The complicating factor is Eva. If it was just Tammy and I camping, and it was regular thunderstorms not severe), that would not be a big problem. Eva, however, hates thunder and needs to be in the storm room at home in order to feel safe. It’s quieter in there. If you have watched my videos or read my blog, you know how I feel about Eva, or any of the shepherds we have had. They are family members.

A travel trailer, as you all know, is a loud place during a storm. My job as Eva’s dad is to keep her as less stressed as possible during storms. It is sometimes a very hard job. We spent one night recently sleeping in the storm room. Needless to say, a travel trailer in a thunderstorm is no place for Eva.

As a result, we have cancelled our travel plans for the 12-17 of April at Mother Neff state park and moved it out to early June. The forecast for the original dates shows thunderstorms almost every day. On the 12th, thunderstorms are almost 100% likely. After that, every day is about 60%. Well, that’s a spoiler for sure.

Before I decided to simply move the trip to June, I tried to find another location in Texas where I could avoid the storms. I would need to drive almost to Marfa to dodge the storms. Or I could drive to Roswell, New Mexico. Both are longer drives than I want to take at this point. Although I am pretty certain we will be back in Marfa late this fall.

There are some folks that would suggest just drugging Eva. I really would like to avoid that at all costs. This is why we leave the neighborhood around July 4th. I’d rather drive four hours to avoid the fireworks than sit in the storm room with Eva all night.

I actually have a neighbor who posted a year or so ago, “We are looking forward to neighborhood fireworks…so drug your pups early.” They don’t own dogs. (FYI, fireworks in our neighborhood are technically illegal, though no one enforces it.) That comment really got under my skin. If your child was scared of thunderstorms or fireworks, would your first thought really be “Where’s the NyQuil?” Hopefully not. I’m not trying to be judgmental, but it feels like a very self-focused way of thinking—without much awareness of how stressful these things can be for others.

Dog owners know what I am talking about. I told my vet once, when my dog is sick, I feel sick. Her happiness is very important to me. So, we will happily postpone camping in storms to keep Eva happy. If we are in the middle of a trip and it happens, we just have to live with that. In this case it was avoidable.

Here’s hoping that every dog owner has a camping trip free from storms.

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We arrived at the campground right on schedule at 2:00 P.M. I was going to have my boy Bob (son-in-law) help guide me into my spot, but he was running late. I swung it in myself and had everything set up by the time Bob arrived. All that remained was to get out Eva’s Coolaroo, her water, and the satellite dish.

In keeping with the entire trip so far, it was another really hot day. Bob and I had a beer and kicked back. It was nice to finally be somewhere for more than one night. However, my third “trouble comes in threes” incident was on the horizon.

The next morning, I went to visit Tammy at Corrine and Jeffs place and when I came home, I found that someone ran over my G2+ Satellite dish. Looked like a tire directly impacted it. That is a seven-hundred-dollar dish. It probably goes without saying that no one left a note for me or came over to fess up. I ordered a new satellite dish from Winegard for almost $800.00 with tax and shipping.

The next day, driven by morbid curiosity, I took the satellite apart. To my surprise, it hadn’t been damaged on the inside. I pushed out the dent with my hand, reconnected the dish. It worked perfectly. Then I called and cancelled my order but did place a new order for just a dome. The dome was only $65.00, much better than replacing the satellite. I did buy a new tripod because one of the legs had been crushed. Buying just one leg from Winegard was just as expensive as buying a new tripod on Amazon.

So, one would think that now my troubles were over, but they really weren’t. Later that day we began to get really horrible weather reports. The local weather guy was saying that all hell was going to break out that night. He said “These are not ordinary thunderstorms. These have winds of 60,70,80 miles per hour, real potential for tornados, and don’t even get me started talking about the lightening”. Then reports of tornados on the ground in Fort Atkinson, Rome, and Johnson Creek started coming in.

That put me into a bit of a panic, mainly because of Eva’s fear of thunder. I contemplated loading her into the truck and driving north but that storm was tracking that way too. In fact, the Harley Davidson celebration taking place north of us in Milwaukee was evacuated due to the storm. At that point I decided the best bet was to boogey on over to Jennifer and Bobs with Eva. We could campout in their quiet basement until the storm was over. I did run into some pretty torrential rain on the way to their place.

About 11:00 P.M. Eva and I went back to Cliffside Park, and I worried about what I might find. But everything was exactly as I’d left it. By then, we were both exhausted. In fact, Eva cried to get into her crate so she could sleep. That has never happened before.

The next day we got up and the campground was really wet from the rain. At that point I knew we couldn’t take any of the trails until things dried out. A few days later I tried again but the trails were in terrible shape. it’s obvious to me that there hasn’t been any trail maintenance in a long time. So, our first try at getting to the lake was foiled.

On the way back from the trail a park ranger asked us how far we went on the trails. He asked us if we had seen a tent anywhere along the trail. They had apparently found a bunch of camping supplies in the woods but no tent and no people. So that was strange, I hope he called the sheriff after our conversation.

A few days later we actually made it to the Lake via the trails, but it was pretty muddy. Later I found a tick crawling on my leg. So that made me do a real close inspection on Eva, but she was tick free.

Now, as a bit of background to the next issue, just prior to leaving our home in Texas, I tweaked my back. in fact, I thought maybe I would need to postpone going to Wisconsin but I kind of worked through it. However, it has been getting worse as the trip continued. There are certain things that really set it off. When that happens, it is almost impossible to walk for a few hours.

There came a time with a week left at Cliffside where I broke down and went to an urgent care. They gave me steroids and muscle relaxants. At least that would get me back to Texas. I hung out with Bob and Jennifer while I waited for the CVS to open and got to meet their new dog Daisy, she is soooo sweet.

The second week was much better from a trail perspective. Eva and I took many trips back to the overlook at Lake Michigan.

The second weekend came, and I met Tammy at Corrine and Jeffs house, and we all headed to the Rennaissance Faire, in Bristol. This is very close to Jeff and Corrine’s house. I would say that this is about the fourth time I have been to this Faire. If you have never been to one of these, it is worth it just to people watch. I feel about it now the same way I did when we first went – it’s huge, hot, and bizarre (or as I like to say “Interesting”). It rained before we went which added to a high humidity level as well. The food there is a little pricey but very good. It was great to hang out with the kids.

The plan after Cliffside was to go to Des Moines Iowa, then Topeka Kansas, and then on to Dodge City. That all changed with weather reports a few days before our departure. The weather in that direction was going to be horrible. The storms in Iowa were supposed to be absolutely horrible, and Kansas would be no better. Even if we could get to Dodge City, the weather there would be over 100 degrees for our stay. None of this was what I wanted to hear. There’s running from a storm, and then there’s being part of the storm. I’d much rather run from that kind of storm. So, we cancelled our reservations and made new ones going back the way we came two weeks ago.

The next few days flew by, and on Wednesday Tammy came to the trailer. We got organized for the trip home. One last dump station visit and we were on our way.

Now on the way home it was hot as well. Every day when we would pull into a campground the inside temp would be somewhere above 94 degrees. It would take a good hour to get the temp down in the trailer. Thats when I noticed that our main AC unit seemed to be acting strange. It would hit a brick wall at about 83 degrees and then cycle off for a while and then come back on. We ran both AC units to compensate. My guess was that the capacitor was weak. I confirmed this when I got home, and I replaced it.

I won’t make a detailed replacement video, because discharging the capacitor incorrectly could electrocute someone. However, there are plenty of YouTube videos on the subject.

All in all, about 2500 miles and a number of things that could have gone better, but it is always an adventure.

Next Trip will be in about 8 weeks and more than likely we will be heading to Marfa Texas. So stay tuned!

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We left the RV Express RV Park at about 7:30 A.M., mainly due to their entrance/exit location. It is about 20 feet from the main road that we need to turn on to get to highway 44. I was really concerned that if we didn’t leave early, we might get stuck trying to get out of the campground for a long time—or end up blocking traffic.

Since we left early, getting out of the campground onto the main drag was easy. What wasn’t easy was the horrible condition of the highway from Marshfield to Rolla. Long rough patches of previously patched highway in the right lane made for a horrible ride. This went on for about 40 miles. When the left lane was clear, I would use it just to escape from the crappy right lane.

After that fiasco, we fueled up and headed further up the road to my least favorite part of the trip – St Louis. The highways in St Louis, and the bypass around St Louis, is a mess. There is construction that is going on that prevented me from using the bypass. They’ve also shut down part of Highway 55 in the opposite direction. In short, I would almost rather drive anywhere else than St Lous. It has always been bad but the last two years has been horrible.

I am always happy when I am past St Louis. Then the ride becomes much less stressful and the road conditions improve. Eva and I made such good time that we actually spent time at a wayside having some lunch and relaxing prior to reaching the Double J Campground.

The Double J has been a frequent stop for us and has been on the second owner for probably three or four years. We have seen it go from a medium campground to a large campground. It is not an inexpensive campground. The staff is very nice, but there are some draw backs now. The campground roads and sites use small, round gravel, which makes walking difficult wherever it isn’t compacted. I don’t understand why they didn’t just pave the roads and sites. On top of that, for what you pay to stay there, it was disappointing to find that using the pool costs extra. Not that I would use it, but I think that is a real disadvantage for families camping there. Frankly, I have never found a campground that charges their guests to use the pool.

In addition, they have started putting some cement pads in, but they want to charge an extra $10.00 per night for that. Seems like it’s becoming an à la carte campground. They are already charging $63.00 per day so are you going to pay $73.00? Seems like it’s getting too pricey when you figure you’re going to pay to use the pool, min golf etc.

It is very clean and is a very secure campground with security gates that can only be opened with a pass that they give you at check in. If you are looking for an enormous dog park – this is the place. As I mentioned, the staff has always been great.

We arrived a bit early despite taking some time at the wayside. Arriving at the campground at 1:30 P.M. We set up and fired up both AC units because once again it was a very hot day.

The next morning, we dumped our tanks (full hook up). That is when the first problem reared its ugly head. Their sewer connection was threaded, however that part was freewheeling on the PVC pipe. It should have been glued to the pipe. This cause some back flow issue around the pipe. It wasn’t horrible, but nasty anyway. Nasty enough that I threw an old pair of shoes away. I cleaned what little mess was by the pipe and Eva and I continued on our trip.

Since trouble comes in threes, it probably shouldn’t have been a surprise when i couldn’t find my wallet when trying to fuel at Loves in Normal Illinois. There was no semi behind me, so I jumped in the travel trailer and began looking frantically for my wallet. I came up empty.

So, then I started doing some worst-case scenario planning. I knew I could make it to Elkorn Wisconsin on the fuel I had left. That would mean that Tammy would need to drive an hour to meet me and fill up the truck. I decided to pull out of the fuel lane and back into a truck spot, open the trailer and continue my search. After going through all of that, I found my wallet under the bed. I went back to the fuel lane, got my diesel and headed onto Wisconsin.

Click here to continue on our solo journey to Wisconsin.

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This 16 spot campground is a hidden gem for folks needing a stopover when traveling on hghway 44. Just take exit 100 and you are about two city blocks from the campground. There are only 7 pull-through sites. We were in site 16 which just barely fit our 35′ trailer and Ram 2500.

Let me start by saying if you hate road noise, this campground will probably not be for you. It is located right next to the entrance ramp to highway 44. Neither Tammy or I or even Eva minds road noise so this was not an issue for us. I only bring this up because I see people online often complaining about road noise at their campgrounds. We’ve stayed in places with a highway, airport, and trains combined, and it has never been a showstopper for us.

But back to this campground. The owner Lynsey is a wonderful person, and she keeps this campground immaculate. It is the cleanest campground I have ever stayed at. The sites are perfectly manicured with a picnic table and grill at each site. While the sites are not large, they are perfect for a short stay and as I mentioned, immaculate.

Lynsey is there at different times during the day, but don’t worry, she will give you info on your spot in advance. She places a cone at your site, and you just pull up to the cone. Then connect your power and water. It is a full hook up site so if you need to dump your tanks, you are all set.

There is plenty of fast food within walking distance from the campground, so that is a benefit if you have been on the road all day. Lynsey will give you a key code to enter the building to access the showers and laundry facilities.

I highly recommend this campground if you’re traveling on highway 44 and looking for a really nice place to stop. I really can’t say enough nice things about this place.

The next morning Eva and I got out of the campground at about 7:30 and headed to our next stop. This would be our regular stopping off point before getting to Wisconsin: The Double J campground in Chatham, Illinois.

Click here to follow along to stop number 4 on our journey north.

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Again, this was a very hot day for travel. We left Tyler state park pretty early and got a jump on the day. Pulling out of the site at Tyler had some challenges. Even though that site can accommodate a long trailer, it has a tight turn to exit the site. This is where having Tammy along is a big help, but Eva and I managed to exit the site without issue.

It was probably close to a six-hour travel day for us. By the time we arrived at the KOA, I am pretty sure the inside of the trailer was like an oven.

Now, first let me say, I really like this KOA. It reminds me of what KOA’s were all like back in the 80’s. It’s a medium-sized KOA campground that now falls into their “Holiday” category, though in my opinion it would be better listed as a “Journey”. This campground has been through at least three owners in the last 12 years. It is in need of some TLC, BUT it is still a really decent place to stop for the night or longer.

It is about 10 miles west of highway 69 in Oklahoma on Highway 40 (exit 255). The road to the campground stretches about a mile with bumps and ruts along the way, so brace yourself.

You will get road noise from highway 40 but most of the time it seems pretty quiet.

This KOA at one time had a pretty decent little restaurant inside the main building. That discontinued later and for a time there was no food being served. Now they offer pizza and wings and will drop them off at your site. Of course, if you have a dog, you may want to just go pick your order up at the office. Eva doesn’t appreciate anyone knocking on the trailer door. The food is excellent.

As you can see from the pictures the sites are a nice size and there is plenty of grass. The sites are for the most part pretty level.

I didn’t disconnect the truck for our stay, because this was just a one nighter for us. Eva and I went for quite a few walks around the campground, and it was surprisingly empty that night. The next stop on our journey would be a campground I have never stayed at but it looked really interesting, so I booked it.

Click here to move on to stop number 3 on our journey north.

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For the next five months, Eva and I got a lot done on the travel trailer. We replaced all the wheel bearings and races, replaced a bad power converter, and fixed the mysterious leaking bathroom sink. We also resealed many areas of the exterior of the trailer, and the roof.

Well, July crept up on us pretty fast. Now it was time to head up north in the trailer to pick up Tammy. This was the first time in many years that I would travel alone with a travel trailer. The last time was about in the late 1990s. I would tow our trailer to the Wisconsin Dells on a long holiday weekend. I would go up a day early, set it up, and then go to work the next day back in Madison. That evening we would all hop in the Van and head to the dells. No set up required!

Well, now it would be a much longer jaunt as Eva and I travel first to Tyler State Park. We do this to avoid the July 4th fireworks, then continue on to Wisconsin. We would be stopping in Oklahoma, Missouri, and Illinois along the way.

On July 2nd, we headed out to Tyler State Park. This may be my favorite state park in Texas. In a word – it was a very hot day. The ride was uneventful, and Eva was great. Eva has had a pretty spoiled life. All of our other shepherds had to live with our work life so they spent time alone. Eva has had us around 24/7 with the exception of that four day period when our granddaughter was born in February. Then she was boarded, and I was worried about how she would handle it. She was fine although I noticed she hadn’t eaten all of the food I left for her.

Tyler State Park has a brand-new administration office and it’s a behemoth of a building. You now drive much further into the park to reach it. The signage is not great so you may be tempted to go through their drive through window on the right side of the building but don’t do that. Instead, go to the left as you enter the driveway and park in one of the RV spots and go in.

I have no idea why they aren’t using the drive through window for registration. Anyway, the process is easy enough. We drove to the big pine campground into site BP304. I hit the sweet spot immediately and used my new leveling blocks to raise the passenger side of the trailer by 3”. I bought these because I realized it would be a much easier task with Eva, then me spending time building a ramp out of leveling blocks while she sits in the truck waiting for me to finish.

Once I leveled the trailer, I hooked up the electricity and chained Eva to the picnic table. With power on, I extended the slides, hooked up the water, and turned on both AC units—the inside temperature had reached 95 degrees. Then I moved Eva’s lead to the frame of the trailer and she flopped down under the shade of the trailer. It was extremely hot now! the temperature was 94 but the real feel was 109 according to the local weather guy. By the time I finished setting up, I was soaked.

Meanwhile back at home in Nevada Texas, one inch of rain was falling with heavy thunderstorms and two power outages. I was so glad I left a day early. After a few trips to take items from the truck, I was ready to call it a day. I had no desire to go out except for Eva’s potty breaks.

We would stay at Tyler from the 2nd and depart on the 7th. Every day at Tyler was a hot and humid mess. Eva and I would take our walks very early in the morning and once noon came around it was pretty much back into the trailer.

On July 4th, we could hear the fireworks in the distance, but they didn’t last long, and Eva seemed to take it in stride.

We ended up doing a really long trail on July 6th. That was a mistake because it ended up being about 8 miles (guessing) and I didn’t take water. I thought it was a short trail, never going to make that mistake again.

The next stop on the Journey is Lake Eufaula/Checotah KOA. It’s about a five-hour drive from Tyler.

If you would like to see our videos from Tyler click here.

Click here to continue on in the trip to the Lake Eufaula KOA.

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1. Escape the great northern winter – many campgrounds in Texas are open all year round.  Keep in mind though, there can be temporary cold snaps. you might even see ice storms and snow, but they don’t last long. Keep in mind if the weather does get nasty, things do shut down!
2. Texas State Parks are inexpensive and beautiful.  Seriously, you will be blown away by how nice these parks are. There are also many Army Core of Engineer Parks (COE) to camp at.
3. From Palo Duro Canyon to Big Bend National Park and down to the ocean, the variety in scenery in the state of Texas is really diverse and amazing. 
4. Wonderful places to visit. Here are just a few examples:
   • San Antonios River Walk. This is the number one attraction in the state. There is a KOA on the bus line not far from the river walk.

• The Alamo, also located in San Antonio.

• Johnson Space Center in Houston.

• The 6^th floor museum at Dealy Plaza, site of the JFK assassination.

• Fort Worths Stockyards National Historic District.

• The Dallas Texas Motor Speedway, Fort Worth.

• The Grapevine Vintage Railroad.

• The Jefferson Texas Ghost Walking tour

5. Ten Months out of the year the weather is pretty much fantastic for camping.  July and August can be pretty hot, but it’s a dry heat – sometimes!  I wouldn’t let the heat keep me from camping in those months even so, just be prepared for it.

So, these are my five reasons why you should consider camping in Texas.  You may want to consider Texas as your winter destination if you live in the north.  I’d say come on down in November and stay through March or April. 

However, pick your region in Texas carefully if you want to stay through the spring, because we do get strong storms with high winds, hail, and lightening, and tornados. We had only been here for two years when I ended up getting a new roof due to a nasty hailstorm with a tornado touching down only two miles down the road.

Personally, I would just keep an eye on the weather and be ready to move to a safer location if storms are in the forecast.  I know that’s easier said than done, but most of the time it’s going to be smarter to move camp than risk the effects of the storms. Tammy and I have had to do this a few times over the years down here. Several times we left to avoid potential severe thunderstorms packing hail. Other times we have moved due to hurricanes. I have never regretted moving out of the way of stormy weather.

On a side note, I think you will find the folks in Texas to be the friendlies around.

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First let’s talk about the written rules of the Texas State Parks in relation to Pets:

• Pets must be on leash, in a car, or in a crate at all times. The leash can be no longer than 6 feet.
• You must be with your pet at all times. You may not leave your pet unattended in the park, in a vehicle, or at your campsite.
• Do not bring a noisy or dangerous dog to a state park.
• Pets are not allowed in any state park buildings. This includes motels, cabins, screened shelters, group facilities and restrooms.
• You must pick up your pet’s waste and put it in the trash.
• Pets are not allowed in the water or on the land around a designated swim area.
• Your pet must have a current rabies vaccination, and you must have proof with you.
• If you break these rules, you and your pet may be asked to leave!

I’ve highlighted the dog rules that people violate most often.

Just last week I had more than one experience with the same dog wandering into our site from the camper directly across from us. I have to say, this kind of thing happens way to often at state parks. People seem to think their dog is a tiny human that will just stay at their campsite. The reality is, that dogs are going to act like dogs. If your dog comes into my campsite, there will probably be a dog fight, because Eva will feel threatened. This is why I keep mace with me now when we sit outside the camper. Another camper’s negligence should never put my dog at risk of injury. I will protect Eva just like I would protect any child from a dog attack.

I did have a talk with the guy across from us, but the long and the short is that I don’t think it mattered. For one thing he admitted he was drunk (I could tell). Later, I overheard him tell someone that his dog was “Nippy and Protective”. Wonderful! My personal feeling is that I gave him fair warning; so, if there was another episode, it would be a call to the office. This guy was just generally a pain to be across from, for breaking more than just the dog rules. Among other things, he had multiple visitors coming to his site and parking in unoccupied camping spots instead of the overflow parking area. Up to six cars were there on a daily basis. Which Brings me to my next Point.

The Rangers seem to turn a blind eye to much of what goes on in the campground. I saw on at least three occasions the rangers come through, and they could plainly see that the dogs were off leash but did nothing.I’m sure it was also obvious that people had parked multiple cars where they shouldn’t have. In reality the extra cars were not an issue for me, except when it interfered with me being able to get out of my site. It says something about the character of these campers though. The rules do not apply to them, only to you!

In addition, on my early morning walks there are multiple folks in campers that decide to just tie their dogs outside, and then go back in the trailers. That again is a violation of the rules because you are leaving your dog unattended. This is unsafe for a couple of reasons. First, another stray dog may attack your dog (like in the example above), and you won’t be there to stop it. Two, your dog could break free from its lead and attack a person or another dog.

I remember once about six years ago; Hannah and I were charged by a dog that belonged to a guy that was just setting up his RV. With little time to react, I put myself between Hannah and the other dog and grabbed onto its collar. Then I told the wife to leash the dog as she ran over. It would be great if I could tell you that was the only time something like that happened. However, multiple times, the dogs and I have been charged at state parks—and not only at state parks. Once I actually had to lift Hannah to avoid an attack, and she was a big girl.

I can deal with the lazy people that don’t pick up after their dog’s poop. It still irritates me, because apparently, they can’t pick it up, but they are ok with anyone else picking it up. However, the loose dog issue is so much more dangerous. If you have ever had to break up a dog fight, you might understand better, how quickly things go south.

Folks, we go camping to relax, not to keep an eye open for your stray dog coming into our site. There is nothing relaxing about that. I’m not sure what it is going to take for some of these folks to wake up. Perhaps a lawsuit will force action once a dog or person suffers an injury. Perhaps the rangers need to enforce the rules and actually kick violators out of the campground. Please don’t be these people, let’s all go camping, follow the rules, and just chill.

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So we are heading to a Texas State Park, Martin Dies Jr, and we are hoping for a quiet evening on the 31st.

The Travel Trailer has already been winterized so I guess we will see what the weather will be like. If it appears that we can use the water lines with no issue, then we will. If it looks like we are going to dip below freezing, then we will do the trip without water. Bottled water will be just fine.

I have both LP tanks full, and we have a fireplace in addition to heat strips in the AC in the bedroom. This should help on drawing down the propane. 

The plan is to pack easy to make meals, and go from there. Stay tuned for how this plays out! I’ll also need to buy some antifreeze for when we get back home.

In the meantime, everyone have a safe and happy New Years 2024!

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I want to reiterate my opinion briefly on KOA campgrounds. Back in the 80’s everyone of them seemed to be the same, just like Pringles potato chips. They were affordable, well maintained, and you knew exactly what you were getting. That changed over the years and now it is rather hit or miss on the quality. So, when possible we don’t take a chance and we choose to stay at State or County campgrounds. Sometimes though you will find a great KOA. This was the case at the Dodge City KOA.

The Dodge City KOA is located near the heart of the old downtown area. Looking around you might think it is quite industrial with all the grain silos. However, once you pull into the campground area, it feels quite secluded.

The sites are for the most part level. We had to use one layer of leveling blocks under the tires on the left side of the trailer. The campground looks brand new, however, they do have issues with their plumbing on some of the sites. For instance, somewhere underground at our water pedestal, there was a leak. They have the old style (pull up handle) frost free water hydrants at each site. We could hear the water running continually. Water flooded an area of about 15′ by 8′ all around

I alerted the staff about the leak and they said that they knew that hydrant was leaking. They told us that they would fix it the next day. That never happened during the whole week we were there. So occasionally when I would walk around the trailer I would get to close to that area and end up with a soaked foot. A very cold soaked foot. Just to be clear, this in no way put a damper on our stay. However, I can’t begin to imagine how much money they were wasting on that big of a leak. I have no idea what the price of water is in Kansas, but in Texas it is expensive!

I saw other water taps in the campground that were leaking from their connections. They need to go through each site and fix their plumbing issues. Other than the plumbing issues I have absolutely no complaints about the Dodge City KOA. I would rate them as a 5 star campground if they would fix their plumbing issues.

You can see that the sites are nice and long with nice wide concrete pads. The first day we arrived the temperatures were in the upper 80’s. So, we set up our chairs on the backside of the trailer to get a break from the sun. The angle of the sun combined with the direction we faced in the campground rendered our awnings useless. It was really too windy there on a daily basis to use awnings anyway. So, we enjoyed a beer and Eva enjoyed looking out at the large stretch of land behind the camper.

Our first neighbor at the Dodge City KOA was Kelly. She has a nice 2008 Class A Motor Home, and arrived the day before we rolled in. Kelly has been a full time RV’er, by herself, since 2018. She started with a fifth wheel to see how she liked the lifestyle and then bought the Class A. It would be very hard to find a nicer person to camp next to. She travels with her dog and cat, and really needs to start a blog about her adventures. We sat out, shared a beer, and had some great conversations over the course of a few days. Unfortunately for us, Kelly left on Tuesday; so we had three days of one night stay neighbors.

On Monday we decided we would go over to the Boot Hill Museum. The Dodge City, Kansas KOA happens to be a short half mile from the Museum and the old down town of Dodge City. Obviously, being close is a huge advantage. We could easily walk but decided that we would drive since parking is not an issue.

Earlier that morning Eva and I walked to the road just across the street from the museum. I wanted to take her directly in front of the museum for a photo but the main road looked challenging to cross with a dog given the traffic at that time of day.

Just next to the grounds of the campground is the Wright Park Zoo. The founders established this zoo in 1926. It is the home to 126 animals representing 30 or more species from almost every continent on earth. It get over 60,000 visitors a year. In 2018 the city realized that the zoo needed to either make some serious renovations or close. After much feedback from the citizens of Dodge City, they decided to move forward with renovations. Since they were renovating it during our stay, we couldn’t visit—but we will definitely visit next time.

Just outside the Zoo entrance is a beautiful large park that has a great playground as well as horse shoe pits and picnic areas.

There is also the Long Branch Lagoon Water Park just across from the Zoo. Of course, nothing like that was open during our stay as the weather would not favor that kind of activity. Most days were in the 60’s with just a couple in the 80’s.

As you can see there is much to do in dodge city and if your traveling with kids, you will not have a problem keeping them busy.

Now for the real reason we came to Dodge City, to see the Old Dodge City of the 1800s. Of course most of the original town has been destroyed through the years but there are still some original buildings as well as the old Boot Hill Cemetery Site. In addition, the old Dodge City is carefully restored here. It seems very authentic. Of course, you need to pay an admission at the Boot Hill Museum in order to be able to see any of that. Our admission tickets were 16 dollars each, and I have to say that was a bargain. I’m not sure a one day visit is enough to see everything in and outside of the museum.

The Boot Hill Museum includes more than 60,000 items which are a combination of objects, photographs, and documents. Most of that collection is from Dodge City’s early days, from the 1870s through the 1920s. Not only will you see many interesting artifacts, but you will learn about it’s history and the people that were a part of that history like Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson, just to name a few. There’s more to the history of Dodge City than the gunslingers and marshals. You will also learn about other citizens that started successful business that thrived there. One such person was Fred Harvey who started a chain of restaurants.

To read about all the influential Dodge City residents would probably take a book, but here is a look at just a few:

There are many other exhibits in the museum. As I mentioned, I don’t think you can get through this museum in one day. It also features a “People of the Plains” exhibit which contains artifacts and information about the Plains Indians, Forts and Railroads, Buffalo Hunters, Cattle Industry, Santa Fe Trail, Victorian Clothing, and Hollywood exhibits. You will certainly see a lot of information about the TV show Gunsmoke, and its actors as well as movies that were made about Dodge City.

Once you wind through the museum exhibits you exit through a back door into the recreated street of Dodge City. This lies several blocks west of its original location. There are three buildings on this site that are original.

The replica was begun in 1948 as part of the Boot Hill Museum. As crowds grew, a complete Front Street, with 12 separate buildings, were constructed. It is an exact replica of the old town a result of using old photographs as a model. Of course the attraction everyone flocks to is the Long Branch Saloon.

We were no different than other folks and we headed over to grab a beer and a sarsaparilla.

There are a number of domestic beers that you can purchase at the long branch. I opted for the locally brewed “1872”. This was probably one of the most unique beers I have tasted. The aroma was very yeasty, almost like bread dough. If my home brew tasted like that I would think the yeast had not finished fermenting. The beer was bitter on the back end, but not so much that it was offensive. I liked it enough to try it later in the week at the Central Station Bar and Grill. My experience with the beer there was completely different. There was absolutely no aroma and the beer was offensively bitter. Not sure why there would be such a difference in consistency, but I’m still glad I tried it.

Boot Hill Cemetery covers quite a bit of ground. From the left side of the recreated city, you find the base of the cemetery and you wind up some stairs passing the old Jail and then end of at the top of Boot Hill.

There is certainly a lot of information about Boot Hill Cemetery, most of it is conflicting. The reported number of people that were buried there varies greatly. Even the notion that some bodies still remain there is in dispute. It makes for interesting reading either way.

There are way too many grave markers to show them all but here are a few of folks that were (or maybe still are) buried at Boot Hill.

After our morning at the museum we walked next door and had lunch at Applebees. Then it was back to the Campground! The next day we just spent the day relaxing with Eva.

On Wednesday Tammy and I went on a self guided of Dodge Cities downtown area. You can pick up a tour guide at the visitor center next to the Boot Hill Museum. The guide shows all the points of interest throughout the old section of town. There are numerous statues, plaques, and historic buildings.

Let’s talk about the changing weather forecast for Friday at this point. The winds definitely began to get stronger as the week went on. Probably about Tuesday I looked at the forecast for Friday, and nothing had really changed. Winds were still projected to be about 35 miles per hour. I decided to also look at my “Windy” app, and things looked worse than that, but we were still a few days out. By the time Thursday rolled around the prediction for Friday was bleak.

Now I was just as concerned about our safety in the campground, as I was earlier in the week when I thought about towing. This was obviously going to be a major weather event. It became obvious that others felt the same way. What few campers were in the campground decided not to go anywhere.

Thursday afternoon came and folks began rolling off the highway and filled the campground to capacity. Nobody wanted to take a chance on having their RV’s flipped on the highway. There was a feeling of certainty that this was going to get bad for all of us. The only exception being a guy with a fifth wheel that decided to leave a lot of stuff including lawn chairs outside his trailer. I watched as a couple of his flower pots rolled through the campground…and this was still before Fridays winds hit.

Later I noticed a small leak at the shower faucet. I dissembled the faucet and repaired it, with a more permanent fix to take place at home. Most Travel Trailer owners realize, it is going to be an advantage if you are handy. We have repaired many things on the road over the course of the last six years with this trailer. Out of the eight travel trailers we have owned, this one has probably had more “personal Intervention” than any of the others. However, it has traveled many, many, many more miles than any of the others we have owned. As I have said before I enjoy working on the trailer, but not under duress.

I decided to pack up the grill on Thursday evening so I wouldn’t need to deal with packing it up on Friday during the wind storm. Eva kept me company as I cleaned it and stored it away in the cargo area.

When I woke up on Friday morning, it just didn’t sound horrible outside. For a moment I thought maybe we were on the edge of the front and we would be missed altogether – WRONG! It didn’t take long and the winds began their gusts. The trailer rocked and more than a few times with such ferocity that I would say “Holy Sh&%!”. I really did wonder if the skylight and vents would stay on the roof through this.

Over the horizon the air was choked with blowing dust which made the sky almost look like rain. The dust coated everything in a light brown color. Other than taking Eva out periodically we didn’t leave the trailer. The temperature outside was 59 degrees but with these winds it felt much, much colder.

The way we were positioned in the site had the wind hitting us from a rear angle on the back of the camper. This was probably to our advantage since the entire side was not being impacted. We also had quite a bit of weight in our holding tanks. Even so, it was an interesting day.

One owner of a Class A moved his rig into a new spot using the cabins as part of a wind break. That was a smart idea.

About 5:00 PM the winds dies down to about 25 MPH, so we kept our dinner reservation at the Central Station Bar and Grill.

Their dinner menu includes a decent variety of steaks, and they have a great reputation as a steak place. If you are going to have dinner here, do yourself a favor and eat in the dining car.

The food was great, and we were almost alone in the dining car with only two other tables taken. After dinner we headed to a local Walmart to grab a few groceries for our return trip. The Walmart is only about 3 miles from the campground, so that’s convenient if you run out of anything.

When we got back to camp Tammy and I decided to dump all the tanks since the Saturday morning temperature was going to be 36 degrees. Anything we could accomplish now was better than dealing with it in the morning. All we would have left to do Saturday was pack up the inside of the trailer and disconnect water and electric. I already had the truck positioned in front of the hitch.

Friday Morning came and we try to take things a little low key when we pack up. The longer Eva thinks we are just having a regular day, the better off we all are. Once she knows we are leaving she gets more animated. As soon as we are ready to pull in the slide rooms she gets into her travel jacket (which clips to a seat belt). Then I put her in the truck. She immediately calms down and waits for us to finish up.

Then it was back to Roadrunner RV Park for the night, and the next day home.

I highly recommend a trip to Dodge City – You will not be disappointed!

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