We said goodbye to our favorite campground yesterday. We found Blackhawk Valley Campground as a place to stay the weekend 09/30/2011 - 10/02/2011 when Ronda's dad was in the hospital. We had never heard of it prior to this weekend so we were pretty blown away when we walked around the campground for the first time, it was huge, clean and friendly!
We were on site # 105 and the campground was getting ready for their annual Halloween celebration. Why does it feel like this was so long ago? I guess because so much has changed, so many have passed since this day, all of our lives have changed a lot since then and now big changes are happening again.
After this trip we decided to make it one of our frequent weekend getaways and in 2012, towards the end of the season we decided to look into getting a permanent site and we bounced from site to site until we ended up at site # 131.
June 2nd of 2012 we stayed in site # 83 and Ronda ordered the bucket load of wood, not the milk crate so the owner, Mark Springer drove over the bucket load and I asked him who that was for and he said you. 
The picture of wood in this post is the day after I burned wood most of the night. It took the rest of the day to burn the rest of it.
The picture of wood in this post is the day after I burned wood most of the night. It took the rest of the day to burn the rest of it. I included the site that had a train track set up every year we were there, the kids loved going by there and checking it out. Today it's gone. 
On June 3rd 2012 we pulled the trigger on a permanent site and the site dance began! So site #84 it is, wait, no back to #83 and then back to #84... we were offered site #79 but that was on Packer Drive... yeah nope, couldn't do it. 
The next weekend Mark had done some work to site #129 so we moved there...
The next weekend Mark had done some work to site #129 so we moved there... The last weekend of June 2012 for 9 days I decided to vacation in the rig. It was an average of 105 to 112 that week. I used comforters to block the windows so the AC could try and keep up. The site was 30 amp so we couldn't run both AC units and some guy in a rig with 3 AC units kept blowing the power out, drove Mark crazy.
Later in the season site #85 became available, starting the next year site 145 or 86 would be available. 
Because of the size of site #86 and no neighbor on the passenger side we took it!
Because of the size of site #86 and no neighbor on the passenger side we took it! Fast forward to April 21 2013 and we are now in site #86 and suddenly I get a call from Mark saying you need to get out here. The storm is flooding the Kishwaukee river and the water is getting into the campground fast. Long story short I got there in time to get the rig moved to higher ground. For some reason moving to a different site seemed like a good idea after spending the better part of a week cleaning up after the flood.
Then site #131 became available. It was a large site but had a problem and that problem is what was keeping the premium spot open. Who ever chooses this lot has to buy the shed and deck, we talked it over and bought them and proceeded to move in and we were there from 2013 until 2023! Man how that time just flew by.
We began working in the store during the 2014 season and continued until this year. We decided at the end of 2022 we were going to try and get back onto the road so we could visit places but we also decided to work the store one more season and then give notice we would be out next year. In August we found out that the campground had been sold to a resort which worked out for us time wise but what about the rest of the folks who have been here, heck some for over 30 years?
In the end change happens, for everybody good or bad. We hope everybody finds a place that they can make memories at and for us this is a new chapter as well. We traded in the Montana for a new to us Class A and next season we will start searching for new places to visit, Spring can't get here soon enough.
We said goodbye to our favorite campground yesterday. We found Blackhawk Valley Campground as a place to stay the weekend 09/30/2011 - 10/02/2011 when Ronda's dad was in the hospital. We had never heard of it prior to this weekend so we were pretty blown away when we walked around the campground for the first time, it was huge, clean and friendly!
We were on site # 105 and the campground was getting ready for their annual Halloween celebration. Why does it feel like this was so long ago? I guess because so much has changed, so many have passed since this day, all of our lives have changed a lot since then and now big changes are happening again.
After this trip we decided to make it one of our frequent weekend getaways and in 2012, towards the end of the season we decided to look into getting a permanent site and we bounced from site to site until we ended up at site # 131.
June 2nd of 2012 we stayed in site # 83 and Ronda ordered the bucket load of wood, not the milk crate so the owner, Mark Springer drove over the bucket load and I asked him who that was for and he said you. The picture of wood in this post is the day after I burned wood most of the night. It took the rest of the day to burn the rest of it.
The picture of wood in this post is the day after I burned wood most of the night. It took the rest of the day to burn the rest of it. I included the site that had a train track set up every year we were there, the kids loved going by there and checking it out. Today it's gone.
On June 3rd 2012 we pulled the trigger on a permanent site and the site dance began! So site #84 it is, wait, no back to #83 and then back to #84... we were offered site #79 but that was on Packer Drive... yeah nope, couldn't do it. The next weekend Mark had done some work to site #129 so we moved there...
The next weekend Mark had done some work to site #129 so we moved there... The last weekend of June 2012 for 9 days I decided to vacation in the rig. It was an average of 105 to 112 that week. I used comforters to block the windows so the AC could try and keep up. The site was 30 amp so we couldn't run both AC units and some guy in a rig with 3 AC units kept blowing the power out, drove Mark crazy.
Later in the season site #85 became available, starting the next year site 145 or 86 would be available. Because of the size of site #86 and no neighbor on the passenger side we took it!
Because of the size of site #86 and no neighbor on the passenger side we took it! Fast forward to April 21 2013 and we are now in site #86 and suddenly I get a call from Mark saying you need to get out here. The storm is flooding the Kishwaukee river and the water is getting into the campground fast. Long story short I got there in time to get the rig moved to higher ground. For some reason moving to a different site seemed like a good idea after spending the better part of a week cleaning up after the flood.
Then site #131 became available. It was a large site but had a problem and that problem is what was keeping the premium spot open. Who ever chooses this lot has to buy the shed and deck, we talked it over and bought them and proceeded to move in and we were there from 2013 until 2023! Man how that time just flew by.
We began working in the store during the 2014 season and continued until this year. We decided at the end of 2022 we were going to try and get back onto the road so we could visit places but we also decided to work the store one more season and then give notice we would be out next year. In August we found out that the campground had been sold to a resort which worked out for us time wise but what about the rest of the folks who have been here, heck some for over 30 years?
In the end change happens, for everybody good or bad. We hope everybody finds a place that they can make memories at and for us this is a new chapter as well. We traded in the Montana for a new to us Class A and next season we will start searching for new places to visit, Spring can't get here soon enough.
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