We unexpectedly stayed a couple of nights in the Anton Chico Rest Area, west of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, when the front passenger-side brake got stuck on the way from the Balloon Fiesta.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-10-14
• Check out: 2023-10-16
• 2 nights

Weather:

• Drizzle, partly cloudy
• High temps ranging between 73-75°F, lows around 39°F
• Negligible wind, gusts up to 20 MPH

Noise:

• Loud freeway noise
• No train noise
• Loud trucks arriving, departing, idling

Site:

• Pull through, asphalt
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
• Very unlevel side-to-side and front-to-back, but air leveling coped well
• Rest area truck parking about 70 feet long by about 15 feet wide
• Some trash

Utilities:

• None
• We used our generator and solar each day

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 14-27 Mbps down, 2 Mbps up, 100 ms ping
• Verizon: 16-26 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
• AT&T: 35-104 Mbps down, 9 Mbps up, 60 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage bins
• Rest area

An interactive map:

Our coach in the rest area truck parking:

We used air leveling, since the site was very unlevel, and put out only the bedroom slides, so we could sleep:

This picture shows our coach level, compared to the slope of the other vehicles:

Several motorhomes, probably mostly also on their way from the Fiesta:

Trucks and coaches:

There was a taco truck, though it was closing when we explored the rest area on the first evening, and was closed the next day (Sunday):

Bathrooms:

We felt bad for taking one of the truck parking spaces, though we wouldn’t have been here by choice. Unlike this rude car parked in the truck parking; there’s plenty of car parking spaces, plus they’d be more quiet:

This was our first time sleeping in a rest area. Not something we’d want to repeat any time soon, though we actually slept surprisingly well. Perhaps still catching up from the early starts during the Fiesta.

We stayed at Corral Drive-In RV Park in Guymon, Oklahoma. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice RV park, other than the highway and train noise.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-10-01
• Check out: 2023-10-06
• 5 nights

Weather:

• Rain, thunderstorm, partly cloudy
• High temps ranging between 70-81°F, lows around 49-62°F
• Lots of wind, gusts up to 32 MPH most days

Noise:

• Nearby highway noise
• Nearby train noise (with lots of horns)
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #36, pull through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
• Somewhat level, a little side-to-side slope
• Gravel driveway about 70 feet long by about 20 feet wide
• Grass between sites about 30 feet wide
• This was an end site, with horseshoe pits next to it
• Medium-sized trees
• No picnic table (but available upon request)
• No fire pit
• A few bottlecap-sized bits of trash in the site

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 42 PSI water, conveniently located
• Good sewer connection, inconveniently located (2 10-foot pipe and a 2-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 237-282 Mbps down, 35-60 Mbps up, 67-260 ms ping
• Verizon: 2-4 Mbps down, 10-14 Mbps up, 115 ms ping
• AT&T: 95 Mbps down, 52 Mbps up, 49 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: 10-13 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 4 ms ping

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpster by entrance
• Package delivery to office
• An old (discontinued) drive-in movie screen

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Beautiful campground with a retro vibe

This campground was a great place to stop while traveling the Oklahoma panhandle. The sites are long and well-spaced, the utilities are in good working order, and everything is lovingly cared for. The vintage playground (and movie screen) from its previous life as a drive-in is a great touch we really enjoyed. The staff were all very friendly and helpful. The only drawback is the road and train noise at all hours, so be prepared with earplugs or white noise if you’re a light sleeper. We camped at Corral Drive-In RV Park in a Motorhome.

The map:

I don’t usually post the RV park rules, but these were amusingly worded:

An interactive map:

Our site:

Horseshoe pits next to our site:

Another new state, so after our first night we could add another sticker to our coach, completing a column. It looks like we’ve visited over half the country geographically, but only 17 of 50 states; the east coast has much smaller states:

Inside, the board for stickers and pins is also filling up:

There were several days of thunderstorms during the first half of our stay here:

An unpleasant midnight wakeup:

The entrance:

Bowling ball garden:

Office:

Vintage movie projector:

Projection house:

Movie screen and ancient playground:

Behind the screen:

Car shell:

Old truck:

Horse statue:

Other sites:

A weird one: a truck with hay bales and an Airstream trailer. Taking their hay on vacation?

The movie screen again:

We’d be happy to stay here again, but best suited for a couple of nights, due to the road and train noise.

We stayed at Ogallala Tri-Trails KOA Journey in Ogallala, Nebraska. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A campground that recently became a KOA. A Journey, i.e. high turnover of people passing through. We were in a new section without any landscaping.

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-09-24
• Check out: 2023-09-26
• 2 nights

Weather:

• Sunny
• High temps ranging between 77-82°F, lows around 45-49°F
• Negligible wind

Noise:

• Somewhat distant highway noise
• Train noise with horns
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #46, pull-through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t
• Somewhat level, slight side-to-side slope
• Gravel site about 70 feet long by about 30 feet wide
• No grass or trees on these sites, some on other sites
• Picnic table
• Mostly clean site; a couple of minor bits of trash

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located at the rear of the site
• 40 PSI water, conveniently located
• Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 40-77 Mbps down, 1-5 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
• AT&T: 20-30 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 90 ms ping
• Verizon: 1 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 70 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Closed pool
• Garbage dumpsters

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Convenient stop along I-80

We stayed two nights; the $40 rate is after using $50 in KOA rewards. $65/night would have been a bit much for what it is. The newer section of the park is pretty much a gravel parking lot, which is fine for a short stay. If staying longer, I’d look at the patio sites in the front part of the park. The staff were very friendly and helpful and escorted us to our site, which is always a nice touch. Close enough to I-80 to be convenient, but it’s far enough away that you don’t get a lot of noise. We camped at Ogallala Tri-Trails KOA in a Motorhome.

The campground map:

An interactive map (our section is not in the satellite image as of this writing):

Our site:

Utilities:

Jenn has started taking a photo of the leveling panel as the coach starts lowering the jacks; this shows that the site was level front-to-back, but unlevel side-to-side:

After our first night in Nebraska, we could add another sticker to the states map on the side of our coach:

The entrance:

Office:

They have several decorations like this old cart:

Dog park:

Playground:

Bathrooms:

Laundry:

The pool was closed for the season (despite highs in the 80’s; arbitrary season closures are stupid):

A very nice skoolie (school bus conversion); fancier than most skoolies:

Other sites; when I walked around, there were only two short-term guests in the campground, two long-term stays, and two staff RVs; later, many of the sites filled up; typical for a Journey park, with high turnover:

Solar panels behind the campground:

A spaceship water tower across highway from campground:

A basic KOA; fine for a couple of days stay.

We stayed at Hidden Lake Campground and Resort in Hot Springs, South Dakota. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A campground with a nice mini lake (a large pond, really).

Dates:

• Check in: 2023-09-17
• Check out: 2023-09-24
• 7 nights

Weather:

• Mostly sunny, some drizzle
• High temps ranging between 60-83°F, lows around 50-59°F
• Negligible wind most days, gusts up to 33 MPH one day

Noise:

• Occasional road noise
• No train noise
• Negligible neighbor noise

Site:

• #9, pull-through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
• Fairly level
• Gravel driveway about 83 feet long by about 10 feet wide
• Grass on passenger side about 10 feet wide
• Grass between driver side and next site about 30 feet wide
• No trees on these sites, some on other sites
• Picnic table, fire pit
• Not very clean site; several small bits of trash

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, inconveniently located at the rear of the site
• 57 PSI water, inconveniently located at the rear of the site
• Good sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (2 10-foot pipes needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 97-107 Mbps down, 21 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
• AT&T: 130 Mbps down, 16-25 Mbps up, 47-81 ms ping
• Verizon: 17-22 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 37 ms ping
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none (an “unplugged” campground)

Amenities:

• Lake with swimming and board rental
• Garbage bins
• Package delivery to office

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Lovely pond, close to Wind Cave NP

This is a nice family-run park in the southern Black Hills and is close to everything you’d want to do there. The town of Hot Springs is cute and has everything you could want; just be sure to heed the detour advice the campground sends you, and don’t try to drive your rig down the main street. There is a bit of a hill to get up to the campground, with a sharp turn at the top. It’s not a big deal, but be careful of oncoming traffic.

We had a pull-through site, which was long enough for our rig and tow vehicle but pretty narrow. The “missing” site between us and the next one on the driver’s side was useful as there is still a power pedestal that we had to hook up to after a town-wide power cut did something to ours. I would’ve liked one of the back-in sites, but they’re too short for a 40′ motorhome. We camped at Hidden Lake Campground and Resort in a Motorhome.

The campground map:

An intereactive map:

Our site:

The power and water were at the rear of the site, rather inconvenient:

There were wild rabbits that liked to hang out around our site:

And some wild turkeys in the campground:

After visiting the Wind Cave National Park, 15 minutes north of the campground, we added its sticker to our coach:

The town had a power cut; it took us a while to notice; we just noticed when it was getting warm, and our ACs weren’t coming on (most other stuff runs fine on batteries):

Unfortunately, our solar system was not working either — but good thing we noticed now, since we’ll be without hookups for 10 days soon, when we attend the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta. So I’ll fix it before then (and yes, I’ll have a blog post about that soon):

When the power came back on several hours later, my Power Watchdog reported that the power pedestal had a fault, under voltage on line 2 (only 44 volts):

Fortunately, there was a spare power pedestal next to our site, where there used to be a site, but now has trees (presumably because it was super narrow). So I plugged in to that one:

The office:

They have several signs around the campground with lists of rules; really welcoming and friendly:

The lake:

Craft available for hire (really should be included for guests; I think these remained unused):

Path around lake:

Cabins:

Games:

Landscaping:

Other sites:

A nice enough campground, despite the power issues and somewhat unfriendly signs. We’d stay here again.