Thousand Trails

In 2015 we joined the Thousand Trails RV travel club. They boast all these wonderful resorts across the country that you can visit for a year after purchasing the membership. So now that we have joined  the club, we will be visiting these "resorts" in the southeast and northeast zones. The southeast basically is from Oklahoma/Texas all the way to the east coast from Florida up to Pennsylvania, and the northeast zone goes on up to Maine.
We recently stopped in Pipe Creek, TX for some paint repair and that put us very close to Lake Medina which is part of the Thousand Trails Texas resorts. We drove to Lake Medina to check it out for a later visit and were we very disappointed. First of all, the road to the park is very small, windy, and rough with many low hanging tree limbs. The area is not nice at all. Our 40' motorhome would have been a challenge but we would have made it as long as we didn't meet any oncoming larger RVs or trucks. The brochure shows Lake Medina as a pretty lake with boats and mountains in the background but this is what we found.
Here is the boat ramp to the lake, but where's the water? Locals told us the lake has been dry for 5 years.

Next we looked at the RV sites and what we found were a bunch of sites that have been neglected. Most sites were not level and had overgrown grass and weeds and had low hanging tree limbs that will damage your rig. If we would have driven the motorhome there, I would have been very upset.

They also have a "historic" building on the property that they are neglecting and it is rotting away. We would not ever return there at it's present condition, they would really have to clean the place up. Once you get there, there is nothing to do except swim in the pool.

Our next stop was Natchez Trace Campground in Hohenwald, TN. First of all you have to get to the park on narrow winding roads, then navigate around the 11 ft. bridge. Once you arrive at the park the check in was easy with very friendly staff at the office. Staff and management were very nice. Then it gets worse with the rough and very hilly roads that are in desperate need of repair. This picture does not do it justice, but my first words were "oh hell no!" when I saw this very steep grade. We had to disconnect our car before attempting the steep climb.

We made it to our site, number 314B and this is what we found. Broken concrete patios, rotten wood picnic tables, and only 30 amp hookups. I believe the electricity had issues, we could not run an air conditioner and have the hot water heater on without tripping a breaker. It was terribly hot and the one a/c unit struggled to keep the coach comfortable. No over the air tv service, no wifi and Verizon phone service was not available. My at&t was spotty,it would work occasionally. We would NOT ever return here.

The lake and the beach looked pretty nice, but when we wanted to rent a kayak they told us all boats were gone for the day.

In general, it was a run down neglected park in a pretty area by the Natchez Trace Parkway.

 The Diamond Caverns Thousand Trails Campground in Park City, KY was our next stop. This park is also an Encore Park. We stayed here using our Encore membership since Kentucky is not in our zone we purchased. This is a nice park that we would return to again. The staff was friendly and helpful and the park is well maintained. 50 amp service, and full hookups made it nice. The pool, fitness center and the spa area was nice and we enjoyed our 6 day stay.

Site A10 with 50 amps, water, and sewer and trees behind us was very nice. We enjoyed our stay here and would return. Lots to see and do in the area, you are only 20 miles or so from Bowling Green.

Thousand Trails - Pio Pico, California

We had made reservations with Thousand Trails at Pio Pico for 25th-28th so packed up and went about 30 miles or so east through some pretty country side to get to a pit of an RV camp! We were greeted by a salesman who told us to pick any empty site we wanted but they were close together and the campground was pitiful! We told them we were not interested in staying there even 1 day, and it was free for the whole 3 nights! We came back to the Sweetwater Regional RV Park and she let us drive around to pick which site we wanted. We picked 51 which is a lot more level and plan on staying until Tuesday. Went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things and to get a new coffee pot as the other one broke on our bumpy trip. Went back into Coronado for pizza and to see the sites at night. The weather report isn’t looking too good for Tuesday – high wind warnings so plans might have to be changed.