Ballyhoo Family Campground

After getting a little tired on our cross country adventure decided to call it a night after getting gas. Started calling sites in area on Campendium and no one would answer after 5pm… accept for Doris. She was helpful and accommodating and welcomed us in the foggy darkness. After a friendly chat in their general store/registration, her husband escorted us out to the site, helped me back in our 30 ft cruise America rental in the darkness like an airport runway director, showed us all of our hookup set up and wished us a happy new year should we have to leave without saying goodbye. I wished him a better year next year and his response was priceless…” every year is a good year for me. I make it that way. It’s a mindset.” I wish I caught his name so that I could thank him for the best well wishes I’ve gotten for a new year. Thank you Doris and TBD… look us whenever you’re in the Bronx - especially if “running from the law.”

After reading other glowing reviews of Ballyhoo I was really expecting a much better experience than we had. One plus is that they did give us a military discount.

We had a pull through site and the first thing we found out is that we couldn't get level.

For the most part, the place was very quiet with the exception of one owner who tied their dog to the horseshoe post in the area next to our RV one early morning. It barked and barked at its owner until it finally pooped (not in the designated poop area for dogs). I realize this isn't Ballyhoo's fault but it did detract from the overall experience.

The office/store was a complete mess with no organization and stuff piled everywhere. No way would I purchase anything there.

When I went to do laundry at 1pm, the door was locked so I went to the office. The lady was on a personal phone call and reluctantly hung up. She gave me a code to try to unlock the laundry door. It didn't work. When I told her that, she said, "Well, you have to wait for it." I just responded, "Well, it didn't work." and stared at her until she got up. She tried the code and it didn't work for her, either. Then she tried a different code and it worked. The whole interaction was a "don't bother me" attitude. The laundry room was clean enough and the washer and dryer worked great. The magazines in the waiting area were all about 5-10 years old. The coin machine stole my dollar so I went back to the office and the lady did give me my money back, but never did put a sign on the machine stating it was out of order.

Now for the WIfi - it was non-existent while we were there and we even have a booster. When we told the lady about it, she made some excuse that the whole town was down. Well, we knew this wasn't true b/c we were getting Wifi in different areas of Crossville, AND we had come to Ballyhoo from another campground in Crossville where the Wifi was fine.

That's when I realized the issue with this place was a "don't care" attitude, or maybe just laziness and/or depression on the part of the owner. It was evident in that the pool was closed in the middle of summer, the office/store was a pigsty, there was no effort made to warn others of the non working coin machine in the laundry room, and now the non-existent Wifi.

I really, really wanted to give this place a better review, but I just cannot. I think this campground was probably great in it's heyday, and could be again with a little effort and TLC.