RV Park Review- Shadrack Campground- Bristol, TN

Check-in Date: 07/17/16 

Check- out Date: 07/23/16

Type of Accommodation: Full hook up back-in

Price: $126 for the week with Passport America (half off for entire week with PA)

Amenities: This is a no bells and whistles kind of RV Park. It had all we needed which was a spot to park the RV. There is no pool. They have a place to do laundry and a bath house but we didn't use either of those. The office has a nice little store in it with RV supplies.

Every spot had a paved area to park the RV and then a grass area next to it. They dogs enjoyed having their own spot to lay in.

Samson enjoying having a "yard" for the week

Wifi/Cell Reception: The wifi and cell reception were great. The wifi was so good we kind of spent our nights binge watching Game of Thrones. When we find a park with good enough wifi to stream you better believe we are going to use it! 

Our favorite thing to do in the area: 

Twin City Drive- In Theatre is right across the street. It was only $7 per adult for a double feature.  We brought our own snacks and drinks but they also have a nice little concession stand and restrooms inside.

Downtown Bristol. There are a lot of restaurants and shops. One side of the street is Bristol Tennessee and the other is Bristol Virginia. 

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Steele Creek Park was a really nice place to go hike some trails. We saw a lot of butterflies, greenery and wild flowers. 

Favorite places to eat:  Mad Greek Restaurant which is less than a mile away. It had great food and service for a decent price. 

Mad Greek Restaurant

Half veggie & half greek- delicious

Reese pie- chocolate peanut butter- yum

Grocery stores:  There is a Wal-Mart less than a mile away. We try to avoid Wal-Mart so we found a Food City which was about 4 miles away.

Recommended: Yeah. I thought it was nice little campground for a decent price. I feel I should also mention it is right next to Bristol Speedway. I don't think you can get the Passport America discount when they are having races but it would be a nice close place to stay if you were going to the races.

*You can see all of Shadrack Campgrounds amenities, pricing and other information on their website.

RV Park Review- Endless Caverns -New Market, VA

You can't miss the sign

Check-in Date: 07/01/16 

Check-out Date: 07/15/16

Type of Accommodation: Full hook up back-in 

Price: $526 with Passport America (can only use PA for 1 night)

Our back-in spot for two weeks

Picnic table at our site

Amenities: Zero entry swimming pool, catch/release pond, recreation area with large TV and game room, horseshoes, volleyball, hiking trails, showers and restrooms. They also have a cave on the property that you can tour for a special camper price of $15 each. See our prior post of our Cavern Tour.

Endless Caverns

Special note: They have a designated dog area but it was a long trek down and uphill to get there. There wasn't much grass. It was a lot of weeds and who knows what else. Our dog ended up getting poison oak and we aren't sure if it was in the designated area or on the walk back to the RV. We didn't take him on any of the trails. It was also quite a hike to the dumpsters.

The catch and release pond

Meadow across from catch and release pond

Wifi/Cell reception: Our cell phone reception was great but the wifi connection was bad. It wasn't really usable most of the time. We mainly used our AT&T hotspot.

Customer Service: The staff in the office were great and very friendly. When we first arrived they escorted us to our site. We ordered a lot of packages from Amazon while we were there and they actually delivered them to our door. 

Our favorite things to do in the area: Visiting wineries on the Shenandoah Wine Trail and Shenandoah National Park. We previously posted reviews of the wine trail and national park.

Wolf Gap Vineyard

Shenandoah National Park

Favorite places to eat: Jackson's Corner Cafe. It is a little coffee shop with amazing coffee. We bought a bag of Crazy Fox Coffee- Hoot Owl Blend. It is so good. Wish I would have bought two bags. They also serve breakfast, lunch and have fresh scones daily. They had great chicken salad. We tried a couple other places in town like Kathy's Cafe and Southern Kitchen. Their food was about average but nothing special. 

The essentials coffee, tea & dark chocolate ;)

Chicken salad on wheat & chicken salad croissant

Grocery stores:  There is a small grocery store in downtown New Market. We wouldn't recommend it. It is more like a gas station selection of food. We drove to Harrisonburg which was about a 20 minute drive to go to Kroger.

The Cupcake Company in Harrisonburg has the most delicious cupcakes. These are strawberry cheesecake, grasshopper, oreo cookie and red velvet. 

Recommended: Definitely. One of our favorite places to stay so far. It was beautiful and peaceful. 

There are beautiful deer and chipmunks roaming around and at night you will be surrounded by fireflies.

RV Park Review - Bull Run Regional Park - Centreville, VA

Check- in date: 06/26/16

Check-out date: 07/01/16

Type of Accommodation: Pull through- full hook up RV site

Price: $245 with Good Sam Membership

***SPECIAL NOTES*** There are two ways to get to Post Office Road. Make sure if you come in on I66 that you take it to Lee Highway 29. DO NOT turn on Compton/658. Compton/658 is very narrow and is difficult for big rigs. We actually made it through but it was very stressful.

Crazy narrow road

Customer Service: The Park Rangers were great. We ended up getting there right as they were closing the park and a young man still escorted us to our spot. We had to check-in with the main office the next morning and it was no problem.

Site: The site was U-shaped from the main road and was covered in gravel. You will need some leveling blocks. The electric hookup was good. There is only one water hook-up so you may need a splitter. There was a picnic table and fire pit, as well. The area dedicated to us was quite large, we could have parked at least 2 more cars on the site with no problems.

U-Shaped Campsite with plenty of room

Amenities: There is plenty of camping and picnic area to enjoy with some wildlife. We got to see a beaver, deer and some geese.

We saw deer, geese and a beaver

There is a Frisbee Golf course, although the holes seem to be amongst the trees. I don't play but it seemed a little odd to me. They do have showers and restrooms but we did not use them. The dumpster for all trash is in the front of the park and you basically have to drive your trash to it. They did have bins for recycling though which was cool. There is plenty of open grass area to take your dogs to play and do their needed business.They also have a small Waterpark on the grounds which we went to. It was $8.50 a person to get in but is half price if you stay at the campground.

Atlantis Waterpark

Wifi/Cell Connection: There was no wifi here. We did use our AT&T hotspot and Cricket phone with no problems..

Our favorite things to do in the area: Pretty much everything we did was closer to the DC area which is about 45 minutes or so away from the park. You can details of our trip our earlier post, but here is a quick list:

Atlantis Waterpark
The White House
Lincoln Memorial
Smithsonian Air and Space Musuem - DC Location
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum - Hazy Center

Things we wished we did: 

The Winery at Bull Run is only 8 miles from the campground. Doh! We didn't notice this until we were packed up in our RV and on the road. There is also the site of the Battle of Bull Run nearby.

Favorite places to eat: We ate a place in Old Town Alexandria called Gadsby's Tavern. It had a colonial theme and was very good. It is pricey though so be prepared.

Grocery stores:  We went to a Trader Joe's which was about 10 minutes away

Gas nearby: We did not have to get gas in the RV while we were there but there are plenty of gas stations nearby.

*You can see all of Bull Run Regional Parks amenities, pricing and other information on their website. 

We would recommend this campground and would return.

RV Park Review - Raleigh Oaks RV Resort and Cottages – Raleigh, NC

Check-in Date: 25-JUN-2016

Check-out Date: 26-JUN-2016
Type of Accommodation: Standard Back-in Full Hook-up RV Site
Number of Nights: 1
Charges: $30.00 w/ Good Sam Membership

Customer Service: The staff was very nice and helpful. They let us know some of the events they were having for the Fourth of July weekend. They escorted us to our spot which is always nice.

Site: The site we stayed at was a “Back-in” which was easy to back into. The ground was gravel and uneven. You will need some leveling blocks for sure. The water hookup was very powerful so a regulator is also needed. They had cable which is always a plus for us and the 50 AMP electric hook-up was fine.

Amenities: This place had a lot of stuff to do. They have very nice facilities and so many extra activities. The fitness room, though we did not use it, looked very nice. We played pool in the billiard room where there were two pool tables and a TV. 

We played an intense game of miniature golf, though we used my putter. I don’t think they had any equipment after a certain time. 

The pool area was very nice. There are actually two pools and one had a hot tub. We really liked the fact that they had 3 dog parks, unfortunately they were sand and gravel which hurt our dog’s feet. But still, it was a good place to take the pups and let them play.

Wifi: The signal was ok but not enough to stream video.

Other Extras: The one day we were there they had a 4^th of July celebration with a free Bar-B-Q dinner, a live band and a fireworks show at night. It was pretty awesome. We kind of wished we were able to stay a little longer but we just didn’t have the time.

Stores/Restaurants/Gas nearby: Right down the street were two convenient stores. One was very nice and even had a little bit of produce. The other was right across the street and had good pull through gas pumps. We filled up here and hooked up our toad.

You can see all of Raleigh Oaks RV Resort and Cottages amenities, pricing and other information at their website. 

We highly recommend this RV Park and we will definitely keep it in mind next time we are in North Carolina.