glenn.hall.526

Awesome spot literally feet from the Missouri River. When we arrived it hadn't rained in awhile. All the roads were dry and cracked(hint, this is a clue). We pulled our 5th wheel up next to the river on a patch of grass that looked doable enough. We knew a storm was due to come through but figured the dirt road should still be passable as long as it didn't do a full day of rain. This was only supposed to be a quick rain as the front came through.

After the rain stopped we had one of those big specialized overland RV with the big mud tires on it go slip sliding down our access road, ooopps. So long story short check my pics and head my warning. Do not stay here if it's going to rain unless you can find one of the access roads that is more gravel than mud. When any amount of water hits the mud it turns into instant gumbo.

Past all that it really is an awesome place and we met some really cool campers of all ages there. Highly recommend.

This is a tough one. The park staff/owners(I'm guessing) are super helpful and friendly. Had nothing but good encounters with them. The park itself is very well maintained, great green space out front for walking the dogs. This brings me to a negative, no fenced in dog park. We have two big silver labs and a little dog which didn't have a place to get off leash in the park. Thankfully there is a nice dog park about 2.5 miles away. The second thing is, not one doggy drop box anywhere. There are a lot of dogs here but you have to make a run to the dumpster with your doggy bags.

Our site #125 was on the end of a loop with not a lot of grass. When it rained it got muddy and our maps ended up under water partially. There's plenty of train noise day and night, I guess we got used to it but add to that the road noise and it gets to be a bit much over 10 days or so that we were there. Most of the sites are pretty tight so don't go expecting a lot of room. Our 35' 5th wheel took the entire pad up so I had to park the truck behind it which left it open to close calls with folks leaving the loop with their RV's.

The park is within 30 minutes of downtown and our Uber ride each way was around $35 dollars even in the late evening coming back that was a plus. It's only 17 minutes to The Grand Old Opry. We did take in a show and had a great time. To be honest downtown/Broadway has changed since I was here last, 10 years ago. It's more like Orlando full of tourists, $16 dollar cocktails, $54 dollar parking. Found a $8 dollar garage and almost got the truck stuck, we gave up and left. 20 minute waits to get into the bars. IDK just wasn't the fun time I expected from my last visit. If your going I'd say go during the week and skip the weekend crowd. Oh and the other thing, Nashville traffic is just as bad as Orlando. I'll pass. Even around Goodlettsville it's heavy.

Work From Home Factor:
Had good overall 5G cell service as you can see below but did have some low upload speeds which killed my wife's Teams communications, Starlink ended up being what we used for her and I was able to work pretty well off the cell service. Not sure what happened to the low upload speeds as it was intermittent. Could have been deprioritized at the tower. Startlink saved the day here for working from the RV. The Starlink speeds were like 300 Mbps down and 90 Mbps up.

191.4602 89.05705
124.7605 16.09144
446.7621 83.16672
114.1806 6.433752
17.02387 5.526344
418.94 25.87392
483.8974 74.46684
370.5107 71.71737
4.956968 0.797312
77.93677 1.131936
162.8787 0.02432
200.5589 0.064784

So to sum up the RV park. I'd stay again as the other close to downtown options are not as desirable as this one. Once again the owners/staff were extremely friendly and helpful.

Over 880 acre's of golf cart trails along the Suwanee river. We have camped here over the last 10+ years and it's become our favorite,due largely to the fact that we can let our dogs out in the 80 acre park and run around as well as taking them down to the river and retrieve bumpers. The golf cart trails are also a favorite, you can ride for an hour before hitting the same trail again and we have even now found new areas to ride.

Cell service has been good in the last few years for T-Mobile. You can get 5g and 5UC connect at times. We have worked from our sites using the phone as a hot spot although your better served to use a booster. We use 2xMIMO antennas on a Harbor Freight 20 ft flag pole attached to the ladder on our 5th wheel. Off the dual antenna leads we run into a MOFI 4500. We get 30 Mbps down and 10 Mbps up give or take. More than enough to run MS Teams on our two laptops all day without issue.

Golf cart rental $55 a day, personal golf cart fee is $30 per stay unless there is a festival then it starts at $400 and goes up to $800 depending on the festival. You will need to provide valid proof of insurance before the will let you in with you golf cart. They also have a few golf cart charging stations sprinkled around. You really need a golf cart to fully enjoy the property so bring one or rent one, ahead of arrival (they might be sold out if it's a popular weekend).

The sites are pretty good overall but like anywhere you need to know the site numbers you want. Some are quite big and others, not so much. As for noise it's a weekend place which can be a bit noisy. We have never had a real issue with it. During the week it's pretty quite and typically fairly empty but come Thursday they weekend warriors start pulling in. I'd say that's pretty typical of anywhere though.

There is a main beach area with white sand and slow current which is the main go to but you can find other smaller beach areas up and down the property. Make sure to check the river level at Suwanee Springs online to get an idea of the flood level. 60 ft. is flood and it seems like over 53 ft or so they tend to close the river to access. So if your going and counting on getting to the river it can be an issue. You wouldn't want to be in it with it that high anyway due to the danger.

Called in to make a spur of the moment overnight reservation as website doesn't offer bookings, easy experience though. They take Good Sam and military for discounts but not PA.

The sites are separated by hedges and are level concrete with grass surrounding. My site had a small BBQ grill which looks to be the norm. Each site is well lit with lighting on the power pole and out by the street. When I arrived there were lady's enjoying the pool, not sure if it's heated but even with out warm spell should have been cooler this time of year.

Most of the sites seem to be setup for pull troughs which was nice as I was only staying one night. There is a lake on property which buffers I-95. Traffic noise inside the RV was minimal, kind of like white noise so it was of little concern.

Cell service on T-Mobile was 5G UC with 5 bars. With the proximity to the interstate I would expect all the major carriers to have good service. They offer Wifi but clearly state that you are not to stream or they will throttle your service so I used my hot spot to stream Netflix.

We selected Space Coast due to it's proximity to a bio-luminescence kayaking trip we've been wanting to do. The park is only 15 minutes from the kayak launch so that was perfect. The location is right of I-95 so it's convenient.

Now the backing into your spot can be almost impossible with a 35 ft. 5th wheel. we lucked out and the site next to us didn't have anyone home at the time but I still had my bumper about 6 inches from a parked SUV across the street from us while backing in. This was by far the tightest RV park I've experienced. For the most part you park your truck/car parallel with the street in front of your RV. There isn't any other place to park really. This coupled with a very narrow road makes for a real parking challenge and I know how to back my rig up.

We worked from our RV during the week and used T-Mobile which had a few drop outs but was manageable. Had to use the lower bands and sacrifice speed to get something usable/stable. Even though the tower was only about 2 miles from us we had to use our 2xMIMO antenna on a 20 ft flag pole to maintain a stable signal.

We settled on Band 12 with 4.17 Mbps down and 3.71 up for work and other streaming. Not ideal but doable and no issue with MS Teams with both of us working.

Here's the info on the tower:
Bands: 2, 12,66,71
Cell Tower: 70232-11
Direction: SW

The park has dog areas but they aren't fenced in so your always on leash. I will say all the sites and common areas had really nice St. Augustine grass and were very well maintained. Didn't use the pool but it looked very nice. There are a large majority of full timer's there.

The sites are mostly limestone rock with concrete patio areas and grass. Our had a picnic table. Just not a lot of space per site.

Stayed here for 7 days. We were working from the RV for a portion of that time. Cell service on T-Mobile was poor (1 -2 Mbps) without the directional antenna attached to our MoFI 4500. With the directional antenna we could get 16 Mbps down and 5/8 Mbps up (Band B26). We did notice that from time to time we would loose signal all together but wasn't bad overall. My cell phone would connect at 5UC on some occasions but most of the time it was on a much slower link. My 4G rating is based on my cell phone only and assuming you don't have a directional antenna. I would recommend having one if your going to work from the RV at this location.

As mentioned backing in can be a bit of a trick due to the trees which are across from the sites. We didn't have much of an issue but my bumper did come close when backing in with our 37 ft. 5th wheel. Our site didn't have much tree cover so the afternoons were a bit hot as our awing was facing into the afternoon sun.

Office staff was friendly and helpful, facilities seemed well taken care of. Visited the pool which looked to be in great shape. Dog park was nice and shaded and had enough room to let our two labs run. Didn't get to drop the kayak in at the small boat/kayak ramp but it looked like it would get you out to manatee river with no issue. The TT sites are of course by the highway but we didn't really have an issue with the noise.

There's a Wal-Mart, Home Depot, etc near by so most of the items your likely to need are within 1-2 miles. We had a really nice lunch at Woody's Roo on the river, grouper was cooked perfect and a good portion. All in all we would stay here again.

We live in Jacksonville and have taken our new RV here twice as we break it in. The park is right off of the Jacksonville beltway and an on ramp so you will hear road noise. Inside the RV we haven't really noticed any issue with noise.

Cell service should be good 5G on all the major carriers since it's right on the beltway. We were able to work from the RV on our T-Mobile service without problem.

They have a pretty good cafe, currently only serving takeout due to COVID. They have stopped letting day trippers in as the park recently saw an increase in COVID. I'd say they are taking the right precautions. The cafe when it's open for guests will have a Karaoke on either Friday or Saturday evening which I was looking forward to on this trip having seen it on our last visit a few weeks back, No Bueno! cafe not taking guests.

The grounds are clean and they rent various water craft. We took our dogs and had no issues. They must be on leash. We did play fetch with our water toys with them and no one said anything but I believe they have a rule against it.

There are quite a few full timers that live there as you will see riding around the park. I'd say if your visiting that it's not a bad place to stay however it's a bit pricey. Our close by go to is Suwanee River Music Park which has 880 acres with golf cart trails throughout the woods and edge of the river. Flamingo is basically in Jacksonville so there is that advantage depending on what your looking to do.

I read mad dogs review about the noise and out of the two times we have stayed there, over the weekend we haven't had any issue with noise after 10 pm which is there quite time. I'm sure it happens but we haven't seen it yet.

I read the negative reviews but we just didn't have any of those issues. No electrical issues on our site, no issue with payment but then I paid in person, not a big fan of drop boxes just for the reasons the reviewer listed but hey sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

You can spend 14 days on the water and then do 21 days off the water if your looking to stay longer. I would really consider coming back and staying a month here during the summer to escape the Florida heat. The park staff was friendly and helpful. We didn't use the facilities other than the dump station as the sites don't have sewer. There are a good supply of Canadian geese and if your familiar with them they leave a trail of geese poo in their wake so watch your step.

The interstate is super busy (I-24) pretty much 24x7 so there is that noise but to me it wasn't an issue at all. There's also the road near the campground that gets a bit busy but not bad. Overall I really enjoyed staying here and would have like to stay longer. The views over the water are great and there's some fishing to be had from the bank. The guy next to me put a line out each night and said he almost always would hook up with a nice size blue cat.

Work from home factor:
Well running our WiFix Pro 5G cell router didn't require an external antenna since the highway was right there. We have very fast T-Mobile speeds like 300 Mbps down and 40 Mbps up. So working from the RV was not an issue at all. Starlink would have been fine as well, not much tree cover around our site.

Cloudland Canyon State Park:
The reason we ended up in Marion was that Cloudland cancelled our reservation two weeks from arrival for scheduled maintenance to the West loop. Really? That didn't just sneak up on them. Anyway we visited the park which is only like 20 minutes away. Did a little hiking and took some pics. Also within 20 minutes is Racoon Mountain, worth a dive if you have time, great views overlooking Chattanooga. We hit the Whisky distillery there and took the tour and tasting. Good stuff.

Enjoyed our stay there but with a fair amount of rain and 3 dogs it was muddy around the RV. There are other sites that have better drainage. Sites around #19 are better and have less tree coverage if you want to attempt to use Starlink. We didn't even try, our 5G cell router worked well enough for the one work day we stayed.

It's a short drive to Providence Canyon State Park which was why we were there. I believe else mentioned the pump that runs, it's just annoying with a high pitch and it's closer to the low number sites as you enter the campground area.

Here are my speed tests results over the course of one day using our WiFix Pro 5G cell router using the builtin antennas, no external running over T-Mobile:
Down / Up
34.634 2.765112
37.767 3.190176
51.08 3.310016
33.895 4.272792
67.416 2.792336

Really like the park. All the sites are very well maintained with open spaces close by to walk the dogs. Sites are not on top of each other so there's plenty of room. Some sites have more trees than others but all in all you should be able to run Starlink on most sites.

Premiere sites vs regular:
Premiere sites appear to all have 50 amp full hookup with new concrete pads and new pick-nick tables. The regular sites are rock and can be a bit challenging to level out on. I read a review that said they used all their level blocks and I can tell that the review was right. The park is on a rolling hill and the premiere sites are more level than the cheaper sites but your still likely to need blocks.

Starlink is working well for us here and I haven't tried setting up our 5G router/modem but I've got 4 bars on TMO, I know that doesn't really mean much but there's a good strong signal anyway. Starlink is a bit more sluggish here than other stops, not sure why but it's still plenty fine for working from the RV like we both do.

Laundry facility is nice, I especially liked the fact that the washer and dryer can be paid for using the app rather than messing with coins. You still need to bring your own soap to wash your hands. There are two working washers and two working dryers as of this posting. I read about them being broken at one point. Didn't use the restroom so I can't comment on that.

All in all a realy nice park, bit on the pricey side but still very nice. There is no water access from the park to the lake so you'll need to take the car down to it. Also saw that there is a dog park at the lake. There isn't a designated dog are here.