Making Our Trail: KOA Kansas City East, Oak Grove MO Review

We’ve been a camping family for a long time, actually.

But somehow we have never stayed at a KOA.

Until our giant road trip adventure this summer.

And pretty much, all the way to Colorado and all the way back, we stayed at KOAs.

KOA stands for Kampgrounds of America and the very handy thing about a KOA on a  road trip is — they are everywhere!  (And yes, my friends who know me well know that the “k” in “kampground” is a tricky one for me, as I prefer words to be spelled correctly.  But I decided to just let this one go – and it was a good thing I did.  Because KOA loves to spell lots of words with their trademark “k”.  Like “kabin”.)

The first night of our journey we stayed with my lovely friend Beth so we made it all the way to Kansas City before we needed to stop for another night’s slumber.

According to the handy dandy KOA website, there was a KOA in East Grove, MO that was right on our route.

It was the Kansas City East/Oak Grove MO KOA.

KOAs are broken into categories – Journey, Holiday and Resort.  The Journey stops are located closer to the highway and are easily accessible for stopping in as you are traveling along your route.  A Holiday KOA would have more activities and amenities for a longer stay with family and friends.  A Resort KOA is a lot more like a destination all by itself with staff led activities and you could ideally stay at the Resort as your destination itself.

Our Kansas City stop was a Holiday KOA and we pulled right in after seeing the classic yellow sign from Highway 70.  (Which, by the way, I really came to appreciate the iconic and easily recognizable yellow KOA sign.  The sign helped guide us several times when GPS failed us.)

We had reserved a cabin for this first night.  The KOAs almost all have choices of tent sites, RV pull through spaces, camper sites, regular cabins and deluxe cabins.  A deluxe cabin will have its own full bathroom, usually two separate sleeping spaces and a kitchen area.

It was easy to find the check in office and the campground was clean, tidy and inviting.

While I registered, the kids added our pin to the map on the wall.

Even after a mistake of my own doing, the staff was super friendly and helpful, laughing and welcoming us.  Everyone on staff wears yellow shirts – and again – this might be a simple gesture but it’s such a welcoming one to me.  I love knowing who is an employee and where to immediately go for questions and assistance.

A KOA employee led us right to our cabin where the kids happily opened the door and explored the inside.  The cabin had two small rooms, an air conditioner, a small fridge and a small television.  We brought our sleeping bags because the regular cabins don’t provide any linens.  (If I was staying for a longer time or on a camping-only adventure as opposed to a getting-out-west trip, I would have planned ahead and brought sheets because, on a hot night, sleeping on sheets is far more comfortable than sleeping on sleeping bags on a camp mattress.  However, the kids never gave it a second thought and I slept quite well despite the sliding sleeping bag.)  Well, I was awakened at nearly midnight, but that wasn’t the fault of the sleeping bag or the mattress.  There was a tornado watch siren and announcement that jarred me from rest.  I forgot we were traveling through tornado alley.

We had brought picnic supplies with us so we spread a blanket in the shady grass behind our cabin and enjoyed our dinner together.  I had packed our prize peaches for this first stop but we could not open the sealed too tight jar for the life of us.  A kind fellow camper showed us a trick to open the sealed jar so we shared our bounty with him.

After dinner there was still plenty of light so we wandered the campground and tried out everything.

The pool had just had the salt added to it so it wasn’t ready for use – which was fine with me as it really wasn’t that hot yet.  By the pool was a gigantic jumping pillow.  Sort of like an in-ground trampoline.  Not quite enough jumping power for flips, but plenty of jumping power for fun.

This KOA also has a small gem mining area.  You buy the bags of sand in the camp store and take them out to the mining area where you are guaranteed to find gems and jewels.

We passed by these cool bikes you could rent and ride too.

At the camp store we asked for and received golf clubs and golf balls and headed to the mini golf course.  It was near the highway and you could hear the cars and trucks zoom by, but oddly enough, the road traffic noise didn’t really exits at our cabin itself.  Mini golf was just the way I like it – no rules and go in any order you like.  The kids all played until they hit at least one hole in one.  My expectations were much lower for my own game.

The playground was a nice size with two old-school play things – a small merry go round that was crazy loud and those little metal domes you climb all over.  The kids loved climbing around and had the park area completely to themselves.

The space was all very green and the tent sites were shady and grass covered.  (I love a grassy tent site and wish all tent sites were that way.  Who ever thought of pitching a tent on gravel anyway?)

The cabin was pleasantly clean and smelled good and it was cute and welcoming.  It seemed new – or at least very well maintained.  The camp store had every thing you might need – ice for your cooler and snacks and hand dipped ice cream.  There was a convenient outdoor sink for washing your dishes.

But I’ll tell you right now what was the best part for our family.  (Even if my kids wouldn’t know this was the best part.)  This was one of the few KOA stops on our journey that had one particular magical feature.

The family bathroom.

You guys.  One of the more challenging parts of traveling across the country at campgrounds with five kids and one grown up was the bathroom/showering situation.

Given the ages of my children and the climate of our world, I just couldn’t feel comfortable sending my kids – of any gender – into a shared bathroom without a lock on the door.  I didn’t feel it was wise for me to go off and take a shower while leaving my five young children to fend for themselves without me.

It was a genuine dilemma.  Often we had to choose to basically stay dirty.  The dirty part probably only really bothered me – and at times, London and Mosely.

But this Kansas City/Oak Grove KOA was perfect.  They had regular bathrooms, of course.  But they also had one very large family bathroom with a shower with a curtain, a changing area and two sinks.  It was the perfect solution for our family.  I know not every family looks like ours, but I am certain there are other families who either do look like us or who have parents traveling occasionally alone with kids.  The family shower room had a lock on the door and we could either all go in together and take turns behind the curtain or we could wait outside safely.  Again – this might not even cross some minds to consider, but it was a huge bonus to us.

This KOA was a fabulous introduction for us to the KOA system.

In fact, it was such a nice overnight stop that it’s alright with me if KOA wants to call their cabins “kabins”.