Countryside RV Resorts - Lebanon, TN

 

This campground in aptly named. Rolling hills with ponds in the valleys. In the short term section of the CG the sites are tiered. But, they are level and easy to get into and out of. A FHU with 50 amps is about $30.00 a night depending on your discount %. 

Long term and seasonal campers are deep in the back of the property and are not mixed with short term campers.  

We normally use this CG when traveling and only spend a night or two at a time. It's very quiet and the management staff has always treated us in a respectful, friendly manner. 

Here is their web site along with a few pictures of our parking site on our last visit.  The link is active and pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them.

http://countrysideresort.com/

 

 

The FastEagles
  Cal & Linda

Iola, KS

If you’ve read some of my traveling posts you know we hardly ever make reservations when traveling from place to place. During our short stop in Iola we were heading for Branson, MO where we did have reservations.

Following US-54 east and just before entering Iola we spotted the Iola RV Park just of the highway. What a great little park. All FHU 50 amp pull thru sites with a nice country store and friendly people. Pulled in, disconnected, and found a good signal for the dish. We had time to spare and spent a couple of days exploring the small KS town of Iola. Went to some yard sales, ate in a downtown dinner and rode the trolley. All at a very reasonable price.

Traveling US-54 in Greenwood county exposes you to some of the largest and most beautiful cattle grazing lands in the country.

The RV Park link is active. Clicking on the pictures will make them larger.

  http://www.iolarvparkandstorage.com/default.aspx

The FastEagles
   Cal & Linda

Alfred, Maine

Having been born and raised in rural Maine I like to stay at rural campgrounds/RV Parks up in that neck of the woods. The Walnut Grove CG is another one of the very common family run CGs. Free newspapers daily, a nice heated pool and beano (bingo) in the barn on the weekends for prizes.

http://www.walnutgrovecampground.net/

 

The only thing that keeps Alfred from being a completely rural town is the county courthouse. There are only 16 counties in Maine. Most have large land areas compared to other states such as NC with it’s 100 counties.

The Walnut Grove CG provides a nice secure and quiet place to park your rig and do some side trips. The largest town around is Sanford. It’s a short drive from the CG and has all the expected stores needed for traveling campers. There is a super walmart a couple of bowling alleys (candle pins) and a nice parks and recreation area as well.

Going east out of Alfred will take you to the well traveled costal tourist attractions. The beaches at Wells Beach and Ogunquit. Also in Ogunquit is a modern Play House that does popular off Broadway summer stock shows in the spring and summer times.

If you go a little northeast from the CG you will find Old Orchard Beach, the Coney Island of Maine - so to speak. Then there is the popular Kennebunkport where you will find the President Bush retreat (compound) right on the Atlantic Ocean.

A trip to this part of the country wouldn’t be complete without a side trip to Portland with it’s cobblestone streets and super eateries. DiMillo’s is the only Floating Restaurant on the upper East Coast. The food and service is always excellent or outstanding or super -- get the idea? It’s gooood!

http://www.dimillos.com/restaurant/history.html

Here is a picture of the courthouse and a few of our parking site. One day we got real lucky. In the last picture you can see a tire on the ground. When I took the trash out to the road for pick-up I notices my right rear inside tire looked low on air. As it turned out it was flat. It had a ¼” bolt right in the sidewall. One of our neighbors gave me a helping hand changing it.

The links are active and you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.

Calvin

Statesboro, GA

Most of our RV travels now days are to preplanned locations. Because our grand children live and work in Jacksonville, FL we spend a month or two there in the winter months - Dec, Jan, or Mar. Sometimes we stay at one of the military campgrounds for a week or two each then move to the small RV park out behind the American Legion Post. It’s gated, private and right on the Cedar River. See post dated 21 Sep 2011.

A couple of years ago we got tired of taking the interstates all the way to Florida. Our little senior retirement community in Taylors, SC is close to US-25. So we have started taking that highway down to Statesboro, GA and spending the night.

The Parkwood RV Park is situated right on US-25 and US-301. Its been very convenient for us and has all the amenities we like and are accustomed to using. Nice large, easy to get into, level sites. FHU service with 50 amp service and free CATV and WI-FI. There are plenty of places to eat very close by and big rig friendly service stations, all with diesel & gas pumps.

When we leave there we take US-301 south and connect up with US-1 which takes us right into Jacksonville. All of the rural roads are in excellent condition with many places to pull-off if needed. Most of the speed limits are 55 - 65 MPH with light traffic flow on week days. We get our best fuel economy at 55 - 62 MPH so that helps a little on the fuel budget.

Here are a few pictures of our parking site when last there and a glimpse of the park roads. I took a couple of pictures of a Customized Freightliner. I would have liked to see the inside layout.

https://parkwoodrv.com/

As usual all of the pictures can be enlarged by clicking on them and the RV park link is active for browsing.

The FastEagles
  Cal & Linda

Yuma, AZ - Wintertime RV Parking

This picture was taken on our way to the Quartzsite RV show. Very eerie, early morning mountain overcast. The clouds and scattered rain lasted all day with scattered showers at Quartzsite. The rain followed us all winter.

 

 

 

On our first cross country trip we traveled with our friends from our Navy days. We had all sorts of plans and everything was going well until we departed the RV Park at Naval Air Station, Lemoore, CA and headed south.

 

 

 

 

We had been at the Air Station for a month visiting friends and taking a lot of side-trips. As we were getting ready to go we decided to call the CHP for a weather report on the Grapevine - I-5 south because the winds were high. Sure enough, the Grapevine was closed to all 18 wheelers and RV trailers. We had to reroute our trip to San Diego via Bakersfield and Riverside.

 

It was just the beginning of things to come. In our Navy years we had lived all over California, off and on for seven years. Rainy, bad weather times, was not in our memory banks, especially in San Diego where we had once lived for three years.

 

We had reservations at the RV Park at the Navy recreational complex right in downtown San Diego. The day we got there was clear but windy. Two days later it started to rain and didn’t let up much for two weeks. There was flash flooding around the city and lots of mud slides. We decided it was time to depart San Diego for points east.



 

 

After departing San Diego we went up over the mountains on I-8 and out into the Imperial Valley. At a rest stop we decided to call the Naval Air Facility at El Centro, CA on a chance they might have a couple of sites available. The RV park was completely full but they did have a couple of sites in what is called the overflow lot because some folks had left for emergency reasons. The overflow lot is an old paved parking lot where we backed up against a ball field. All of the sites had 30 amps, water & sewer hook-ups. And the location was excellent because right across the street was a golf driving range, the bowling alley with snack bar and next to it was the enlisted dining facility and it allowed all authorized RVers and their guests to eat all meals there if they wished to do so.

http://www.militarycampgrounds.us/milcamps/19-california/50-el-centro-naf-campground

The rain followed us. During the month we stayed there it rained so much large tanker trucks with vacuum suction hoses were brought in to get the water out of the parking lots as the drainage system could not handle all the rainfall. We decided to leave El Centro. We took one of the trucks and drove over to Yuma, AZ. We had a hard time finding an RV Park that had two sites available. When we did they were side by side and plenty big enough for our 35’ & 38’ trailers. It was the Arizona Sands RV Park, a 55+ senior community. We spent the rest of the winter there and a few years later we spent another winter there.

The Arizona Sands is a modest park with a great location on old US hwy 80. The parking sites are pretty close but that’s sort of the norm in all the parks we visited in the Yuma area. Yuma is a little city that can do. It’s population will double during the winter months. Actually, nothing is very far away.

 

There are two very large flea markets in Yuma. One is less than a mile away with lots of parking and nearly 100% covered shopping areas. It was our favorite. 

http://www.arizonamkt.com/

The other large one occupies an old dog track facility. It’s large with about 50% covered and 50% open air. The large Hispanic population favor it and there are lots of really good deals from across the border. We visited it once or twice a month.

http://www.yellowpages.com/yuma-az/mip/yuma-greyhound-park-1764895?lid=1764895&show_map=true

About three miles from the Arizona Sands is the Marine Corps Air Station. It's a full facility base with commissary, exchange, medical clinic, service station and recreational equipment rentals. They also operate a smallish RV Park right on Lake Martinez.

http://www.yuma.usmc.mil/
 
http://www.militarycampgrounds.us/milcamps/15-arizona/38-lake-martinez-recreation-facility


For me and Don golf was our prime mover. We loved to play courses we had not played before and then return to our favorites. We played every course within 35 miles of the Arizona Sands. Our favorites were completely different. The well established downtown course once hosted a PGA seniors event. All of the parking is paved and the facilities were well kept. If we were a walk-on they would work very hard to fit us in, sometimes even if they had to make a five-some.
 
http://www.cityofyumagolf.com/





 

 

The second favorite course was a new facility out in the Yuma foothills section with a nice mountain backdrop. Great views from many of the tee boxes.
 
http://www.lasbarrancasgolf.com/


There are all sorts of things to do to keep you busy while wintering in Yuma. Once we got some sternwheeler boat ride tickets at the recreation office at the Marine Air Station. It’s an easy drive out to Fisher’s Landing on the lower Colorado River at Lake Martinez. The boat ride is down to the Imperial Dam and back. It’s just a relaxing ride on the river with lunch and a chance to see the wild life along the way. Here are a couple of web sites to help describe the ride and launching area.

http://www.yumarivertours.com/sternwheelercruises.htm

http://www.yumarivertours.com/fishers.htm

 

 



 

 

Probably the crème da la crème of the RV parks with access to the lower Colorado River is the Hidden Shores RV Resort. We went out there and toured the place. It’s gated but they will let just about anyone in during the day time. There is always something going on there and people come from near and far to attend some of the activities. And, right across the river is a huge federal land area open to boondockers. Here is a web site to browse.
 
http://www.hiddenshores.com/



Yuma has a few Indian casinos. One of our favorites is the Paradise at Yuma. Nice food, easy access, lots of paved parking, well lit and patrolled frequently as is the unpaved RV parking area. No facilities in the RV parking area. But’ it’s free.

http://www.paradise-casinos.com/casino.aspx

　

Turn on your GPS and take the country roads to Somerton, AZ. It’s just a short drive. The Cocopah Casino is there. You cant miss it, it’s on a huge complex at the apex of both of the four lane roads intersection. Super good deals on weekend dining either at the buffet or restaurants. Large RV parking area - some paved - well lit with regular patrols for your safety. Also free.

http://www.cocopahresort.com/




When you’re within driving distance of Quartzsite, AZ during it’s annual RV show and exhibition you have to go there. It’s an easy drive up US-95. Here are a couple of pictures of our trip. Yup, it rained.



Out on US-95 north there is a VFW. If you're a member you can park there. They have room for about 25 rigs. It's all dry camping but free.

You cannot park in parking lots within the city limits. That includes Walmart and other like areas.

You can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them. All of the links are active. Just click on them to browse around.

The FastEagles
  Cal & Linda









 



Sutherland, NB

 

 

　

While heading west on I-80 in southwestern NB we spotted a little golf course backed up to a reservoir lake with a huge power plant on the far side. We saw a few smallish RV trailers parked there so we decided to investigate. It was a little early in the day and we had no reservations. The little RV park at the golf course had nice large FHU sites right on the lake. The sites were nice and level and by the time we got our rigs set up for the night we had a golf cart and were headed for the first tee. While Don and I were off golfing the girls decided to go to town so they disconnected one of the trucks and went on their adventure. The little 9 hole golf course was in very good condition and we enjoyed the afternoon chasing little white balls. Later, as the sun was going down, we had a nice supper on the lake while watching the birds coming and going. They were getting their last drink of water before heading to their roosting places.



This is one of those places you just don’t find in the books or on the internet. Thank you Sutherland, NB.

Not many pictures taken here. Some were shot into the sun and the quality isn’t very good. Just click on them to get a larger view.

The FastEagles, Cal and Linda with Don and Betty

Lexington, SC

With easy access from two major highways - I20 & I26 - The Barnyard RV park in Lexington, SC is easy to find. It’s situated out behind a large flea market on US-1.

It’s one of our favorite weekend locations. The entire park is very level with parking consisting of huge pull-thru sites down to whatever you need. Row “A” provides parallel parking right along the backside of the flea market. Row “B” provides huge pull thru FHU sites with 50 amps and CATV. The seasonal sites are not integrated with the short term RV sites and are located at the rear of the park.

Less than a mile down the road from the Barnyard flea market is another - open air - flea market that sets-up for business on the weekends. It’s on an old outdoor drive-in movie location with lots of parking.

http://www.barnyardrvpark.com/

Just down US-1 in Lexington there is a very unique restaurant. As the name implies it has an Aircraft Carrier motif. Having served on many of them I enjoy going there to reminisce and have a great sandwich.

http://www.flightdeckrestaurant.net/

I’m going to provide some dialog for these pictures as I post them. As always you can click on any of them for enlargement. The two links above are active for browsing.

We have stayed here a number of times over the years and these pictures will be from three of our visits. We like row “C” - first set of pictures - because the sites are much nicer with some trees and are more grassy. Sometimes we have friends drive down from Greenville to stay with us on the weekends.

Next is a view up row A&B to the office and one of the wash rooms. Then there is another view down row "C" looking at the second washroom and into the seasonal parking area. Then there are the two class "A" rigs that were identical and belonged to middle aged identical twin brothers. Both were towing Jeep SUVs. They were parked on row "D".

The next two pictures are from another weekend stay on row "C". The little View parked on our left belonged to a single lady (fulltimer) traveling the country. Her little View is her only transportation.

 

In the next series of pictures we have taken a site in row "B". We were returning from Florida. It was still pretty cool and the trees and grass were still dormant. There is a nice picture of an empty site on row "B" that shows just how large those sites are and their proximity to the flea market. You can see some of the hook-ups on row "A". Then I found some big boys playing with their flea market toys.

The FastEagles
  Cal & Linda