koa.

As a kid, we typically RV'd in a caravan with another family or two. We often traveled up and down the west coast of the US and Canada with one other family. We were a family of 5, they were a family of 4 and their son (Toby) was the same age as my older sister, their daughter (Trina) was a few years older still. Trina was the perfect specimen of a teenage girl in the 80's - sunny blonde hair that feathered perfectly, thin, popular, with great clothes and makeup. Toby was the perfect specimen of a boy who grew up in the country, equally blonde, perfect hair, confident, popular, football player. We were much less blonde, less thin, less perfect and less popular, but we all got along well, ran wild together, and had many memorable adventures during our early-ish years.

Our dads always took on the motorhome driving duties, communicating by CB using their handles (Bug Man, Muckraker) for stops for gas, sightseeing opportunities, or just to stretch their legs for a few minute and shoot the... you know. Us kids would switch back and forth between motorhomes, whittling away our time playing games at the dinette: Cards, Yahtzee, Monopoly, Sorry, always trying to keep the pieces from sliding off the game board and ruining the game. We would look out the windows, watch the scenery go by, do our best to stave off sheer boredom. We would talk, listen to whatever music we could get when local radio stations would come in, and later listen to tapes on the battery operated boom box.

We all had one goal: to talk our parents into staying at a KOA.

Why? Because they had a pool.

Never mind that we had pools at our houses. We grew up in the central valley of California where summers are an endless procession of 100* plus days. Their pool was a beautiful built in, with diving board and separate hot tub overlooking their land. Ours was a "dough boy" pool mostly buried into the ground of our small-ish backyard in town. Regardless, the KOA pool was the goal. We would keep an eye out for the billboards for upcoming campgrounds, always trying to spot the KOA. When we'd see that big yellow billboard we would all get excited and start the process of convincing the parents, listing the reasons it made sense to stop.

The signs would continue to go by, 50 miles to go! 30 miles, 15 miles, 5 miles. We'd beg. And then! We would drive right past the exit. Every time. We would be shattered. Every time. Always proceeding to the State Park campground or wherever the destination was for that day.

Sometimes we have childhood memories we question if they are really as we remember them as we get older (or at least I do). A number of years ago we threw our parents a 40th anniversary party and all of us who traveled together as kids reconvened as adults. It had been years since we had been together in one place. We were all now well into adulthood, but we reminisced about those long drives and amazing memories of camping together in our childhoods; running around completely unsupervised, getting very lost on a trip over sand dunes to the beach in Oregon, picking up lizards by the tail only to have them fall off, snipe hunting by flashlight in the dark, freaky nights in a tent when we were probably too young to be out there on our own, fishing from the lakefront. Someone mentioned the longing for the KOA campgrounds and we all excitedly remembered those days of watching that yellow sign come into view, and then eventually go right by. We laughed and laughed at the hope we had, and the crestfallen feeling of knowing it wasn't happening again this trip.

There were a few times we did stay at one, I think probably because it was at the right place in our road trip and made sense to stop there, but they didn't plan around a stay at a KOA.

As adults, we now look for KOA's with good amenities when we search for campgrounds (particularly KOA Holidays) and they are often part of our destination, rather than a stop along the way somewhere. We tend use our RV a little differently than our parents did; the campground for us is as much a part of the journey as the ultimate destination. Staying in our RV is usually our reason for getting out; we can set up camp for a few days, relax, walk, explore, float in a lazy river, BBQ, enjoy time together. There is no house to clean, no lawn to mow, no tv going in the background, no obligations to keep. Our kids don't always love it, but I know as adults they will appreciate this time as I do; it isn't often our family stops, sits around a camp table or campfire, rents a canoe to float around in a lake, or enjoys idle time together to just chat.

Our boys are older teens and their camping trip days are fewer and further between. Our youngest still looks for kids to hang out with at the campground. My hope with Camping with Friends is that we can find another family or two that we can meet up with and get to know, and create our own caravan, let our kids run free, find a lizard or two.

I probably won't let her play "light as a feather, stiff as a board" with her friends as we did as kids, but that's another story for another post.

And yes, it absolutely worked sometimes. I swear!

Camp socially! Check out a KOA Holiday.

Link: KOA Holiday Campgrounds, Basecamp for adventure | KOA

Absolute Favorite KOA Holidays:

Silt (Glenwood Springs), Colorado https://koa.com/campgrounds/colorado-river/

Wichita Falls, Texas https://koa.com/campgrounds/burkburnett/

*Note: not all KOA Holidays are created equal, so check comments and amenities.