Veterans Memorial Park — Attraction in Mount Airy

It's nice to see that if a county doesn't want to maintain a fairgrounds property for its community than at least the local chapters of the VFW & American Legion are willing to try their hand @ it.... It's basically a huge 44 acre property that is a majority grassy field for local event activities co-owned by the local VFW & American Legion chapers. They have some pretty basic & sparse agricultural fair amenities here (such as a basic livestock fair barn & exhibition building) + bathrooms with showers & a concession stand. They also have (what we visited especially for) multiple hook-ups for campers & RVs that they also rent out to tourists/visitors & those just passing through. As far as a campgrounds go, we loved the quiet (well, most of the time - I'll explain in a bit) & absolutely private we had staying here during a non-event weekend as there were only ever 3 other campers there; but I will say we've stayed at other fairgrounds throughout the country as travelers-through & honestly this place was a bit pricey. They charge $40 for full hook-ups, $30 for water & electric, $20 for no hook-ups (to boondock in the field), or $10 to just dump your tank & go. It's also all on the honor system, as the park is not attended. You fill out an envelope & drop payment in a lock-box. Most other fairgrounds we've encountered in the last few years charge anywhere from $25-35 for full-hook-ups , & frankly many of those fairgrounds were much better up-to-date facilities. They also didn't mention anything about VFW or American Legion members, disabled veterans, military personnel, retired military, or senior discounts. Most public parks around the country offer at least one if not all of these, & considering my hubs & I each fall into at least one of those categories each it would have been nice to get a break. Specifically in NC the parks offers a $6/night discount for seniors or disabled veterans or retired military. As far as facilities a camper may use go, people complain about the bathrooms & showers being dirty. They really weren't. I thought they were actually fairly clean - considering, but it's just very old fairgrounds facilities that are being kept together on a periodic & shoe-string budget by a non-profit organization (in other words, not a city or county government, like most) - like they are in many fairgrounds throughout the country....So don't expect the nicest & most modern facilities. I give them credit that they recently seemed to have cleaned & put a great coat of paint on the cinderblock walls & re-roofed much of it. The shower-head pressure left much to be desired, but the water was hot, so that's all I cared about. As far as the quiet part: For the most part it was except you are right next to the high school, so expect to hear & watch football games & practices. Also, there is a 6' fence with barbed wire that divides the hook-up area we were camping from a city walking path that runs along a stream (the school is on the other side of the stream), so expect people passing close on the other side of the fence who are walking, running, walking dogs, & riding bikes. Also, we stayed there 3 nights & one of those nights a crazy homeless person was obviously walking the path & shouting to himself at 5:00am that woke me up in a panic as I thought he was right outside the camper! Fortunately, however, he kept walking & we had that 6' chain link & barbed wired fence separating us. We learned during our weekend there that sadly though Mr Airy is only a small town of 10,000 people they have a homeless population too (as it seems everywhere does these days). Anyway, we liked it & would stay here again - in spite of the pricey-ness. Please just consider giving fellow veterans a break...

It was a good time for family to get together. I feel like admission cost, plus tickets for rides, was a bit much (considering the rumors were many were breaking) also they sounded like they needed some grease and had little upkeep. No pony rides, no rabbits; animals lacked. There was a sheep show, but you weren't allowed to pet them, signs posted, for the people who could walk through, and see the ones in the pin. "Look but don't touch" They did have a cool motorcycle show, with lovely assistants, but because of the rain, it was too muddy for some of the show. Not their fault, obviously. I did enjoy getting out of the house and the ladies who ran the dart game and the fishing game were exceptionally friendly. I wish I knew their names, for giving credit purposes. We went on Thursday night. They did try to keep the "swampy" under control with...

My wife and I just stopped for the night while passing through mid week in March. We arrived late (about 10pm) and were the only trailer in the whole park so we had our choice of sites. Self checkin was easy - just filled out the envelope with our $ and dropped it in the mail slot. Fairly easy to find on our GPS and we were on our way the next morning. It was very quiet and dark which was nice. The grounds are very large. We didn't use any of the bathrooms so can't speak to those. We only hooked up to electric and water. I did notice a couple of the water faucet handles were missing at a few sites. Would probably need pliers to turn on and off. Other than that it was a great place for...