Chattanooga North / Cleveland KOA Journey - Cleveland, Tennessee (August 2021)

This campground wasn’t where we planned stay for the night in Rosie, our Airstream trailer. Our plan was to head west and join the WBCCI Southwest Adventure Caravan. According to our calendar, we were supposed to be in Mississippi, not Tennessee. 

What changed between making our Mississippi reservations and showing up in Tennessee? 

The answer was that a surge in COVID hospitalizations forced us to rethink going on a caravan. While we love sharing caravan adventures with other Airstreamers, doing so during a pandemic isn’t wise for anyone with other medical issues. We agreed that we needed to go solo for now and move our caravan reservations to another year. 

Instead of heading west, we decided to return to one of our family's favorite vacation spots while our children were growing up. We planned to spend a week in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

This change in plans meant that we could leave at a reasonable time and camp north of Chattanooga our first day. This would set us up to arrive at our campground near the Smoky Mountains right after lunch the next day. 

Both the AllStays and Campendium apps agreed that the Chattanooga North/Cleveland KOA was a good choice for the night. The apps were correct. The campground was well maintained. In addition, the office staff was friendly and helpful as we checked in. 

Park registration building

We didn’t unhitch since this park was simply an overnight stop. 

We did notice a problem with Rosie after we arrived in the campground. Water from the hot water heater had an odor. We drained all water tanks and lines after our last trip because we knew Rosie would sit for a month in the Alabama summer heat before our next trip. We forgot to drain the water heater tank and it stunk. We drained and rinsed the tank and that cured the problem. 

Rosie in the campground 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site was paved with gravel and was level
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site did not have a sewer connection. Most sites in the campground had sewer connections. Since we were spending only one night in the park, we elected to accept a site without full hookups 
• There was a dump station in the park. 
• There were several dumpsters around the park
• There was a bathhouse in the campground. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, we did not check on its condition
• The park provided workable WiFi service 
• AT&T provided two bars of 5Ge voice and data service over our campsites 
• We were not able to watch any TV stations using Rosie’s TV antenna.  The park provided cable TV service 
• This was a pet friendly park 

We didn’t hear any road noise mentioned by some reviewers on AllStays and Campendium from our site. That isn’t to imply that the park was quiet all night. Somewhere between 10 and 11 pm we heard what sounded similar to a crop duster airplane going through the park. This was startling and a quick peak out the windows was amusing. The yellow KOA golf cart was chasing down an old bus that appeared to have been converted into some form of a motor home after being retired from public transportation. It didn’t take long for the yellow cart to take command of the situation and park the noisy bus. 

For the record, we are looking forward to going on many more WBCCI Airstream caravans once the pandemic is under control. Until that time, we will continue to enjoy going out in Rosie by ourselves. 

Suzy out for a walk

Rosie next to "the bus"