Rating: 1/2
Site Quality: Concrete pads with asphalt roads. Our site was long enough for our rig and truck.
Type: State Park
Access: Easy access from Interstate 225 a few miles east of Interstate 70.
Staff: We visited the park in the winter and only one loop with 16 sites was open (although we found out that normally two of the sites were not available). During the summer there are 6 loops with about 140 campsites. With a confirmed reservation you could skip the office and go straight to your site. Unfortunately, when we arrived someone was still in our reserved site and they were two hours away. We agreed to take one of the two “unavailable” sites and were happy with that.
Amenities: Restrooms with showers, laundry facilities, dump station (closed in winter). There are numerous hiking trails in the park but we didn’t use any of them due to the winter weather.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon service was weak and only 1 bar on our phones. Our data rate was between 2 and 20 Mbps depending on the day. AT&T through our wireless setup was fast at about 30 Mbps. The park had WiFi but we did not use it.
What we liked: Ease of access along I-225. Full hookups during the winter. Nice views of the lake and some of the Denver skyline and mountains west of the park.
What we didn’t like: Sites are expensive for a state park and on top of that you need a daily or yearly vehicle pass which just adds to the cost. Since they weren’t expecting to use the site we were in, they had not cleared snow from a major storm about two weeks prior from the site. There was still quite a bit of snow left right in our pathway from our truck to the RV.
Verdict: Cherry Creek is a very nice park with a lot to offer with camping, hiking, boating and fishing to name a few. For us, we would stay here again but it is about 40 minutes away from family in the area so it is a bit far. In the winter while Chatfield State Park is much closer, it does not offer water and sewer so it is a trade off between being close and having full hookups.

Rating: 
Site Quality: Gravel (mostly dirt and mud) roads and pads. Our site was barely long enough for our rig and truck. Since we were only going to be there one night we just left the truck hooked up. Spaces are tight. There are no amenities like picnic tables.
Type: Commercial Park
Access: Easy access from Interstate 70 on the east side of Limon, CO.
Staff: No one was in the office when we arrived but a quick call to the emergency number and someone was there within about 5 minutes.
Amenities: Laundry, restrooms with showers.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon service was 4 bars on our phones and our data rate was over 52 Mbps. AT&T through our wireless setup was fast at over 29 Mbps.
What we liked: Ease of access along I-70.
What we didn’t like: Expensive for what it was at ~$42/night. The park was mostly dirt and was muddy. Most of the people in the park appeared to be long term residents and the park was probably about 90% full. Not much in town, mostly fast food with a few local restaurants. Diesel was expensive here – about $.40 higher than what we should pay in Denver.
Verdict: We would stay here again if this was convenient for our travels but likely only as a last resort.

Fort Hays was an important frontier military fort built in 1865 to protect the Union Pacific Railway. As you might suspect from the pictures below, the buffalo was important in this area. Some of the famous characters around the area when it was known as the most lawless town on the frontier were George Custer, Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill Cody.

We stayed at Creek Side RV resort one night while travelling West toward Colorado for Christmas.

Rating: 
Site Quality: Gravel roads and pads. Our site was long enough for our rig and truck with room to spare. There is a pretty good amount of space between each site but there are no amenities like picnic tables.
Type: Commercial Park
Access: Just off Interstate 70 west side of Hays, KS. Easy access via the US-183 bypass route.
Staff: There was essentially no staff interaction. You reserve a site online and select the site you want and pay for the stay. When you arrive, you call a phone number and they tell you if your site number has been changed.
Amenities: Laundry, restrooms with showers.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon service was 2 bars on our phones and our data rate was about 5 Mbps. AT&T through our wireless setup was fast at about 22.8 Mbps.
What we liked:  Good satellite reception with no trees overhead. Long sites. We were in site #27 which was away from the road so we didn’t have much noise (there was some minor train noise though). Super Walmart and numerous restaurants in town.
What we didn’t like: The sites nearest the office were laid out badly with power at the front of the site and water at the rear. We were able to connect power and our heated water hose without extensions but just barely. There were only some newly planted trees in a few places but no other landscaping. Roads in the park were pretty rough. Impersonal service, the owner and a camp host seemed to be onsite but we never talked directly to them. This park would get very muddy in wet weather.
Verdict: This park is definitely NOT a “Resort” or anything close. That said, it isn’t a bad place for an overnight stay. There aren’t a lot of other options in the area, particularly in the winter.

I had manually adjusted the alignment myself after wearing down an expensive tire and not being able to find someone to do it professionally near where we were at the time. It turned out I had set the tow-in pretty well but the camber was also off – something I couldn’t set without their tools. The shop owner told me he sees a lot of trailers, even new ones, that aren’t right straight from the factory. While we won’t know the outcome for several thousand more miles, I’m confident the job was done right and we will be happy. I highly recommend Holland Alignment to anyone who needs any type of alignment in the southeast Kansas area.

After the alignment, we were back on the road by noon and we dove the 170 miles or so on to Topeka Kansas and the Deer Creek Valley RV Park. A front came through while we waited for the trailer to be repaired and we faced temperatures dropping through freezing and winds from the north gusting to about 40 mph. Even when we turned west, the cross winds weren’t too big a problem for us and our heavy fifth wheel but our gas mileage dropped 25% to about 6.5 mpg.

Topeka was a good preview of the weather to come further west as the first night’s low temperature got down to 17 degrees. We woke up the next morning to see icicles on our water hose. The diverter valve on the park water connection leaked a little bit causing them to form overnight. Unfortunately, the towel I used to provide some insulation around our pressure regulator froze together. Hopefully it will be thawed out before we leave the area or we might have to use a hairdryer on it to thaw it out!

With the cold weather and just needing some down time, we really didn’t do much exploring in the Topeka area. There are some interesting things to see here but we’ll just have to see them next time around.

Rating: 1/2
Site Quality: Concrete roads and pads. Our site was long enough for our rig and truck with some room to spare. Each site has a concrete patio with a picnic table. There is a good deal of space between each site.
Type: Commercial Park
Access: Just off Interstate 70 at exit 364B on the east side of Topeka, KS. Easy access via SE Carnahan Ave. It is possible to get there from exit 365 however that requires navigation of two traffic circles and a fairly steep hill.
Staff: Staff interaction was good. They will come pick up your propane bottles, fill them, and return them to your site which is handy.
Amenities: Dump station, laundry, restrooms with showers, playground, horseshoes, pet play area, storm shelter. Free cable TV. Propane on site.
Cellular/WiFi: Verizon service was 3 bars on our phones and our data rate exceeded 26 Mbps. AT&T through our wireless setup was about 10.5 Mbps. They had WiFi but we did not use it.
What we liked: Roomy sites on pavement – good for wet weather. Close to Walmart, gas stations and restaurants. Little road noise at our site but the park is right on Interstate 70 and sites closer to the road likely did have some noise issues. Good satellite reception with no trees overhead.
What we didn’t like: No landscaping throughput the park although there are trees around the perimeter. In the summer there would be no shade and it could be hot.
Verdict: This is a good park and we wouldn’t have any problem staying here again for an overnight or longer.

The rest of the week we spent time taking care of several business items in our home town of Livingston. We bought new tires for the truck at Discount Tire and hopefully after their work we’ll have leak free valve stems from now on. We’ve had Ford look at them 6 times and they never could fix the problem. Only time will tell. We also had to take the truck in to the Ford dealer to take care of a recall – Ford’s second attempt at correcting a problem with the engine block heater. We early voted for the November election and then went to the Tax office to check into the weights on the truck registration. They seemed to be lower than we expected but they assured us it was ok. There wasn’t much time to do anything else and then it was time to move on down the road.

Rating: 
Site Quality: Asphalt roads and concrete pads. Long enough for our rig and truck since you could park the truck beside the rig. Sites are fairly wide and have nice patios along with a picnic table and fire pit.
Type:  Commercial Park
Access: About 15 miles West of Livingston on US-190 in Onalaska, TX right on Lake Livingston.
Staff: Staff interaction was good. We found out that the park had just been sold to new owners so it will be interesting to see how the park fares going forward. There are some areas that need updating.
Amenities:  Swim beach, Swimming pool and spa, clubhouse, pavillion, marina, playground, laundry. Free cable TV and WiFi. They had onsite propane but couldn’t sell it during our visit because the new owner needed to get a license.
Cellular/WiFi:  Verizon and AT&T were both good. They had WiFi but we did not use it.
What we liked: Easy access, nice clean park in most cases. Good access to stores and restaurants nearby (mostly in Livingston). Very nice views of the lake and sunsets from many sites.
What we didn’t like: Quite a few long term residents in the Tall Timbers area and in some cases rules seemed to be a bit lax with some clutter, run down trailers and modified trailers. Lots of fire ants after rain. We did not use them but heard that the rest rooms were in need of updates and repair.
Verdict: We would stay here again, especially if we could get sites 87-90.

Bridgepark: Sites other than 1-6 might be ok, particularly 7-10 if they are long enough. Sites 1-6 are right on US-190 and there is a fair amount of road noise.
Tall Timbers: Could be ok, particularly sites 18-27 if long enough. There are a lot of longer term residents here and some sites were cluttered and some rigs older or modified (for example window AC units).
Surfside: These are our preferred sites. Sites 75-79 are made for motorhomes to pull in so their windshield faces the lake and have the utilities on the wrong side for a fifth wheel. Sites 80-84 are likely too short for big rigs although 1 or 2 might be long enough. Sites 87-90 are preferred and have great views of the lake. Sites 92-96 would likely be pretty good as well. Sites 85, 86 and 91 are deluxe patio sites and cost extra for very little improvement. Other sites in this area are too far from the lake for a good view.

While in the area we spent most of our time in Waveland, Bay St. Louis and Pass Christian. All are quaint small towns with no high rise buildings and little traffic. The speed limit on most roads was 25 MPH which was a bit difficult when you needed to go several miles. Bay St. Louis had a lot of small restaurants and bars right along Beach Blvd. but unfortunately with rainy weather we didn’t explore those beyond just a few drive by’s. We did go to a restaurant in Pass Christian called Shaggy’s and another in Gulfport and both served up great seafood dishes.

This area, which is only about 40 miles from New Orleans, was devastated by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. In fact, Katrina came ashore for the third time in Waveland. The Ground Zero Museum in Waveland commemorates the devastation suffered by the area. The museum is housed in the Old Waveland School and is the only remaining historical building to survive. A blue line on the wall shows how high the water was in the building during the storm surge which was estimated to be almost 27′. As we have seen in other coastal towns, people’s resilience and determination to persevere is amazing.

The temperature has dropped to in the 60’s a few days and is a very welcome change. Tropical storm Nestor passed thru bringing 2 days of rain but not the wind as we were thankfully on the outside edge of it. We have been repairing the trailer at many stops along the gulf coast and this stay was no exception. It’s always something! We noticed our left front trailer tire has been showing excessive wear. Jerry found we were out of alignment and was able to manually adjust the alignment to 1/16th”, purchase another tire and then rotate all the tires. This was a huge job and hopefully it will hold us until we can get to a Morryde approved service center. Also, we are having ongoing valve problems. Jerry has replaced valves twice. The newest set are electronic and the lights for open and close don’t always work. Now one valve will not close and another is starting to do the same thing. After a run to Camping World in Biloxi, we are dropping the bottom of the trailer again tomorrow and will try to remedy it – again!

Rating: 
Site Quality:  Asphalt roads throughout the park. Most pads are asphalt except in the Gulf view loop and the Royal Cay loop where the pads are gravel. Some sites have privacy while others do not.
Type: State Park
Access: Off Beach Blvd near Waveland, MS. Follow the directions on their website rather than your GPS or it could take you to the non-existent north gate of the park.
Staff: The staff were friendly and helpful.
Amenities: Waterpark (in season), pool for the campers (in season), Camp store (in season), Nature Trail, Playground, Disc Golf, Activity Building, Pavilion.
Cellular/WiFi:  Verizon and AT&T were both good but not great.
What we liked: Full hookup sites, clean park, although at least the Royal Cay look needed some work to close off open sewer connections. Nice pool and rec room but they were closed in the off season. Decent nature trail.
What we didn’t like: We stayed in the Royal Cay loop on site 182. Royal Cay is the least desirable loop in the park as the sites are gravel rather than asphalt and there are no picnic tables, grills or fire rings. To top it off there was a train track about 100 yards from our site. Although obscured by trees it still made a lot of noise and caused the trailer to vibrate. The only good thing is that the trains did not blow their horns nearby so they were less annoying than they could have been. After labor day most of the park closes down including the aqua park, camp store and swimming pool.
Verdict: We wouldn’t make this park a destination in the future but if we needed to stay in the area we would stay here again. We would prefer one of the loops other than Royal Cay. If we wanted to stay in the area for an extended period of time, the area between Biloxi and Pass Christian was nicer. The beachers there were almost as white as they were in the Navarre area.

Sites 1 through 206 are all full hookup sites with 50A power.
Jean Lafitte (Sites 1 thru 25) – Asphalt pads, some shade particularly sites 5 thru 17 on the outside of the loop.
Barataria Bay (26 – 47) – Asphalt pads out in the open with little to no shade, shorter sites.
Long John Silver (48 – 68) – Asphalt pads, open with no shade except for sites 57-68 on the outside of the loop. The trees in those sites may block satellite.
Pirates cove (69 – 93) – Asphalt pads. Open except sites 80 to 93 on the outside of the loop which would be the preferred sites.
Blackbeard (94-104) – Concrete or asphalt pads, open small loop with no privacy. Picnic tables and grills.
Treasure cove (105-149) – This area is the most secluded section of the park and has picnic tables, barbecue grills and fire pits. It is also the most popular section and can be hard to get a site. Includes concrete or asphalt pads, most look long enough for big rigs since you can extend over the back. Lots of trees so satellite is not likely. These sites could have the same train noise as Royal Cay.
Royal Cay (150-206) – This area has full hookups but is the most primitive for RV sites. These are gravel sites with asphalt roads. There are some trees but satellite should be available in most sites. There are no grills, fire rings or picnic tables in these sites. Campfires are permitted in this area but must be contained. There is a train track about 100′ away from these sites. Although they don’t blow their horns going by, they do generate a lot of noise several times a day.
Port and Dock or Gulfview (207-276) – These sites are water and electric only but do have a good view of the gulf across Beach Blvd. These are only reservable through the park office.