In prior years, our eastward migration kept us on Interstate 40 until we hit Nashville. This year we departed from our normal routine by cutting across Texas to head southeasterly instead. Stop #4 on Road Trip 2019 was Sanger/Denton North KOA Journey.
Along the way, I was happy to see the world famous Texas bluebonnets. Tessie and I took a walk at a rest stop near Chillicothe, Texas, to get up close and personal. She was dutifully impressed…by something nearby.
Following the directions on our GPS, we wound up passing up the campground. I saw it, but I didn’t register that it was the right place because the signage didn’t seem right. I think they must be transitioning from a private campground to a KOA franchise.
So we wound up taking a small detour and getting turned around, by taking a series of left turns after taking an exit off the freeway. There was no parking lot in sight for us to turn around our beast of a truck and our 35-foot fifth wheel.
Lesson learned: do not rely solely on the RV GPS. Check, double-check, and triple-check using Google Maps and other resources. When you book a KOA site, they even send you an email with directions. Of course, having received that confirmation in February, I had it filed away by the time we were arriving in Sanger. Sigh…
The office was closed when we arrived on April 21, 2019, which we thought was unusual. It was a Sunday, so maybe that was why. Nonetheless, the campground map with our name and our site number was taped to the door. It was easy to find our site and get set up.
Our site was a reasonable size, and large enough for us to walk the dogs. They are pretty small, after all.
The campground was pretty quiet for our two-day stay here, although it’s on the larger side at 168 sites. We did have two different neighbors for each night we were there in the spot that is empty here, but everyone kept to themselves. Poor Dean has no one to socialize with!
This section of the park is paved with concrete, although there is another section for extended-stay residents that has only gravel roads and gravel pads. Again, we saw people around here and there, but there wasn’t much interaction. The RVs here appear either to belong to full-time residents who shutter up for the night or weekenders who bug out during the week.
We walked around the park and found a small pond on the opposite end. I didn’t have a way to take a picture at the time. Everything was pretty soggy from the storms that were flooding the Midwest. Fortunately, we didn’t have to drive through or set up during any storms.
One of the unusual aspects of this KOA is its shared space with an RV dealership. In fact, they were in the midst of building a larger one while we were there. Furthermore, they are a Grand Design dealer, so we took advantage of the opportunity to peruse a few floor plans. It’s an addiction, I tell you. We never get tired of it, although we already know what we’re getting next!
I was busy finishing off a work project, so we never investigated sightseeing or dining options in the area. I did notice there was a winery relatively nearby, but sadly they were not open during our stay. So we had to make do with cooking our own dinner, using some seasoning that my lovely daughter had given us for Christmas. This dinner might have been the first time we grilled something on this road trip as it had been too windy every other place we stayed so far!
Would we stay here again? I’m not sure. A lot depends on whether we’d be passing through this area again and what other choices we might have. At the time, it was easy just to pick out KOAs along our route and book online. It was certainly an acceptable campground for a short stay.
We continued our trek from here to Lufkin KOA Journey in Southeast Texas.
