Fredericksburg was THE place to be for the recent total solar eclipse. The Weather Channel and Bill Nye the Science Guy were even in town for the eclipse!
Lucky us we made our reservations early. This time we chose Fredericksburg RV Park. We’ve stayed at The Vineyards just outside of town and it is a very nice park. We wanted to ride our bikes into downtown and chose not to have to ride on the main highway.
Even though we chose this park for its bike ability, we’d happily stay there again.
The park staff was very nice. They were expecting lots of extra people trying to get into the park and overrunning the grassy area out front to get a parking space and/or watching spot for the eclipse. When I checked in, the phone never stopped ringing with people looking for a campsite. Each call was nicely met with the same answer that they were fully booked.
Because of the mad crush of people the town was expecting, we were told that the entrance and exit lanes would be blocked off. We could get in or out by showing our fancy orange eclipse pass.
The park has 106 campsites and two guest houses. 100 sites are long pull-through and 6 are back-in more suitable to shorter RVs.
Each row has an RV related name and ours was Allegro Alley which fit since we have a Tiffin. We got a good chuckle out of it. The spaces are extra-long gravel with mature trees, grass in between sites and are nicely spaced. We lucked into an end space near the pond. Our truck easily fit behind us with our son’s car in front.
All sites have a concrete pad and a picnic table. The pond has a permanent deck where we saw lots of people enjoying their morning coffee and afternoon beverage. They offer free WIFI and cable. We use satellite for television and the trees didn’t get in the way of our signal.
The park also has a clubhouse, gym, laundry and shower house. A large dog run is at the rear of the park.
The two guest houses are located at the front of the park, not far from the office. The Stein Haus has two bedrooms and one bath while the Gute Nacht Haus is smaller with one bedroom and one bath.
Turns out we had many eclipse enthusiasts camping with us! There were many campsites set up with telescopes of varying sizes. Most of them had special lenses and were hooked up to a computer ready to record the second the eclipse started. We met two couples from Utah in the row next to us.
Right next door to the park you’ll find a fun food park! There are several food trucks with a variety of food choices and lots of picnic tables for dining. There was a small musical group playing while we were there. We met people staying at the park and in town while we enjoyed the music.
The clouds played havoc as the eclipse moved through the first half. The clouds parted as we approached totality. It was so very cool! The campground automatic lights came on, the birds were quiet, crickets chirped and even the frogs at the pond croaked!
We had 4 minutes, 24 seconds of totality. I think every person in the campground cheered when the first rays of light on the other side appeared. Then a thick cloud blanket moved in and our eclipse was over.
We rode our bikes into downtown. We opted for the easy ride through the neighborhood. This was why we chose to stay here.
We’ll be back, even without a total eclipse.