SargeW
Site Team
Phoenix RV Park
Salem, OR
Salem, OR
This is an inland stop to let us thaw out a bit after a few chilly coastal RV parks. This is a nice well maintained park that is kind of ?in town? as far as location. The has 107 sites, and all of them are in pretty good shape. Most of the sites are pull through, and the back in's around the perimeter are a bit shorter than the pull through sites. There is lush well cared for grass between the sites, and the grounds crew did a good job on regular maintenance.
The RV pads are paved, as are the small concrete patios. Small is the operative word here, as there is a PVC picnic table at each site that takes up most of the patio. We usually will pull the table off to the side when possible as we like to use the patio to sit out in chairs or work out in the mornings. After our table was moved for about a day a campground worked knocked on our door one morning. He said that if we didn't need the patio table that he would take it away as they try to keep the grass clear for watering. Rather than move it every day, we let them take it. But they were nice about it.
We stayed a week at the park and got a weekly rate of $254.50, or $36.35 a night. The sites are FHU 50 amp, and all worked well. The park offered free wifi, but our T-Mobile card worked great here. The restrooms are in good condition and clean, but while they are marked handicapped accessible, I noted that the showers while large had a 4? lip on the front. There are grab bars in the shower stall, but getting over the lip with a wheel chair may be a challenge.
Most sites have a large shade tree near the end of the site, but with most of the sites the afternoon sun is on your patio side. I had rigged up a beach umbrella that I carry so we could sit outside in the afternoons without cooking in the 90 degree weather. No pool or spa here, but there was a small playground and rec room. There was also an indoor gym that had some cardio machines, treadmill (2), bike, and stair machine, but the few dumbbell free weights were about 5 pounds each. A little lite for me!
The biggest drawback to this park was it is surrounded by commercial buildings, and all of the noise that goes with it. A Safeway grocery store is on the other side of the fence, and they have a pager system with an outside speaker. Every time someone got paged, a brief tone would sound and then the person would speak. Then there were trucks coming and going, traffic in the alleys, and the trash men got a certain perverse pleasure out of dumping the large trash bins, and making sure that the metal lids banged against the bins at least 10 times each. This usually happened every other day from 6 AM to 8 AM. I guess they really loved their jobs.
All in all this is a very nice well taken care of park, reasonably priced, and centrally located. As long as you are not too noise sensitive. Like Diane. Enough said.
We did do a couple of fun things here, one was attending a PRCA rodeo in a nearby town. There is just something about rodeo that just makes me feel like a proud American. Since this was a PRCA event (Professional Rodeo Cowboys Association), the livestock was fast and tough, and so were the cowboys. We went on a Sunday, the second day of the event. It was about 3 hours long, and the events are fast, and one after the other.
And then between the fun stuff, I had to do some maintenance work that I have been putting off (because I dread doing this task). Every so often I have to replace the silicone caulk along the door rail on the shower. Not a terribly hard job, just real PITA to get the old stuff off, get the surface super clean, and then reapply. Well the putting it back on takes about 5 minutes. The taking the old stuff off is about 3+ hours. But I got it done, and it should be good for another few years, I hope. I even modified the bottom door track because the ?C? shape of the channel would hold water, then after a period of time, unless Diane cleaned it out regularly, would get mildewed. Not a happy wife job.
So I applied a ?Mcguver? fix, and cut several little slots in the bottom of the channel on the inside with a Dremmel tool. Now the channel drains after every shower, and preliminary reports from Diane is that it seems to be working well. Yaay!
Pic 1) The site at Phoenix RV park. Nicely maintained, but a bit close together.
Pic 2) Our itty bitty patio. About twice the size would have been nice.
Pic 3) Scraping with a plastic razor blade, steel blade, and Goo Off. Slow and tedious.
Pic 4) Don't scrape up the finish!
Pic 5) Cut small drains to allow the water to escape the track.
Pic 6) Then tape the edges where the silicone goes to get a nice even looking caulk line.
Pic 7) Then add silicone and remove the tape.
Pic 8) Entertaining the fans between events.
Pic 9) The "Bullfighters" set up to protect the cowboys during the bull riding event.
Pic 10) Americana!