We stayed at Punderson State Park Campground in Newbury, Ohio. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A nice state park.

Dates:

• Check in: 2025-05-27
• Check out: 2025-06-01
• 5 nights

Weather:

• Mostly cloudy, some rain
• High temps 57-67°F, lows 41-54°F
• Some wind, gusts to 22 MPH

Noise:

• Some road noise
• No train horn noise
• Little neighbor noise
• Construction noise; building new facilities right next to our site

Site:

• #26, back-in, concrete
• Needed to disconnect toad, parked beside coach
• Unlevel site; high in front; used hydraulic leveling
• Concrete driveway about 40 feet long by 10 feet wide
• About 75 feet to neighbor on driver side
• No neighbor on passenger side
• Trees between sites
• Picnic table
• Fire pit
• Tall trees
• Clean site
• Elevation 1,140 feet, front facing NE

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, conveniently located
• 65 PSI water, very conveniently located
• Unthreaded sewer connection (just a hole, without any room for the sewer pipe elbow), very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• RoamLink: 18-25 Mbps down, 3 Mbps up, 80 ms ping (the RoamLink service picks the best network, so I’m not sure which one it used, other than not AT&T)
• AT&T: 60-75 Mbps down, 0.5-1.5 Mbps up, 45 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: none

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Lovely park, working on expansion

Beautiful park with something for everyone. They’re currently working on expanding and improving the campsites, and we were located right next to the construction site, which wasn’t ideal during the day, but it was relatively quiet at night. Our back-in site was not very level, even if it was a new concrete pad. I don’t think the state of Ohio knows how to hire contractors who know how to use a level, because we had the same problem at West Branch State Park with a very sloped site. Otherwise, it was a nice site with good hookups and a lakefront setting. We camped at Punderson State Park in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: Mangia! Mangia! Italian restaurant was excellent and very popular with the locals. It’s a good sign when it’s hard to get a parking spot.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

 

Utilities:

Sewer hole:

Construction near our site:

Bathrooms:

Other sites:

Tent site up a hill:

Cabin:

Pool by manor house:

Historic manor house:

A nice enough state park, other than the nearby construction, and not entirely level.

We stayed at Shipshewana Campground – South Park in Shipshewana, Indiana. (Campground Reviews listing.)

An overnight stop.

Dates:

• Check in: 2025-05-26
• Check out: 2025-05-27
• 1 night

Weather:

• Partly cloudy
• High temp 71°F, low 52°F
• A little wind, gusts to 19 MPH

Noise:

• Some road noise
• No train horn noise
• Little neighbor noise

Site:

• #105, pull-through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad, and didn’t, since only one night
• Seemed like a level site; used air leveling, since only one night
• Gravel driveway about 75 feet long by 10 feet wide
• 15 feet to neighbors on both sides
• Picnic table
• Fire pit
• Small tree
• Clean site
• Elevation 910 feet, front facing North

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, very conveniently located
• DIdn’t use water or sewer, since only one night

Internet (in usage priority order):

• RoamLink: 43-52 Mbps down, 20 Mbps up, 118 ms ping (the RoamLink service picks the best network, so I’m not sure which one it used, other than not AT&T)
• AT&T: 17-38 Mbps down, 0.4 Mbps up, 100 ms ping (I have AT&T on my iPhone)
• Starlink: not used
• Campground Wi-Fi: not used

Amenities:

• Garbage dumpsters

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Fairly basic campground

We stayed here for one night on our way through Indiana. Easy in/out access, and the interior roads were easy to navigate. The sites were a bit narrow, but sufficient for a short stop. Our pull-through site was just long enough for our 40′ motorhome and tow vehicle without having to disconnect. We camped at Shipshewana Campground – South Park in a Motorhome.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

Other sites:

Indoor pavilion and bathrooms:

Office:

Just an overnight stop, but seemed a decent enough campground, though the sites were a little tight.

We stayed at Traverse City KOA Holiday in Buckley, Michigan. (Campground Reviews listing.)

A fairly standard KOA, undergoing a major expansion.

Dates:

• Check in: 2025-05-18
• Check out: 2025-05-26
• 8 nights

Weather:

• Cloudy with a little rain
• High temps 47-62°F, lows 38-46°F
• Some wind, gusts to 26 MPH

Noise:

• Some road noise
• No train horn noise
• Little neighbor noise
• For part of the week, noise from earthworks on new campsites
• Plus compost smells from the topsoil when the wind came from that direction

Site:

• #140, pull-through, gravel
• Didn’t need to disconnect toad, parked in front of coach
• Mostly level site; a little high on driver side and front; used hydraulic leveling
• Gravel driveway about 100 feet long by 10 feet wide
• 25 feet to neighbor on passenger side
• No neighbor on driver side; about 15 feed to road
• Just grass between sites
• Patio table and chairs on concrete patio
• Fire pit
• Young trees
• Clean site
• Elevation 1030 feet, front facing NW

Utilities:

• 50 amp power, somewhat conveniently located
• 55 PSI water, somewhat conveniently located
• Good sewer connection, very conveniently located (1 10-foot pipe needed)

Internet (in usage priority order):

• Starlink: 218-260 Mbps down, 15-20 Mbps up, 40 ms ping
• T-Mobile: 500-560 Mbps down, 13-16 Mbps up, 30 ms ping
• Campground Wi-Fi: 30 Mbps down, 3-6 Mbps up, 10 ms ping
• AT&T: 33-77 Mbps down, 0.5-1.5 Mbps up, 65 ms ping
• Verizon: 25 Mbps down, 25 Mbps up, 35 ms ping

Amenities:

• Garbage pickup from site
• Pool
• Pizza, firewood, ice delivery to site
• Package delivery to office

Our review on Campground Reviews:

Decent KOA undergoing expansion

While we were in the park, they were in the process of doing earthmoving and site preparation for an additional 60 or so 50A full-hookup sites, some of which will be seasonal. As a result, we had to deal with construction noise and smell for a few days, which detracted from the experience. But the campground is nice, with some extra amenities and touches that made it stand out a bit from a typical KOA (pizza, wood, and ice delivery to your site, for instance). We had a deluxe patio site, which was about 100 feet long, so plenty long enough for our motorhome and tow vehicle (with room for another if we’d needed it). The patio had a table and chairs, as well as another seating area, even though it was too cold and rainy during our stay to want to sit outside much. We camped at Traverse City KOA Holiday in a Motorhome.

Tip for Other Campers: Venture into Traverse City: Rare Bird Brewery offers excellent food and beverages (the Schmackintosh cider is a favorite). The Omelette Shoppe offered delicious breakfast and brunch options.

Campground map:

An interactive map:

Our site:

A nice patio, that we didn’t use as the temperature was unseasonably cold during our stay:

Earthworks for new sites in front of our site:

Other sites:

Cabins:

Playground:

Jump pads:

Dog park:

Shade garden (which I added as a PokéStop for you Pokémon Go players out there!):

The construction noise and smells were a little annoying, but other than those, this was a nice enough campground; we’d be happy to stay here again in the future.