Country Bumpkins Campground and Cabins — Hotel in Lincoln

I want to begin by stating that I have never ever left a bad review in any of my many years of international travel, but this one is justly deserved, and people like us that were unable to visit over the past few years need to be warned that this place is NOT the same as it was pre-pandemic. This campground has been a stopover stay for our group in years past, and it used to be one of our favorite places to camp enroute to NY and then again on our way back home to east coast Canada. However - that was before the new owners took over. ||In April, I was unable to book 2 power sites, as they were all taken.||Upon arrival in mid June - and in the pouring rain - we discovered that a friend had called to try to book a cabin at the campground, and that the owners would not rent a cabin to our (local) friend as they assumed we would shower in her bathroom (showers are free and nice at the campground so why would we?) and that we would sit on the furniture in the cabin. Owner (male) informed us that the cabins were too nice for tent campers. When I jokingly said "so campers are riffraff?" - he replied "well, yes". Our friend got a room at a lovely hotel just around the corner from the campground a few nights later.||On our second night at the campground, the seasonal couple that were beside our unserviced tent lot offered to allow my friend to use their power to charge his power pack for a medical device. The female owner saw the cord and lost her mind. She asked if the camper owners (who were away from the campground at that time) knew we were plugged in - we assured her that it had been their idea and yes they were aware. Female owner accused us of stealing (power) from the campground, started screaming at us that we were committing theft, and we had to leave. ||A short time later, the male owner told my husband and I that we said some terrible things to his wife, and that we were being evicted. We thought he was joking. We said we couldn't leave, we had had a few drinks, not to mention we were on motorcycles and with tent trailers and it was pouring rain and dark. We said we weren't able to leave, that this whole thing was quite surreal, and we went back to the campsites. A short time later, both male and female owners came to the campsites, and the entire saga became an episode from the Twilight Zone. Female started yelling that we were being evicted for theft of power. My friend even offered her money for the power usage. I should note here AGAIN - that we were in tent trailers, riding motorcycles, it was pouring rain, dark, and we had been enjoying a few alcoholic beverages and could not drive. She did not care. I said I was going to call the police and she went completely off the rails. She said she was going to call the police and charge us with theft. I said please do call. We were totally baffled by her completely unhinged behavior. ||Even though not one person had mentioned leaving any kind of review during this deranged tirade, the female owner yelled that we had better not even think of leaving them a bad review, as she would say what happened? I hope she does do that, because not one of us can begin to fathom her behavior, or her husband's complete docility during her actions, words and threatening advancing gestures. Any time I tried to talk to her to understand what her point was and why she was so angry and practically frothing at the mouth, she would yell "no conversation" while stabbing her finger at me. This happened about 20 times. Other campers witnessed the few hours of this crazy drama, and some even asked the owners to extend us some grace. (We understand that a few of those annual campers, like ourselves, will never return to Country Bumpkins) ||We were eventually told we would be permitted to stay for that night, and then for the remaining 4 nights of our reservation- not sure how much or if any of that decision can be attributed to the seasonal - and VERY KIND couple - who offered the plug that started the entire meltdown. The seasonal camper understood that he paid for the power at that site.||More bizarre? In the following days, the owner couple started smiling at us and waving on their hourly stomp and/or ride patrols as if we were friends and nothing bizarre or insane had even happened.||Had it not been pouring rain for most of our stay, we would have left the next morning.||It's too bad that these two "new" owners are going to completely destroy what used to be a perfectly charming place to relax and unwind with the beautiful pond, ...

This might’ve been a great place to stay if it hadn’t been for two issues.

The first is that the owners seem more concerned with renting out the most expensive site available, rather than the one best suited for their guests needs. We called about a week and a half before our expected arrival to check availability for two mid-week (a Wednesday and Thursday) nights the week before Labor Day. At campgrounds we stay at that have shared/common dump stations and potable water spigots, we usually stay in the “primitive” sites since our camper van is fully self contained (onboard fresh and waste water tanks, and a lithium system that recharges while driving and lasts for days - making shore power hookups unnecessary). But we had read from past reviews that the current owners of this establishment are rather particular about their facilities and rules, so when we called we told them the facts: we have a 24’ self-contained camper van that just needs access to a dump station and a place to fill our fresh water tank, and were looking for the cheapest site available. We were told our choices were either a full hookup (water, sewer, 30 Amp power) site, or a more expensive site down by the river. We asked if there was anything cheaper, and were told they were booked up and that was all that was available. We booked the full hookup site.

The day we arrived, there was a note on the office door that said “CLOSED TODAY” with our check-in materials pinned to a board; no one available to talk to about sites that may have opened up due to cancellations, etc. We walked the campground loop that evening and next morning, though, and there was at least one (T26) cheaper water/electric site that no one ever checked in to that first night, and 3 other substantially cheaper sites (T23-25) that would have been plenty long enough for our camper van and had water spigots attached to their marking posts (despite being described on their website as “no electricity or water”) that were unoccupied for the duration of our stay. Given the opportunity, we would’ve definitely taken T26 for the first night, and moved for the second - or better yet, stayed in one of the others for both nights. (The campground in general was over half empty the two nights we were there.)

The second issue is that the WiFi bandwidth at this campground is very inconsistent, and was unusable for most of the time we were there - at least from our assigned T38 site. The SIGNAL STRENGTH was ok, and we could connect to their router; there just wasn’t enough BANDWIDTH to DO anything most of the time (in the late afternoons Speedtest could pull down a peak of 9 Mbps down, and 3 Mps up, but usually more like 1 down and

This campground is nestled in a cozy corner of land bordering a beautiful section of the Pemi River. It's ideally located, just minutes away from local attractions and Lincoln itself, and has some of the best rates around. We booked two cabins and one RV site for our multi-family vacation in July.

Ours was the first family to arrive. Check-in went like any other: we got the key, a map of the place, and some general tips. Unusual was the very, very long list of campground rules I had to sign. I read the top line -- do not allow any visitors to your cabin!! -- and skimmed the rest.

Our cabin, was spotlessly clean and clearly well cared for. We were disappointed to find the rooms had no privacy due to a cutout in the wall for the TV. We joked about it and hung up a sheet. We also discovered there was no way our daughter and son could sleep comfortably on the futon. We solved this issue by setting up a tiny one-person tent for our son on the porch. He loved having his own space and our daughter could sleep alone. The cabin was hot even with the windows open. We found we had to pay $20/day to use the a/c. We thought that paying for a necessity like a/c in these unseasonably warm temperatures was a bit much, but we did anyway.

The next day, the second family arrived with their RV and their kids eagerly ran up to our cabin to see their cousins. My sister-in-law came in, took off her sandals to not track in dirt, and we began hugging each other and catching up.

That's when things fell apart.

Not two minutes had passed when one of the owners, Diane, was on our porch demanding that everyone leave at once. She yelled impatiently at my sister-in-law, who was carrying her baby boy, to not go back inside, but she needed to in order to get her sandals. We couldn't believe we were being treated so rudely. Amid this confusion and chaos, we learned that we were being evicted and needed to pack up and leave at once.

Diane told me I had signed a binding agreement to follow the rules and I hadn't, so game over. Again, we were dumbfounded and tried to make amends by promising excellent behavior for the rest of the trip. She left, saying we had "15 minutes."

A few minutes later, Diane was back at our cabin to show me the list of rules. That's when it became clear to me that "visitors" did not mean -- like it means everywhere else I've stayed -- outside visitors. "No visitors" meant that people staying in their RVs and tents on the campground could not visit (or even approach) people staying in the cabins. In fact, we could not even share our food with our family staying in their RV (which was far more spacious and with nicer amenities than our cabin).

That was all rough to take, but we knew we'd leave * a one-star review * when Diane found our kids, who had quietly walked away from all the drama, and threatened them if they trespassed or broke any rules. No one is allowed to talk to our children, who are respectful and polite, that way. If she had concerns about them, she needed to come to us first.

Now with the mood of the vacation thoroughly dampened, we considered cutting our losses and moving out (she'd come back and said we could stay after all). But we shrugged it off and stayed. (One day, after our we opened our windows to let smoke from the butter from cooking our pancakes out, Mario came by and suggested we choose one or the other: open the windows or close them and run the a/c. He asked kindly enough, but now we were entering a territory where apparently we couldn't operate an a/c unit that we were paying for.)

In summary, we cannot recommend Country Bumpkins as a peaceful, welcoming place where you will be treated with respect. We talked to other campers there and they seemed to be content and enjoying their stay. Our experience was simply...