Overnighters

[CALinSC]

In the four and a half years we were on the road full time we visited all of the lower 48 and five CDN provinces.

We never boondocked or used someone's parking lot. We did carry a Honda 2000 generator for emergencies.

We stayed at numerous RV Parks/CGs we called overnighters. Sometimes for two nights if we wanted to explore something close by the CG or just do some shopping.

These postings will not follow any particular time frame or geographical areas. Just glimpses of places - almost always FHU - we found on our long journey.

When headed for Yankee land we avoided the large coastal cities. Normally we went up I-81 to I-84 and other US highways to get into New England from the south.

We found Korn’s CG near Middletown, NY. The first time we stayed there they were developing more land for the CG and it was out behind their original CG. The sites were going to be very large and all with FHU with 50 amps. We got one of the very first ones ready for rent.

Our normal travel day was 250 – 300 miles. We normally broke camp after the early rush and got to our next stop with plenty of time to hook-up and enjoy the rest of the day. It also gave us time to find dish TV signals in the event the CG didn’t have CATV.

Here’s a picture of our monster site at Korn’s CG.

KORNS3.JPG

[CALinSC]

One afternoon heading west on I-20 we started looking for a place to spend the night. There was a billboard advertising Roosevelt State Park near Morton, MS. We seldom consider state or national parks because their sites are normally small – we want to stay connected and we are 57’ when connected - and they don’t often have FHU services. But, we did call to inquire and found that they had FHU service and the attendant said there were a couple back in sites about 60’ Available.

It proved to be a very pleasant stop and I could walk a short distance down a path behind our site and fish until dark.

The link is active and the picture can be enlarged when you click on it.

https://www.mdwfp.com/parks-destinat...arks/roosevelt


Roosevelt SP - Morton, MS - .JPG

[CALinSC]

After a couple of weeks on the Texas gulf coast we headed north on US-59.

Our first overnighter was at Shady Oaks RV Park at Ganado, TX. Clean park with nice long, flat pull thru FHU sites.



Ganado, TX Shady Oaks RV Park 1.jpg Ganado, TX Shady Oaks RV Park 3.jpg

[Wannabervin]

Don’t ya just love these for overnighters?

[Dan50]

More Please!

[CALinSC]

When we both retired and sold just about everything we owned, we had lived in FL for 23 years. Our children and grand children all lived there. During our full time years and even after we purchased our retirement home here in the SC foothills, we have always made an effort to spend a week or two every spring and fall in FL.

There are a lot of ways to leave FL. Were never in a hurry so we travel lots of US highways and rural state roads. One of our favorite routes north out of FL includes traveling on US-84 & US-231 up through the center of AL.

On US-231 at troy, AL you will find a very comfortable place to stay at Deer Run RV Park. For overnighters it’s great. They have large FHU pull-thru sites with CATV that are level and well manicured. We have stayed there probably a half dozen times and have always enjoyed the hospitality of the owner manager team that lives on site.


Deer Run Troy AL1.jpg Deer Run Troy AL2.jpg

[CALinSC]

When traveling around the country with no particular place to go we just “wing it” (no reservations).

Our scheduled traveling days were somewhere between 250-300 miles. We avoid the rush by pulling in early and leaving CGs late.

A great number of our overnight stops were found on roadside billboard advertisements. While meandering across KS using US-54 we spotted a billboard with the Iola, KS RV Park P/N. We called and asked if they had any open sites, they had plenty.

It turned out to be a rather new and modern, smallish, RV park/storage facility. The owner/manager was a young fellow with a goal of 1st class service for all customers on the top of his list.

We spent two nights there. Had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant recommended by the RV park manager. The next day we visited the Veterans Memorial Wall and took a Trolley ride around town.

Stop by and spend a night if you’re passing through. You might extend a day to take in the atmosphere.


KS - Iola RV Park 1.jpg KS - Iola RV Park 2.JPG

[CALinSC]

While heading west with our friends on I-80 in southwestern 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 level and by the time Don and I got our rigs set up for the night, we had a golf cart and were headed for the first tee. While Don and I were off golfing the girls decided to go to town so they disconnected one of the trucks and went on their adventure. 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, NB.

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.


Sutherland NB2.jpg Sutherland NB3.jpg

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[CALinSC]

T-Ricks RV Park

Over the years we have often traveled I40 and always have our eyes peeled for quick easy places to spend a night at an economical price. T-Ricks at 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. On this stop we got there in the early afternoon and all sites were empty. By bed time it was three quarters full.

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.


T- Ricks RV Park -Hazen, AR - 1 .JPG T- Ricks RV Park -Hazen, AR - 2 .JPG

T- Ricks RV Park -Hazen, AR - 3 .JPG

[Adventurous]

Originally Posted by CALinSC

When traveling around the country with no particular place to go we just “wing it” (no reservations).

Our scheduled traveling days were somewhere between 250-300 miles. We avoid the rush by pulling in early and leaving CGs late.

A great number of our overnight stops were found on roadside billboard advertisements. While meandering across KS using US-54 we spotted a billboard with the Iola, KS RV Park P/N. We called and asked if they had any open sites, they had plenty.

It turned out to be a rather new and modern, smallish, RV park/storage facility. The owner/manager was a young fellow with a goal of 1st class service for all customers on the top of his list.

We spent two nights there. Had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant recommended by the RV park manager. The next day we visited the Veterans Memorial Wall and took a Trolley ride around town.

Stop by and spend a night if you’re passing through. You might extend a day to take in the atmosphere.


Attachment 1161 Attachment 1162

My hometown! Glad you enjoyed your stay!

[Dan50]

Have stayed at Coles Creek many times as well as Robert Mosed And Kring state parks not too far away. We are from Quebec but love NYS parks. Sure miss them this year.

[CALinSC]

We have used Fort Chiswell RV Campground numerous times over the years. We usually get there when heading up to I-81 from I-26 or I-77. It’s a very comfortable place to spend a night or two. It’s quiet, has a nice camp store and a fishing pond. They provide FHU sites with basic cable.

The link below is active.

http://properties.camping.com/fort-c...source=GoodSam


Fort Criswell VA 2.jpg

[CALinSC]

Barstow/Calico KOA

One time when going west out of Las Vegas on I-15 I ran over a huge black road gator. Just barely missed it with the truck tires but both right side trailer tires ran over it. The lead tire exploded immediately and the aft tire was flat by the time I got stopped. Our friends were following and completely missed it. I was blinded from it by an 18 wheeler in front of me. It wasn’t until after he swerved to miss it that I saw it….too late.

We used our spare and our friends spare and went on looking for a place to get more tires. Barstow was the first place with a sizeable tire retailer so we stopped there at the KOA for a couple of days. Got some new tires and looked around the local area.

At that time the CG was being worked by local college students. They were very friendly and helpful with everything.

The CG is probably the most disarranged lay-out of any we have stayed at. There was no way they were going to cut down any trees or shrubs when they put in the infrastructure. So, sites were zigzagged and misaligned throughout the CG. But there are still some large ones and the amenities were FHU with CATV just to mention the ones we covet.

The link is active.

http://koa.com/campgrounds/barstow/overview/

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[CALinSC]

When traveling the western states there is an abundance of Indian Casinos. Most of them offer places for RV parking. Some are very primitive with no hook-ups but free. Others may be free with some sort of W/E service. Others have FHU and fees

When we stayed at this one - Dancing Eagle - near Grants, NM, the sites were all FHU with a $10 per night fee. At that time the fee could be redeemed by going to the casino and applying for a player’s card. With each players card we got a $10 coupon good for fuel at their reservation service station. It’s right across the road from the RV parking area.

The RV Park was sparse but very easy to use. It had an eight foot concrete wall with an excess – well lit – path to the casino.

According to their web site they now have a $17 fee. They are currently closed because of the pandemic.

Dancing Eagle RV Park - NM - 2008 - 5.JPG

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[CALinSC]

The Lafayette KOA just off I-10 at Scott, LA is very easy to use, making it a desired overnighter. We have used KOAs for overnight stops all around the country.

This one has FHU/50 AMPs and CATV. The pull thru site we were in was about 65’. Our rig is 57’ when connected and you can see in the picture there was plenty of extra room on both ends.

Sometimes on short stops like this one was, we don’t put our living room slide out. We do use the FHU services because it’s our habit to wash cloths at every stop. It might be just socks, underwear and a dish towel/hand towel.

KOA Scott LA 1.jpg KOA Scott LA 5.jpg

[GeoTech]

Great posts @CalinSC! Love all your descriptions of the parks along with the pics! We are in the early years of our retirement & RV'ing. Though we've had 45 years of camping (all of them in a tent in some really interesting places around the U.S.A.) we are ready to expand our horizons to see all of America. Do you normally have a set destination, or are you "winging "it? Do you pick a stop early in the morning before leaving or decide after being on the road for a few hours to pick where your next overnight will be? Thanks again for such an entertaining post!

[CALinSC]

Originally Posted by GeoTech

Great posts @CalinSC! Love all your descriptions of the parks along with the pics! We are in the early years of our retirement & RV'ing. Though we've had 45 years of camping (all of them in a tent in some really interesting places around the U.S.A.) we are ready to expand our horizons to see all of America. Do you normally have a set destination, or are you "winging "it? Do you pick a stop early in the morning before leaving or decide after being on the road for a few hours to pick where your next overnight will be? Thanks again for such an entertaining post!

Because of chronic medical conditions we no longer travel full time.

We were 100% committed to a full time traveling life style when we retired. We sold our home with a pool at a golf course community in FL, and nearly everything in it. Both of our children and grand children all lived in FL so it was easy to keep it as our state of residence.

We had no set agendas other than staying warm. It took us nearly 5 years to visit 48 states and 5 CDN provinces. Our choice of RV was a mid level 38' 5th wheel - to keep the weight down - and a Dodge dually diesel tow vehicle. We traveled north in the spring and summer months and south in the fall and winter months. Snow never hit our rig. We had a very comfortable budget and never boondocked, dry camped or stayed in some parking lot.

We just winged it and seldom used or made reservations unless we were going to stop long enough for mail forwarding. Of course we always mad reservations for north/south seasonal changes, normally about 2 months and sometimes near the kids in FL. I'm from Maine and Linda is from SC so we had family connections in those areas.

We had a large place in FL for storage. When our rig weight got close to max we would send the excess to one of our kids and they would put it in our storage facility. We both had hobbies that would cause an accumulation of weight. We purchased things from yard sales and sold them on internet auctions. My interests were military things, Zippo lighters and old fishing equipment. All sold well on the net. Linda's likes were glass, pottery, 1st edition books and jewelry (mostly heavy stuff).

We both like golf and fishing, train and boat rides. We hardly ever stayed in state of federal parks but visited most all in our path.

Both of us have a hard time at altitudes above 5000' and avoided staying at them more than a day or two at a time.

Being retired military allowed us to stay at military RV Parks/CGs. Sometimes they were destination stops. In fact, because of bad weather in southern CA one year, we stayed at the Naval Air Facility RV Park at El Centro, CA for two months.

We are not photo smart but we surely know how to point and click because we have thousands of pictures.

Some of the most interesting places to spend a night or two were found by reading billboards and signs. Like a free FHU all paved city park at Concordia, KS or in a farmers yard with 12 W/E sites including a 3 course evening meal with the owners and other patrons at Kellogg, IA.

I wrote blogs and kept journals which help me go back and make some of these posts before I get too old to do it. Linda and I were married 62 years on Oct 4th this year. Traveling will keep you active and we highly recommend going out and seeing our country. We live in a smallish seniors retirement community the SC foothills and until this awful pandemic came along we went to FL at least three times a year.

[CALinSC]

Once upon a time, meandering along in the “heartland”, we found a free RV park with paved, level parking, and 50 amp full hook-up services.

We had no particular place to go and were just enjoying the lands we were traveling thru. We didn’t have any reservation - we seldom do when just meandering along - so we start looking early for places to spend a night or two (We don’t dry camp!). We had just come out of NB and were heading south on US-81 when we entered Concordia, KS. Right after entering the city limits we saw a sign advertising a free RV park run by the city. The RV Park could not be seen from the road but the entrance road was paved so we went on in. What a nice surprise. It was very clean and well kept. The sites were large enough for just about any big rigs and very easy to get into. There wasn't any on site management. There was a message board with a few rules and a drop box for donations. The whole park was very well lit-up and the city police came thru regularly all night.

On one side the park is bordered by a National Guard compound with a big fire tower. Right across the street from the entrance road is a super Wal-Mart. We set-up, disconnected and spent two days there exploring the city and its attractions.

Here are a few pictures. They will enlarge when you click on them and the link is active.

http://www.concordiaks.org/departmen...campground.php

photo02[1].jpg KS The City Park Concordia 1.JPG

KS The City Park Concordia 2.JPG KS The City Park Concordia 3.JPG

[CALinSC]

This is one of our one time only stops. It was time to head south and we were going south on I-395 and decided to see if we could find a place to park for a couple of days so we could visit the vast and beautiful Foxwoods Resort Casino complex. We stopped at a rest area and started calling CGs/RV Parks in the area. It was a Thursday and everything close in was fully booked. So we went a little farther out until we found the Deer Haven CG at Lisbon. They had a FHU with 50 AMPS but only gray water dumping. We could easily stay 2-3 days with just grey water dumping so we took it.

The CG was down a narrow country road and very secluded. Our site was behind the park office/store and almost on the fishing pond. On returning to the CG late in the evenings we always saw some kind of animal on or near the road; mostly white tail deer and once a silver fox.

Being a Thursday afternoon arrival the CG was nearly empty and we wondered about only getting a gray water site. Well, by early Friday afternoon the place was packed full.

We stayed a couple of days and then took CT-2 and others across to I-84 so we could work our way around the more populated areas with their big cities.

Since we stayed there the CG has changed hands and is now a KOA CG.

https://www.parkadvisor.com/us/conne...ven+Campground

https://sunfoxcampground.com/

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Deer Haven CG - Lisbon, CT (12).JPG Foxwoods - Sep - 2010 (1).JPG

[CALinSC]

This is one of those places you find when just meandering around on rural roads.

We had got off I-81 to follow US-11 and PA-239 down a section of the Susquehanna River. When we decided to head back to I-81 we connected up with PA-289 and that’s when we saw the sign for Moyers Grove CG. It’s very rural but friendly with a well stocked CG store. It was early afternoon and I had plenty of time to fish a section of the clear stream going through the CG. Our parking site was a FHU tight back-in, under a heavy tree cover. Highway PA-289 is a narrow rural road but well marked and repaired and provided some very picturesque views.

Moyer's Grove CG 1 - Wapwallopen, PA - 8.jpg Moyer's Grove CG 2 - Wapwallopen, PA - 4.jpg

Moyer's Grove CG 3 - Wapwallopen, PA - 1.JPG Moyer's Grove CG 4 - Wapwallopen, PA - 3.JPG