RV On The Road Yet?

When good camping goes bad. Tuxbury Pond in New Hampshire was a nightmare.

1. The front desk and reservation people gave no thought to reservations and seemed to not care.
2. The RV sites are poorly designed.
3. The roads in the park are so narrow and rough that a class-A motor home can’t navigate the turns without multiple backups.
4. The maintenance of Tuxbury Pond Campground is lackadaisical at best.
5. The management staff is not customer service oriented.

First off, this is my opinion based on our experiences. I will elaborate.

1.) Front Desk

I made my reservation through Thousand Trails web site but called Tuxbury Pond Campground directly before, and after, to confirm some details. We have a 40′ class A motor home and are pulling a 22′ cargo trailer. (NOTE: We have been full-time on the road for 5 years. This trailer parking thing and the size of our RV comes up every time and we deal with it and always confirm accommodations for them.) If the site cannot accommodate both on the same site, we have put the trailer in overflow storage in the past. I was assured that the full hook up spot we are going in is large enough for our motor home and possibly our trailer.

When we arrived, the young lady behind the counter admitted that this was one of her first times behind the desk, seeing her frazzled and overwhelmed with two customers, I volunteered to walk down to site L19 to look at it, prior to trying to drive the RV and trailer there.

2.) Site Design

L19 was about 30’x30′ feet (maybe 32′ long at best before it sloped down at about a 45 degree angle into the next site) with the water and sewage at one end and the electrical post about 35′-40′ away.

• The wooden post the water spigot was attached to was about a 3rd of the way into the middle of the parking site, eating up a big chunk of usable space.
• There WAS enough room for the 22′ trailer to sit next to an RV (not our 40′ one, but hey!), but the roads were so narrow that NO ONE would be able to back the trailer in. Not even with the tractor they had on property (which they never volunteered to use to help).
• Same for the RV. The road was so narrow that it would have taken an hour and a 12 point turn to get the 40′ motor home in and miss the wooden water post, if it would even fit.
• The RV cockpit would have been hanging over the slope.
• The worst part was that the electrical post was so far away, it would require I have a 40′ 50 amp electrical cord. This was the PREMIUM spot my reservation noted. Someone did not think this through at all. Evidently, this was the only one they had available at noon that day.

I walked back as the thunderstorm started.

So then the young woman at the desk suggested I walk back (past the same spot again) to look at site 35. In the pouring rain. (Our RV was parked on the narrow road by the registration desk and some woman complained that there wasn’t enough room for her delivery to get through. There was, but just barely. The front desk person just shrugged her shoulders. I offered to move if she could tell me where on the narrow road it would help.)

Before I left the office, I was told Site 35 would require me to back the RV in sideways as it was only 28′ deep. Again, electrical posts and water posts at opposite ends of the site, placed in the way of backing in. Site 31 was perfect, but someone was coming in for it and I guess moving reservations around was not an option.

I walked back in the storm. (I get they didn’t cause the storm, but they had plenty of golf carts they could have brought me out to see the sites.)

3.) Narrow Roads

Now the front desk called in the maintenance guy and he tried to follow us out to a new spot (in a golf cart). Until I got out, in the rain, to tell him to lead us as I had no idea where I was going, could barely see anything in the storm, and the roads were so narrow, I was afraid of a wrong turn or hitting a tree, sign, solar lights, or large rock.

He tried to help us back into a 30 amp spot that we could stay at for 2 days until a 50 amp opened up that would accommodate our rig. After several attempts and me telling him it wouldn’t fit with these roads, he admitted it wouldn’t work. He directed us to go around and come in from the other direction so we could try and back into the same spot from the opposite side.

The roads were so narrow and there were two large stumps so close to each other on opposite sides of the road that we couldn’t make the turn and get past them. Luckily, an annual resident with a truck offered to hook up to the trailer and bring it to the location the office had designated. Otherwise, I would still be parked there. It took us two and a half hours to PARK. Not set-up. Park. My temper and blood pressure were dangerously close to eruption.

Note: the section they put us in (despite a Premium reservation), even the office calls this section of the park “The Hood”. There is actually a sign that says “Welcome to The Hood.”

4.) Maintenance

So, we unhook the trailer and go to the spot. We back in (multiple point turns to accommodate the skinny-ass roads that I am now fully enjoying [Sniff. Smell the sarcasm.]) and when I go to set-up our RV, I see the “Full Hook Ups”. See the picture above. The water is supplied by a black rubber hose to not just our entire street but a large portion of the sites in this area. The storm has caused our site to be a giant mud [I am not sure what noun to use here]. See the other picture. If you can’t tell, the mud surrounding our RV is about 6″-8″ deep. Forget not tracking it in, I don’t want to lose a shoe to it. Again, Tuxbury Ponds did not cause the storm, but the sites are so poorly maintained that any rain turns the area and roads into a swamp. Can you say “gravel”? I’m not even asking for pavement. Something that makes me feel like I don’t need waders or a snorkel.

5.) Management Staff

That was all Friday. That afternoon, someone from the front desk called my phone to ask when we would be arriving. I am overwhelmed by their efficiency.

Saturday we ride our motorcycles to the gym and Walmart in nearby Amesbury. I get a call from the park saying that our dog is barking that the neighbors are concerned and that it is bothering them. Not completely unreasonable. Except the sites on either side of us are empty except for trees and mud. I explained that because they put us in a 30 amp site that we had to leave the windows open (not allowed to run the AC when unattended, plus 30 amps will barely do that) so that’s why they can hear the dog (Shitzu). The open windows allows the dog to hear them which makes him bark. If you had put us in a 50 amp spot (like we reserved), we could have turned on the AC, closed the windows, the dog goes to sleep, and it’s all good. To that, the front desk person (different one from yesterday) said, “So, you’re coming back right now and you won’t be going anywhere else, right?”

I rode my cycle up to the spot they intended to put us tomorrow and the guy that was in there now was packing up. Nice guy. I explained we were moving there and he said, “Great, but just to let you know, the sewage pipe is clogged and doesn’t drain properly. I’ve told the office, but…” All the while a dozen mosquitoes took chunks out of me. This may be a good time to mention that the actual Tuxbury Pond is a lily pad and grass filled swamp that breeds mosquitoes.

It gets better. But wait, how is that possible? Wait for it. I come back to the RV, tell my loving wife we are getting out of this hell hole. Between the 30 amp power (when we reserved 50 amp), the stuffy mugginess due to no AC, the dog complaints, the management’s screw-you attitude, the sewage system not working, the pot-holed, narrow roads, (no Internet due to the trees blocking Starlink, but that wasn’t their fault), the piss poor site implementation, the lack of organization, the mud pit surrounding our RV, the mis-handled reservations, and the absence of maintenance… I had enough.

So I make about a dozen calls and finally get a reservation at Bentley’s Saloon, an RV park in Maine. It cost us, but all the Thousand Trails campgrounds were full (I get it: one day advance reservation, in season). Thousand Trails should be concerned that a place like Tuxbury Pond is hurting their reputation.

5.) Management Attitude

I wait a half hour for the woman behind the desk to handle 2 customers with simple purchase transactions. I tell her we are moving out and her response is, “Okay.”

• Not “Sorry, you didn’t enjoy your stay.”
• Not “Is there anything we can do to make your stay more pleasurable so you will stay?”
• Not “Be safe.”
• Not even “Come back soon.”
• Just “Okay” and don’t the door hit you on the way out.

We will not be returning to Tuxbury Pond. We encourage you to do the same.