Overnighters

[CALinSC]

Are you a frequent I-95 Traveler? The New Green Acres RV Park at Walterboro, SC, exit #53 may interest you. Their sites are mostly long pull-thru sites with 50 AMP FHU and CATV. The park is very easy to enter and depart. On both sides of the exit road there are large big rig friendly service stations. It’s a very easy overnighter or short term retreat park with a traveler’s atmosphere.

The link below is active.

http://www.newgreenacres.com/

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[CALinSC]

Because we now live in upstate SC and Linda’s family has always lived there, we have traveled I-81 many times. And, a few times, we did it from its start in NC to its end in NY.

There are a lot of great RV Parks/CGs along I-81. Many are family oriented CGs that are always open to overnighters. This stop at Twin Bridges CG was our first. We were headed north and spotted their billboard advertisement and decided to drive in and take a look. They offered us a nice grassy 50 amp FHU site and we took it. It’s a nice clean CG with lots of activities.

The CG office/store is well stocked and has live fishing bait. Because of the stream across the road in front of our site we decided to stay two nights. We got some nice pan sized catfish from the stream and got our laundry done. We try to wash at least once at every stop because of the load size of our washer/dryer. Changing sheets and towels will normally require three loads.

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[CALinSC]

I-20 is one of those east/west highways we used often. This Safe Harbor RV Park is very convenient for a quick overnight stop. Just drive in and find a site, pay at a drop box and get a FHU with 50 AMPS and CATV.

I really like to get an overnight stop with a well stocked fishing pond/lake. Hardly any of the RV patron’s fish in the pond and I’ve always got a nice catch from its waters.

We’ve stayed here numerous times. Pictures 1&2 was at a different site and time than picture 3.

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[Dan50]

Thank you. Enjoy your campground reports immensely.

[CALinSC]

We have stayed at RV parks near or at Tucson. We were never able to get advance reservations into the RV Park at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. They have a huge overflow section but only water & elect. So we stay at civilian RV Parks.

Our favorite is the Prince of Tucson. It is well maintained and has individual mail boxes in the main building. It usually took about 10 days to get our mail shipped there. Even though the park is old it is not antiquated. All hook-ups are modern and well maintained. Entrance and departure from the park is easy and blends right into the main flow of traffic. Parking was easy for all size rigs and all pavement was in good condition.

On this trip it had rained and there were flowers all along I8 into Tucson.

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[CALinSC]

This is a RV park that we often use. We highly recommend it for those that enjoy flea markets and yard sales.

There are two distinct sections in this park. One is for long term or seasonal patrons and the other is for shorter periods. Everything is FHU with many sites large enough for the largest Motor Homes and whatever they are hauling.

The adjacent Flea Market is their main drawing point. There is another Flea Market about a half mile down the road in an old drive-in movie theatre. It is about three quarters open air with less regular venders than the one at Barnyard.

Don’t miss the Flight Deck Restaurant in downtown Lexington. Aviation buffs will love the motif.

http://www.flightdeckrestaurant.net/

The pictures below were taken at different times of the year to show that the foliage does change significantly with the seasons in central SC.

In one picture there are two brownish Motor Homes parked side-by-side. They were nearly identical as were the brothers driving them.

Another picture is an example of the size of the larger sites. The red roofs in the picture’s background are part of the flea market.


Another picture shows some young men trying-out their purchases from some flea market vendor.

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[CALinSC]

During our full time traveling years we wintered three times at Yuma, AZ. Because the seasonal RVers will often start north early, we decided to do the same and explore some of central AZ. It’s pretty easy at that time of year to travel without reservations. We wanted to visit the attractions in and around Sedona, AZ. We found the Rancho Verde RV Park at Camp Verde, AZ to be in a great location for many side trips in the area. We got a nice pull-thru, FHU site with the camp office and laundry/rec room just a short walk across the camp road. The owners/managers lived on site and were very helpful in pointing out shortcuts to places we wanted to visit. Our traveling companions in the Montana were traveling with us and we got side by side parking.

Rancho Verde RV Park - Camp Verde, AZ - 2008 - 1.JPG Rancho Verde RV Park - Camp Verde, AZ - 2008 - 3.JPG

[CALinSC]

Pelican Roost RV Park, Naval Station, Mayport, FL

I did 31 years of active duty with the USN. Because of that and a service-connected disability I can stay at all military CGs and RV Parks (FAMCAMP – USAF). In the past I’ve not posted any of them in this thread because of the “authorized users” restrictions. Many of the ones we’ve stayed at in the past now allow guests with authorized users. Pelican Roost is one of them.

The Pelican Roost RV Park is situated out near the very end of the south jetties where the St. Johns River flows into the Atlantic Ocean. From the RV Park there is a full view of the “Mayport Basin” where the USN ships are moored. Everything that enters by sea to the ports at Jacksonville, FL will pass the RV Park. Needless to say, fishing from the jetties is very productive and exciting, because you never know what you might hook.

The normal parking limit is 14 days. Every time we’ve stayed there it’s been for 14 days. Just south of the RV Park there are military beaches. They have restaurants, bath facilities and game courts such as beach volleyball. The base has a true links 18-hole golf course which also has a wonderful restaurant. The MWR office has all sorts of recreational equipment for rent and they also have a large assortment of fishing equipment and baits.

At the town of Mayport there is a state-run ferry boat that crosses the St. Johns. The dunes on the north jetties are very popular with off road vehicle riders; there are a couple very popular sea food restaurants there, right on the river.

The following link will provide additional info.

https://www.militarycampgrounds.us/f...-roost-rv-park


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[Dan50]

Missed your reports. Glad you're back and thank you for your service.

[CALinSC]

Admiral Baker RV Park is in a naval recreational area in the heart of San Diego, CA. It is a large complex that offers numerous recreational activities.

When we last stayed there it was not open to the public. It now allows the civilian public to park there without a sponsor. Reservations can be made, and a stay limit of 14 days is allowed for civilians.

Basically, the RV park is shaped like a big horseshoe with all back-in sites. Behind the sites is a large activities field. The link below has all the information about costs and amenities. The location is excellent for visiting the city and all it offers.

A short distance away you can park and take a harbor tour. The USS Midway (CV-41) is a military museum and a popular downtown attraction. The bridge over to Coranado will get you to sandy beaches right on the ocean. The Del Coranado Hotel is a popular landmark and has been a backdrop for many movies. We once drove out there and took pictures of its Christmas decorations.

The last time there we had planned on spending a month, but a heavy rainstorm caused huge mud slides in the area, and we moved over the mountains to the Naval Air Facility at El Centro, CA.

https://www.militarycampgrounds.us/c...eld-campground

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[CALinSC]

Nostalgia memories of what used to be a great country casino gaming establishment.

This is going back about 17 years. It’s an unplanned story that can only happen out on the road looking for places to park a RV rig.

In early 2005 we were traveling with some long-time companions from our Navy years. At that time, we had all known each other for nearly 40 years.

We were finishing a long-extended tour of the northern states from IL to NV. Our destination was Las Vegas where we had reservations at the Circus Circus RV Park just off the Vegas strip. (Don’s daughter was going to get married at a Vegas wedding chapel). After leaving Reno and heading south on US 95 we were about 4-5 days early for our reservations. If you’ve ever traveled US-95 between Reno and Vegas, you know how scarce RV parking along the way is. We all used Verizon cell phone services and at Beatty, NV we finally got good reception. Using our RV Parking catalogs we searched for a place to spend 3-4 days. We found a place near Pahrump, NV called Terrible’s Casino. They didn’t have any sites available. Before we could start another hunt, they called us back and said they had a 6-trailer caravan cancellation and they could give us two, nice side-by-side back-ins. At that time the casino was about 6 miles down a sort of rutted road and we were very worried that the place would be just like the roads. All those worries were set aside when we got there and were greeted by a RV parking attendant in a golf cart. Our days there were a great relaxing experience and we have always been sad of their closing. The owners ended-up building at a new location out on I-15.


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[CALinSC]

Peoria, IL

During our full-time traveling years, we traveled almost exclusively with another retired Navy couple we had known for many years, Don & Betty Doole.

After wintering in Fl, we headed north. Betty is from Peoria; IL and we were going to spend a couple of weeks in the early springtime there before going on out trip across country. Our plans were to go north to the Michigan, UP and travel west on US-2. We traveled a lot of US highways because we were not time or reservation travelers. On our way to Peoria, we traveled most of the state north on US-51, all the way to I-74.

At Peoria, Betty knew of a Mobile Home Park that had nice sized RV spaces. Its name is Mt. Hawley Mobile Home & RV Park. It had nice FHU (50 AMP) sites well off the highway. Being a Mobile Home Park, each site had mail delivery. They also have a game room next to the laundry room. The area golf courses had opened and were lush green. Don & I played a lot of golf while the girls shopped and visited Betty’s family. After our two weeks stay, we headed north. We would winter in CA.

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[Dan50]

Thank you, sir.

[CALinSC]

Bozrah, CT

Odetha CG and Bozrah are unique names or places in CT and are the only ones to have those names.

Many Years ago, when we were on our first full time venture, we wanted to visit the huge Foxwoods Resort and Casino in rural CT. Because the casino – at that time – only offered dry parking for RVs we searched our RV Parks catalog and found the Odetha CG. We did not have reservations and all they had available was water and electric and gray water hook-ups. We had never used one and didn’t know what a gray water hook-up was. Every site in the gray water section had a normal looking wastewater connection. However, atop it was an unremovable garden hose connection. We did not have a connector for the trailer to use a garden hose, but the CG office did. With the two of us we could probably go 10 days without having to dump the black tank. We stayed 5 days and dumped and rinsed the black tank at the CG dump station on the exit road.


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The Odetha Resort and CG is a full-service CG. It has a nice sized lake where there is a small sandy beach area and an assortment of rental watercraft. Over the years we have stayed there at least a half dozen times, but never again on a gray water site.


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[CALinSC]

Myrtle Beach State Park - Myrtle Beach, SC

We originally expected to stay two weeks but dallied too long before actually calling for reservations and in the end could only get a W&E site. We had a ditch out behind our trailer so I dumped the gray water in it every night but still had to use the blue boy (30 gal) one time to dump black water because of all the visitors we had.

The facilities at the fishing pier and CG store provide just about anything one needs to stay there without having to leave the grounds. You’d have to be extremely unlucky not to catch some fish when using the pier. We were after trout and drum and ate a lot of fish that week.

Our trailer is 38’ but we had no problems transiting the park roads to get to our site or when maneuvering to get parked. The site was pretty flat and the trailer was easy to get level. (Deep Woods Off recommended). We had a very short walk to a bathroom with warm water showers. That was a life safer because of all the visitors we had.

https://southcarolinaparks.com/myrtle-beach/camping

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[CALinSC]

Fort Amarillo RV Park


On cross-country trip while traveling west to east on I-40, we caught up with a huge Midwestern storm front that was threatening the Mississippi delta country in the Memphis area. We decided to hunker down in Amarillo, TX. After browsing all of our campground references for the area we decided on the Fort Amarillo RV Park & Resort. When we got there the storm was less than 35 miles out in front of us. The sites there were all level pull thru and plenty long enough. They were narrow but divided. The access to I40 is simple and easy. A super Walmart is less than five miles away.

Save some time for the Lizzie Mae Mercantile. Trinkets galore!

We ended up spending five days there. The Mississippi crested well below flood levels and I-40 was wide open all the way past Memphis. But, even after spending a couple of nights each in OK and AR, the Mississippi was still over its banks as we crossed into TN, and it was still heavily overcast.

http://fortrvparks.com/

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[Dan50]

Glad to see that you are back.