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

Laura Ingalls Wilder RV Park and Campground - Mansfield, Missouri (May 2018)

If you have read any of the “Little House on the Prairie” books or watched the TV show, you are familiar with Mansfield, Missouri. Wait a minute, the Little House books were based in Walmut Grove, Minnesota. So, what does Mansfield have to do with anything?

Laura Ingalls Wilder RV Park

Mansfield is where Laura Ingalls Wilder, her husband Almanzo and their daughter Rose lived while Laura wrote the Little House book series. The home Laura designed and Almanzo built, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum and their grave sites are all located in Mansfield. 

Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum Sign

Laura and Almanzo Wilder's home

The Laura Ingalls Wilder RV Park is across the street from the museum and Laura’s home. The campground host said the park was designed more than 60 years ago. Wow! Campground designs have greatly improved over the past six decades. 

For example, there are about ten sites carved out on a hill.  Maybe those sites approached level 60 years ago, but not today. We needed every leveling tool we owned to come close to correcting Rosie's lean. (Rosie is our 25 foot Airstream trailer.)

Our site

Another 60 year old design trait was that connections were shared between sites. That meant the water, sewer and power connections were on the correct side for half of the trailers and had to run beneath the rest because the hookups are on the wrong side. Fortunately, we arrived early enough to choose a site with the utilities on the correct side.

Our utilities were on the proper side

Finding the park was an adventure. Our GPS, Ford's navigation system and Google Maps all agreed the best path was a dirt road. We ended up with lots of dirt and road grime on both our truck and Rosie. Things were scary as the dirt and loose gravel road ended with a downward slant to a highway. Rosie and our truck were sliding on the loose rocks and didn’t stop until we were slightly in the traffic pattern of the highway. An approaching truck was able to steer around us avoiding an accident. Whew! If presented with a similar situation later, we will elect to skip the dirt road and let our navigation systems come up with Plan B. 

Since we arrived early, we walked across the street to Laura’s home and museum. The memorable thing in the museum was Paw's fiddle. Probably the most fun thing we saw wasn’t part of the displays but a young girl wearing the style of clothing associated with Laura Ingalls on the TV show walking towards the museum with her family. It was great to see that girl's excitement in visiting the museum.

Paw's Fiddle

Photo of Laura and Almonzo Wilder

Poster from the TV Show

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• This is a small campground with less than 25 sites 
• Our site had two 50 power outlets. There was a 50 to 30 amp converter cord chained to the utility box. Since this was a shared power connection, you may need to bring a power converter cable if your neighbor is using the supplied converter and your rig also requires 30 amps
• Our site had a water connection
• Our site had a sewer connection. Unfortunately, it was uphill from our trailer.  Since water does not flow uphill, you have to manually “walk the line” when you empty the tanks. 
• The camper sharing your utility connections has to run his sewer hose under his rig. I doubt I had enough hose to make that run. 
• Our site was mostly dirt with some gravel and wasn’t level
• The park provided a usable Wi-Fi signal
• AT&T provided three bars of 4G service for voice and data. We were at the top of the hill and the camp host said that was the “magic” spot to connect to AT&T. 
• The park had a bathhouse and laundry. Both passed as “OK.”
• There is a stocked fishing lake in this park
• This has to be a great park for children. There are lots of things for them to play on scattered around the campground 
• There is a chicken coop at the top of the hill and we saw the chickens regularly stroll through the park
• We were able to see ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC using Rosie’s TV antenna. The digital channels that came in were Antenna, Bounce, Cozi, Escape, Laff and ME.
• This is a pet friendly park 

There was a strong rain storm during the night. It made our exit a little muddy. You need to be extra careful exiting the park because it is easy to slide a little on the gravel as you head down the hill. 

Tom Sawyer's RV Park - West Memphis, Arkansas (May 2018)

We were heading west to join a WBCCI (Wally Byam Caravan Club International) caravan and one of our goals for our second day of travel was to find a campground west of Memphis, Tennessee. We didn’t want to drag Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer through morning rush hour traffic there, so we planned to stop for the night after passing through Memphis.

Crossing the bridge into Arkansas

We used the AllStays app on our iPhones to find the Tom Sawyer's RV Park in West Memphis, Arkansas. The reviews were positive so we decided to take a chance on this park. 

Our confidence in our choice started to wane as we turned on the access road to the campground. We were hoping that our GPS wasn’t taking us down some poorly graded roads that we would have to back out if we hit a dead end. Even the sign announcing the campground appeared to need some maintenance.

The sign announcing Tom Sawyer's RV Park

Our tune changed once we were escorted to our campsite. Rosie ended up being parked about 25 feet from the Mississippi River. The views outside Rosie's windows were amazing. 

For example, we enjoyed watching the tugboats push barges loaded with coal toward New Orleans. We were also amazed at the number of fallen trees being carried down river by the swift current.

Tug boat headed down the Mississippi River

Tug pushing barges

What a jewel of a campground!

One of the most frequent comments from other campers in the park was about the incredible location along the Mississippi and the views. 

Needless to say, we were glad we continued down the access road and stayed in this park. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• The voltage was low during the afternoon when everyone’s air conditioners were running full blast
• Our site had a water connection with 42 pounds of pressure 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• We think the park had a dump station, but we didn’t find it (we didn’t look too hard since we had a sewer connection)
• Our site had a concrete pad. We still needed to use our leveling tools to correct a slight lean 
• The park provided free WiFi, but it was embarrassingly slow
• AT&T provided two bars of 4G voice and data over our site
• There were two bathhouses in the park. Since the park floods nearly every year from the Mississippi River and the bathhouses were underwater three months earlier, we can cut the park a little slack on the condition of the bathhouses. They were clean and maintained. It appeared that the walls were freshly painted black to hide the water line from the most recent flood, which was only three months before we arrived
• The park had a laundry for guests to use 
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and NBC using Rosie’s TV antenna. We also received digital channels Antenna, Escape, Get, Grit, H&I and ME
• This is a pet friendly park 

It cost a few extra dollars to get a site along the mighty Mississippi River. It was well worth it and this is a park we would stay in again when traveling through Memphis.

Tug on the Mississippi

Tug heading up the Mississippi

Hawk sitting along the bank of the Mississippi River

Rosie at sunset along the Mississippi River

Bathhouse

Whiten Park COE Campground- Fulton, Mississippi (May 2018)

Our GPS decided we needed to take the scenic route off I-22 to Whiten Park COE Campground. In the 12 mile process, it made sure we saw all of the sights and stop lights in downtown Fulton, Mississippi. 

Our GPS wasn’t the only one coming up with this route. A big fifth wheel caught up with us at a red light. It appeared that this rig was also following its GPS off the Interstate, through town and into the park. 

Somehow, our GPS came up with a new route back to the Interstate when we left the park the next morning that avoided the town, the traffic lights and the traffic.

Sign at entrance to park

Our first impression was that Whiten Park may be one of the older Corps of Engineers (COE) campgrounds. It had many mature trees around the campsites. Also, the utility connection points were showing a little age. The same was true of the bathhouses in the park.

View of trees from Rosie's window

We were a “walk-up” and arrived without reservations. The camp host gave us a map marked with available sites in the park's three loops and asked us to let her know which one we chose for the night. We did a fast run through the loop nearest the water and ruled those sites out because they were too short and we would have to disconnect Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer from the truck. We planned to leave early the next morning and simply wanted to stay hitched up over night. 

We saw a deep site at the end of the middle loop and quickly backed in. We knew the site we picked wasn’t one of the prime spots that people try to reserve months in advance, but it was good enough for the night.

Rosie in Whiten Park COE Campground

Later, we walked through the third loop and realized that the available sites in that area were deep and had water views. I guess we settled too fast on a site in the middle loop. 

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection with 38 pounds of pressure 
• The water had a high level of iron. I had to rinse out our water filter several times when I disconnected the next morning 
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• We saw one dump station in this park
• Our site had a concrete pad 
• We had to use leveling tools to fix a slight side-to-side lean 
• There were three loops in the campground 
• Each loop had a bathhouse 
• The bathhouses were clean and well maintained by the staff
• The park does not provide WiFi service 
• AT&T provided marginal 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• We were able to watch CBS using Rosie’s TV antenna. We also received digital channels ME and THiS 
• This is a pet friendly park 

We were amazed at the number of small children in this park. It appeared to us that this is a campground that young families tend to stay in. It was nice to hear the “happy” sounds of young children playing in the park.

Trees in the park

Main road to the camping loops

Fort Pickens Campground - Pensacola, Florida (April 2018)

We were wanting to return to Fort Pickens for several years. In fact, we had reservations a couple years ago only to have them canceled because of a storm. This is because the access road to the campground travels through a very narrow strip of land bordered by the Gulf on one side and the Bay on the other. Storms are known to bury the road in beach sand or, in the worst case scenario, the road ends up underwater for a day or two.

The entrance to Fort Pickens

The road to the campground is on a narrow strip of land between the Gulf and the Bay

This means you always pay attention to the weather reports while camping in the campgrounds of Fort Pickens because storms may strand you for several days. So why is Fort Pickens on our “visit again “ list? The reasons start with great beaches and include fun bike trails. Another reason for liking Fort Pickens is that you have a ringside seat for the Navy’s Blue Angels practice sessions on Tuesday and Wednesdays.

The "Blues" flying in formation

There are multiple camping loops in this park. Loop A is separate from the others and it’s sites are larger and some have shade. Loops B through E are all in one area that appears to be similar to a parking lot. We were told that the hurricanes have blown down the trees that used to line this area over the years. 

Another difference between Loop A and the others is that many of the sites outside Loop A were too short to allow both your trailer and tow vehicle to fit, so you end up parking the truck sideways in your site. That means you cannot hookup your rig the night before if you are planning an early exit the next morning.

Rosie parked in Fort Pickens Campground

As expected, the prime Loop A sites are difficult to reserve. That isn’t unique because it is usually hard to reserve a site in any loop at this campground. A possible contributor to this problem is the fact that Fort Pickens is a federal site and campers with the National Park’s Senior Pass card pay only 50 percent of the going rate. 

We enjoyed riding our bikes between the campground area and the fort. There is a small bridge along that path that always has a few turtles swimming in in the shade around the bridge. We enjoyed seeing the large “granddad” turtle there.

The bike/walking path between the camping loops and the fort

An unexpected bonus during our stay was that we were able to watch two practice sessions of the Blue Angels. We watched the Tuesday practice run from Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer. We watched the Wednesday performance from the fishing pier and found that to be a better observation area because you could see more of the acrobatics from there.

Watching the Blue Angels practice from the fishing pier area in Fort Pickens Campground

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Reserve America says there are five camping loops in this park. In practice, there is Loop A and then the rest combined onto one large field. 
• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection that delivered 40 pounds of pressure 
• Our site did not have a sewer connection 
• There are two dump stations in the park. The first serves Loop A and the second is for the remaining loops. 
• Our site had an asphalt pad. It was slightly off center 
• Our pad was very narrow. We had to be very careful when exiting Rosie because it was too easy to step off the asphalt pad and potentially twist your ankle 
• There are multiple bathhouses throughout the park. These seem to have annoyingly loud exhaust fans
• A couple of hooks would be a welcomed addition to the bathhouse as these would give users somewhere to hold their items
• We had only one bar of AT&T 4G service. For the most part, our iPhones were unusable 
• We were able to watch Fox using Rosie’s TV antenna. ABC, CBS and NBC drifted in occasionally, but were unwatchable most of the time. 

We are glad we were able to stay in one of Fort Pickens' camping loops and plan to return.

Dunes area at Fort Pickens

Many osprey nest in this park

Selfie at the turtle bridge

A cannon protecting Fort Pickens

Inside the fort at Fort Pickens

Osprey landing on its nest

Rosie parked in Fort Pickens

Walking along the Pensacola Bay side of the park

Our campsite

Sunrise over the Fort Pickens campground

Anchors Aweigh RV Resort - Foley, Alabama (April 2018)

Our participation in Wally Byam Caravan Club International (WBCCI) events up until now was limited to going on caravans and attending their International Rallies. The Alabama Unit people were good about inviting us to their meetings, so we decided that it was time to participate in one of their rallies.

We arrived at Anchors Aweigh RV Resort in Foley and and started setting up Rosie, our 25 foot Airstream trailer. It was fun watching the dozen or so other Airstream units arrive.  

The park's large clubhouse was the focal point of the rally. Many meals, the unit's meetings and the nightly entertainment were all centered around the clubhouse.

Getting ready for a "Low Country Boil" in the Anchors Aweigh RV Park

Our favorite excursion sponsored by the rally was the Five Rivers Boat Tour. This started from the Five Rivers Delta Center near Spanish Fort, Alabama, and was very interesting.

The Five Rivers Center

View from the Five Rivers area

The tour boat in the Five Rivers area

A live owl who is unable to live in the wild being taken care of in the Five Rivers Center

Riding on the tour boat

Here are some specifics about this campground:

• Our site had 20, 30 and 50 amp electrical service 
• Our site had a water connection with 38 pounds of pressure 
• Our site had a sewer connection 
• We think there was a dump station in the park, but we didn’t find it 
• Our site had a level concrete pad
• There were five or six individual restrooms with showers around the Clubhouse. They were well maintained and clean. We found all of these occupied several times during our stay in this park 
• The park provided WiFi service with decent speeds
• AT&T provided good 4G voice and data service over our campsite 
• The park had a non-heated swimming pool. The water was too chilly for swimming 
• There was a hot tub in the park
• The park provided a cable TV connection with a good lineup of channels. We elected to skip the cable connection and watch the over-the-air signals in that area
• We were able to watch ABC, CBS, FOX, PBS and NBC using Rosie’s TV antenna. We also received digital channels Antenna, Charge, Get, Grit, Me and Stadium, a channel that aired rebroadcasts of college football and baseball games that were played anywhere from one to ten years ago
• This is a pet friendly park 

The Alabama Unit Rally ended on Sunday morning and we decided to quickly hitch up to avoid the rain storm predicted for that day. We saw the news stories as we arrived at our next destination about the tornado that touched down in the Anchors Aweigh RV Resort less than three hours after we left that morning.

TV Coverage of the tornado that touched down and blew over five RVs in the Anchors Aweigh RV Park

We were amazed watching the TV news video because we recognized the motor home that had been parked next to us and saw that the five rigs blown over were parked close to our site. One member of our Airstream group was in the park during the tornado and said that his trailer swayed some during the storm but stayed upright and safe. We were thankful that our group escaped injuries and that we were in Florida when the tornado hit Foley. We were also thankful that the campers taken to the hospital after the tornado were quickly released. 

Things could have been much worse!