Another first: Alamogordo/White Sands KOA

We finally stayed at a commerical campground enroute to Arizona. Until a couple weeks ago, we'd avoided spending the Big Bucks that a KOA or similar facility costs compared with public campgrounds or a Walmart parking lot. Although I don't think it's actually cheapness that kept us away from the commercial campgrounds. I'd like to believe it was more an appreciation of the public lands, like state parks and Corps of Engineers campgrounds.

In any case, we knew that we'd have to stop somewhere around Alamogordo, New Mexico, so I consulted the Good Sam guide. It's not the most recent edition, but I figure it'll be a couple years yet before it's so out of date we need to invest in a new one. It mentioned several places that had the Good Sam stamp of approval, including a KOA

The S.O. taking a photo of my taking a photo of him taking a photo of me taking a photo of him taking a photo of me taking a photo. . . Fortunately, he was shooting into the sun. End result was a lot of glare. I, on the other hand, had the sun behind me.

We weren't aiming specifically for the KOA that's pretty much right in Alamogordo, right off the highway and, according to the Good Sam guide, walking distance to a Walmart Super Center, but that's where we wound up. When we pulled in, I was a little worried that they were full -- they were close to  it-- but they had a good pull-through (which is what most of their spaces are) available. Full hook-ups at a pretty reasonable rate. It was actually a lot cheaper than I thought it would be. We didn't bother to hook up the sewer when we were only going to be there for one night, but did enjoy the water and electricity.

The showerhouse doors had combination locks, which struck me as a real good feature when the campground is right in town. The code is included on the campground map you get when you check in. Lexington Pines does the same thing: if you want to use the toilets, showers, exercise room, or laundry room, you need to know a combination to get into the building.

As for my impressions of the place, I liked it. Each RV site had a little privacy wall to serve as both a windbreak and to provide a little bit of distance from the neighbors. There was a concrete patio with a picnic table and a typical park-type grill on a pipe. The spaces weren't real big, but the landscaping was mature (real trees) and the place was definitely well-maintained. The sites are sufficiently level that we didn't feel the need to do any adjustments. If we'd planned to be there for more than one night, we probably would have put down the step stablizers, but I don't think we'd have bothered with the jack stands. If for some reason we end up going through Alamogordo again, I could see staying there for a few nights.  

This KOA includes a number of tent camping sites as well as two camping cabins. Those sites have fire rings, although I have a real hard time picturing anyone tent camping right in town and still wanting to do a campfrie. As for the camping cabins. . . they looked a lot like the ones many state parks have, about the size of a storage shed and minimal amenities. You know, bring your own sleeping bag and if you're lucky the bunks have mattresses.

I am happy we invested in that Good Sam guide in 2014. We passed some remarkably sketchy looking RV parks in New Mexico. It was really nice to have a guide that let us know there were better ones a few miles down the road. No desperation camping.