One of my best friends from college is from Ontario, and although she is working on her doctorate in "the states" we rarely get a chance to see each other. However, this summer she was working at a children's hospital in Atlanta and we vowed to meet halfway for a weekend. Long story short neither of us had the money to shell out for a hotel in Memphis, which we thought to be a decent half-way mark. Just when we were about to give up on the idea of reunion, I had an idea. What if we picked a location a little closer to her, like Nashville and then camped. Thus, we ended up at the Nashville KOA within spitting distance to the famous Opryland.

I had found the campground online and reserved one of their "Kozy Kabins" for the three of us, Jonathan, Canada, and me. Like I said before, I grew up camping, and had experienced plenty of KOA campgrounds in my time. They were nice in campground terms, but yet they were still rustic.

Upon arriving at the campground and after many hugs and shouting at how happy we were to be hanging out, I went into the classic A-frame office to check in. Inside the office there was a nice little camp store, a game room, and even a Gray Line Tours reservation window. I began to realize that things had changed a bit since I had stayed at a KOA. After I paid for the rest of our stay, we were escorted by golf cart to our cabin. We really weren't expecting much from the cabin either. We just thought the cabin would give us more room and a little more relief from the Nashville summer heat. The cabin itself was very clean and had a set of bunk beds and one double bed. They didn't provide linens, but we had brought sleeping bags in preparation for that. Another unexpected bonus was that there was an a/c window unit already on and cooling the cabin off. With no real set up to do we were able to hang out on the porch swing and have happy hour.

The rest of the weekend was such a blast and we were continually surprised about how many amenities the Nashville KOA offered. We swam in the large and very clean pool on Saturday and were able to have a campfire every night with the portable fire pits the campground provided. We used the little store a couple of times to buy the necessities like bright yellow KOA beer cozies and fire starter logs. Needless to say I was impressed, and while the experience was still nostalgic for me, this was a far cry from the campgrounds of my youth. I remember cement bathhouses and gravel lots with small campers and motor homes. I wonder if all KOAs have upgraded to such "luxurious" camp destinations, or if the pull of Opryland has put pressure on this particular campground. It makes sense that KOAs and other campground have had to amp up their facilities a bit to match those offered at hotels and keep up with the expanding tourist areas of the country. I want to visit some more of these "popular" type campgrounds to see if the dynamic has really changed that much. In all honesty and nerdy tourist statistics aside I had a fantastic weekend. One of the best I have had in years, and sure my best friend was a big part of it, but this was a KOA worth checking out. The surroundings might have been a bit different than I remembered, but at night around the campfire, it was quiet except for our excited voices, and we were kids again.