10 August 08 - 14:24
City Park Camping
Small towns have found another source of income. They have been installing electrical hookups in their city parks so RVers will camp there overnight. Some provide a place to dump your holding tanks. Some even install water and sewer hookups. Some charge a small fee for camping and some don't. Those that don't, know you are likely to spend money in their town.We stopped at several of these parks along Highway 2 in North Dakota although we didn't stay overnight at all of them on this trip.
We stayed at one in Ray about 15 years ago when we took a trip in a rented class C motorhome. We were curious to see it now so we drove in. This park has a ball diamond and a small rodeo ground. When we were there before it was a Sunday evening and the rodeo folks were just leaving. The free camping sites are drive through sites between trees with hookups. The sites are grassy but now they are full of ruts from all the use they've had over the years. Like most parks along Highway 2, if you stay here be prepared to listen to train whistles during the night. And just in case a storm comes though while you are there, before going to bed you should read the sign that tells where the storm shelters are.
The next one we checked out is in Stanley. Just north of the train tracks there's a strip of land with a line of electrical boxes. This is another place that doesn't charge for camping a night or two but they want $35 if you stay a week which is very cheap camping. It was popular the day we were there. So is Dakota Drug, just 2 blocks south of the park, which sells Whirl-A-Whips. These concoctions, made at an old-fashioned ice cream fountain, are worth a stop. We were in town when the noon whistle blew which told the kids the local swimming pool was now open. By the time we finished our ice cream and drove back by the pool on our way out of town, the previously empty pool had several kids in it.
The city park we stayed in that night was in Berthold. This one offered full hookups for free. There were several very nice RVs in it but no one appeared to be home. About 6 o'clock the owners returned driving pickups full of their tools and other working gear. This is another reason some small towns are building these parks--to provide housing for temporary workers.
A couple of nights later we stayed in Surry City Park. This one had only electrical and they asked for $10 for 30 amp and $12 for 50 amp which you paid on the honor system by dropping the money into a mail slot at city hall. There was only one other RV there while we were. The park had a couple of water spigots you could hook up to to fill your tank but not stay hooked up while camping. There were restrooms nearby but we didn't check them out since we are self-contained.
Whatever these city's reasons for building these parks are, we like these small parks and are always glad to find one along our route when it's time to stop for the night.
TTYL,
Linda
No comments
No trackbacks:
You will need to enable javascript to generate a trackback link
