Virginia Samboree!

We went to our First Samboree!

2013 Virginia Samboree @ Bethpage Camp-Resort!

Well I said I would right the review and have kept for getting to do it.
Since we are Good Sam Club members (we don't belong to any of the local chapters), we had a friend of ours ask if we wanted to go to the Virginia Samboree with them. So we booked the trip and went to learn what it was all about.

Virginia Good Sam Samboree

The folks from the VA Good Sam Club are a lot of fun. We meet lots of new folks and had lots of neat things to do. We did get told we were a bit young to be Good Sam Club members a few too many times (I'm 39, my wife is 36 and my son is 13). The crowd seemed to be a bit older and a lot of full timers. We loved it, there is something to be said about hanging out with folks that remember what common sense and common courtesy are all about. We absolutely loved it.

While it rained just about the whole weekend, they had a bunch of tents to cover up most of the activities and I wore my "First Timer" ribbon with pride. We didn't do as much stuff as we'd like to have, but I think it was because we were first timers and didn't quite know what was going on. I did get to breakfast twice to meet some folks and get a bagel and Tang (I don't do coffee). We also participated in the "flea market". We setup a impromptu Book Signing for my Wife's new book, and we actually sold quite a few, and had commitments to buy ebooks too.

We played some SAMGO (Bingo) and we had a new bone made for our hanging sign buy Ron from Ron's Custom Signs. He's a great guy, and his family travels with him to these events to make signs for about 16 hours a day for the weekend.

Over all, if you have never gone to a Good Sam Samboree, I would highly recommend it.

Bethpage Camp-Resort

 

What can I say about the Bethpage Camp-Resort...... hmmmmm..... Well, Let's start with the good.

Good

• The sites are huge! I mean it. Unless you are there for a holiday weekend where they double up the sites (or so I'm told) you get basically enough space for two 35-38 foot campers nose to tail, and more than likely side by side for your site. They are grass (except for the  Supersites), but they are pretty level and taken care of.
• The swim park looks awesome. We didn't get in because all it did was rain Friday and Saturday. They also have a swimming lake with a big bounce raft in the center it look like a lot of fun.
• The camp store is well stocked, the event halls are all well taken care of, and the bath houses were clean and stocked.
• They rent golf carts (more about this later) and bicycles. There is a mini golf and Ice Cream store just down the road on the property, and they offer "Rivah Cruises".
• Once you are on-site the staff is friendly and accommodating for the most part.

Bad

• We had some issues trying to get things set for my wife. We meet the folks from Bethpage @ the Richmond, VA RV show in February. They told us some things that apparently didn't get translated to the folks back at the park. We had some major issues getting a golf cart reserved for my wife (she has stage 4 OA in both knees). We were told that because she is disabled that they could reserve one (as opposed to the "first come, first serve policy"). We fought with them over the phone, email and faxes for about 6 weeks before the trip to get it taken care of. but in the end, it was resolved.
• Selective enforcement of campground rules. It seems that everywhere I go that folks feel that the rules don't apply to them. I have real issues with that. I will admit that I do speed, and on one then more occasion have done something against the rules, but I try very hard to make sure that I follow the rules as best I can. There were a lot of folks that didn't seem to give a crap, and this wasn't even on a holiday weekend. 
• Site selection. Because of the above, I would highly suggest that you avoid getting a site at either end of any of the streets. I didn't get much sleep Saturday night because of all the folks running their golf carts up and down the road with the radios going. The rules said quite hours were between 11PM and 8AM and no golf carts where to be run during that time. If I had to walk the two blocks, in the rain at 1AM to use the bath house, everyone should have too, period, end of story.

Wrap-up

Overall, we had a great time. We got to go camping @ a new site. We got to meet some neat new people and hang with some great friends. We got to sell some of Baine Kelly's books and get here some more exposure. I'm not sure that I would pay the regular cost for a site here (In Season - $75 RV Site/$85 Super site| Off Season - $45 RV Site/$55 Super site), but I might just to check out the rest of the amenities that we missed due to the weather. Plus it is in a nice area of the Virginia Northern Neck that I wouldn't mind exploring a bit more.