Cozy Rosie: Milford

Showing posts with label Milford. Show all posts

Friday, June 29, 2018

Curtis Creek COE Campground- Junction City (Milford), Kansas (May 2018)

Our GPS instructed us to turn onto Brinkley Road to get to the Curtis Creek COE Campground. I couldn’t help but wonder if this road was named for the infamous Dr. John R. Brinkley, who practiced during the 1930s in Milford, the town on the other side of the lake.

Following the GPS

Students who suffered through my media law undergraduate class probably remember that Dr. Brinkley and his radio station in Milford were the focus of one of the more bazaar cases we talked about during the term.

As we checked in with the campground hosts, I asked if they knew of any monuments or other recognition of Brinkley in Milford. They had never heard of Brinkley, so I gave them a quick summary of what he did and why I included his case in a media law class.

Sign at Curtis Creek Park

Our water connection didn’t work and the camp host was able to repair the problem. He said that he and his wife looked up Brinkley after I asked them about him and they could not believe “that” happened just a couple of miles from the campground.

(If you are unfamiliar with Dr. John R. Brinkley, his practice in Milford, Kansas, and his KFKB radio station, you will have to look it up. This was a three day lecture in my classes and I’m not sure I can condense it down to a paragraph.)

We reserved a site that backed up to the water. Curtis Creek Campground is on Lake Milford and the view out Rosie's windows were amazing. As with many Corps of Engineer parks, camp sites were large and the location was beautiful.

Our site in Curtis Creek Park

It seemed that most campers in this park brought their fishing poles. Fishing boats were also popular around the campground. We were happy simply enjoying the peaceful scenery surrounding Rosie.

Here are some specifics about this campground:

This campground is about 12 miles off the Interstate. You will head down some very narrow roads to get there
There were two loops in this park. We did not explore the other loop
Our site had 30 and 20 amp electrical service
Our site had a water connection
Our site did not have a sewer connection
There were two dump stations in an area we thought was outside the park.
We were able to watch CBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. We also saw digital channels CW, Get, H&I and Justice

This turned out to be a great find.

Another failed attempt at a "selfie"

View from our site

Our site

Sunday, August 20, 2017

Camp Dearborn - Milford, Michigan

This place looked amazing on its Web site. It had everything: lakes, miniature golf, tennis courts and lots of playgrounds for the kids. The icing on the cake is that this campground is close to the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn and its amazing collection of American artifacts.

Sign at Camp Dearborn

What was overlooked on the campsite's Web page? Plenty!

For example, the sites appear to be adequate in size until your neighbors erect their kitchen tents next to your site.

Another example was the number of people who ignored the large "NO FIREWORKS" sign at the entrance to the park and elected to explode them up until the wee hours of the morning. How about the campers burning wooden pallets for their campfire? The resulting fire would make any college homecoming bonfire envious.

This brings up another problem in that the park staff members were either unable or unwilling to help with enforcing their rules. So, you end up with a rowdy crowd behaving poorly and that is unlike most parks we have stayed in.

Rosie at Camp Dearborn

The park is designed so that you have loops of camping sites that have a parking lot appearance. This would be next to a huge open field. The center of the park was an area for tents. Behind that was what we called "tent city," an area of '50s style tents owned and rented out by the park. As odd as these tents appeared to us, the occupancy rate appeared high.

There are some scenic views in this park and many guests seemed to be enjoying the beaches on the lakes.

Playground at Camp Dearborn

Here are some specifics about the park:

Camp Dearborn is is huge park. There are multiple camping loops with varying levels of amenities and utilities.
Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service.
Our site had a water connection. The water was very cloudy from the high iron content. You will want to bring bottled water to drink.
Our site had a sewer connection. It was nearly impossible to use because it was uphill from our site. I wonder why some campgrounds are convinced that water flows uphill?
There was a single dump station in the park. Expect a wait there if you are in one of the many sites without sewer connections.
There were multiple bathhouses located around the park. The one closest to Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer, served too many campers and was overused. It was also dirty.
The park did not have WiFi service.
AT&T placed a strong 4G signal over the park for both voice and data.
We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, NBC and PBS using Rosie's TV antenna. We also saw Buzzr, Cozi, Decades, Escape, Get, Grit, Me and My digital channels.
This is a somewhat pet friendly park. Leashed pets are allowed in specific areas and camping loops. As expected, many dogs didn't read the rules and were roaming free through the park.
We camped in this park during June 2017.

It is obvious that many people love this park and it is a popular regional destination. While we are glad they really enjoyed their time in this park, we didn't and Camp Dearborn is now on our "been there, done that" list.