CAMPGROUND REVIEW Holly Shores Campground
It just sounded too good to be true for the boys and for myself. I imagined firetrucks parading around the campground while the boys looked on in wonder--while Steph and I sampled some tasty "Nitro wings." But our weekend at Holly Shores did not work out exactly as planned.
We quickly found ourselves longing for Seashore up the road. Holly Shores was clean, and pretty--but, compared to Seashore, their camping sites were small and they were filled with gravel. Stephanie kept pointing out how noisy the gravel was and how she felt like she was camping in a driveway--and the gravel wasnt the only thing making noise.
When I booked the site I explained that I wanted to be in the quietest part of the campground. The friendly receptionist promised that she had just the spot all the way in the back of their property. She said that a very quiet bathroom was right next door but was hidden by brush so it wouldnt be an eyesore.
Ironically, our corner of this very large campground was the noisiest part of the park on Friday night. The receptionist forgot to mention that the community fire pit was right on the other side of the bathhouse. And dont forget, it was "Firefighter and Nitro Wing Festival Weekend." Every firefighter loves a good community fire and it sounded like the entire firefighters convention was tipping back some coldies about 25 feet away from our site. Luckily, the boys only woke up once. I was more irritated by the slightly sauced woman who wondered over to our site at about 11:00 looking for a hose to extinguish their fire. There actually was a hose running from our water hook up to the general direction of their fire. After I heard this woman rustling around the side of our site for 2 or 3 minutes, she shouted, "I knew it was over here somewhere!" The little bit of campfire mojo I had built up in the last hour or two quickly vanished into the night. As the party ended next door, the bathroom (which was not covered by brush, and certainly was an eyesore) began to echo with noisy flushes. Why they needed to borrow our hose to put out the fire was a bit of a mystery to me...
Thankfully the gods of recreation provided us with a truly lovely Saturday morning of bike riding with our boys (see the last post). We ended up having a great day, but in town, not at the campground.
Saturday evening at Holly Shores was quieter and we spent some time in their lovely pool complex despite the drizzle and rain. There was a nice sense of comfort and community at Holly Shores, and I am sure that it is a lovely place for seasonal campers. However, if you head up the road to Seashore Campsites you can have a huge, wooded site, without noisy gravel. Just be prepared to make your own Nitro Wings.
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