We stayed at Loma Paloma RV Park in Presidio, Texas. (Campground Reviews listing.)

Our first stop in Texas, a quiet, no-frills RV park just north of Mexico.

Dates:

• Check in: 2022-11-13
• Check out: 2022-11-27
• 14 nights

Weather:

• Mostly sunny, a little drizzle one day
• High temps ranging between 52-71°F, lows around 32-42°F
• Afternoon and evening wind most days, up to 28 MPH gusts

Noise:

• Negligible road noise, no train noise
• No neighbor noise, other than occasional yippy dogs

Site:

• #72, pull-through, gravelly sand
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad; parked behind coach
• Very level
• Medium site: about 60 feet long by about 38 feet wide
• Full hookups:
• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 45 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located
• Good sewer connection, somewhat conveniently located (1.5 10-foot pipes needed)
• Picnic table

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 86 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up, 55 ms ping
• AT&T: 20-30 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• Verizon: 10-13 Mbps down, 5 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used
• Starlink: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters
• Package delivery to the site
• Thanksgiving gathering

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Basic park with super-friendly folks

We stayed for two weeks and loved the serenity of the place. The check-in process is self-serve, and then you pick your own site from the available options. Everyone is nicely spaced out in the park, and they encourage arrivals to leave space on either side, if possible, so you get the lovely views of the desert instead of your neighbor’s rig. We were there over Thanksgiving, and everyone made us feel very welcome, inviting us to the neighborhood feast where we met some of the long-term residents, some of whom have been wintering there for decades. The amenities are basic, but they work. Between the scenery and the people, we’d definitely stay here again. We camped at Loma Paloma RV Park & Golf Course in a Motorhome.

An interactive map of the RV park:

Our site:

This is our first campground in Texas… so you know what that means — yep, we get to add another sticker (the last new one until August next year!):

This park is a bit unusual in that it doesn’t have a staffed office (more on that later). But we can still get packages delivered, as FedEx and UPS will deliver straight to our site:

The utilities weren’t ideally placed, but not too bad:

A video of three cats by our site at night from our front door cam:

A pleasant view out our dining window:

Sunsets:

This campground is away from big cities, and the nearby Big Bend Ranch State Park is a dark sky park, so we have a good view of stars at night (looked better in person):

A sign for the park:

The main entrance:

Slow adults at play; this is more of a long-term snowbird park than a kid-friendly one (which suits us just fine):

The office building:

As mentioned, it is unstaffed; it just has a small room with books and such, and a desk for self-registration, paying by cash or check in an honor box:

A map of the park on the wall:

The other half of the building is a single toilet and a laundry:

Other sites, including several long-term ones; people don’t live here year-round, but several people spend the winter here:

A bird feeder opposite our site:

Wilderness opposite our coach:

Cats peeking over a tub:

The Lizard Lounge is a gathering place in the center of the park:

Apparently once more people are here over winter they have regular gatherings there, but while we were here there was just one, a Thanksgiving feast:

A nice bunch of people, and a relaxed, quiet RV park. I can see why many people come back every year to spend the winter here. We probably won’t, as it wasn’t quite warm enough for our wintertime, but if we’re passing this way again, we wouldn’t hesitate to stay again.

We stayed at Slow Play RV Park in Ruidoso Downs, New Mexico. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A rather un-level site, and a little more wintery than we prefer.

Dates:

• Check in: 2022-10-24
• Check out: 2022-10-30
• 6 nights

Weather:

• Mostly sunny, though some light snow on a few days
• High temps ranging between 44-60°F, lows around 29-36°F
• Some wind

Noise:

• Some road noise, no train noise

Site:

• #150, pull-through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad, except to try to get the coach more level; parked in front coach
• Very un-level; sloping down from the back; couldn’t get the front high enough to be completely level
• Narrow site: about 85 feet long by about 18 feet wide
• Full hookups:
• 50 amp power, very inconveniently located
• 45 PSI water, very inconveniently located
• Good sewer connection, very inconveniently located (3 10-foot pipes needed)
• Filled the water tank and disconnected the water, since the temperatures were below freezing on several nights
• Picnic table on grass; no fire pit
• 6,320 feet elevation

Internet (in usage priority order):

• T-Mobile: 86 Mbps down, 12-16 Mbps up, 58 ms ping
• AT&T: 41-52 Mbps down, 10 Mbps up, 105 ms ping
• Verizon: 13-31 Mbps down, 16 Mbps up, 45 ms ping
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used
• Starlink: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpster
• No pool

Here’s our review on Campground Reviews:

Friendly, helpful staff

There’s a mix of long-term residents and short stays in this campground, but it was pretty nicely laid out overall. We had a pull-through site in one of the “buddy” rows, but since it was late in the season, it wasn’t super busy. If I did it again, I’d book one of the non-buddy pull-through sites on the outer edge. The staff were very helpful, even going so far as to call and warn us they were expecting some bad weather (up to 100mph gusty winds) the day we were supposed to arrive. We decided not to risk the weather, and they were very accommodating in letting us come a day later and gave us a refund for the lost day. We were escorted to our site and given some good instructions on navigating some of the harder turns, which made it easy to pull in. The one major downside was that there was not a level square inch to be found on the site. We tried different positions on the site and different configurations of leveling blocks to no avail and decided to live with an end-to-end tilt. In retrospect, I would have asked if we could move to a different site, but was too tired and cranky to deal with it at the time. We camped at Slow Play RV Park in a Motorhome.

The RV park map:

When we arrived, it was lightly snowing, including some graupel:

Jenn and Paladin looking out the driver window while working on leveling the coach:

We couldn’t get it completely level, due to the slope of the site; we ended up with two jack pads plus a plastic pad to try to get the front high enough:

Our site:

The utilities were not conveniently placed:

One morning we woke up to a light dusting of snow:

I filled the water tank and disconnected the water hose overnight, since the temperatures were below freezing most nights. However I foolishly left the hose outside (after ensuring it was empty), which broke the pressure regulator and gauge; they really don’t like being frozen, so now don’t give accurate readings, and will have to be replaced:

On the upside, our Christmas cactus is looking really happy, with lots of buds and flowers coming on:

And Paladin is happy to snuggle with his girlfriend, the heated tile floors:

Let’s tour the RV park; here’s the entrance:

The office:

Carved bears:

Amusing signs:

Swing seat:

Gazebo:

Street signs:

Bathrooms:

Pet sign:

Other sites:

So cute:

Much of the park is long term residents:

Food bonus: we had dinner at a classic Denny’s diner in town:

They were rather understaffed, with one cook and one server. But the food was tasty.