Finagling our way south (HH/BW Challenge Series)
We are challenging ourselves to stay at ONLY Harvest Hosts/Boondockers Welcome locations for 4 weeks. On one hand, it's an exciting prospect!
On the other hand, we didn't realize how all-consuming this would be. It seemed like every free minute we had, we were either planning our stays, mapping out our drives, or taking notes for the blog. Thankfully, as our first week came to a close, we started getting into a routine. We learned how to better manage our time and our stress, and all our memorable experiences certainly boosted our positive feelings about this challenge. We couldn't believe how much was jam-packed into just a week. I did morning yoga at a vineyard. We fed alpacas, donkeys, and goats. We traveled back to Medieval times! One week felt like a year.
Even with all the fun stays, something was eating away at us. We really wanted to go to Garden of the Gods in southern Illinois. We had never been down that way before, and timing and the weather both looked to be on our side. We just had no place to stay, thanks to our only viable option declining our stay request. We even contemplated "taking a break" from our challenge to book a campground for a bit, but campgrounds were few and far between, too! Our best bet would be to stay near Crab Orchard Lake – there is actually a campground right on the lake that looks lovely – and take a trip to Garden of the Gods one of the days. When we stay a while in one area, we can afford the hour drive. Not so much if we're only staying somewhere for a night.
But we couldn't give up this challenge for a bunch of rocks (sorry, Garden of the Gods!) and we knew that we could always take a trip there some other time.
Nom nom nom.
That's the idea still eating away at us, if that wasn't clear. I thought, if we could just get one more night at a place, maybe we could swing it. I kept eyeing a winery just north of Crab Orchard Lake. I must have read the listing 3 times. It looked so beautiful and elegant, and the food looked delicious. Suddenly, my desire to go to this winery was almost as high as my desire to go to the lake and Garden of the Gods! Instead of requesting a stay online, they asked to email them directly. I figured, if I was going to email them anyway, perhaps I could politely ask if we could stay an extra night, pretty please??? Especially if we were arriving on a day they were closed, so then we could patronize them on the second day. I shot them an email and got a quick response from Sonya, the office manager. She was so nice. She said that we could stay whether the winery was open or not, but of course they'd love to have us visit during open hours. She also said 2 nights was fine. After a few back-and-forths, we decided on a stay from Wednesday 5/1 to Friday 5/3.
I had successfully finagled an extra night out of a 1-night-max stay, and this plan was looking really, really good. We could stay somewhere nearby Tuesday night, arrive early enough on Wednesday to unhitch and go to Garden of the Gods, and then be back in time for our evening meetings at 6PM. On Thursday, we could venture down to Crab Orchard Lake after work, and then have dinner at the winery.
Now the only question was, what place nearby made sense for Tuesday night? As you've seen, it's slim pickings in that neck of the woods. There is one place, however, that is the definition of "nearby." Walker's Bluff Casino Resort. Located in Walker's Bluff, only a mile away from the winery, aptly named Walker's Bluff Winery. The area is basically one big village.
We put in a stay request at the casino and waited for a response. The request pended into infinity.
The last time this happened, we ended up cancelling the request and looking elsewhere, with the reason of, "If they can't so much as respond to their requests, then we don't want to deal with that kind of communication." This situation was a little different, though. We weren't talking about a small, family-owned business. We were talking about a giant casino. It's possible they let RVs stay overnight whether they're members of Harvest Hosts or not, and so they probably don't bother checking requests. Not ideal, but this time, not a dealbreaker.
This is a new casino; it only opened in August 2023. A Google reviewer mentioned that they parked their RV, but it didn't say anything about overnight. Other websites, including their own, didn't mentioning anything about it either. Casinocamper.com doesn't list it. We assume it's probably because of its newness, but we didn't want to risk driving all the way down there for them to tell us we can't stay.
Harvest Hosts strictly stated to not call or message about availability if our request is pending. But, because this was the main casino number, we figured we could just call as RVers and ask about overnight parking. We tried this, but we got stuck in the branches of their phone tree. We thought, because it was a Sunday, that maybe we would have better luck on a Monday. We did. The woman told us we were welcome to park our RV and stay overnight. Finagle #2 was a success, and we finally had our destinations planned out for our weekdays. We left our Boondockers Welcome on Tuesday 4/30 and drove 2.5 hours south.
Walker's Bluff Casino Resort, Carterville, IL
Walker's Bluff Casino only has a few reviews on Harvest Hosts (probably because they don't accept requests!), and they couldn't be more different. One person complained about the noise, while another said it was nice and quiet. We had no idea what we were getting ourselves into, but as we pulled in and drove to the far side of the parking lot, we found the perfect spot to spend the night.
What a great surprise to have a little water view right off our pleasure side, and across the pond we could see the edge of the vineyard. We saw ducks, geese, and blackbirds. The parking lot was mostly empty, so we had high hopes that the only noise we'd hear that night would be the splashing of the fountains.
Facing that direction, you'd never be able to tell that we were at a casino. Then, turn around, and whoa! Giant building!
The side closest to us was the resort, and we could see the pool and patio. The temperature got up to 80°F that day, and boy did that pool look inviting! We were able to sneak out to the patio when we explored the casino and no one stopped us, but we think they'd have some issues if we suddenly stripped down to our swimmies and dove in.
As for the casino area, it's small but state-of-the-art. Lots of descriptions on the internet mentioned it as a "Vegas-style" casino, which, upon a quick Google search, yields no conclusive definition. It seems like the style could be referring to having an attached resort, or possibly to the gaming, which includes machines, tables, and betting. Either way, this casino did not scream "Vegas." It was...classier...than Vegas. Or more subdued might be a better way to put it.
We could tell that the place was new. The overall design was modern but still with a touch of timelessness. Also very un-Vegas-like was the demarcation between games and the rest of the lobby. You can't get anywhere in Vegas without shuffling through hundreds of neon addictions. Here, the area is guarded by two workers, a velvet rope, and a metal detector.
The rewards desk was immediately to the right when we walked in, and across from it was a cafe. The rest of the right side of the building housed all things resort: The hotel desk and elevators, the spa, the business center, the gym, and halls leading to both the indoor and outdoor pools.
Straight ahead from the entrance were two restaurants, the more casual and the fine dining. Then in the back were event rooms.
It was small but impressive. We've been to some really dodgy casinos in our day, and this one was immaculate. If we lived down this way, we would absolutely use this resort as a mini-vacation, especially knowing what else is in the area, like the winery and Crab Orchard Lake – both of which we couldn't wait to visit. Walker's Bluff is a development, so of course it's manufactured, but they do a great job adding natural elements to the aesthetic.
Honestly, even in our RV travels, we would consider splurging on a hotel room to have some added comfort and take advantage of all the amenities. At the time of writing this, room prices start at $114/night. That's less than some RV parks we've stayed at! The hotel is at least dog-friendly for an added fee; we didn't inquire about other types of pets.
After getting some work done, we went inside to grab some snacks from the cafe. We got to talking with Jolee, who was manning the counter. When we mentioned that we were staying in our RV overnight, she began telling us all the things we could do on the premises, and she mentioned the pool. "Oh, we thought the pool was only for hotel guests," we responded. After we got our stuff, she walked us over to the hotel desk and asked if we could get passes for the pool. $20 each, but we were sold before we even knew the price!
They don't advertise the pool as "public" because it's not really, and we aren't sure if they're still feeling out how they want to operate, but as customers staying on resort property, we were so glad they had an option for us. It was exactly what we needed.
As for the night? Well, it was loud, but not in the way that reviewer talked about. We just got a little more nature than we expected!
We've never had such a peaceful casino night before! We both slept great, lulled into a snooze by the pondside ambience. We were really vibing with Walker's Bluff and were ready to continue our good times over at the winery.
We were greeted by another hot day. This meant we'd need to run our air conditioning and needed to top off our batteries. Before we left the casino, we went to start the generator, and the power wouldn't switch over. We've had this problem twice before: Once on our maiden voyage, which turned out to be an easy fix after a not-so-easy quest for supplies, and once when the rig became a victim of ground current. Well, we didn't have any lightning strikes the night before, so we immediately tried cleaning the contacts to see if any dust or debris was causing problems.
Even after multiple cleanings, the transfer switch relay would not engage to allow generator power into the rig. We had noticed that the transfer switch was making more noise the past couple of times we started the generator – almost like a rattling or grinding sound. We kept saying we'd take a closer look but hadn't gotten around to it yet. What if the rattling was due to the buttons not pressing into the contacts properly? What if this caused a total failure of the contact? We didn't know if this was something fixable or if it could have been caught sooner. All we knew was, if we couldn't power the rig with our generator, we would have a tough time dry camping at all our Harvest Hosts. We didn't have our full solar capacity, and many of the upcoming days would be rainy anyway. Those rainy days were also looking to be hot, and that means we'd need to use even more power to keep the rig cool. We were starting to feel like this challenge was a pattern of "one step forward, two steps back," and now we weren't sure if we'd be able to move forward at all.
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