Over the past week I have stayed at a Love’s RV Stop in OKC, Amarillo and now Bakersfield. Of the 3, I was least impressed with the one in Bakersfield. Don’t get me wrong, it was clean and it provided me a mediocre safe place to stay overnight while traveling, but the others did it much better, and for the same amount of money.
I used the 30 amp service, which worked as expected. The water took me a minute to figure out… it was a “hydrant spout” that sent water everywhere. To bypass the hydrant simply pull the collar around the hydrant spout down. However, the spout then constantly leaks, I assume as a pressure relief. Due to the slope of the pavement, the water then runs to the sewer drain and pools. I ended up sticking a rock in the drain opening to hold it open so the pooling water would drain into the drain rather than continue to run out everywhere else. Thankfully, we did not actually use the sewer to dump our tanks.
Placement of the RV sites was my biggest issue. These are simply in the corner of the parking lot. So we basically paid $50+ to park in a parking spot overnight. Sure, I had power and water too, but this didn’t rectify the high costs in my opinion. And since these “sites” are unmonitored, we saw other people using them, clearly without reservations. Some dumping their tanks, others filling their tanks, and still yet, some folks just parking their vehicles in them.
And even though these sites are really just a parking spot right in the parking lot, it is also situated right at the loudest area… closest to the red light that everyone is stoping at and then taking off from. These sites were clearly a (poor) afterthought, but sadly they feel like they should still bring in the same costs as the premium sites at other Loves RV stops.
Saying that, the actual Loves station was very nice. 5 stars for the station!
This past week was my first experience at the Love’s RV stops, and thankfully the Bakersfield stop wasn’t my first… they are overall very convenient while traveling and it’s nice that they have power and water. And yes, checking in is a snap, but they are not all equal. The one in OKC is very nice and I was not disappointed paying the $50/night. On the other hand, the one in Bakersfield should be about $10/night max. $5 for power and $5 for water.
At least we did get a nice sunset out of the stay, however it isn’t enough that I would use this Loves RV stops again.