Rockford, Illinois

This weekend, we traveled to Rockford, IL to the Blackhawk Valley Campground for the 2004 Charter Chapter Summer TrailManor Rally. The rally went from Friday through Monday but we were only able to attend Saturday and Sunday. The weather was cooler and there was no rain! The campground was very nice and we made many new friendships at the rally. We're glad we went and we've sent in our check to attend the Fall rally in Middlebury, Indiana in September.
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Pictures of this trip
(low-resolution thumbnails - click image for high-resolution image)


Our banner hanging at the pavilion. We had our potluck dinner at the pavilion on Saturday night and Father's Day breakfast here on Sunday morning	The office has a small camp store and a large recreation center. Behind this building is a set of restrooms/showers and outside is the RV dump	So far this year, this is about the most beautiful campground we have stayed at. Plenty of mature trees give lots of shade to this row of pull-through sites. Look at all the TrailManors!

More TrailManors! I believe there were about 10 TrailManors here for the rally plus a couple of 5th wheels and an few other types	No pool here but you can swim and fish in the Kishwaukee river that flows along the south end of the campground.	We had a nice campfire Saturday night. It got really cool and unless you were next to the fire, you needed a jacket!

People continued to file in for the campfire	Yet another campfire shot. There were 4 teenage girls in the group and they made Smores for everyone. Yum!	The ladies made a nice Father's Day breakfast for the guys on Sunday morning!

Trip Out:
Time: 78 minutes (late morning on Friday)
Route: Lake St. (US-20) to I-355 north to I-90 west to US-20 west/US39 south (in Rockford, IL)
Miles: 69
Weather: Sunny and mild

Campground
Blackhawk Valley Campground is located on the south side of Rockford, just south of US-20 and just west of US-39, right on the Kishwaukee River.

Blackhawk Valley Campground offers ~130 individual RV campsites. The sites break down (approximately) as follows:

- 69 Seasonal RV (some with full-hookup and others with water/electric only)
- 39 Standard water/electric (19 of them are pull-throughs)
- 22 Monthly sites

Restroom/shower facilities: We didn't use the showers but they looked very clean. The restrooms were older but in good condition and clean as well.

We stayed in pull-through site number 63. One thing different about the daily sites here is that there is no gravel. It's all grass and actually, it was very nice. I suppose in the very wet time of the year, gravel would be nice, but for the majority of the camping season, I think all grass would be nicer.

The fire ring was near the back of each daily site and they were all decent sized truck rims (the usual). They were cleaned out too. The water and electrical hookups were well situated and were in good condition.

I could go on and on but why take up the space when the campground has a pretty good website with a descriptive site map? Click here to see the site map. We also liked this place so much, we're coming back next weekend with our daughter.

Rockford
Rockford is a pretty large town - about 150,000 people (in the city proper) covering about 1,560 square miles. We didn't spend any time in town other than to stop by Collier RV and drool over the new Landmark 5th wheel by Heartland. But there's plenty to do in town if one is so inclined. Magic Waters water park is very close as well.

The Rally
This was our first travel rally of any kind and we really had a nice time. Our rally hosts did a great job of organizing the event. They selected a great campground and ordered up our first camping trip this year that did not rain! I didn't take any official counts, but I'd venture to say that there were about 10 TrailManor trailers, 2 fifth wheel trails and 1 class C (a Minnie Winnie) motor home. Probably about 30 people in total. We were not able to make it to the first day so we missed dinner out with the gang at the Machine Shed restaurant in Rockford. We also missed the group trailer tours Saturday morning.

We arrive around 1 pm Saturday, setup, met our hosts and neighbors, walked the dog around the campground and met a few seasonal campers. Then we put our potluck dish in the oven and met at the pavilion at 5:30 for the potluck dinner. What great food - and variety! We had a nice campfire later that evening just outside the pavilion in a huge fire ring. I brought stuff for Smores and some of the teenaged daughters and friends made Smores for us. It got pretty cool that night and we all found ourselves wearing jackets around the campfire.

The ladies made a very nice Father's Day pancake, bacon and sausage breakfast for the men in the pavilion. Most attendees packed up later that morning and checked out by noon. A few planned to stay-over 1 more night. We took a final walk around the campground and down a path along the river. The mosquitoes were pretty bad this weekend except for the cold evenings. But that discomfort was more than offset by the friendliness of the seasonal campers, the beauty of the campground the fun and friendships we made at the rally.

Cellular
- AT&T Wireless (TDMA): No service in this valley. Back in service outside of valley though
- T-Mobile (GSM) : No service in this valley. Back in service outside of valley though

Trip Back:
Time: ~3 hours
Route: We were all over on the way home as we checked out Rock Cut State Park in Rockford
and Lehman RV Resort near Marengo on the way home for potential future camping trips
Miles: ~100
Weather: Sunny and warm


Jim and Ruby after breakfast	Rally attendees: email me your rally pictures ->>	email:

Trip to Rockford, IL Charter Chapter TrailManor Rally June 19-20, 2004

Trip to Rockford, IL
Charter Chapter TrailManor Rally
June 19-20, 2004