RESERVATIONS

Recently we called Belton Lake MWR to reserve an RV site. Response; "Reservations are not accepted,first come first served." We live about four hours from the facility and would be much uncomfortable driving up to find out there are no vacancies. Why isn't it the same across the board, meaning, other Military Facilities do accept reservations. Sad!!

We have found that most Air Force Famcamps don't accept reservations; however, most pride themselves on never turning anyone away. However, I feel the same way! I would hate to be turned away on a Friday afternoon. Often, we will call in the morning of our arrival to see what the situation is.

We never make reservations, and normally stay in a area for a short visit and move on.

We've been traveling and using MCG for years, and never once have we been sent away - most facilities have over-flow for temporary overnights, or a few nights. So, when you arrive, you'll probably have some parking area, and at least the water and dump services.

Only complication would be length of stay, but if no reservations, my bet is that people stop in and leave regularly. We find if we arrive at a full MCG, we can usually get a site pretty quickly.

There are a few exceptions - in the southern warm winter states, the sites are often full for longer terms. And even those have a rotation system to accommodate most of us. A few 'abuse' the rules, but most MCGs operate with the Rv'ers in mind.

We ran into this situation a few years back. We were planning a visit to the Panama City area and wanted to stay at Tyndall AFB. No reservations is the policy. They do have an overflow area but this was our first attempt to stay at a Mil. CG and wasn't sure just how that works or what to expect. I did make a reservation at a nearby private CG so we were covered. The morning of arrival I called Tyndall family camp and was advised that they had several sites available with people leaving that day. We arrived and found a nice site. Cancelled the private site and stayed there for 5 days.

Overflow sites vary. Some very nice ( Key West Naval Sta). Others more like field parking. For a day or 2 or 3 they work fine for me. So, make your plans and see how it goes.