This RV Campout happened between April 3-6, 2025. It was sponsored by
and was co-hosted by Bob/Sharon Walters and Walter/Kathy Dassler.
Thursday, April 3, 2024– We arrived at Camp Cardinal around 2:30 PM. We got checked in and an employee led us by golf cart to site 55. We were looking forward to getting this site because it was close to one of the five bath houses in this campground. Remember this fact. When the golf cart driver guided us to our site we were horrified. Between site 55 and the bathhouse were massive holes in the ground. The smell of sewage permiated the area. The electric, water and sewer hookups were behind the yellow tape that had condoned off the area.
Julie was furious. She drove back to the office and demanded another site. The guy in the golf cart came back and directed us to site B1. The site looked decent so we accepted it. We were upset that they even placed us on the first site but they made it right so we were happy. This site was a “buddy site” It was meant for two RV’s to park close together and share the water, electric and sewer hookups. In this case the water and sewer hookups were shared while the electric did have two power pedistals.
So we proceeded to get set up and afterards, I went to checkout the bath house next to where we were camping. Even though we do have a toilet built into our Class C RV, we prefer to use the campground bath houses for “#2”. The reason is that it doesn’t stink up the toilet and the RV. When I went to check out the bath house there was dirt and mud all over the floor of the various rest rooms. And the toilets looked like they had not been cleaned at all this year. I was afraid that my pants would get all muddy if I had to sit on the throne and take a #2.
Anyway, we went to the store to get some groceries for the next few days and grilled some hamburgers on our “Tool Box Grill”. Julie also placed pastrami and cheese on these burgers, which made them very good. We then proceeded to one of our fellow camper’s sites and had a nice campfire.
Friday, April 4, 2025– We came to this campground on a Thursday instead of a Friday because there was less traffic. We mostly chilled today. There will be 10 rigs at this campout. They are all members of The Potomac Dogwoods, as are we. This campground borders Willet’s Creek, which is part of the Severn River. We walked out to “The Point” to see the creek. It was very scenic. We rested, ate, went to an ice cream shop within the campground called River Mutt and had cold brew coffee milkshakes. I had one with caramel crunch ice cream. Julie had one with chocolate ice cream. They were good.
Back to the bathroom situation at this campground. They have about 188 sites. This includes cabins and cottages. And they have 5 restrooms/bath houses in this campground. Three of them were locked because it was technically off season still. However, the two restrooms that were open: the restroom next to our original site and one at “The Point” were both very dirty. Dirt and mud on the floor, toilets that had a yellow bowl, the sinks as well as the toilets looked atrocious.
I have been RV’ing for about 14 years now and have visited over 125 campgrounds in 5 different states. And these bathrooms were the worst that I have ever seen. I went to the office and spoke to the manager. I told him that the two restrooms that I visited both needed deep cleaning. He said that he would send someone to look at it. I went back the next day and, while they filled in the big hole next tp the original site that we had, the bathrooms did not appear to have been cleaned at all. Again, we had a campfire at one of our fellow camper’s site.
Saturday, April 5, 2025– This was the day of the annual Daffodil Festival in neighboring Gloucester, VA. The town proclaims itself as the Daffodil capital of the world. And a good number of the townspeople work within this festival in various capacities. There were over 600 vendors at this festival. They had a parade and there were a number of food vendors set up there. We had a nice time. That night we had a communal dinner at one of the other campers site and again had a campfire. We contributed grapes and chips to this dinner.
Sunday, April 6, 2025– We had a communal breakfast and then started the journey home at around 10:30 AM. We got home around 2:15 PM. I took I95->US1->US17 to get to this campground. 95 was stressful as usual. But 17 was great to drive on. The food that my fellow campers prepared for our group dinner and breakfast were both very good. We got 49 OTA TV channels. Verizon had 2-3 bars and AT&T had 1-2 bars. Now, this campground has had at least two owners and three different names in the last 10 years. And, in my opinion, the quality of services offered have been going down hill in the last 5 years. We have stayed here three times in the past. I don’t like doing this but, because of the sewage issues and the dirty bathrooms, I will have to give this campground only one star this time.
Mike C
★
By Julie Rominger
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