As always let me start by saying that they are comparing their “growth rate”, only to 2024, which wasn’t a great year.  So, if this month is bad news, well it’s really bad news.

Right now, in the towable shipments for the year, they are at 191,727 Units Shipped.  If you remember last month, they had shipped 172,401 for the year. That’s only an increase of 19,326 units added to the year’s total.  That’s somewhat bleak when comparing to previous months where they are usually adding around 25,000.

On with the July numbers:

In July Travel Trailer Shipments were down -12.9% over July of 2024. I have to say I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before.  YTD compared to 2024 Travel Trailers are up only 2.5%.

July Fifth Wheels were up 9.1% over July of 2024, that’s a 10% drop from last months numbers. YTD compared to 2024 up 20.5, which is down -2% from last month’s numbers.

Pop-up Campers were down 18.9% but remember last month they reported a huge 42.7% over June of 2024.  So this may just be a correction. YTD compared to 2024 they are down -3.1%. 

Truck Campers were up 16.2% over July of 2024. YTD compared to 2024 up 20.9%.

Please remember that the number of shipments for popups and truck campers is so small that a small increase can look like a huge percentage. 

I won’t spend a lot of time talking about Motorhomes but only A’s and C’s were all up when compared to July of 2024.  Type A’s up 7.4%, B’s down -1.9%, and type C’s up 25.5%. However, for the year, A’s and B’s are in negative territory and C’s are barely positive at 1.1%

Again, the motorhome situation is a bit like truck campers and popups. There are not a lot shipped so a modest swing results in a big percentage shift. However, that being said, no one will deny that motorhomes are in trouble.

I think the RV industry is hurting. I think they’ve hurt themselves, and only they can turn it around. It will take a “Quality Revolution” to right this ship.

RV Industry Association President & CEO Craig Kirby said:

“Our latest research shows RVing will remain popular as we head into fall with affordability topping the list of reasons people plan to go on an RV adventure”.

I suppose it all depends on how you define affordability.  Tell that to the folks that are buying new RVs and then sinking a lot of money into them because of frame failure and poor workmanship.  Tell that to the folks that realize now that they made a huge mistake buying a unit without an independent inspection, and now their trailer is either sitting for months at a dealership while they pay on a loan and miss camping trips.  Just saying.

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Since Marfa is in a desert environment, the days are hot and the evenings are cold. We expect that in the first week of October when we will be there, the temperatures will be in the low 80’s during the day and the low 50’s at night.

Our first stop on the way to Marfa will be the Midland/Odessa RV park. This is 379 miles from home, and my guess is we will spend about 7.5 hours to get there. That will give us an easy 200 miles to go on the second day.

The Midland Odessa RV Park looks like it was once a KOA. It looks to be a very nice campground. We are there for only one night in order to break up the trip. I was going to book this stop for the trip home, but it was not available. So, on the trip home we will stay at the Abilene State Park.

Our stay at Marfa will be at the Tumble-In RV Park. From what I can see in the pictures on their website, it’s very rustic. This is probably what you would expect from the desert environment. My interactions with the owner over making reservations seemed good. I must admit I am a bit curious on how the stay will go, we will be there for a week.

So, why Marfa? Well Tammy and I have watched a few shows on the Marfa Lights and always wanted to go and see them for ourselves. The Marfa Lights are visible on clear nights between Marfa and the Paisano Pass, when facing the southwest (facing the Chinati Mountains). The lights change colors, move, split apart, disappear and reappear. If you have heard that they are just car lights in the distance, that would be incorrect as they have been seen way before cars appeared in Texas. The first historical record of seeing the lights date all the way back to 1883. The following I took from Wikipedia:

“The first historical record of the Marfa lights was in 1883 when a young cowhand, Robert Reed Ellison, saw a flickering light while he was driving cattle through Paisano Pass and wondered if it was the campfire of the Apache. Other settlers told him they often saw the lights, but that when they investigated, they found no ashes or other evidence of a campsite.  Joe and Anne Humphreys next reported seeing the lights in 1885”.

It is also interesting to note that there has never been an explanation for these lights. Will we see them? You will be the first to know if we do.

There is also a viewing station 9 miles east of town on Hwy 90.

To the south of Marfa by 120 miles is Big Bend National Park. So that may very well be another stop while we are there.

I ordinarily will take my laptop with us on trips so I can edit videos while we camp. I have decided that I won’t do that this time. From what I have read the ability to even get a cellular connection is very spotty. Instead, I’ll just focus on trying to capture the most interesting moments and then get everything put together when we return. If, there is a lot to do, it may be multiple posts and videos.

So Standby for what could be an interesting trip.

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As always let me start by saying that they are comparing their “growth rate”, only to 2024. 2024 was not a great year for the RV industry.  So, let’s start there.

Right now, for the year, they are at 190,705 units shipped. If that stays at the same rate for the last six months of 2025, they may finish the year around 390,000 units.  This is well below the pre-covid shipment numbers.  I use that as a comparison because covid numbers were an anomaly.

On with the June numbers:

June Travel Trailer Shipments were up 13.9% over June of 2024.  YTD compared to 2024 up 4.6%.

June Fifth Wheels were up 19.9% over June of 2024. YTD compared to 2024 up 22%.

Pop-up Campers were up 42.7% over June of 2024. YTD compared to 2024 down 1.2%.  The number of shipments for popups and truck campers is so small that a small increase can look like a huge percentage. 

Truck Campers were up 10.1% over June of 2024. YTD compared to 2024 up 21.6%.

I won’t spend a lot of time talking about Motorhomes but they were all up when compared to June of 2024.  Type A’s up 10%, B’s up 17.7%, and type C’s up 28.9%. However, for the year, they are all in negative territory.

Again, the motorhome situation is a bit like truck campers and popups. There are not a lot shipped so a modest swing results in a big percentage shift.

In conclusion, comparing 2025 numbers to 2024 doesn’t really tell an accurate story.  It would certainly be more accurate if they reported against a five year average (with Covid numbers removed).  That’s just my two cents on it.

RV Industry Association President & CEO Craig Kirby said:

“This past month new 2026 model year units started arriving on dealer lots as manufacturers and suppliers continue to innovate and improve RVs to meet the needs and preferences of today’s RVers at every price point,”

I wish the improvement part were really true.

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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!

The post Solo Trip with Eva part 5 – Cliffside Park appeared first on .

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.

The post Solo Trip with Eva Part 2 appeared first on .

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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Here’s your RV industry shipment update for May!

These numbers are coming from the RVIA shipment report, which you can view at RVIA.org. As always, please remember this report is not indicative of sales, just shipments into RV dealerships.

These numbers are comparing MAY of 2025 to May of 2024 (as I’ve cautioned before, remember 2024 wasn’t a great year for the RV industry). So, when they say that they are doing better than last year, it’s like saying Jimmy did great this year in school with a D because last year he was doing F work. I think it would be better if they graded themselves against the best year they ever had. Anyway, on with the show.

Overall the RV shipments ended the month with only 28,150 units, a -15.1% compared to the 33,150 units shipped in May 2024. This tells you pretty much all you need to know, the RV industry is struggling, and this is only Shipments. Later on, we will talk about sales.

But lets look at the specific shipment numbers:

18,376 travel trailers shipped in May 2025 compared to 23,811 in May of 2024.  If you remember last month they shipped 24,737 units. That’s pretty bleak.  This puts them down 23% compared to May 2024.  YTD they are only up 3.1% compared to 2024.

5,794 fifth wheels shipped in May 2025 compared to 5,751 in May of 2024. That’s only an increase of .7% over last month.  YTD, they are up 22.4% compared to 2024.  That’s a move down from the 28% YTD number last month.

Regardless, these are still good numbers for fifth wheels compared to slumping shipments last year when they were in negative territory.

537 pop-up campers tanked in shipments last month, -20% compared to May of 2024. They are in negative territory for the year at -6%.

Oddly, truck campers took a huge bounce up at 556 units shipped compared to 273 in May of 2024.  That’s an increase of 104%.  This moved them into a 24% positive YTD number.  I have no rational explanation for the bump here.  I’ve never seen a swing like this in Truck Campers before. Perhaps they under-reported last month, and this was a catch-up? It’s odd.

Meanwhile on the motor home front, all models (A B and C) are still in negative YTD numbers even with an increase in shipments of 19.6% on Class Bs when compared to May of 2024.  For the Year:

Class-A  -5.2%

Class-B  -6.9%

Class-C  -6.2%

There is no doubt that the Motorhome market is still struggling with class B’s “sort of” rebounding last month.

In addition to this data statistical surveys.com, which I don’t belong to, has stated that RV registrations are down over 25%.  This WOULD BE indicative of sales! So that reenforces the fact that sales are bad, and inventory is being pushed to the dealerships.

Sales would be the very best indicator of how the RV industry is performing. Judging an industry on shipments is like a food company judging the popularity of their product on how much they can produce on their line. If they produce 1000 boxes of cereal but only sell 50, then the 1000 box number is useless.

RV Industry Association President & CEO Craig Kirby. “While the industry continues to navigate uncertain economic conditions, the long-term pattern of growth for the industry remains with a recent study showing 16.9 million American households indicating they intend to join the RV lifestyle. These potential customers are younger and more diverse than ever before, showcasing the wide and enduring appeal of RVing.”

So, it’s all gum drops and Lolli pops!  As I’ve mentioned before I don’t trust any of the study’s they sponsor and I’ll talk more about that in an upcoming video on my YouTube channel.  He is right about one thing; there is an appeal to RVing.  If you want to make it more appealing, start building a better product – that’s my two cents.

Anyway, that’s your industry update!

Until next time – happy camping.

The post May Shipment/Industry Update appeared first on .

Things went nicely until I rolled the kitchen slide in and a ton of water began running down the inside of the slide. I quickly grabbed a bath towel and mopped it up and then tried to dry the entire top of the slide off.

Since this was so messy I climbed up on the roof to dry off the other slide before bringing it in. It was a mess. Large tightly spaced water drops covered the entire roof. I was actually having second thoughts on whether this was a great idea. Would I be able to maintain my footing on such a wet roof? Slowly I edged my way to the slide and five minutes later the job was complete. I went back in and pulled the second slide in.

Ten minutes later we were on the way to the next stop; Lake of the Ozarks/Linn Creek KOA. Needless to say, Eva did her share of barking over the course of the trip.

I struggle with how to describe this KOA. It has potential, but I don’t know how long it will take to make it what it could be.

The minute we pulled into our site and I hooked up the surge protector I regretted making this stop. One leg of the 50 AMP connection was bad. This is why I always recommend having an EMS surge protector. I’d much rather move spots in a campground than have an electrical issue inside my camper. I immediately called the office and reported the problem.

The manager was a very nice woman who only cared about making us happy. I felt sorry for the obsolete equipment she was dealing with. After about 30 minutes we were all hooked up in a new site. The site was not level, and it was gravel, but I really didn’t want to mosey on down the road at this point. I really just wanted to sit outside under the awning with Tammy and Eva, have a beer and relax.

Next there was a dog running loose in the campground which forced me to put Eva in the trailer. This is a pet peeve of mine. After that happened some employees showed up and spent the next two hours digging around in my campsite. I have no idea what they were trying to do, it looked like they were just moving dirt from one spot to another. My advice to KOA would be not to have employees invade a paid campsite to spend hours messing around and being a general nuisance. I might have felt different if I wasn’t traveling with a dog; but then again it is annoying to have people messing around right outside your front door for no purpose other than leveling earth.

So given all if the stuff going on at this KOA including really old infrastructure, could I recommend them? The Jury is out on that! It appears they are trying to improve this KOA; but at this point they really need to infuse a bunch of cash to get these sites up to speed. Rusty electrical boxes, and non-functioning hookups send a message that you don’t care about the right things. The people are nice, and they care; and you can see the effort is there. For example; The bathrooms/showers at this place are amazing, a real surprise. So as I said, its a work in progress. I wish them well.

Tomorrow is a 5 hour drive to the double J campground near Springfield, Illinois. We have stayed there before, and it is a gem.

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