We left our home in Chiefland, Florida, on our way to Maine to visit the kids, via Baltimore for a week’s mission work with our church back home. We have stayed in military parks all the way so far.
Our first stop was Eagle Hammock, at King’s Bay Submarine Base in Kingsland, Ga. This has not been our first visit there and as always it has been super clean, the laundry room is spotless and FREE but the wifi there needs to be improved. We asked for a site by the rec center so we could pick the wifi up easily. Not to worry, they said, reception is good throughout the park. Not so. We were four spaces from the rec center and could not get wifi to come in. Another camper there was having the same problem. Other than that our stay there was extremely enjoyable and we WILL return.
Shaw Air Force Base, Sumter, SC.
While this camp is only $20 a night, the wifi they said they had in the rec center did not work at all. We did find a Lowe’s four miles off base that had excellent wifi. And there is a Walmart right next door. Their wifi was not as good. The sites at Shaw are small, there are not many, 20 I believe, but as a stop over it is a great place to go. There is a small (one washer one dryer) laundry in the rec center. We were only there for two nights and we enjoyed services at the local chapel on Sunday morning.
Fort Bragg Travel Camp, Fayetteville, NC
The two mile road in has been paved, hallelujah! Last time it was dirt and it was raining and was it ever a mess. Campground has not changed much since we were last there, but they have added a few waterside sites and as always it is another great place for a quick stop over. Huge base not far from the campground but we found it totally confusing traffic wise. No wifi but they are hoping to get it. There is supposed to be wifi in the food court on base but we did not find out if it worked.
We are now at Champ’s Camp at Fort AP Hill. We were told to pick a site and hook up. After driving for five hours with two cats and a dog we got our fifth wheel all parked, and set up and when we went to turn the water on, there was none. Since these sites share water, there was none at the next site either. We had to hook up to our neighbor three sites over with our hose running across the empty lot next door. It would have been nice if they had either told us at the office that the water was out at these two sites, or better yet put a cone up with a sign.IF so wWe would not have set up completely to find no water. We will have to admit that today upon reporting it at the office, when we returned from town, we had water. When we were here last there was wifi in the rec hall. Now there is none, but the office said they are trying to get it. The laundry/rec center/shower house is spotless as it has been in the past and laundry is $1.00 a load. I spent the morning cutting out patterns while waiting for my laundry and must say was quite pleased with all the room to spread out. The base itself is a training base so it goes from having thousands here at once to having a crew of about 25 on the whole base. Lots of open spaces, deer and ground hogs. Many little ponds and lots of roads to nowhere!! They do have a lake with cabins to rent. We have used this park as a stop over countless times in our travels. Price is $13 a night with Golden Access.
One thing I must say. I know many people now have the smart phones (we still have the dumb version) and contraptions that can send emails, etc from anywhere. But many of us don’t. If McDonalds can have a wifi in every restaurant, why can’t these campgrounds have decent wifi service. We usually have to drive 3-10 miles to find a wifi, depending on where we are. It would be nice to have that small convenience. I write a blog of our travels and would love not having to travel so far to send it out to a bunch of elderly folks who cannot travel and so enjoy hearing about our adventures and seeing pictures of places they will never get to go. We notice that every base has a beautiful golf course, couldn’t we get decent wifi??
Hope this has been helpful to you. We plan to head out on the 20th to Fort Meade, Md where we will stay a week while doing mission work in Baltimore, and we also plan to camp at Westover ANG base in Springfield, Ma. and Hanscom Air Field campground in Bedford, Ma. before getting to Holden Maine, our final destination where we meet up with our two children and five grandchildren.
We prefer to camp at military bases, as we like meeting with other military both active duty and retired. We enjoy the security of the campground and we enjoy the price. Our main complaint is the wifi. In this modern age, we hope that sooner rather than later this problem can be solved.
Sincerely,
Stan and Cheri Collins, Retired Navy
