Campground-reviews on Geeky Nomads

Kellogg RV Park and Iowa’s Best Burger Café

Wed, 17 Sep 2014 02:01:40 -0400

A short drive from Des Moines, we stopped at a nice campground in Kellogg, Iowa. It is located right by the highway I-80. The park is very clean and has nice and level pull through sites. We were able to secure a site the furthest from the highway and it provided for a very peaceful stay. The cars driving by offered a faint white noise that we actually enjoy especially during sleep.

This campground is adjacent to a gas station and a little café that has very reasonably priced burgers, sausages and ice cream. We went for a nice lunch, and ordered BBQ Beef Sandwich and Polish Sausage. The meal came with a Drink and a side Salad. Delicious food was had by all and we ate our lunch outside while listening to swooshing of the corn field nearby.

Campground

At dinnertime, we went for a nice walk around the park as a family. Our son enjoyed the playground on the premises. He loves swings, and had a great time.

We would definitely stay here again if passing through the area.

As we were walking back to our RV, we noticed that one of the Diesel pusher owners looked a bit frazzled. Being very familiar with that look ourselves after our recent reliability troubles, we asked him what was wrong? He told us that his home on wheels had a cracked exhaust manifold. He had a mobile mechanic there working on the problem, and his experience with help seemed better than our own. I hope that he was able to get his problem fixed quickly and get underway to his home state of Arkansas after we left.

Tionesta, PA Army Corps of Engineering Campground

Fri, 16 Aug 2013 13:21:23 -0400

Rated as the #1 campground in Pennsylvania on Tripblaze, we figured we had to visit this Corps of Engineering Campground. I don’t want to say we were disappointed but I think we really expected to be wowed by the #1 campground rated on any site. What we found wasn’t mediocre but other issues made for a mediocre total experience. The campground is located along the Allegheny River which sits in between two mountain ranges. Getting to the campground involves navigating several VERY steep but short hills that brought our motorhome to its knees in first gear.

Tionesta Dam

If you’re a gasser, disconnect your toad at I80. Be aware that if you’re coming in on PA Route 36 the campground is RIGHT at the bottom of a steep mountain with a truck speed limit of 25mph. It sneaks up on your so be prepared. Once in the recreation area you will again get lost and find the OUTFLOW campground which is a primitive campsite on the OTHER side of the river. You want to be on the SOUTH side (don’t cross the one lane bridge), instead the campground is straight ahead but it doesn’t look that way. Suffice to say we had a frustrating time getting everything sorted.

River side after the spillway

The campground itsel was very clean. It was not very full during the week yet low voltage caused our 30 amp breaker to trip several times, probably due to thunderstorms in the area. Although Verizon LTE service was amazingly good and fast, AT&T was edge and it was NOT getting Edge speeds. It was horrendous and completely unusable. Satellite is difficult to obtain but our site, right near the bathrooms in the northern loop offered best prospects and we were able to hit western arc satellites for Dish Network. The best sites by far though are the far most southern 3 sites on the southern loop by the dam. The view of the dam is pretty cool and there aren’t as many trees and bugs on these sites. The sites vary in quality and you’ll want to scrutinze google maps carefully to get what you want. Our site was mostly dirt while other sites are manicured gravel. None were paved. Our picnic table was made of steel and was falling apart. Like many wooded sites near water, mosquitoes were baaaaad.

Dam Spillway

There was a nice family atmosphere. The place cleared out during the week but was almost fully booked on the weekend. Many families bringing boats both small and large to take out on the lake. Other families go up the Allegheny River to take canoe trips (sometimes even multiple day trips). There were tons of kids riding around on bikes and they were fairly safe.

T&K Meaty Breakfast Pierogie

From the perspective of the full time RVer this is not a great place! Dining options were far and few between, google maps sent you everywhere but where you needed to go and the only good thing we had the whole time there was the Pizza from the Seldom Inn. The highly rated pierogies from T&K Dinor we felt were average. The grocery store was small and had nearly nothing. The town is extremely rural so if that’s your thing, you’ll like it. We like civilization and infrastructure somewhat nearby. We eat familiar chain restaurant food once or twice a week.

So the final determination for us is that we know there is better. Raystown lake for starters. We haven’t been to all of the campgrounds in PA to maek the determination but Tionesta should not be on anyone’s “must see” list but if you’re in there area and want a nice outdoorsy experience, it certainly delivers.

Our Site

Best sites in the campground

View from the Best Sites

T&K Dinor

Oak Grove Park & Sales

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 23:10:04 -0400

Oak Grove Park & Sales is a small park in the northwestern suburbs of Philadelphia, in Hatfield, PA. Since we lived in Hatfield, we used Oak Grove as a jumping off point while we were selling our house so our multi-month stay has given us great insights into the workings of this park. Oak grove consists of what appears to be a ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ split of park models and transient sites.

Oak Grove Welcome Sign

Many of the transient sites are filled with long term seasonal residents. You will see people going to work in the morning and coming home in the evening. While this isn’t what you’d call a resort campground, it is one of the few places that has the infrastructure right. The wireless gives a solid 2Mbit performance both up and down and rarely goes down. The electrical power feed is ample and we didn’t lose power during our entire stay. The showers are hot, water pressure is good, etc. Satellite connection is possible on certain sites but tough to get through the trees. You’ll definitely be better off using an eastern arc setup with dish network. Oak Grove is open year round and water is left on. Heat tape is provided to the faucets and you are expected to winterize your rig in whatever way is necessary. On-site propane delivery of the tall (100lb?) tanks is available for long term stays. Many units were skirted and look like

More Flora

they’ve been there for a while. During our stay however several of these units did pack up and go. The park has a modest on-site outdoor in-ground pool. There are various streets through the park to walk on and behind the park is wide open fields whose owner is unknown to me but we never had a problem walking there. A horse farm is near as well as RV storage. The park overall is pretty serene with the exception of the constant truck traffic from the nearby RL carriers facility. This really didn’t bother us but we were back a bit. There is a park with swings, a baby swing, slides and seat, a picnic area and in general a good attempt was made at providing a place to relax.

Laundry, Bath and Club House

Oak grove’s staff was friendly to us in all of our encounters. During our stay we had a cracked windshield replaced and did various washing of vehicles and maintenance and repairs and were given permission each time without trouble. The only trouble I heard is that one guy was scolded for tracking mud in on his vehicle tires. I can’t really fault them, the place is clean and they work hard to keep it that way (especially when you consider how many trees there are and how hard it is to keep after the debris they produce). When it comes to offsite amentities, there isn’t a lot - unless you start to consider that Oak Grove is the only campground near Philadelphia, it provides a nice jumping off point for people visiting Philadelphia as well as working in the area.

Park Playground

Front Entrance Area

Not Weeds

Office and Maintenance Buildings

Various Flora

Front Drive Nearest Street

Our Street - Behind Maintenance Building