No Croom on Thanksgiving afterall >:(

[kt-rides2]

So I called Croom before I headed up there today to get my spot early for Thanksgiving next week.
People booked it up last week! They had to pay for 14 days of camping in order to be there for Thanksgiving! The campground is sold out!

I am SO dissapointed, I have been looking forward to this for months :(
There system really sux! There is probably no one there right now except empty tents :mad:

The only other place I know to camp and ride is Ocala, and they don't have hook-ups for the RV.

Grrrr!! My parents and sister were even going to come out to Crooms on TG day!

[TRXasaurus]

man i hate to hear this...that sucks, i know you were looking forward to it.

go to ocala...big scrub has open reservations online still

im going sunday/monday to Lake Delancey West to camp and ride. no hook ups there though. hopefully i get a spot, no reservations there.

[kt-rides2]

Thanks, I just checked Big Scrub, they have spots available. Our generator is acting up, I'll have to see if Jay could fix it. They don't have hook ups.
Lake Delancy is nice, we camped there before.

[ray916]

there is a camp grounds right near croom i went friday night to croom to camp and they were full so the ranger told me about it ..so we went there its about 8 min away have a lake a river it has power and water for rv.s its called silver lake .its real clean and quiet .i am going thursday to drop off my rv there . i drove into croom last night and yes there is tons of just tents .so i drove into silver lakes and there was alot of spots left .if you need info you can call me .727-235-5068 . it sorta sucks packing up and going to ride but hey better than nothing

ray

[kt-rides2]

When I spoke to Crooms, they said there were 3 spots left at Silver Lake this morning, you might want to drop it tonight.

I'll talk to hubby and see if that will work, we'll have to make two trips when its time to come home, we only have a hitch on the truck and we would have to tow the tow hauler and the bike trailer. hmmmm

[ray916]

went to silver lakes tonight there is 3 campgrounds in there 2 with rv hook ups .the first one had about 7 spots left and the 2nd one had about 13 left .so if you plan on going there some spots left my ranger friend said that they will fill up this weekend . the 2nd campground is a lot nicer than the first .that is where i sent up camp tonight with a tent .so if you make it out there im in camp 17 there was a few around that spot also .

[Rangeral]

Sorry guys but this time of year things get just a bit crazy at Croom. We have tried for years to find a fair and equitable system for getting people into the campground and the present system, although not perfect, is the best we can do. It used to be strictly "first come first served" but so many disputes and even fist fights erupted we had to go with what we have now.

But take heart. Besides renovating out present campground, which is underway now, there are plans in place to build another campground up by Sandhill Day Use which will have 50 more sites. Don't hold your breath though. Things move slowly when the government is involved and I imagine it will be a few years before all is done.

The best alternative is the three campgrounds at Silver Lake but keep in mind that they fill up almost as fast as the Motorcycle Area campground does, and you have to tote your bikes/atv's back and forth.

Hope this helps your understanding of the situation and remember, Croom is the only place where the Park Ranger will take your picture and send it to you for free!!:eek:

http://rangeral.smugmug.com/photos/128302338-M.jpg

[kt-rides2]

Thanks Rangeral. Its just frustrataing :(. I wish they could put a reservation system in place, it works great in the state parks.

Since we couldn't ride in the dirt next weekend we decided to take the street bikes to the track, we'll have a good time afterall!

We'll try for Crooms again on another weekend soon, any suggestions??

[Rangeral]

we are getting into our busy season and vacancies in the campground don't last very long. for 'normal' weekends (not holidays) I would suggest coming up on Wednesday or Thursday and grab a site. to do so you need to "occupy and pay for the site in advance". interpretation- put up a tent or park your camper and pay for the site from the day you arrive until the day you plan to leave.
For holidays I would suggest doing the same but come at least a week ahead of time! :eek:
I know, this can get expensive but sometimes you have to pay extra to get what you want! :( (Rates are $15.00 per night)

As for a reservation system there has been much talk of that over the years but as of right now it isn't going to happen any time soon! :mad: Sorry.

http://rangeral.smugmug.com/photos/134815567-M.jpg