Big Oak Campground - Muncie, Indiana (July 2017)

Any way you look at it, it is a long, long way home from Escanaba. Google maps, our Garmin GPS and our truck's navigation system all recommended that we head south to go home. That meant driving through Chicago and we were hesitant about introducing Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, to late afternoon Chicago traffic.

The alternative was to head back across Michigan's Upper Peninsula, over the Mackinaw Bridge and through central Michigan. That added an hour and a half to the trip, but it avoided traveling 50 miles on two-lane roads and Chicago's roads, which both Google Maps and the app Waze were showing as very congested with multiple areas of stop-and-go traffic due to accidents.

Which way did we go? We felt that traffic problems around Chicago could easily add 90 minutes to that route. Besides, our navigation devices tend to be too optimistic about estimating travel times. We went with the path we knew and headed towards the Mackinaw Bridge.

A lighthouse seen as we drove across the Upper Peninsula of Michigan

Waiting to pay our toll to cross the Mackinaw Bridge

Starting to cross the Mackinaw Bridge

We figured that we could make it home after two long days or we could stretch it out to three more comfortable days. We opted for two exhausting days.

After more than 10 hours on the road, we were ready to stop for the night. Our All Stays app found the Big Oaks Campground near Muncie, Indiana. It was close to the Interstate and a quick phone call confirmed that they could put us in site 10 for the night. The park attendant asked the size of our rig and requested that we call 30 minutes before we arrived to make sure someone would be there to meet us.

Site 10 quickly became a running joke to us. We think that site 10 is one of the few sites the park has for campers passing through the area. The remainder of the park was full of seasonal and long-term residents.

Site 10 at the Big Oak Campground

The question about Rosie's length also became apparent when we arrived at the park. There is a 90 degree turn onto a small country road with no room for error heading into the campground. The ditches on either side of the road would be very unforgiving to larger trailers.

A park full of long-term residents usually is not a good sign for RVers. You always feel as if you are invading their habitat by parking there for the night. This park was different in that the long term residents seemed very willing to simply ignore the nightly campers.

The park's name seemed to be very appropriate in that there were several big oak trees throughout the park.

One of the oak trees in this park

Here are some specifics about this park:

• Our site had 30 amp electrical service.
• Our site had a water connection.
• Our site had a sewer connection.
• Our site was grass/gravel and surprisingly level.
• There was a bathhouse at the rear of this park. It appeared to be sparingly used, but was clean.
• There was a nice pond behind the bathhouse.
• The campground was surrounded on three sides by soybean fields and by corn on the fourth side. It was nice camping in the middle of agricultural land.
• AT&T placed a strong 4G signal for both voice and data over the park.
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie's TV antenna. We also saw Antenna, Bounce, Comet, Escape, Grit, Me-TV and This digital channels.

You need to be careful when walking around this park. There are many feral cats living there who are also aggressive. Several ran towards me as I walked Suzy, our Yorkie, and tried to attack her. I had to quickly pick Suzy up and tried to scare the cats away. I took Suzy out for several other walks while we were there and she refused to walk in the direction of the cats.

Soy bean field next to the campground

More soy beans

The corn field