Tag: Mississippi

If you find yourself passing through or needing to stay in Meridian Mississippi for a bit, you won’t go wrong by stopping at Benchmark Coach & RV Park in Marion (Facebook).

The park is surrounded by trees and is small by most standards but well kept.  It’s mowed regularly and the washroom and showers are clean and functional. The owner, Randy Spitzkeit is friendly and helpful.

The site we were in was plenty large enough for our 40′ class A and had both a concrete pad for the coach and gravel area for the toad with full hookups and 30/50 Amp power. There aren’t enough tables for all the sites but if you want one, Randy will likely give the ok to move one from an empty site.

The surrounding trees didn’t block the satellite signal from Dish. There’s not a lot we watch on satellite but if possible, we prefer to get local channels that way since we don’t have to futz with the OTA antenna.

Camp wifi is what you’d expect.  Available but often overloaded.  You might be able to do simple browsing and email during the day but at night you can forget doing anything once people get home and start streaming video.

Cell signal with ATT and Google Fi is weak so bring a booster if you need a strong connection to the internet or cell network. We were testing out a new router from OTA Mobile (ATT) and had no problems getting and staying online when using our WeBoost Drive 4G-X OTR.

The camp itself isn’t great for walking dogs. The roadways are all gravel and the field at the East end does have ticks. Make sure your dogs have their treatments and check them before getting back into your RV if you walk them down there.

They have a nice dog park though, which is a large grassy area but be aware that if it’s rained recently there will probably be some standing water.

Better for walking your dog nearby will be Marion Dr. where there isn’t a lot of traffic and most of the residents are friendly. There are a couple of dogs along the way but most are restrained, though exceptionally barky, or are off leash and harmless. I’m talking to you, Mr. Dachsund.

You’ll also find a nursery and the McInnis Pottery studio at the South bend of the street across a private railroad crossing.

A crossing that’s quite pretty at blue and golden hours.

We stayed for nearly two weeks and found it quite comfortable (excepting some minor problems we had with our AC). There were a good number of people that stayed only a week or even just a night and several Tiffins came through on their way to or from Red Bay, which is where we were headed after finishing up in Meridian.

For more pictures and larger versions of those above, head over here.

Here’s also some video of the park and walk along Marion Dr.

While you’re in the area, give the Dentzel carousel, Temple Theater, Mississippi Industrial Heritage Museum (Soule Steamworks), Captain’s Amish Store and Sciple’s Mill a visit.