We’ve stayed at a lot of campgrounds in our eleven years of fulltime RV travel, some really nice places, and some not so nice. There are campgrounds that we return to on a regular basis, and others where one stop was more than enough.

RVers often ask us what our personal favorite campgrounds are. Sometimes I feel like that would be akin to telling you where my favorite fishing hole is. What if the word gets out and pretty soon the place is so full that they don’t have room for me?

But what the heck, there’s always Wal-Mart if my favorite campsite is not available, so here are my Top Ten favorites, and why. Please be aware that the reasons I like a campground may not be important to you, just as the things you look for may not meet my needs.

Elkhart Campground, Elkhart, Indiana – No question about it, this is our favorite campground in the entire country. It is centrally located to a lot of places we regularly frequent, Elkhart is the capital of the RV industry, the campground is clean and well maintained, the RV sites are wide, the interior roads are all good, and owners Bob and Gita Patel treat us like family. 

Escapees Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale, Alabama – I don’t think we’ve ever been to an RV park with roomier sites than this Escapees Club RV park. We like the Alabama Gulf Coast area, the small towns in the area are all friendly and clean, and the park itself has a lot of great amenities and activities.

Tra-Tel RV Park, Tucson, Arizona – There is nothing fancy about this small RV park, the spaces are tight, and you get noise from nearby Interstate 10 and the railroad tracks on the other side of the highway. However, it’s clean, the staff is very friendly, they have a nice pool, and for us, location is everything. Tra-Tel is a comfortable, convenient place to stay when we visit our family in Tucson.

Escapees Sumter Oaks RV Park, Bushnell, Florida -  I would say that this is our favorite campground in the state of Florida. We love the giant live oak trees that shade the park, they have a great indoor pool, a fine rec room, and because it’s an Escapees park, it’s always friendly. Miss Terry loves wandering through the nearby huge Webster Flea Market looking for bargains.

Escapees Raccoon Valley, Heiskell, Tennessee -  This is a regular stop for us, and another favorite Escapees Club RV park, because we love the area. The campground is just a mile or so from Interstate 75, and close to Knoxville, but has a rural feel to it. Twice a week local bluegrass musicians come to the park and hold free jam sessions. We haven’t been to Raccoon Valley since the recent remodel, and we’re looking forward to seeing the improvements.

Thousand Trails Verde Valley Preserve, Camp Verde, Arizona – Again, location means a lot. We stay at this large Thousand Trails campground often when it’s too hot to be in Phoenix or Tucson, but still too cold to go to our old hometown in Arizona’s White Mountains. There is a lot to see and do in the Verde Valley, from exploring historic ghost towns and ancient Indian ruins, to riding a vintage steam train.

Country Roads RV Park, Lake Delton, Wisconsin – Our friends Terry and Terri Michael, owners of Country Roads, bill this campground as a place for adults, and if you want a super clean, quiet location that is just minutes from all of the hustle and bustle in Wisconsin Dells, you’ll like it too. Amenities include a pool, very nice RV sites, and a welcome that will make you feel like you just came back home after a long absence.

Escapees Turkey Creek Village, Hollister, Missouri – Located on the shore of Lake Taneycomo, just minutes from all of the shows and attractions in Branson, we have stopped at Turkey Creek many times, and look forward to getting back again. The RV sites are nice, the area has more to see and do than you could get done in an entire season, and the local folks are all very friendly.

Hershey Thousand Trails, Lebanon, Pennsylvania – We’ve only stayed here once, and we’re looking forward to going back for two weeks in September after our Eastern Gypsy Gathering rally. The campground is a short drive from Hershey if you need a chocolate fix, it has a lot of great amenities, and this is another part of the county that we really enjoy spending time in. The love the green, rolling countryside around the campground.

 Fisherman’s Landing, Muskegon, Michigan – I have to admit that I have a love/hate relationship with this city owned campground. The sites are fine, and it is a great place to stay when we visit my cousin Berni and her husband Rocky, not to mention that there is a lot to see and do in the area, and we can launch our kayaks right from the campground. However, the downside is that on summer weekends there always seems to be at least one large group of rowdy campers who disturb everybody else, and management never seems to be aware of it.  Still, we go back every year, so I guess the good outweighs the bad.

Okay, now I’ve told you mine, so don’t hold back on the rest of us. What are some of your favorite campgrounds, and why?

Thought For The Day – One man’s religion is another man’s belly laugh.

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Do you remember that famous line? It made actress Bea Arthur a star in the old 1970s sitcom Maude, and in its time, it was as common as Archie Bunker’s “Stifle” order to his wife, or “Sit on it” from Happy Days.

Well, in yesterday’s blog I wrote about how I was gloating to my cousin Berni Frees back in Michigan about our pretty blue sky, and how nice the weather is here in Apache Junction, Arizona. Guess what? Yesterday evening God put on a beauty lightshow, as streaks of lighting illuminated the mountains, and thunder rumbled across the Valley of the Sun, followed by rain! It was just God’s way of reminding me who’s in charge. Okay Big Guy, I get the message!

We had a real treat yesterday. We spent some time visiting with two of our favorite RVing friends, Ed and Alice Allard, at their park model in Sunrise RV Resort, a couple of miles from our place.

We have known Ed and Alice since very early in our fulltiming days, and we have run into them at RV parks, rallies, and all kinds of places, in every corner of the country. Some of these encounters have been planned, and other times fate has just put us in the same place at the same time. When this happens, it’s never hard to spot my buddy Ed, since he’s about seven feet tall (okay six feet eleven inches, but let’s not quibble).

And we’ve had some near misses too. One time we pulled in Country Roads RV Park in Lake Delton, Wisconsin, only to learn that Ed and Alice had left not more than a half hour before our arrival. Another time, we were northbound on U.S. Highway 31, headed toward Fisherman’s Landing RV park in Muskegon, Michigan, and our cell phone rang. It was Ed and Alice, who had just passed us going in the opposite direction. They had  left Fisherman’s Landing, and were headed to Elkhart Campground in Elkhart, Indiana, which we had left a couple of hours earlier! Serendipity, my friends.

I wrote in a blog a while back that we sure missed our Olympian Wave 8 catalytic heater, which we left in our bus conversion for the new owner, and Ed had e-mailed me to say that they had an Olympian Wave 6 that they no longer used, and we were welcome to it. What a wonderful gift! Thanks Ed and Alice!

After we left Ed and Alice, we stopped at some local RV parks to drop off sample bundles of the Gypsy Journal. Or at least we tried to. The problem in Apache Junction and east Mesa, as in a lot of snowbird locations, is that what they call RV parks usually have about 75% park model trailers, with just a handful of RV sites. We’ve been at this a long, long time, and we know our potential market. Folks in park models are not usually into traveling as much as our reader base is, and we get very few subscribers from places like that.

We did drop off a couple of bundles, but by then it was getting late in the day, and Terry’s mom called to say that our bedroom day/night shades had been delivered, so we headed to her parents’ house to pick them up. They were the last remaining things we needed to complete the insurance claim from our burglary and vandalism. We’ve never installed day/night shades, but the folks at the RV repair shop that did the rest of our work told Miss Terry that they are easy to replace, and she, as always, is confident that she can handle the task. I’m the eye candy, all I have to do is stand around and look pretty while she does the work.

Thought For The Day – Have you noticed that they are making adults much younger these days?

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We have a Campground Reviews section on our website, but I thought I’d share our Top 10 Favorite Campgrounds and why we feel that way, and see how they compare to yours.

1. Elkhart Campground, Elkhart, Indiana – Every year when we pull into Elkhart Campground, we feel like we have arrived back home. We know most of the regulars and see many people we know passing through every year. The campground is huge, and our regular site has 50 amp electric and water, and we usually don’t have anyone parked on top of us. Owners Bob and Gita Patel have become very good friends, and they have allowed us to work on several upgrade projects on the bus while we have stayed there.

2. Sumter Oaks, Bushnell, Florida – We always get a friendly welcome at this Escapee park, we love the huge live oak trees that shade the park, as well as the indoor pool and opportunity to see so many of our Escapee friends.

3. Rainbow Plantation, Summerdale, Alabama – This is another favorite Escapee park with us. The sites are huge, there is a lot to see and do on and around the Gulf Coast, and we enjoy the laid back feel of the area.

4. Tra-Tel RV Park, Tucson, Arizona – There is nothing fancy about Tra-Tel, the spaces are a bit tight, but we usually spend a month there every year. Everybody is very friendly, they always make us feel welcome, and we have family in Tucson we enjoy visiting.

5. Country Roads RV Park, Lake Delton, Wisconsin – Owners Terry and Terri Michael are good friends of ours and whenever we visit their campground we feel like we are part of the family. The park is very clean and has every amenity we could ever want or need.

6. Thousand Trails Colorado River Preserve, Columbus, Texas – This membership park has over 125 full and partial hookup sites, an activity center, pool, hot tub, and lots of wide open spaces. A huge herd of deer live here also and are frequent visitors to the campsites. We spend a lot of time just enjoying the wildlife.

7. Thousand Trails Verde Valley Preserve, Camp Verde, Arizona – This membership campground has 265 full hookup sites, beautiful views, and is convenient to everything in central Arizona. Since the campground sits down in a bowl, we are glad we have our Wilson Trucker antenna and booster to get good air card coverage there.

8. Toad Suck Ferry Corps of Engineers Campground, Conway, Arkansas – Don’t let the name fool you, this is a wonderful campground located right on the Arkansas River. From our site we watched riverboats push barges through the lock and dam.  Our site had 50 amp electric & water, a central dump station, and did I mention the great views?

9. Ray Behrens Corps of Engineers Campground, Monroe City, Missouri - We have never been to a Corps of Engineers campground we have not liked, but this is a favorite. Huge spaces, some with full hookups, very clean, and it is situated on Mark Twain Lake.  The only drawback was very slow air card service.  

10. Turkey Creek RV Village, Hollister, Missouri - This Escapees Club RV park is our favorite place to stay when visiting Branson. The park has 68 full hookup sites, clean rest rooms, a laundry, club house, and a beautiful setting on Lake Taneycomo. Turkey Creek is just minutes from all the attractions of Branson, yet laid back and peaceful.

So there we are, our own Top 10. What about you? What are some of your favorite campgrounds, and why?

Thought For The Day – Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are.

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