Rock'N'Roll Trailer Adventures

 La Jolla Indian Campground: October 2020 Site: Area 4 (Tent Camping) Boondocking (Dry camping, no hookups) I'll start with the website is a little cumbersome if you aren't straight forward RV camping. I also feel like their rates are a bit high for what the amenities are. It makes me wonder what the rates will be like when they finish "reconstruction." Oy! Rates are decent for tent camping as it's per car and first come, first serve camp sites. We decided to go social distance friendly camping with a small group of friends and relied on past experiences at the La Jolla Indian Campground (& Zipline!). Difference being that this was the first time in the trailer. We love this campground and they have RV full hookup sites, but we haven't used those yet. And security was pretty impressed that we got the trailer all the way back into the tent camping area.  We've attended a couple events here over the years and it's a gorgeous location with a running c

Bertrand's High Desert Mobile: October 2020 4331 W Inyokern Rd, Ridgecrest, CA 93555 (no website) Site 3(?): Pull thru, full hookups   As this was an overnight stop because the drive was just a little too long to get to home from the Nevada border. I spoke with whom I'm pretty sure was Bertrand late the evening before we pulled in. I was expecting a voicemail, but I guess the number might just be his home. And a land line. I imagined him sitting in his Lazy Boy recliner with a Miller High Life in one hand and his old dog within arm's reach on the other side. Very nice and had an immediate tone of respect and engagement when I called him "Sir." Place was very affordable and worked on the honor system with all the social distancing in place.  The area around the park was shady in more ways than one. This is definitely a stop for the wayward folks and people keeping a low profile. Or someone looking for a deal. Or to be abducted. Also located near a military base out

 Coleville / Walker KOA: October 2020 Site 409: Pull thru, Full Hookups GORGEOUS!  We loved this campground so much we are thinking about using it as a basecamp for all the things nearby, whatever that may be. Strange I know. The spot had plenty of space. It was level. We were right next to the freeway, but it was quiet. The amenities were great. Nice clean bathrooms and laundry room. The staff was super friendly. Cute little store. Wish we were there for more than one night. It was a rest stop, but we could've stayed for two or three nights. Right by Topaz Lake. Great spot!

  Hat Creek Resort and RV Park : September 2020 Site 34: Pull Thru, Full Hookups We booked this spot last minute, day before. I called on a Sunday. Tried a place up the road, but the office was closed on Sundays. The folks here answered the phone and we booked a spot. Winner, winner, chicken dinner! This location was right at the halfway point of all the things we wanted to see (i.e. McArthur-Burney Falls, Lassen Volcanic National Park, etc.). Pulling into this place I had no clue how we were going to get the trailer through the trees. But, Cabana Boy did it, lit up the site and we had a great stay. Kudos to Cabana Boy for parking the rig! He's getting REALLY good at it! We had a lot of compliments on the lights and the tiki torches . It was great to be someplace with sun to charge them up during the day... The trees in this place were SO tall. The moon was almost full and the stars at night were big and bright. It was a beautiful campground and we would recommend to anyone.

  Albany / Corvallis KOA Journey : September 2020 Site 12: Great end site was perfect for short trailer and drive thru. Unfortunately, we have zero pictures because it was raining the whole time we were there. This campground is in the middle of a plot of farm land that appears to have many uses, including storage and farming. It's family owned and I believe I met Arlene live and in person. She's a sweet little chatter box, but I enjoyed every minute of our chat. She was so damn friendly! I wanted to hug her! She's very proud of her family's business and enjoys meeting the visitors and making this a place they can bring their families. If you are in the area, this is a great a place to camp. It's hardly far from anywhere and easy to get to from the freeway. It's a short little jaunt into Albany and/or Corvallis and is right smack in between Salem and Eugene.

Klamath Falls KOA Journey : September 2020 Site 66: Back-In, Water/Electric; next to a small creek and foot bridge Tight Fit, No Neighbors Let me start this with "The campground was lovely." It really was. I'm not sure what was flowing in the creek, but I wouldn't stick anything in to find out. I feel like we were next to an emergency station of some kind, like for fire, police or ambulance... Maybe near a hospital? Haven't given enough care to actually look at a map. I do know that the consistent sirens throughout the night meant this, or that Klamath Falls is much more shady than I expected.  So I was happy to be in a clean campground with friendly staff. Oh, we arrived at 5:02pm and the staff looked friendly through the window, but they wouldn't make eye contact with me for a full determination. Not that I expected them to open the door and check me in, since they did in fact close at 5pm, but a little wave. Maybe with a pointed finger to the exterior spot

Astoria / Warrenton / Seaside KOA Resort : September 2020 Site 307: Great because it was a nice little walk to everything. It wasn't too far from anything. Site 307 Boy, were we looking forward to this location. Our full intent for this stay was to explore the area for all of the Goonie's filming locations. There's a reason this KOA is a Resort and covers the local three towns. It's right in the middle of it all, without being in Astoria. It's right across from a state park with it's own ship wreck. To be fair, there are a lot of ship wrecks up and down the Oregon Coast. It's a rocky rascal. So, being a Resort means it has a few more amenities than other KOAs, more scheduled events like movies, games, build-a-whatever and barrel train rides for the kids. It has couple of good sized playgrounds (pirate themed of course) and a mini golf. There was also a fair share of wildlife that liked to come through in the evenings, like a huge female elk.  Every single pe

  Oregon Dunes KOA Holiday : September 2020 This location turned out to be a great spot. We were originally planning on traveling through mid-Oregon, but were detoured due to the wild fires. We wanted a mid-way spot between the Redwoods of California and the Goonies Tour of Astoria and the surrounding beaches. This was perfect.  Turned out it was right next to the Oregon Dunes, which is quite popular and this location relies heavily on it's visitors. Unfortunately, also due to the fires, the dunes were closed. If we had sand toys, this would definitely be on our list of places to play. Night Time Oregon Dunes We were assigned Spot 24, which was right on a end and great. We had a nice tree that we could light up for the couple of nights we were there. We lucked out because the place was practically empty. Which I enjoy during the pandemic. They had a super cute playground, bounce pad and very nice bathrooms and laundry room. The staff was very nice and complementary of our set up. T

Mad River Rapids RV Park : September 2020 We decided to stay here as it seemed a good location to adventure into the Redwoods and I was able to visit with an old pal.  Nothing exciting about it, other than the peeps who run the joint are nice and it's clean. The laundry facilities work well and we enjoyed having some grass instead of all gravel. Completely forgot to get pictures, as there wasn't anything to light up and our shade structure took a hit. Boo hoo. Photo from Site Gallery Proved to be a decent in between stop to reach Klamath (45min) and the Avenue of the Giants (30min).

  Caspar Beach RV Park and Campground : September 2020 SUPER fancy website for this joint. It's a great campsite, but it's very cozy. We were extremely close to our neighbors. It was such a tight fit, that backing in received a round of applause from spectators for Cabana Boy! The photo below was taken when one neighbor had left. Their rig was 6 inches away from our picnic table. Site 20 If you have your own spawn, they will get the dirtiest you have ever experienced. Spawn was covered head to toe in what seemed to be a combination of fine beach sand and ash dust. When she got sand in her eye, she freaked out because everything else she touched to wipe her eye out was just as dirty as her eye. Hilarity ensued as we watched her feel her way to the closest fabric (my sleeve) for relief.  We were butted up against a small creek bed (with poisonous plants) and had a camp visitor a couple times throughout the night. Luckily the little skunk never sprayed. THAT WOULD HAVE SUCKED!   Y

  Monterey Fairgrounds RV Park : September 2020 For those who adventure the Hwy 1 through Big Sur, getting to Monterey, CA, can be a relief. The absolutely gorgeous drive is physically and emotionally draining as it can be full time active driving, especially when hauling a rig.  Getting to the Fairgrounds was very easy. The gal in the office was very sweet and had sanitized pens for use. A strange thing when I first encountered it, but appreciated as the travel continued. She let us drive through and choose our space. The smaller spaces allow for trailer only. The tow vehicle has to be parked elsewhere. The larger spaces near the paddocks allowed for the whole set-up.  Site 33 The space was all gravel, full hook-ups, and included a trash bin and recycle bin, which was very useful. We were camped behind an airport and directly across from the paddock, where an array of animals were living. We got used to the smell very quickly and the noises were hilarious. I actually heard a goat scre

El Capitan State Beach : September 2020 This is one place we have been planning to stay for a few months. As with most California beaches, you have to make reservations up to SIX MONTHS before you want to go. It's insane. We got lucky with it being right after Labor Day, COVID cancellations and mid-week. We only stayed for two nights, but it was an ideal first stop on a very long trip. El Capitan SB Space 70 The campground is great. Our spot was right on the edge of the highway side. It's also where the train tracks are. I like trains more than traffic, so I didn't mind that. But when we go back, I'll look for a beach side spot.  Yes, we will go back. It's a great dry camping location. No generators after 8pm and no noise after 10pm. We were able to use our propane fire pit , which was awesome because the marine layer was thick, moist and cool. Ah... Moist. A friend's favorite word. *ha ha*   Next time we will try and grab a spot on the beach side. It's beau

Sam's Town RV Park : June 2019 Sam's Town is the Las Vegas KOA that's attached to Sam's Town Casino. It's quite a walk from the park to the casino, so we highly recommend getting a rideshare or driving.  It's pretty nice for Vegas. A little pricey, but you get all the KOA hospitality and cleanliness. Amenities are a little on the short side, but perfect for casino clientele. Don't let the pictures fool you on the site... Although very gorgeous, they were taken at perfect light time of day, with a full campground and during a season when the trees are plush. Any other time of year and this place looks desolate compared to the website pictures. The sites are very close together, unless you get an upgrade with patio area. The weekend we stayed happen to be when the locusts decided to swarm Las Vegas. It was 102 degrees at 2am. We walked from the gate of the park to our site through the swarm. I had grasshoppers finding their way into into my flip flops as I wal

The Hitchin' Post RV Park : May 2020 What a cute and affordable little spot in Northern Las Vegas. They have a bar and a pool. But closed due to COVID at the time we visited. Luckily, we were just staying overnight and hitting the road in the AM. The drive from SoCal to Las Vegas always seems to go a little longer than expected and far less interesting than Bat Country in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. We always manage to get in later than expected, sometimes into the early AM. This time was no different, although faster than expected since EVERYTHING fun to look at on the way was COVID closed. The office closes at 9pm. We arrived at 9:08pm. But I had called ahead and the guy on duty was very sweet and very friendly and waited for us.  The park has a security gate, which is reassuring to anyone who has stayed off the strip. Vegas, very similar to SoCal, has a high homeless population. RV Parks tend to draw them in. And as a semi-solution to not becoming homeless, many families cal

  Grand Sierra Casino RV Park : June 2020 You know why there aren't ANY pictures of the RV Park at the Grand Sierra Casino & Resort? Because it IS NOT a pretty place. The place is all concrete. Ok, fine, there is a small hedge between each of the spots, but this is definitely not a GRAND experience. The spots are pricey and all the "amenities" are in the hotel, which is a five minute walk from the RV Park IF you are on the hotel side. A LONG AND HOT FIVE MINUTE WALK. NO SHADE. HOT RENO BREEZE. And the same price as a fraking hotel room AND resort fees. DO NOT stay here is you have kids. The hotel, sure. BUT not the RV Park. This place looks like it was a run down KOA (still featuring old KOA signage) that got bought out by the casino and instead of putting any work into it, they updated the office and let the rest as is. The WIFI blows. Apparently the laundry room is nice, according to Cabana Boy. Since I'm not a fan of taking Spawn into casinos if we don't ha

  Winnemuca RV Park : June 2020 Photo from Website Winnemuca is not one of those places I would really plan to stop in, but it fit our 300 mile limit for each drive day and had some open casinos, even with COVID going on. The website showed a lush for the desert location with amenities like a pool and playground. We got in too late to try the pool, but the playground was open, and right across from our site. Score! And the sites weren't really lush with greenery. There was a tree here and there, but a whole lot more gravel.  Speaking of arriving late, the lobby was closed, but left our reservation information under a rock by the door. Whew!I'm always afraid we'll arrive too late to check-in and then not have anywhere to stay. Not the case this time. Spawn enjoyed the playground. We enjoyed the benches in the playground. We all loved the teeter totter.  The price was right for the location and we were out of the city proper area enough to see an awesome starry night. If we r

  Salt Lake City KOA : June 2020 A little ways off the beaten path, but everything is easy to get to. It's also in a seemingly industrial area, which felt a little shady. All amenities were closed due to COVID while we were there. We needed to get some trailer work done and the staff was really nice about recommending some shops that were in the flyer portion of the site map. Not really helpful, but okay.  It was cold and rainy and even hailed. I think that with better weather and no pandemic, I still wouldn't be super impressed with this KOA. It felt very average to us.  It DID have a hell-of-a view of the snow capped mountains nearby. As long as we walked to the end of the road and peered between the tops of two trees. There is a yummy little Mexican joint on the corner. Thank the gods!  

  Richfield KOA : July 2019 and May 2020 Richfield has always been one of those gas/pee stops on our way from Southern California to Colorado. Oh, and Subway. We always get a sandwich there and in Beaver. *tee hee* Ever since Spawn arrived and we have to travel in shorter spurts (versus the marathons "I DROVE THE WHOLE WAY!") and we got the trailer, we ventured into the very easy, and sometimes expensive world of KOA (Kampgrounds of America). F* Yeah! We went ahead and forked out the whole $30 for an annual membership, which has more than quadrupled it's worth already for us. Plus there are some perks. Here are those details if you are so inclined. Anywho... Richfield is a gorgeous stop along I-70 through the sometimes nothingness that can be Utah. Not that that's a bad thing. It's beautiful, until you realize you forgot to get gas at the last stop and now you are holding your breath and white knuckling the steering w

St. Vrain State Park , Longmont, Colorado: July 2019  I will open with "I grew up here." It's affordable and easy to get to. There are restaurants nearby and you can easily go into "town." Longmont is a small suburb of Denver at this point. St. Vrain has changed names over the years, but it has always been a local destination. Whether it was ghetto AF, or cleaned up fancy like, people have always gone here for R&R. We camped here for the first time over the 4th of July. We were right on the water, which meant lots of bugs. We soon learned that bugs are VERY attracted to blue light, which is exactly the color of our rigs outside lighting. UGH. We busted out the DEET and the tiki torches and that seemed to help. The space was large enough that we were able to have friends and family visit for a BBQ. Spawn loved playing in the dirt and with her new cousin friends. Great for a short weekend, or extended stay to vis

Lake Skinner State Park : April 2019 It was our first time out with the trailer, so we didn't want to venture too far from home. We also knew we were going to be in this little space with a toddler for an extended period of time and needed to go some place with a playground and pool. I didn't want to pay out the ass for what could very well turn into a short overnight stay.  The answer to the every day run of the mill RV Park in SoCal... A State Park . Navigating Reserve California can be a little daunting. Especially if you've never camped at a CA State Park before and have no idea what to expect from the campsite amenities. The majority of the parks don't have full hook ups, require rigs less than 45ft, and reservations up to 6 months in advance. Ah... I remember just loading up the truck and going somewhere on a whim. Not so easy these days. One more reason we like having the trailer. We can pretty much stay wherever.