Destinations

[Airdale]

We have long time friends from our Navy days that retired in the NC country town of Four Oaks. Whenever traveling up & down I-95 we pull in here at this family owned and managed KOA and visit with our friends. The KOA has a nice sized residential section and lots of fairly large short term sites. It’s a laid-back quiet country atmosphere with great services.

The site pictured here is a long pull-thru with FHU and CATV. It’s a very easy on & off I-95 for those that just want to spend a night resting from that busy highway.

[LeoC4]

Looks like this is now https://raleighoaksrvresort.com

[Airdale]

Originally Posted by LeoC4

Looks like this is now https://raleighoaksrvresort.com

I think they did that so they wouldn't be mistaken for that other Four Oaks CG.

[Airdale]

Western Village RV Park is a quiet place to just pull-in and stay a couple of days. It’s just off the I-81 corridor – which we traveled frequently – and has easy access. The pull-thru sites are large and level. The park office/store is well stocked with reasonable prices.

[Airdale]

For two weeks we parked at the huge Mill Creek CG on the banks of Lake Huron. It afforded us the opportunity to visit all the major attractions in the area including a side trip to Sault Ste. Marie to experience a boat ride through the Soo Locks.

The CG has numerous site selections. Ours was called a large 50 AMP FHU. The section has mostly back-ins but they are large and level with easy access to dish TV signals. Our trailer is 38’. When hooked to the truck the rig is 53’. You can see in the picture we had lots of extra space, front and back.

There is so much to see and do in that area of MI you’ll just have to keep on the go every day to get it all in, during a 2 week visit.

Here is a current link for Mill Creek and some pictures we took experiencing the CG.

https://www.campmackinaw.com/

[Airdale]

Statesboro, GA


Most of our RV travels now days are to preplanned locations. Because our grand children live and work in Jacksonville, FL we spend a month or two there in the winter months - Dec, Jan, or Mar. Sometimes we stay at one of the military campgrounds for a week or two each then move to the small RV park out behind the American Legion Post. It’s gated, private and right on the Cedar River.

A couple of years ago we got tired of taking the interstates all the way to Florida. Our little senior retirement community in Taylors, SC is close to US-25. So we have started taking that highway down to Statesboro, GA and spending the night and sometimes a few more if the VFW has something going on.

The Parkwood RV Park is situated right on US-25 and US-301. Its been very convenient for us and has all the amenities we like and are accustomed to. Nice large, easy to get into, level sites. FHU service with 50 amp service and free CATV and WI-FI. There are plenty of places to eat very close by and big rig friendly service stations, all with diesel & gas pumps.

When we leave there we take US-301 south and connect up with US-1 which takes us right into Jacksonville. All of the rural roads are in excellent condition with many places to pull-off if needed. Most of the speed limits are 55 - 65 MPH with light traffic flow on week days.

Here are a few pictures of our parking site when last there and a glimpse of the park roads.

This link is active

https://parkwoodrv.com/

[Airdale]

This is another in our once-in-a-lifetime camping adventures as it’s the only time we've traveled up US-51.

On this trip we were on our way to Peoria, IL to hook-up with our friends. Once there we planned our trip west, then south for the winter.

We were coming from FL and had been using mostly interstate highways. When we got to I-64 we decided to go over and use US-51. We took it all the way to I-74. Great country traveling topped off with some really nice weather.

Not many RV parks/CGs up that way but we did find the Okaw Valley Kampground near Brownstown, IL. It was a weekday and a little out of season so there weren’t many campers there. We took a FHU site which was nice and level and very easy to get into. Because we seldom go more than 250 miles a day there was plenty of daytime left for fishing in their well stocked pond/lake.

We always take pull-thru 50 AMP FHU sites when available. With our smallish washer-dryer combo we normally wash and dry one load every day. We can do it on 30 amps but have to be careful what else we turn on. With the 50 amps it’s not a problem at all. Nice level sites allow us to stay connected to the trailer making for easy departures. Sometimes I’ll put down the rear stabilizers if we’re a little off balance. I’ve even put down both when traveling with our friends and we are hosting the card/domino games.

Here are some pictures I took of the CG. Nice clean place with a well stocked store and a nice book swapping area. We learned early on that books are too heavy to carry in large quantities so we carry 8 or 10 each and swap them out whenever a CG has a swapping area.

The CG link is active.


Okaw Valley Kampground — A private, year-round campground with 50-amp RV, tent and cabin sites. 60 Minutes from St. Louis in south-central Illinois.

[Airdale]

Spring is coming and looking for nice CGs in the north will become popular sooner than you think.

Being very spoiled full times we hardly ever stay anywhere with less than 30 AMP FHU sites. And, for sure we never dry camp or use someone’s parking lot. However there are exceptions.

One year while exploring the wonderful scenic highways in upstate NY we needed a place to spend the night before our next scheduled stop in VT. After reading a billboard advertisement about Coles Creek SP near Massena we decided to drive in and take a look. The sites were huge and the one we chose paralleled the water. The big deal breaker almost became the utility connections; 30 AMPS/fresh water only. We decided we could rough it for a night because of the great parking site. Besides that, each park exit had very modern dump stations with fresh water flushing available. We ended up spending two nights. One of the park rangers got us some cut fire wood for a fire and we enjoyed the sunset across the St Lawrence River.

I even got some smallish fish from the rocky shoreline right out our front door. I uses, of all things, crappie jigs.

[Airdale]

I’m probably better known for writing about RV trailer tires than RV Parks/CGs. However, I do some RV Park reporting. This stop was unplanned but necessary because of tires.

We and our traveling companions were traveling west out of Las Vegas on I-15. We had been at the Circus Circus RV Park on the Vegas strip for two weeks and were heading for a few winter months stay at a Naval Recreational area RV Park in downtown San Diego.

Linda and I had our share of bad luck with tires and this one was probably the worst. At about NV mile marker 10 we were following an 18 wheeler. It had a huge tread separation and threw a very large road gator right in our path. Making sure the left lane was open I served left and missed the gator with the truck tires but as most of you well know, the trailer axles are not going to be directly in the same position as the truck axles and the right side tires both hit the gator. The forward tire immediately blew and the trailing tire was flat by the time I got to the highway apron. Our traveling companions were 2-3 hundred yards behind us and completely missed the gator. Our trailers were about the same weight and had the same sized wheels/tires. We used our spare and our friends spare and continued on. Barstow, CA was the first stop where we could get replacement tires.

The KOA at Barstow/Calico is really at Yermo, CA as it has a Yermo address and phone number. The CG has a sort of haphazard layout. That’s probably because they didn’t want to cut down any of the well grown shrubs. The management was very friendly and helped us find a tire dealer having trailer tires. Most of the park worker bees were collage kids moonlighting for expenses. All that we had contact with were very friendly and polite. We got a couple of FHU sites and stayed two nights/days, leaving with two new tires on the road

[Airdale]

Traveling north from FL we often use highways US-231 & US-82 up through AL. One of our favorite RV Parks along those routes is Deer Run at Troy, AL. It’s a large family owned and operated park with large pull-thru sites. Sometimes we just spend a night there. We have stayed as long as a week.

One of the attractions we have visited while at Deer Run is the U.S. Army aviation museum at Fort Rucker, AL.

[Airdale]

While heading west on I-80 in southwest NB we spotted a little golf course backed up to a reservoir lake with a huge power plant on the far side. We saw a few smallish RV trailers parked there so we decided to investigate. It was a little early in the day and we had no reservations.

The little RV Park at the golf course had nice large FHU sites right on the lake. The sites were nice and level and by the time we got our rigs set up for the night we had a golf cart and were headed for the first tee.

While my friend Don and I were off golfing the girls gabbed and started preparing supper. The little 9 hole golf course was in very good condition and we enjoyed the afternoon chasing little white balls. Later, as the sun was going down, we had a nice supper on the lake while watching the birds coming and going. They were getting their last drink of water before heading to their roosting places.



This is one of those places you just don’t find in the books or on the internet. Thank you Sutherland, NE.

Not many pictures taken here. Some were shot into the sun and the quality isn’t very good. Just click on them to get a larger view.

[JS Stanley]

Still enjoying your posts!

[Airdale]

Over the years we have often traveled I-40 and always have our eyes peeled for quick easy places to spend a night at an economical price. T-Ricks, at AR exit 193 fits the bill. It’s a fueling stop with a store and a smallish - well laid out - RV park with FHU service. Stop at the store and pay the site fee and then go across the street and pick-out a site. We got there in the early afternoon and there was no one parked there. We got a nice level pull-thru and didn't have to unhook. by bed time the park was three quarters full. (If you're looking for amanitas, don't stop). Everything you need will be found at the fuel stop store.
They have diesel and gas there so in the morning we topped the truck off and got some of their fresh breakfast sandwiches and hit the road all refreshed.

[5er_tom]

Did not know about that place. We stayed on the other side of the highway, same exit, at Lower White River CG.
No frills, no office! Pull in and someone comes to your site to collect fee. It was cheap, level and FHU’s.

[kenandterry]

Originally Posted by 5er_tom

Did not know about that place. We stayed on the other side of the highway, same exit.
No frills. It was cheap, level and FHU’s.

This is what people in Raleigh say about people from Durham.

[Airdale]

We once made a short five day stay at the Apple Island RV Resort. We got in there without reservations. It’s expensive but its loads of amenities make it a very worthwhile stop to put on your list.

We were heading east on US-11 out of NY and connected up with US-2 and crossing the Hero Islands when we found this resort. It was early afternoon but we stopped just to see if they might have a site for us. They did and it was atop a grassy knoll near the golf course and seasonal section. It had a FHU with 50 AMPS and a clear path to the satellite for our dish antenna. The only time we left the resort was to make a day trip to Burlington, a very picturesque city.

When traveling US-2 on the hero islands, Lake Champlain is almost always in view. Burlington City Park is up on a hill overlooking a large marina where ferry boats load/unload to and from NY.

This link is active.

https://www.appleislandresort.com/

[Airdale]

Crossing the Michigan Upper Peninsula on US-2 in the late spring/early summer time is an experience you will well remember. The campgrounds are family oriented with friendly, helpful staff members. The countryside is lush in fresh growth and wild animals are everywhere.

On this trip from east to west we were just meandering from campground to campground only calling ahead each stopping day to ask for a place to stay. Some travel days were a little longer than others but we always ended-up finding a place to park for a day or two before moving on again, and that’s how we found the Summer Breeze CG.

Our site was a FHU on a large grassy site. The section we parked in was a haphazard arrangement but easy to use once we found it. We were there on midweek days so it was quiet and restful. We were making so many stops during our travel days we were only averaging about 200 miles a day. By the time we got to Salt Lake City and turned south it was almost late fall and we even ran into some sleet in Rawlings, WY.