Sherry's Place

Looking for a great RV park near Indianapolis, Dayton, or Cincinnati? Look no further than Deer Ridge Camping Resort at Richmond, Indiana. With easy access from I-70 at Exit 153, this beautiful RV park is close to the highway, yet far enough away to muffle most of the traffic sounds.

From the pretty tree lined drive into the property to the nicely shaded, nearly level sites, you get the immediate feeling that you will have a great time camping at Deer Ridge. The staff is very friendly and most helpful.

The park is intelligently laid out with interior roads that are easy for even the big motor homes and large fifth wheels to negotiate. The weekend we stayed was later in the season and we were able to use one of the large pull through sites. It even had a nice large wooden deck, and was close to the main building with the rest rooms and showers.

Our granddaughter was with us on our visit. She really enjoyed the large playground. I got a kick out of seeing the old fashioned kid powered merry go round and the nice old swing sets. In addition to the playground, this park also offers a large miniature golf course with African animals galore on the different holes. A clean heated pool is also available for the visitors’ pleasure.

The main building has an extensive loaner library of books. In addition there is a very nice pool table and full laundry equipment. Those of us from the boomer generation will also enjoy the vintage posters form some of our favorite bands. You have to love the old Led Zeppelin posters.

Deer Ridge is a Good Sam Club member park, and will honor your membership card with the 10% discount.  Rates are reasonable, with full hook up, back in, 20/30 AMP sites beginning at $28.00. Free WiFi is available. If you want WiFi, be sure to ask for a site with access. Not all sites are within router range. We heartily recommend Deer Ridge. Check their extensive website for details.

We had talked for a while about taking our RV trailer to a Flea Market. It was intriguing to think about actually making some money during a trip on the road some weekend. The Derby Park Flea Market in Louisville, Kentucky came up via an internet search, and it actually advertised RV facilities.

This facility is a few blocks from Churchill Downs, on a city bus route, and has 24/7 security according to the website. It only being a short drive from Indianapolis, we decided to plan a trip to Louisville for some sightseeing and some flea market selling.

We arrived on a Thursday evening to a basically empty property.

JP, the employee who guided us to our spot next to the large, lighted sign, said that come Saturday morning “there will be wall to wall vendors set up out here.” We hoped he was right.

We had 20 AMP service but no water or sewer hookups. Internet WiFi was available for $2.50 a day. The rest rooms and showers were very nice and clean, although they were a football field distance from our location.  The rate we were charged for a night was $25.00, less than the usual camping rate of $35.00. We got the reduced rate because we set up for the flea market. This was still a little pricy for 20 AMP service only.

The adventure came Friday night and early Saturday morning. Rain decided to visit Louisville. 

As a result, we could not set up our flea market goods until 8:00 that morning. JP was wrong. There were not the wall to wall vendors he mentioned. All commented on how small the crowd was that morning.

Regardless of the size of the crowd, we still did very well with our sales. Although we did not sell out, we were pleased that we sold as much as we did. Several folks told us that on a good weather day the outdoor area is in fact wall to wall vendors. Had the crowd been normal, I am sure we would have sold all our wares.

Our RV made a great base from which to have a flea market booth. Derby Park was perfect for the use of the trailer. We will be looking for other opportunities to RV and Flea Market together. It was quite refreshing to realize that the bottom line on this trip was more cash in our pockets when we returned home than we had when we left.

There it sits, wheels chocked, stabilizing jacks down, power cord plugged into the garage, and looking much much larger than it did on the lot at the Camping World RV dealership. As I gaze at our Starcraft AR-ONE travel trailer, I reflect on the long road that brought us to RV ownership.

Sherry and I have been talking about traveling and owning an RV for years. We always laughed about selling the house, buying one of those huge fancy motor homes and living full time “on the road”. As the years went by and our five kids began to graduate college and move on with their lives we realized we would eventually be empty nesters. I would say that when our last two kids were enrolled in college we got serious in our search for an RV.

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