Smidt Campground

The park is a new campground in a rural town of ~500. It's located on their old school campus, which was actually a great idea. The campground is mainly a large open grassy field (used to be the football field), there are a few playgrounds, and a new bathhouse/laundry room. The owner, Bill, is super nice and accommodating.

A few notes that I wish we knew before going:
- Verizon service is really poor. Not enough service for our hotspot to function or our phones to use data (only calls/texts). Our neighbors had AT&T and seemed to be in much better shape.
- There wasn't wifi when we stayed there, but they were installing it during our last week.
- There is a small gym inside the old school building. Membership is $30/mo for a couple. It has all you need for a good workout and isn't crowded at all. They have wifi at the gym, which we were able to reach from our trailer. You sign up for the gym at the TSB bank.
- The tornado shelter is also in the old school building. They do warning siren tests on Tuesday mornings at 10am. Don't panic like I did!
- There is a small market in town (they have great fried chicken on Tuesdays!), but the closest standard grocery store is located about 20 miles away in Algona. The closest big stores (Target, Walmart, etc) are an hour away in Mason City. The closest propane fill was at Bomgaars in Forest City (they just charge a flat rate for your size tank, around $25 for our 30#), and the cheapest propane fill was at Tractor Supply in Mason City (they charge a lower, per gallon rate, around $17 for our 30#).
- The campground isn't a registered address with USPS. You can get FedEx and UPS deliveries here, but you may need to call if you're ordering something online (we had to call Chewy and Amazon to manually put address in). If you get mail via USPS, the Titonka post office will hold your mail for you. They're only open a few hours a day.
- We were there in the early spring (beginning of March) for work. This is the only RV park in the area that is open through the winter. Most parks in the area open April 15 or later. This alone made this park five stars! We are so grateful to Bill and his team for welcoming us during the off season (and during the COVID-19 pandemic). Water at the sites was shut off until around April 1st because of freezing temps. Bill provided a 500 ft hose so that we could fill our tanks from the bathhouse, where there was a protected spigot that remained on. If you're there in winter, maybe ask for a spot so that your front door faces South. Our front door faced the entrance (North) which is where the wind comes from! Our front door was frozen shut because of freezing rain/wind on two occasions. The other side of our trailer was completely ice free.

Overall this campground is a really safe, affordable option if you're working in the area. Everyone in town is extremely nice. There isn't much around from a tourism perspective, and it seems that almost everyone at the campground was there for work (mostly wind turbines... it is very windy/flat there). Monthly price was $500, electricity included unless you use a ridiculous amount.