Worth the Money.

How much are you willing to pay for peace of mind?

I think parents of special needs children shell out a lot more money on their kids than parents of typical children.. special cups, wheelchairs, fancy pants that have an elastic waist, and double padded knees.

When it comes to being able to relax a little, know our kids are safe, we will almost always put our money there. On the road, we discovered it was worth it to pay a little more for a KOA Kampground over most independent campgrounds. Not that an independent campground can's be as good, but with a life as unpredictable as ours can be, knowing some things will sort of look the same, or have a similar standard has been really helpful. Apart from the last KOA, most have this cool jumpy pillow, a pool and some sort of playground. Most of them have a good selection of groceries at their store, and for some reason nearly every one of them had Ranger IPA from New Belgium Brewing Co. which was a welcome relief from the Tequiza and Bud selections of other places.

One of the best features we found for the first time at the Mt. Rushmore/Hill City KOA:

Yes, that's a corral of sorts, and here is another one, at the Cody KOA:

Notice the awesome extra blocker fence.

The grown up bench is on the right under the little roof part.

If that looks like cruelty to pen up your children then you have either never been to an RV park, and/or you do not have a child with autism. RV parks are filled with vehicles, mostly driven by people who are paying attention, but I know how tired we've been when we've pulled over for the night. These little rails keep kids safe, and many of our children just need a gentle reminder about where the boundaries are. Most kids, even neuro-typical ones,  need reminders, instructions, about how far away they can be, do we need to be able to see them, and which activities are approved within the larger environment. These little corrals gave Katie a definitive boundary of where she could play where we all  knew she would be out of the street, and while Jack could have slipped through the rails, he never did. The simple split rail fence let him know where he was allowed to play, and the benches beside the playground at the Cody, KOA, gave us a place to rest (our beers) while the kids were playing. FYI, no alcohol, glass or pets are allowed in these kiddie areas.

These two campgrounds in Hill City and Cody were the most relaxing for us because we had a place to be. Whereas camping in the woods provides an endless supply of sticks and rocks and stumps and bugs, it's harder to find nature in an RV park, and if we can't have nature, I am happy to have structure...a play structure.