Love's RV Stop-Normal IL 867

As my post from a bit more than a year ago provided quite a bit of detail on this campground, I’m following up on that review by sharing more fotos as well as providing a topline update:

Highlights: (1) Closely located to I39 so access is a huge bonus; (2) Sites are very calculated contributing to the vibe of a very artificial concrete camping experience, but that also means incredibly level and well-organized spaces; (3) Despite being located at a highly trafficked fueling outpost, you will be greeted by very wonderful Midwestern hospitality; (4) Incredibly manicured grounds and well-taken care of facilities, including well-maintained and impeccably cleaned restrooms, showers and doggy park; (5) Despite being located right next to a major highway, as access is key-code enabled and you're surrounded by good securing fencing around the perimeter, you'll feel safe & secure here; and (6) The entirety of Bloomington-Normal, home to Illinois State University, is all within EZ reach, so there’s tons of places to stock up on supplies as well as restaurants to enjoy.

Lowlights: (1) Closely located to I39 so noise and non-stop driveby traffic is a huge negative; (2) Because this is a highway layover, for those road warriors traveling up and down I74, there lacks a sense of community amongst campers as everyone is here for a short while, before moving on to their ultimate destination.

Happy Camping!

Saw that you could make your reservation when you got there. Turns out there’s a tablet at the front gate that will let you get through the first 10 minutes of standing in the weather to make one, then when you get to the payment screen they have security turned on so it blocks the page and you cannot make the reservation. Then, you have to go onto your phone, to a site nowhere mentioned by loves until you get to the site, and are blocking traffic while trying to figure all this out because yes, there is a coded gate to get in and out. So you block traffic because now there’s RV’s and Semis backed up behind you while trying to figure this all out. So you finally get the reservation made, ($64.99 btw, not even close to the $34-$39 estimate). Then you go to check in on the same tablet from before, put in your confirmation code, and the screen pops up for 0.25 seconds before popping up and saying that this page has been blocked by an administrator. At this point I’m just pissed that I’m blocking traffic, loves tablet isn’t working, I can’t get through the gate, and when I called the number posted on the booth, it goes through their entire automated system before going to a guy that says I can walk over to him in loves if I need help. Finally and email check in confirmation popped up with the gate code. You get backed in on a nice concrete slab with nice grass. You connect to the WIFI you paid for to find out it’s got like a rolling drop, where every 5-7 seconds it disconnects you for 5-7 seconds. Power/water/sewer hookups were all very nice. Good water pressure. My last complaint has to do with the “maintenance” guy. My girlfriend was walking one of our pups as I was packing up. As our pup was pooping, my girlfriend started unwinding a poop bag out of our bag holder, the maintenance guy drives up and rolls his window down, and tells her to come over to his truck. So she walks up to his window and he sees she already has a baggy, so says, “oh, I was going to ask if you needed a baggy. But I see you’ve got it. Then points over to a camp site that is not ours and asks or the two pre-bagged poops sitting on the slab are ours. She says “no, we have green bags”. It was at that point that he tells her to go pick them up anyways. Being non-confrontational, she does, and then he gets super sarcastic asking her where it is she’s going to put all of them once she picks up our dogs poop as well to which she replies, “um, the garbage?” Before he drives away.

If I pass through here again, I will just stay in a truckers spot and pull my generator out so we have HVAC. For double the price of most campsites, I DO NOT recommend.

For those of you that want to give it a go anyways, the site to make the reservation on is camplife.com.

This review is from the point of view of an overnight or short-stay campground(CG) versus a destination CG. The CG was easy to get to as it was right off the interstate and adjacent to the Loves main facility. We did the online check-in, but a nice gentleman met us for a formal check-in at their gate and office/shower/laundry facility. We then proceeded to pull through site 43 with full hookups. We paid$42 for the night with a military discount, plus$2.70 in transient tax and a$3.00 booking fee. The CG is fairly new, as our RV GPS didn’t show this Loves address. The campsites are decently spaced, and all the utilities worked fine. As this is a new CG, there are no trees, so no problem with satellite, plus there are plenty of OTA channels. We got 3 bars on Verizon. The water pressure is also good at around 50 psi. There are little barbecue pavilions and a community fire pit. We were pleasantly surprised at the adequately sized fenced dog area with separate large and small dog areas. There is a concrete sidewalk that leads you out of the CG over to the Loves facility. As this RV Park is right off the interstate, you get highway noise.

Let me begin by saying that I scored this Love's RV Stop as high as I did not because it is my ideal camping spot - it isn't - and I don't think anyone looks for a spot to camp out on next to a super busy highway next to a commercial big rig gas station, but if you are doing some heavy duty highway traveling with your RV or 5th wheel and simply need a place to hold up for the night, then this place really is pretty amazing.  With that in mind, hopefully you'll pay this place a visit, stop, get fueled up, rest for the night and enjoy the convenience and easy on- and off-access that this place provides.  With this in mind …

This spot is brand spanking new, incredibly flat and offers up all the flat poured concrete where you want it and freshly poured gravel where you drive and all the other parts are surrounded by freshly sodded grass that has already grown in to near maturity everywhere else. Conveniently located on the highway axis where I39 / US51 meets I55, here in central Illinois in the city of Bloomington, Love’s RV Stop is an incredibly convenient and easy access spot to drop your RV anchor for the night. Extra points to Love’s RV Stop for providing gated key-pad entry and 24 hour CCTV security delivering a real feeling of safety throughout your roadside RV or 5th Wheel stay. 

The convenient app-managed reservation system is seamless and provides for an incredibly simple, remote check-in and payment process. You’ll find back-in or pull-through as well as ADA accessible sites with full hook-ups with water, sewer and choice of either 30 or 50 amp electrical at every site. At the main kiosk where you’ll check-in, there’s a brand new spartan clean single person shower facility as well as individual men and women’s restrooms in addition to a coin-operated laundry facility. Additionally, the property has 2 covered pavilions with picnic tables and gas-powered BBQ grills, community firepit that can easily seat a dozen people, 2 pickleball courts, kid’s playground and a dog park with real grass for the pups to do their business on.  Now granted, you'll be enjoying all of these amenities right next to all of the swooshing highway traffic, but surprisingly, we all got over this very quickly!

Because Love’s RV Stop is connected and managed by the neighboring Love’s Truck Stop, you’ll have nearby access to their full convenience store, as well as ATMs, Bojangles Restaurant (mediocre BBQ at best), as well as additional shower facilities along with, but of course, all the gas you can pump by the gallon. But if it’s something simple like firewood, ice, sundries or snacks, you can get these items back at the Kiosk and there are 2 soda vending machines as well as an ice machine behind this small building as well. 

Insider’s tips? Here’s a few: (1) As you are literally on the corner of one of the busiest highway intersections in the entire Land ‘O Lincoln, there is no escaping where you are at, no matter how high they build the fence or how many bushes and trees they place between you and the 8-lanes of rushing passerby traffic and there’s not a single site here to escape the noise, so bring your earbuds if it bothers you or crank up some Van Halen;(2) If you are looking for something more than the stale coffee or the Bojangle’s food they are serving up at the truck stop, there are endless chain options like Starbucks, Dunkin’, Moe’s Southwest Grill nearby as well as further afield; (3) If you want my top recommendations for restaurants that are worth the drive, try out Giordano’s for Chicago deep dish pizza or Portillo’s for their Italian beef & sausage sandwich (don't ask, just order and send me your thanks later); and (4) If you are looking for something to do with the kiddos, head on over to Miller Park Zoo for the wild animals, performances and mini-golf or try out Grady’s Family Fun Park, which is an amusement park with rides and games. 

While scoring criteria may vary from one person to the next, here are the 5 most important criteria that informed my rating of this overnight location: convenience (EZ on- and off-access), safety & security, quality (of facilities), peace & quiet and amenities (either on-site or nearby). Here’s how I ranked this particular overnight spot: 

Convenience: 5 

Safety & Security: 5 

Quality: 5 

Peace& Quiet: 4 

Amenities: 5 

Overall, I scored this location a 5.

Happy Overnighting!