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musicman
06-07-2006, 06:06 PM
We're planning a trip to Chicago in August, and were thinking about staying at the Windy City Campground south of Chi. It seems to be rated fine.... 7 & 8.5 in TL Directory. The last time we went up, we stayed in Marengo - real nice campground, but getting there from Cinci. O added an hour - hour & a half to the trip up, & the commute in to the city seemed rather long - and hour on the Metra or the x-way. Windy City looks to be considerably closer. Is anyone familiar with this CG?:rolleyes:
Musicman

sinjin
06-08-2006, 09:49 AM
No personal experience, but I've read several bad reviews of the Windy City campground:

http://www.rvparkreviews.com/regions/Illinois/Tinley_Park.html

We're going to stay in Emerald Trails campground in Crete, Il. next week for a couple of days, then up to the state park in Zion Il for a couple of days. My brother has camped at ET in the past and says it's very nice, I just don't know that I trust his judgement:p I'll try to send pictures or a review when we get back, (if I remember, DOH!).

BTW, Crete is a southeast suburb, with access to trains to the city fairly close by.

sinjin
06-22-2006, 07:20 PM
OK;

Here's my review of Emerald Trails (never done one before so bear with me):

The site is about 5 miles off highway 394 (good highway access). It is really quite and shady, lots of trees. A small lake with a spooky brown color. Bathroom/showers are clean but dated. Management is kind of goofy. English is definately the second or possibly third language spoken here, even though the owner said they'd owned for "twenty years, since the 60's":confused: Only cash is accepted, no credit cards.

We were there on a Monday and Tuesday night. At least half the sites were occupied by full-timers, a few that stayed thru the week, but most appeared to be week-enders. The sites were very close together and management seemed to want everyone to stay one right next to the other. We were allowed to go one site down from the last parked full-timer although the lady in charge wanted us to butt up right behind him (basically window to window) for some reason. At least 20 empty campsites were adjacent to where we were assigned (more on this later).

My brother, sister-in-law, 4 kidlings ( 2 girlies 11 and 1 boy and 1 girl 13) and my mom visited on Tuesday afternoon/night to check out our new camper. We played no music, the kids played campy type games at only our site and we chatted/ laughed around the campfire. Numerous complaints were supposedly registered about the noise from our campsite and our guests were told to leave by sunset. Wow! Talk about no Aloha.

On Wed. morning as we were eating breakfast outside a guy came to mow the lawn. We were the only people out and about in the campground. He proceded to mow past us then down the line (of 20 empty campsites). This led us to believe that he would mow the other sites first, since they were empty, but nooooooo he circled back around and came closer and closer to our picnic table. We finally picked up our food and went to the other side of our trailer, and he proceeded to follow us and mow closer and closer shooting gravel in our direction.:new_Eyecr

Overall impression: Although the campground has nice features, I got the impression that transient campers were not welcome.

$28.00 for water and electric. If you want to have a fire you have to buy the wood from them for $5 a wheel-barrow (a good bit of wood and a good deal).

Drove by Windy City, it is right on I-80. It appears there really is no good choice for camping near Chicago. Maybe Indiana Dunes State Park?

AgilityDogs
06-22-2006, 08:41 PM
I am originally from the Chicago area. You may want to check out Paul Wolff campground.

http://www.co.kane.il.us/Forest/fp/burnidge_paulwolff.htm

It is part of the Kane County Forest Preserve district. This gets you back on the Northwest side of Chicago but this little campground is worth it. I spent 4 nights there on my shake down trip in my 1999 2619 this last May. It's quiet and they have large grassy sites, lots of trails, and a couple ponds for fishing and a dump. This campground is in Elgin, IL and very conveniently located near Randall Rd and I-90. Metra station is minutes away on Big Timber road. I was there before Memorial Day and paid $12.00/night for electric and water hookups. If you are looking for a nice bath house this isn't the place for you. They do have 3 extremely nice pit toilets but no shower facilities. :)

sinjin
06-23-2006, 07:07 AM
English is definately the second or possibly third language spoken here, even though the owner said they'd owned for "twenty years, since the 60's"

I should really preview. On re-read that's really snarky, especially from someone who only speaks one language.:( The owner/manager was pretty nice, just really hard to understand. In retrospect it was the residents who complained and the lawn-mower man that turned us off to this campground. Only two of the sites close to us (both across the road and a couple of sites down) were occupied, both by older couples. None of them even said hello. And just to clarify: the kids and sister-in-law were only there for two hours, mainly to eat dinner. My 79 year old Mom and 50 year old brother stayed for the afternoon. We were not a wild group of partyers.

Bill
06-23-2006, 07:53 AM
We make the trip from Maine to Arizona and back every year. Sometimes our route takes us past Chicago on the Toll Road (which is a horrible experience in itself). Somehow the schedule always seems to work out that we need to spend a night in that area. We have stayed in a LOT of campgrounds in the south-of-Chicago area, and we have NEVER found one that we would consider going back to. If there is one, I sure would like to hear about it. In particular, there is a Jellystone Park somewhere between Chicago and Gary that is just terrible - avoid at all costs.

This year, we were sufficiently discouraged with the prospect that, after crossing South Dakota on I-90 and heading toward Chicago, we actually went a couple hundred miles out of our way to pick up I-74 through Indianapolis, and avoid the whole Chicago-Gary-Portage thing.

This is not meant to be a slam. Finding a good campground in any urban-industrial area is tough. I'm sure that running a campground in a heavily-populated urban-industrial area is tough, too. Since we go through there on a regular basis, I really would like to find one that isn't muddy/scary/buggy/loud/right beside the highway/overrun by kids on motorcycles/etc. If you know of one that is good, PLEASE post it here. I'm desperate!

Bill

Lloyd51
07-13-2006, 01:06 PM
We have stayed here on several occasions . We really like this camp ground, it is right on lake michigan. Only problem some people have is that they only have electric with no water hookups. There are several water pumps near the camp sites so you can fill up thru those. What I like best is that when you get there you can pick any site you want that is not a reserved site. I usually pick a site that is right next to the lake. Cost is $20.00 a night for electric sites. Bathrooms are clean but dated. Metra station to chicago is about 5 to 10 min away.This campground is about 40 miles straight north of chicago in Zion Illinois.

musicman
08-20-2006, 09:06 AM
We finally chose to stay at the Chicago Northwest KOA off of I-90, just outside of Union & Marengo Ill. It was a good choice!:D Nice, clean, attractive campground, very friendly & helpful staff, fairly reasonable cost. Full hookup sites are a bit narrow, but usable. 20 minutes to Metra station, then 1 hour 15 minutes into Chicago - or an hour & 15 minute drive into Chi. if you have decent traffic on I-90. The campground is very close to the Illinois Railway Museum - a must-see if you're into that kind of stuff!!!:) A very enjoyable experience, & we will definitely go back! ;)

rickst29
08-20-2006, 04:55 PM
Maybe park the TM somewhere around the (now mostly demolished) Robert Taylor Homes neighborhood?

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: (I'm making a really scary joke, of course)