Double Nickel Campground- Waco, Nebraska (July 2018)

According to the reviews on AllStays and RVParky, the Double Nickel Campground was a five-star, well-loved Campground. It had a swimming pool, a miniature golf course and movies on weekend evenings for the kids. The reviews glowed about what a great place this was for families. 

We were told that the park had a cancellation and were able to reserve the last available site when we called. While the fees seemed high, the park offered more than most campgrounds and it appeared that it was difficult to book sites there.

Sign at the campground

The office at the campground

We couldn’t deny that the park was full and every RV had more than the national average of kids. We quickly saw that this really was a great campground for families with children. 

It was interesting while walking around the campground that most RVs had license plates from Nebraska. It also appeared that a large number of people in the park knew each other. We guessed that they frequently camped there.

Rosie in the campground

Looking for surveillance cameras and the many signs warning everyone that the park recorded video 24/7 became a game as we walked around the campground. Maybe the CIA could learn something about video surveillance from the owners of this campground. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was a pull-thru
• Our site was gravel and we needed to use our leveling tools to correct a left-to-right lean
• Our site had 20 and 30 amp electrical service. Some sites had 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• Our site was long enough that we didn’t have to unhitch the truck 
• The restrooms and showers at the campground were overwhelmed by the number of guests in the park. This translates into trash on the floors and dirty fixtures. It also means slightly warm water in the showers 
• The park offered WiFi, but we couldn’t get it to work
• AT&T offered three bars of 3G service 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS and NBC while using Rosie’s TV antenna. We also saw digital channels Escape, Grit,Laff and ME-TV 
• In addition to miniature golf, weekend movies and the swimming pool, the park offered craft classes for the kids 
• There was a bench swing at every campsite 

This campground was just off I-80. The reviews coupled with the premium costs probably created an expectation in our minds that was difficult to achieve. We were probably in the minority being underwhelmed by the park because it was full of happy families having a weekend adventure. 

Getting ready for the weekend outdoor movie

Corn field next to the campground

Point of Rocks Motel and Campground - Potter, Nebraska (July 2018)

We were tired after a long day of dragging Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, across Wyoming and the plains of Nebraska. The AllStays app on our iPhones had good reviews for the Point of Rocks Motel and Campground. A quick phone call confirmed that the park wasn’t full and we could stop there for the night.

Crossing the Continental Divide

A happy sight! New Airstream trailers heading to a dealer

The Nebraska State Line

The directions to the campground said that it was a few miles off I-80. That was an understatement as we headed down some country roads looking for the campground. We saw the motel first and that was helpful since there wasn’t a sign we could see for the campground.

Rosie in the campground

Many of the online reviews mentioned the train tracks across the street from the campground. It was easy to see why this was an issue with some people. We not only heard the frequent trains, we could feel Rosie vibrate when the trains passed by.

A train at sunset

Another train

How often were the trains? It seemed as if one went by every 15 minutes. That's not as bad as it sounds because we quickly got used to the train sounds. Correction, Suzy, our Yorkie, was always excited when she heard the trains. 

We could not help but notice that this campground was in a beautiful setting. There was a corn field immediately behind the park and a pasture with cattle grazing next to the field. The Interstate was just beyond the farmland and that was far enough that we didn’t hear road noises. Several people mentioned in their online reviews of this park that the fees were very reasonable. That was true, but we thought the campground's beautiful setting was its best asset.

Trees in the park

Rosie parked in our site

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was paved with gravel and we needed leveling tools to correct a left-to-right lean
• Our site had 30 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The campground's restrooms were being renovated and only one was open during our visit. It definitely needed to be renovated 
• We could not receive any TV signals using Rosie’s antenna 
• AT&T placed a usable 3G signal over our site 

We enjoyed our night in this campground.

The entrance to the campground

A garden in the campground

Selfie in the campground

Phillips RV Park- Evanston, Wyoming (July 2018)

The paperwork when we checked in proudly stated that this campground was established in 1938. I couldn’t help but wonder what camping was like 80 years ago.

The sign at Phillips RV Park

According to Google, the first Airstream trailer was marketed in 1936, so Rosie’s predecessor was on the road before this park opened. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.) It goes without saying that camping, RVs and campgrounds have changed over the last eight decades and this campground must have been renovated a time or two during that time span.

The shade provided by the big and mature trees in this park was appreciated by us. The temperature cooled down to 103 when we arrived after seeing 105 on the road. That was too much for our truck as it pulled Rosie up the mountains of Wyoming. Our truck gave us a warning to lessen the engine's load and the first thing we turned off was the air conditioner. That made our afternoon very uncomfortable.

Rosie in the campground

We were surprised at how close this park was to the train tracks and how often the trains passed by. The sound of Rosie’s air conditioner was able to drown out the noise from the trains. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was a pull-thru
• Our site was gravel and not level 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical connections 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The park offered basic TV cable channels 
• We were unable to receive any TV stations using Rosie’s antenna 
• The park offered WiFi, but we were unable to get it to work
• AT&T placed a weak 3G signal over our site for voice and data 
• The restrooms and showers were clean but dated

There were three Airstream trailers in this campground the night we stayed there. 

Driving through the salt flats

Driving through Utah

Rosie parked in the salt flats

Selfie taken in the Utah salt flats

Salt plant in Utah

Wyoming state line

Another view of the campground

Sunset reflected in Rosie's window

New Frontier RV Park - Winnemucca, Nevada (July 2018)

It was a long and slow drive leaving California. It appeared to me that every car in the state was on the road and in front of us. To make matters worse, we were amazed at the amount of road construction along our route. We crawled along at 3 mph mile after mile. 

Another issue was that it seemed as if every rest stop in California was closed for renovations. Add temperatures exceeding 100 degrees to this picture and you have the ingredients for a frustrating day. Thankfully, the roads and traffic returned to a more normal state once we crossed into Nevada.

Welcome to Nevada!

It didn’t take long for us to start talking about where to stop for the night. We used both AllStays and RVParky on our iPhones to identify New Frontier RV Park as a possible campground for the night. A quick call confirmed that they had room for us that night. 

This campground has some pull-thrus, but only the back-in sites were available by the time we arrived. Their smallest back-in sites were 70 feet deep and that is big enough to allow us to stay hitched up during the night with about 35 feet to spare.

Rosie parked in New Frontier RV Park

This was a newer park than the ones we normally camp in. It was well designed and had large sites separated by grass and a small tree. This gave us plenty of room to extend our awnings without worrying about being too close to the neighboring sites.

Sunset in the park

We were tired after a difficult day and this was a great place for us to park Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, for the night. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was paved with gravel 
• We needed leveling tools to correct a slight lean
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• Our site had a cable TV connection. We were able to see only two stations using Rosie’s antenna 
• The campground provided a decent WiFi signal over our site 
• AT&T placed a poor one-bar signal over our campsite. It was unreliable for both voice and data 
• This campground had some of the nicest restrooms and showers we have seen in any campgrounds
• There was a nice laundry room in this park 

We enjoyed our visit here and hope to see more campgrounds similar to this one as we head down the road.

The campground

A train along the highway

Sanborn County Park Campground- Saratoga, California (July 2018)

“There's your problem,” said the county electrician as he pointed at our surge protector. Then he added, “We've never had a complaint about voltage problems before.”

One of the first things we do when setting up at a campsite on warm days is to connect the electrical power so that Rosie’s air conditioner can start cooling things down. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.). Rosie is connected to the electrical box via our surge protector, which will switch off the power if it detects a problem. A common problem is that the voltage is too high or too low. 

When we connected to the power in this park, the surge protector clicked off and gave us an error code that the voltage was too low. The surge protector cycled back every two minutes then would pop off again with the same problem. We found the park ranger and he said that the county maintenance staff would check with me the next morning.

Rosie at Sanborn County Park Campground

I was impressed that the county sent an electrician out to work with us. After his initial observation, he disassembled our power utility connection box to measure voltage and current. 

It didn’t take long to see the look of concern on his face. The problem wasn’t our surge protector, it was the park's wiring. We were in one of the last three sites in the campground, meaning we were located a long distance from the park’s power distribution point. The wires used to connect our site to the electrical distribution point were designed to carry 30 amp electricity short distances and not as far as our site. 

My answer as to why no one had complained before was that not all RVers use surge protectors and most surge protectors only look for high voltage issues and not low voltages. 

The solution for us was simple. We needed to move to a site closer to the power distribution point. The maintenance crew worked it out with the reservations staff and we were reassigned to a new site that was much closer and didn’t have the low voltage problem we saw at our original one. 

I never thought about it before, but I learned a few things about how the electrical systems at campgrounds were wired. I think I will be able to talk semi intelligently to a park's maintenance crew if we ever see a similar problem. 

We felt very fortunate to be able to camp in this park as it was less than 10 miles away from our son, daughter-in-law and three granddaughters' home. This gave us an opportunity to bring our granddaughters out one-a-time for a Rosie adventure. It was hard to tell if we or our granddaughters were more excited about spending the night in Rosie.

Our oldest granddaughter (face not shared)

Our middle granddaughter (face not shared)

Our youngest granddaughter (face not shared)

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was paved with asphalt and needed some leveling tools 
• Our site had a 30 amp electrical service. We had some problems with voltage regulation (voltage dropped below 104 when Rosie used 10 or more amps) at our original site. We moved to another site and didn’t have similar voltage issues.  Our site had a water connection 
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• The campground had a dump station 
• The campground had dated restrooms and showers that were clean and well maintained 
• We were able to watch only one TV station using Rosie’s antenna 
• AT&T placed no signal over our site

This turned out to be a great place to camp. We were able to watch several deer and their babies every evening near our site. We also heard the actors practice for their next Shakespeare in the Park performance. We also loved seeing the big redwood trees in this park. Of course, the best part of this park was being able to visit with our son and his family and having our granddaughters spend the night with us in Rosie.

Deer at the campground

We were impressed with how the staff of this county campground responded to our power problem. A quick visit to the campground host brought the ranger to us. The ranger alerted the county's maintenance staff. The maintenance supervisor was there the next morning along with a county electrician. Once the electrician determined our site wiring was at fault and identified a site that would not have the same problem, the maintenance supervisor worked with the reservations staff to transfer us to that new site. Yes, it was a great little park with a very helpful and responsive staff.

Several weddings took place at the park while we were
there. One wedding party, including the bride and
groom, spent the night in the tent camping area.

Rosie parked in front of our son's house in California

Visiting the dump station on the way out of the park

JGW RV Park- Redding, California (July 2018)

How is it that we were wearing coats and running the heater in the morning in Oregon and then we were greeted by 100+ degrees that afternoon in California? We only traveled 200 miles south and were surprised to see the temperature change to “hot.”

View of Mt. Shasta as we headed to Redding, Calif.

There were several fires in California and Oregon that we drove near that day. We didn’t see the fires, but we could smell them.

The sign at JGW RV Park

Redding, California, was about as far as we wanted to travel in a day and the reviews on AllStays were positive about this park. We were able to “walk in” without any problems. Our choice checking in was to occupy a regular site or one by the river. Since we were there for the night, we elected to save $5 and skip the river sites. That may have been a mistake after we noticed it was cooler next to the river than in the rest of the campground.

The river

It was easy to see that the good reviews on AllStays were accurate. This was a very nice park and a well-maintained one. Also, the individual campsites were larger than those found in most private campgrounds. Of course, all of this comes with a higher than normal nightly rate. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• Our site had a concrete pad and was level 
• Our site was a pull-thru
• The park had a clean, modern and well maintained restroom and shower facility near our site
• Our site had a basic tier of cable service 
• The park offered free WiFi, but it was terrible. The wireless port was immediately behind Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, but the service was either painfully slow or our iPads gave us an error message that said the Internet was unavailable. There needs to be a set of standards developed for WiFi connections that inform potential users if the service is good or practically unusable 
• AT&T placed a moderate signal over our site for voice and data

Walking around the campground that evening, we came across an Airstream International in the storage area. We noticed that this trailer was built the same year as Rosie. We also noticed that the license tag expired more than seven years earlier, meaning the trailer had probably sat in that grassy field unused and not maintained for that length of time. This International was in terrible shape. 

The discovery of this Airstream was very sad to us. We kept thinking of the happy times and adventures we were having with Rosie while this trailer was deteriorating in the campground’s storage area. 

Someone once told us that the wheels on an Airstream trailer are designed to be turning and that Airstreams are happy when moving down the road. We felt better when we saw Rosie again. The road grime didn’t matter so much because Rosie had just been on a cross-country trip and was at the center of our current adventure. 

I think that both Airstream trailers and Airstreamers are happy when moving down the road. 

Rosie in the JGW RV Park

P.S. After returning home, we learned about the terrible fire storms that struck the Redding area three weeks after our visit there. While news reports suggest that this campground was spared, many homes around Redding were destroyed. 

We hope that the fires will be quickly extinguished and those affected by the fires quickly recover. 

Rosie at JGW RV Park

Mount Shasta

Diamond Lake RV Park - Crater Lake, Oregon (July 2018)

Our trip to Crater Lake was a spontaneous idea. We needed somewhere to camp for a few days before heading to California and Crater Lake National Park was a great place to visit. 

We made reservations for Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, in the large federal campground along Diamond Lake near Crater Lake. Similar to most federal campgrounds, this was a dry camping experience without any utilities. As we were getting closer to that campground, we noticed that warm temperatures were in the forecast. The other factor was the wildfires in Oregon and the growing possibility of smelling smoke during our stay. We saw the haze from the fires as we traveled and we realized that we needed a plan B. 

We found Plan B on our iPhone's AllStays app. There was a private campground with full hookups across the street from Diamond Lake. That meant we could run our air conditioner and air purifier. It also meant we would have to forfeit the camping fees already paid for the federal campground. 

The choice was easy. We opted for the private campground.

Sign at the campground

As we were checking in, a campground staff person came out and looked at our hitch. He used his radio to inform the person checking us in that we had a ProPride/Hensley type hitch and that we needed one of the more level sites. That turned out to be a very helpful observation as we heard some sites in this park had front-to-back slopes. 

I was surprised to hear someone say my name as I was working outside Rosie. A fellow member of the WBCCI Alabama Unit was also camping there. It was great to see our Airstream friends in Oregon.

Meeting a member of our Alabama WBCCI Unit near Crater Lake

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was paved mostly with dirt 
• Our site had 30 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• The park did not offer a WiFi service, as far as we could tell 
• We did not see any service from AT&T over our site 
• We could not see any tv signals while using Rosie’s antenna 
• The park had good restrooms and showers that were clean and well maintained 

We think the reason people camp in this park is to visit Crater Lake National Park.

Crater Lake National Park

Crater Lake is a beautiful park and well worth visiting. Our decision to come inland from the Oregon Coast and to move ourselves to a campground with full hookups turned out to be very good.

At Crater Lake

At Crater Lake

Haze in the background from the Oregon and California fires

Crater Lake