Buffalo I-40-Exit 143 KOA

I spent 8 nights here. Almost everyday some huge rig would pull up in front of what little view I had and block me out completely. I was lucky if I had a few daylight hours of a view of the sky and trees.Most people left early in the morning. Even for the thanksgiving week that was a lot of activity. And I would think that since I booked 8 nights up front they would put be some place quiet and secluded. I got just the opposite. Fuel stations and restaurants nearby.  My experience with KOAs is turning into just a stream of places you should only sleep at and get F out.

The tent sites back onto I40 and are very loud. The ground is clay so, there are standing puddles in the rain around the camp. The tent pad does have drainage.

Lightning Bugs, Farmer's Markets, good food...oh my!

Pro: It’s a well maintained resort. Had a decent dog park. Sites were nicely spaced. Check in was a breeze and we were shown to our site by a very nice lady. Lots of trees and flowers and quiet. Easy in and out. Cons: We had a corner site and we were really too long for the site, we’re 42’ long. The electric and water were all in one spot which was at the very end of the camper. We’ve been on this journey for 10 months so not our first rodeo. As the lady left a man rolls up in his cart and informs us that we need to pull up farther because it would be a tight squeeze for anyone to navigate around us. Which he wasn’t wrong but perhaps a more appropriate site could have been given us since we had a reservation for weeks. We told him if we pulled up farther we couldn’t reach the hose connection. He arrogantly told us that we should have a 50’ hose as most people do just for these circumstances. He also said we could buy one in their store. I asked if they possibly had another site that might fit the rig better. He said he thought they were full for the night but I could ask! That pretty much set the tone for the stay and for this review. Not sure if he was the owner or a grounds keeper. The sites were on hills- which it is Tennessee…but we had a difficult time getting our camper level as it went down hill due to the fact we had to pull up so far it set the camper downhill. It has auto leveling and could never get it level where we sat, kept giving us an error code. This system won’t allow you to level manually. We have 4 slides and it was difficult to get them out not being level. The bedroom slide came out enough for us to open the bed out. The fact that the camper was at such a slant it was not good for the slides obviously because it was so un-level that the jacks wouldn’t go down. It was pretty bouncy and you picked up speed walking from one end to the other. We were glad it was just one night.

Overall a decent spot if you’re just looking for a safe place to sleep right near I-40. But not recommended if you’re looking for a peaceful spot to enjoy a vacation.

Pros:

• extremely easy to get to and right off I-40 so minimal added time to trip
• full hookups and they were well situated on the pad
• pretty level spot
• KOA so you know what to expect, and the check in process is really easy - especially after hours
• cable hookups - though we didn’t try it so not sure how good it is
• WiFi - but pretty weak at least from site 14

Cons:

• Extremely loud traffic noise - you really couldn’t get closer to the highway unless you were park on an on-ramp (see video if you don’t believe me 😉)
• spots are very close together (but pretty typical for a KOA)
• it was pretty full for a week night so it may be hard to book day of on the weekend

And the sound of the interstate then this is for you. The best part about this place is it’s close to the log cabin restaurant. Try the pie!

Great great great KOA