ones closer together than expected. So we went campground to campground and never tried Harvest Host.

As we headed North this spring, I had a couple hosts selected to try but due to Covid, our travels were delayed and not all of the hosts were open. Again, we ended up going campground to campground. So here we were at the beginning of August and our membership was ending soon. I was determined to try it to see if we would want to renew.

I found two hosts in Ohio that were along our route to Cincinatti and booked back to back nights at them. Since we usually camp with full hookups, we were not really prepared for dry camping. We do not have a generator, nor do we have solar, so we had to rely on our batteries and propane. We thought the batteries would work to power the inverter for the refrigerator and run what lights we would need. Our hot water tank can run on propane so we anticipated that we could do Navy showers to keep our water usage low.

Unfortunately, things didn’t go as expected. Isn’t that always the case? Tim had added a little water to our holding tank the morning we left. He thought there was some water in it but since our gauge isn’t reliable, he wasn’t sure how much. He didn’t want to overfill it, so he only added a little. We ran out of water at the first stop just using it to flush the toilet and wash our hands a few times. I guess we only had the little bit that he added. The tank was probably empty to start. Luckily, we keep a couple half gallon bottles of water in the bathroom for travel days, so we had that for flushing and plenty of hand sanitizer to keep our hands clean.

The first host we stopped at was Maize Valley Market, Winery and Craft Brewery which is a wonderful place to stop. They had us park in a field facing the vineyard and a sunflower field. We got there early in the afternoon so we had plenty of time to enjoy the location. I picked this spot because it was close to where my cousin Peggy and her husband Carey live. They were able to join us for the day so we ordered dinner to take back to the RV and bought a couple bottles of wine to share. Even though it was warm, we found enough shade to sit outside at the RV to eat, drink and enjoy the day. Definitely had a wonderful day and great experience at this host.

Carey and Peggy arrived in this 1965 Chevy Nova that he restored

Tim checked the battery level after they left and we discovered it was lower than we expected. We were only running the refrigerator and he turned on a fan for a short while. I guess the refrigerator drains the batteries pretty fast. This is the first I regretted that we have a residential refrigerator. He turned the truck on to charge them back up and we decided to bring the slides in while the truck was running. One less thing we would need to worry about powering in the morning. We pulled out a couple battery operated lanterns to use instead of the 12 volt lights in the RV. Luckily the extra charge from the truck worked and the batteries were at 75% in the morning.

We got on the road in the morning and headed to Cincinatti. Our second stop was Valley Vineyards, Winery and Brewery which is fairly close to Cincinatti. Normally I think it would be easy to get an RV to their location but unfortunately for us, the road we had to take was closed. The road closed ahead sign didn’t say how far down the road it was closed so we decided to give it a try. We only had to go 3 miles but unfortunately it wasn’t open far enough. It was a wide 4 lane road so Tim made a u-turn. I couldn’t believe he did it. We headed back and followed the detour which the RV GPS didn’t like. It kept trying to send us back to the road that was closed. The detour was challenging, a very windy 2 lane road but we made it there safely, thank goodness. Traveling with a big 5th wheel is an experience!

This host was on US 22 so a fairly busy road. They had a wide L shaped hard packed gravel drive around the side and back of their parking lot for us to use. It was more level than the field the night before but not as scenic. We looked at the parking lot but we still sat out our chairs and put out the awning. They have a big outdoor seating area and entertainment all afternoon and evening which we could hear from the RV so it was enjoyable sitting out even if it was a parking lot.

The patio was large enough for everyone to be distant and enjoy the music

Tim enjoying a beer while we waited for our food

We arrived around 3 pm, too early for the barbecue dinner they had that evening. We were starving so we didn’t want to wait that long to eat. We ordered a barbecue chicken pizza and a chicken quesadilla to split and a couple beers to have while we waited for the food. A table in the corner on the covered porch was free so we grabbed seats and listened to the music while we waited for our food.

Our daughter Kim and her boyfriend Greg live in Cincinatti which is what brought us to this area. They were in Columbus that afternoon and evening for a baptism so they were heading home past where we were staying. They, along with Greg’s brother Nathan, stopped in after 9 pm for a quick visit. We haven’t seen Kim since October so it was wonderful to be able to see them. The place had emptied out some so we were able to get seats and enjoy a brew, conversation and music. What a great way to end the evening.

Since we were parked so close to the building and could use their restroom, we didn’t have to worry about water too much. Our only issue was no shower and it was a hot day! Tim picked up some baby wipes so we did the best we could with those. The battery power drained during the day to almost 50% so Tim ran the truck a couple times while we were there. We were still nervous about the morning so we brought the slides in again for the night but left the leveling jacks down. It was back down to 50% in the morning so he ran the truck again when we brought those up. We survived and the refrigerator kept running but learned that we aren’t setup to dry camp a few nights in a row. We definitely need to get a generator and invest in solar if we want to do this very often.

Overall, I really liked both locations. We had fun at both places and liked their food and drinks. Of course, we ended up spending more money each night than we would have at a campground, but we were supporting small businesses in the process. Staying without hookups for one night shouldn’t be an issue for us, but more than that is going to require a generator or solar panels, helping our power requirements!

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