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Tower Park Fall Swap Meet, MV Gathering near Lodi, CA Sept. 19-24, 2017

Posted: Sat Jul 29, 2017 10:47 am
by John Neuenburg
The second largest annual MV event in the West is this month! Camp Delta at Tower Park Fall swap meet and MV gathering is returning to Tower Park Resort! 14900 W. Hwy 12, Lodi, CA, six miles west of I-5 where the hotels are. No vendor charge, just your campsite rental. No day-user or parking fee. There is a user fee and wristband if you want to use the pools, spa. No day-user parking inside the campground unless in your friends campsite - park on the adjacent, shady, levee road. Trailer parking is at the Tower Park entrance - don't store it on the levee taking up valuable parking space. Officially it's a Tuesday-Sunday event but Sunday is a pull out day. Some "early birds" arrive before Tuesday to watch the buildup.

This year we are centered in Campground 2 and it's southern extension Campground 3. This is adjacent to the levee and close to the store, restaurant/bar, Sunset Sweets, and the marina. Lots of shade and the roads are paved, so little dust. Regulars know the past Fall meets have been centered in Campground 4, but with the pools and family play areas there, the management used to place many non-MV campers amongst our people - not the best for an event. So 2 and 3 should work well. Many campers preferred this area during our bigger April meets which you may know moved to a nice KOA campground in Petaluma, CA at the end of April.

Our own Jo-Ann Lesser is our "Wagonmistress" assigning campsites, like she does at the April meets. Contact her at mamlesser@yahoo.com or 408-238-8277 for a site, not the office. She will then tell you to pay your deposit to the office. UPDATE 9/18 - there are some cabins and campsites available in our area.

BACKGROUND: KOA sold this campground last year to Yogi Bear's Jellystone Park Camp Resorts. Their extensive remodeling of Campground 4, adding many cabins and shrinking the number of campsites to create large pull-throughs, is the reason we had to move the big April meet to Petaluma KOA. The new owner has different policies than KOA did, and we have negotiated a favorable program including a discount and waiving the day-user fee. They require a two night deposit due no later than August 17, 2017 or they will start assigning sites to anybody. They have a tighter cancellation policy for a full refund. Read the information over on the MVCC club forum or ask Jo-Ann for details about cancellation procedure when you contact her for a campsite.

Re: Tower Park Fall Swap Meet, MV Gathering near Lodi, CA Sept. 19-24, 2017

Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 10:46 am
by John Neuenburg
Made a few edits. If you have not been assigned a site or cabin by Jo-Ann, AND paid your deposit to the campground office, they will assign open sites in our area to outsiders. Time to act!!!! Last I heard our campgrounds 2 and 3 are nearly booked, but there should be room in Campground 4.

Re: Tower Park Fall Swap Meet, MV Gathering near Lodi, CA Sept. 19-24, 2017

Posted: Sat Sep 16, 2017 11:21 pm
by John Neuenburg
Weather forecast for this week:
Temp: Mid 70s to low 80s
Humidity: < 50%
Rainfall: 0%
Result: Couldn't be better!

Re: Tower Park Fall Swap Meet, MV Gathering near Lodi, CA Sept. 19-24, 2017

Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2017 4:34 pm
by John Neuenburg
Couple updates: Rosa's Restaurant will be cooking burgers in Campground 2 Thurs-Sat 11 a.m. until supplies run out, and beer served to about 5 p.m.

We can use the pools in CG 4. Go to office and ask for a wristband. No charge.

Visitors, remember to park along the levee road, campground side, not the river side in front of the tenant boat sheds where it says No Parking. The levee is right next to our campground with stairs and ramps to use. There are no parking spaces in our campground besides in campsites

Re: Tower Park Fall Swap Meet, MV Gathering near Lodi, CA Sept. 19-24, 2017

Posted: Sat Sep 30, 2017 9:47 pm
by John Neuenburg
Very good event, better in some ways than prior FALL events at Tower Park. See the recap on the MVCC forum here:

http://www.g503.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=290653

Event is scheduled to return September 18-23, 2018, with many new, long, pull-through RV sites with patios in the renovated Campground 1 which used to be for long term residents. This has been cleaned out. This is accessed via the levee ramp by the old guard shack and the new camping office. People will drive into 1, then 2, 3 (the cabin and pull through RV sites south of 2), and non-event people will take a left into Campground 4. The current ramp into 2 will be eliminated as a vehicle entrance. So with this traffic plan, vendors who have big RVs and choose one of the new sites in 1 will be seen by all who enter the campgrounds.

Looking forward to re-convening next April 24-30, 2018 in Petaluma, CA at the biggest annual western U.S. military vehicle swap meet and gathering: Camp Petaluma!