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Rivers Bend Family Resort

Rivers Bend Family Resort is located at 4041 Hwy NN, Joplin, Missouri, but it is actually just south of Joplin. We stayed here on June 24, 2023 and it turned out to be a horrible experience. I suppose I cannot give good reviews for every place we visit. We like to go on trips in what I like to call "gypsy style" in that we have no idea where we will be staying that night when we wake up in the morning. About 3:30 each day we begin looking for a place to stay near where we are on our trip. This way we do not have to hurry if we want to linger or hesitate turning down a road when we pass a sign or see something of interest and take time to visit it. We find and see the best things traveling this way that we would have never seen if I had tried to plan it all out and we had to get to a certain destination or hotel by evening.

The night before we had stayed at the Springfield / Route 66 KOA Holiday, 5775 W Farm Rd 140, Springfield, Missouri, but I did not create a website page for it because I did not create videos or have enough photos. It was an interesting experience. We had never stayed at a KOA before. We were greeted with a golf cart to escort us to our campsite! that was a hoot! The spot was tiny, but it had water and electricity on it. We set up our tent and it was directly behind the office and store and restaurant and shower house building! So we did not care for the lights, but we felt safe. Our golf cart guide checked in on us and made sure we did not need anything. They offered pizza delivered to your campsite so we took them up on it which was a real laugh-and-a-half because we could have easily walked a few steps to pick it up, but it was delivered and was a welcoming tasty mouthful when we were very hungry. All of the RV's were packed in there like sardines and we wondered why anyone would want to camp like this for a whole week and sit outside their RV with another RV as their view. It was like being in an RV sandwich. This was not our kind of camping, but the place itself had fun service, there was a pool, and it got quiet during quiet time, and we felt safe. Our neighbors returned and we learned they were training for a mission trip and had camped there fore weeks. We learned that Springfield is the headquarters for the Church of Christ. Thereafter we met lots of people who were members of that church, so the city must be full of its members.

Now back to sharing about the Rivers Bend. We were initially given this site on the above image. Hubby did not get good directions, so I went in the second time and learned that to reach those sites, you have to park by the bridge near spot RV17 and carry your gear all the way over to the tent site. What! We love parking our truck next to our tent and working from our truck so that we do not have to carry stuff around or even pack and unpack it, or even load and unload it. It was a great distance. Our neighbor camper was a regular and she was very nice. She had said she had watched lots of people lugging their camping stuff and did not know how they did it carrying all that heavy stuff.

So we ended up with site RV 16 (I think) which was actually much closer to the main road in than this map shows. You see the main road leading to the restaurant on the river and our tent was super close to that main dirt road. It did not feel safe as a vehicle could easily drive off the road and hit our tent. Also, every time a vehicle drove down the road to the restaurant, which was very busy on a Saturday night, and was more like a bar with food and music than a restaurant, the gravel dust covered our camping area.

This is where we were located as per our GPS. The restaurant was overlooking  Shoal Creek and we had thought we might be able to go for a swim as we saw other people going down to the water, but when we actually took a closer look, the water did not look appealing to us as it was not a clear running stream.

We did eat on the deck at the restaurant and the service and food were just okay and we were happy with our full belly's. The deck was actually hanging over the water although the front of the building looked secured to land, so that was kind of cool. The place was crowded which should have said to us it was a popular well-liked place, but as we watched people walk by us, we were not certain that all of the crowd were filled of safe folks. It was sort of a mixed crowd.

We were happy to have electricity at our RV site and we were happy to be testing our new cots out for a second night. They were working well with the pads on top. We figured out the night before that we could take our collapsible water baskets that we use for showers or cleaning dishes and turn them upside down to set our fans at the level of the cots. That was just enough space for them and it worked out perfect to have a stream of air on our faces while we slept.

The trouble came that night. We expected when the restaurant closed that the traffic and the dust would settle down and we could get some sleep. This was not to be so.

First, as I laid in bed, I heard a vehicle stop in front of our tent, the door open, and before I knew it someone was peeking into our tent! What!!!!!! Then came the long lines of very noisy motorcycles kicking up dust for hours as if they were riding a circle and intentionally targeting us to get us to leave. That's what it felt like! We were literally choking on all that gravel dust that went on for hours, but afraid to move much inside our tent.

Then another vehicle pulled up on the other side of our tent and just sat there. We eventually figured out it was a Sheriff's vehicle, but did not realize it when it was setting there with its headlights shining on our tent. Then the Sheriff when around the bend to about site 7 and entered the RV and stayed a while. I guess they had reported the motorcycles or they had a riff with them and they were the real targets and had called for emergency services. The Sheriff parked on the side of the road near the entrance for a while and the motorcycle folks never came back and we were able to get some sleep.

The next morning before we could begin to relax with tea and coffee, a storm popped up in the distance. Of course there was no rain in the forecast and yet here comes a storm. So we ended up packing up quickly and leaving.

The sky was amazing though and the sunrise on the trees across the road was kind of amazing.

Here you can see how close our tent was to the intersection of three roads including the main road (the one you see the car on to the right of the photo).