Campgrounds, RV Parks, and RV Resorts

To decide where to stay on any given night, we use a combination of the KOA (Kampgrounds of America) guide and the Good Sam RV Park guide - a book about the size of the New York City phone directory. We're driven mostly by location based on our day's journey, and then start looking for reasonably rated campgrounds in the area, but our search is usually "blind" when we're in unfamiliar territory.   

On most days, I'll call ahead right after lunch to find out about availability and make reservations if required.  To book a site, the questions they ask are pretty routine: size of vehicle, tow vehicles if any, number of adults and children, number of pets, credit card info, and phone number.   I should have known something was up when I called the Sunny Brook RV Resort in Michigan yesterday and was asked the model and model year of our motor home.  We arrived to find a gated community - a lovely setting, but with clear rules about the types of RV's that would be awarded admittance ("...must be 25 feet in length or more, 10 years or newer or in new condition...").  

No repainted school buses here; in our road weary and dead-insect-encrusted Class B+ Cruiser, we felt like the poor Vermont relations of the shiny Class A motor homes lining the man-made lake on the property. 

  

The lawns and flowerbeds were meticulously manicured; the clubhouse immense.   It was like a country club without the golf.  I wasn't even sure if the dogs would be allowed to pee anywhere on the premises!   

Still, it proved to be a lovely, peaceful night.  For once, we didn't have to spend the night within shouting distance of freight train tracks or interstates!