OASIS CAMPGROUND, AMARILLO, TX-CAMP 6

I wrote quite a bit about the Oasis campground in 2009. Obviously some prices have changed, but it is still as well maintained as it was back then.  In fact they had just done some refinishing on the asphalt drives just before we arrived.

Basically it is a big parking lot with wide flat parking spaces and little to no shade.  But the staff is friendly and helpful, the pool is great, has a good playground for the younger travelers, sparkling clean bathrooms that are 4 per building (there are numerous buildings) with the laundry attached.  The laundry is reasonably priced at $1 to wash and $1 to dry with both units running long enough to thoroughly wash and dry your loads on a single dollar.

The only drawback of course was the fact that it was a flat concrete and asphalt parking lot. It was over 100 degrees when we were there and the winds were so strong all the time no one put their awnings out.

Nature did step in and really cool us off one afternoon with a pretty huge storm that came through.  At one point the camper really rocked, but all was good and the running water after the storm disappeared quickly.

We did get permission and one day were the breeze was slightly lower so Gary could fly the quadcopter and take videos of the campground. You can view the video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrcIisWnyrw 

The rate for full hook-ups including wi-fi and cable tv was $35 a night, $150 a week or I think it was $375 for a month, but I am not certain of the monthly rate.  Call to verify if you are headed there.  This campground is open year round. 

Located right off the I-40 highway almost next to the CadillacRanch it is easy on and easy off to go to the campground.  While there is a fuel station just a couple of blocks from the campground they tend to be a little high so we chose to go to the Sam’s Club that was around 5 miles from the campground and save almost $.30 a gallon on diesel. 

Our original plan had been to stay one week at the Oasis seeing the CadillacRanch, Jack Sisemore’s RV Museum, the Amarillo Botanical Garden, and Palo Duro Canyon then to move on to another location to enjoy the sites.

While we never actually got out of our truck and walked out to the cars at the Cadillac Ranch, we did drive by it constantly because it was so close to the campground.  We have been up to the cars in the past and I have previously blogged about them so it wasn’t as if we were missing anything.

The other three locations we did visit and I blogged about each one individually because each was interesting in its own right.  You can read about those by clicking on the hyperlinks in blue on this blog. All were low priced to do or free, and within a short driving distance.

We ended up staying 8 days because Murphy, of Murphy’s Law, seemed to think it was a good time to play tricks on us. 

First he kept the right turn signal from working on the trailer.  We spent a huge amount of time on our departure day working on that to learn that the trailer turn signal was a different fuse on the truck than the one the truck turn signal is on.  Once we determined that the fuse was blown that was a quick fix (so we thought) and we hit the road.

Or at least that was the idea as we pulled out.  Roughly 20 minutes later the tire minder screamed at us just as we were getting on the main expressway to take us back into Oklahoma.  The valve stem on the driver’s side outside rear dually tire on the truck had broken.

Normally Gary would have just changed the tire himself, but it was already 98 degrees on the side of the highway.  I called AAA.  The fellow to change the flat was there in about 30 minutes.  I will say this is the first time that the AAA representative showed up in just a car rather than a tow truck.  Luckily Gary already had our tire changing equipment out and was lowering the spare when he arrived.

He verified our AAA membership had rv coverage before he even started.  Even though the now totally flat tire was on the truck the fact the fifth wheel was attached to the back of the truck would have prevented AAA from paying off had we not had the RV policy, unless we detached the rv from the truck.  Which we do have the rv plus policy. So be aware that you must have an rv policy to get AAA to provide the proper coverage while traveling.   He changed the flat quickly and we were off to find a valve stem.

Because our tires had been purchased at Sam’s Club, albeit the Florida one, using our Oklahoma membership there was no charge for the valve stem replacement in Texas and the job was done quickly. Once again we put what they can metal valve stems on the tires to help cut down valve stem breakage due to the after market addition of the tire minders. The valve stems weren't the brass ones we truly needed ones, but they had some metal in them.

However, by then it was around three in the afternoon, which is the time we usually try to be in our next campground by, so we went the five miles back up the road to the Oasis and back into our exact same spot paying the nightly rate for one more night, rather than getting into Woodward, OK after dark.

Since we had done only the very basic of set-up for the single night stay we left early the next day and other than the turn signal fuse being blown again we had no other problems.

The turn signal fuse was to become a great mystery that finally got solved when we returned to Oklahoma for various appointments. More on this later.  Jan who wishes we could just continue to travel rather than bopping back to Oklahoma every few weeks but thankful to be healthy in and away from OK

Oasis Campground, Amarillo, Texas

September 25, 2009-October 1, 2009


When Gary told me he had found a campground that included all of the following for $15-$20 per night I figured it had to be a dump, but agreed to check it out. I mean what would you think if you saw that rate and the following was included?:

Full Hook-ups, including cable tv

Free Wi-Fi

Free Laundry

Swimming Pool

Adults only Spa

Spotless Showers

Clean Restrooms

RV Wash Allowed

Propane On-site

Pull thru sites

Storm Shelters and much, much more

Well guess what we were in AWE when we pulled in. The place is gorgeous!!! And it got better. Our pick-up and 30 ft fifth wheel were in the $17 per night bracket, but it got better. Pay for 2 nights, get the third free!!! So our bill for 3 nights was $34.

None of it was a lie it was all absolutely gorgeous.  The bathrooms are individual rooms with the shower and toilet in a private room.  Very nice.

The laundry rooms (there is more than one on the campground) contain stacked units totalling four washer and dryer pairs in each laundry room. I never had to wait for a unit.

There has to be a catch or a bad side right? Well the cable isn’t perfect. I can live with a little snow on a few channels though. The Wi-fi is slow, faster than dial up, but not a lot. And if you are looking for shade you will not find it. It’s basically a big level parking lot with oasis’ of nice landscaping at each site.

The place is beautiful and very well maintained. Oh and in case you are interested. They do Work Kampers here! For those of you that don’t know what a Work Kamper is, it’s basically a job that pays your camping fees while here. You do maintenance or whatever for a few hours a week (20 hours here) and the week of camping is paid for.

Basically what the owner said they needed immediately were people who were willing to work four hours a day five days a week for a week worth of free camping. The job for that was washing RV’s (the campground charges $50 to have the work Kampers wash your camper—you can do it for free yourself though). Other jobs for similar fees were also available. They prefer a commitment of a month or more for most of the jobs. The RV washing was for temporary visitors.

A wind storm hit shortly after we set camp on our extremely level site and the trailer really rocked. Just about the time we were thinking fondly of the storm shelters the wind stopped and a beautiful sunset appeared. We were glad we were where we were at.

The following day was Saturday and there were no shops scheduled so we decided to go exploring. Our travels took us to the Palo Duro Canyon. It’s Texas’ version of the Grand Canyon and was made well known by Larry McMurtry’s “Lonesome Dove” series. This is where the real Charlie Goodnight had his enormous ranch.

For numerous reasons we did not drive down into the canyon, but I did walk around the rim near a housing addition and took numerous photos of the sheer beauty of it. They allow horseback riding in the canyon and there are horse motels in and around the Amarillo area, if that is of interest to you. One is not far from the Oasis campground.

We also visited the Cadillac Ranch on Route 66.  It is a modern art form created by "The Ant Ranch" (Chip Lord, Hudson Marquez and Doug Michels) in 1974 from finned Cadillacs (model years 1949-1963) that are buried half in the dirt, nose end first at an angle corresponding to that of the Great Pyramid of Gyza in Egypt. It is located near Amarillo, Texas.  It was less than five miles from our campground.

Despite the signs up that say it now belongs to the State of Texas and spray painting or tagging the cars is illegal it goes on constantly.  My photo to the left will probably not match the current colors and designs on the cars now.  The smell of spray paint filled the air while we were there.  There is a small parking area and a walk through gate that allows you to go right up to the cars.  They are a unique icon on the old Route 66.

Over our time there we did various small shops, including some window shopping on our own while. We’d planned on going into the Texas AM West library, but they had almost doubled their entry fee from what was posted in the AAA book and being tightwads that were also very short on time that day we decided to not visit it that week.

Mainly in our off hours we stayed around the campground taking advantage of doing our laundry for free. We of course had to supply our own laundry supplies, which we had brought from home.

The gift shop has a very limited supply of minor camp supplies and of course they were a wee bit high. Hey, they’ve got to make money somewhere right?

They offer a bar-b-q dinner they serve nightly for a fee. We never did try it but many of the other campers did and reported back that it was very good.

We walked down to the pool at one point, it was small, extremely clean with no overwhelming chlorine smells. The spa was closed, but there was a sign up that stated if we wanted to use the facilities to contact the main desk and arrangements would be made.

We stayed there for six days. We had originally planned on staying two weeks, but the major shops we had scheduled for then were suddenly pulled from availability at the last minute. We thought about going to Albuquerque but found out in time that the Balloon festival was going on and that traffic would be at a standstill and streets blocked by the police to control traffic. After much discussion we decided to opt for home and the multitude of shops that had suddenly popped up there.

Because we had already prepaid we took some time off and simply rested. It was really nice to do so. Sleeping late, listening to Dave Ramsey, reading and doing some much needed cleaning and upkeep on the camper.

I read several magazines from a large stash at home, then left them in the laundry room for others to read and pass on. It brought a smile to my face to see one camper after another “borrow” them and then return them for the next camper.

Three things were truly lacking at this parking lot campground: Shade, playground equipment and picnic tables.

The time of year we were there the lack of shade was not a problem. They have planted several trees, but it will be a while before they can be considered shade trees.

If you are like us and eat a lot of your meals at a campground picnic table, you better pack your own because there was not a single one in this enormous campground.

Perhaps it was because we were there during the school year that we only saw one child the entire time we were there. Or it could be because it is a campground that is strictly for campers of all types. There are no tent sites.

We were both sad and anxious to be heading home for an unknown amount of time. We love traveling, but were missing our son and all the fur and feathered babies.

The day we packed up we had a small “furry” visitor. His picture is to the left along with some photos of the campground.

On the way home we traveled I-40 and once again marveled at the white giants flailing their arms to produce electricity in Weatherford, OK. The windmills are much more impressive traveling east to west than west to east because you can see them all in a line on the hilltop. We first saw them last November on our way to a seminar in Las Vegas, Nevada. We were mesmerized when we first saw them.

It was a long drive home and uneventful, thankfully. Home again, home again—wait I’ve already used that title.

I know that the minute we can we will hit the road again, but in the meantime I’ll be adding frugal recipes, household hints and of course animal tails until we once again hit the road. Please stay tuned we plan on to keep “Seeing the USA, the Mystery Shopping Way”

Jan who is typing this the end of October and is getting cabin fever bad in OK