Differences in rules...

I was thinking about the challenges of differing rules between campgrounds and how hard it is to work within the rules. The only place that I really notice this is in the DFW area, because this is the only place that we really stay for a length of time, and move between campgrounds that are near each other. There are 3-4 campgrounds that we have used here:

• Lake Park, in Lewisville
• Willow Grove, in Lake Dallas
• Hickory Creek, in Hickory Creek
• Pilot Knoll, in Highland Village / Argyle

They aren't far apart, they are all on Lake Lewisville, I think they all were originally built by Corps of Engineers (COE). Only Hickory Creek is still a COE park, the other three are now owned/operated by the cities in which they are located.
Google map showing locations of the 4 parks
All of them have electric/water sites with a dump station. 

Varying rules:

• Lake Park allows you to make reservations 3 months in advance. You can reserve and stay up to 28 days. Once you have checked in, when you leave, whether you have stayed 1 night or 28 nights, you have to stay out of the park 14 nights. When you check in, you can pay for up to 7 nights; even if you have a reservation for 28 nights, you pay for 1 week at a time. You don't have to pay when you make the reservation, so you can make a reservation and then cancel with no penalty. You can leave at any point with no penalty (other than if you have paid for a week and you haven't stayed the full week, you don't get a refund) - but if you have a reservation for 28 days, you can stay for just a week and then leave with no penalty. You can hold only one reservation, so if you want to stay for multiple 28-day stays, you can't reserve the second one until your first stay starts... so when I checked in to Lake Park on 2/24, I had a reservation for 26 days (they didn't have availability for me to stay 28 days at that point); I asked, and made a reservation for checking back in 14 days after my checkout date (I subsequently changed that to check back in on 4/12). Senior discount is 50% off the nightly rate and is available for 60 years or older. 50A sites are $22, I think 30A sites are $20.
• Willow Grove - only allows online reservations. You can reserve and stay for up to 14 days out of any 30 days. The senior discount is for people 65 or older, and I think it is just 10%. I don't know how far in advance sites can be booked, but I just tried booking over a year in the future and it appeared to allow me to go through the booking process. If you cancel your reservation, there is a penalty - the site says 50% of your reservation fee - I don't know whether it means 50% of the first night's fee or 50% of the whole reservation. You can hold multiple reservations at one time, as long as you comply with the 14 nights in 30 rule. This park is heavily used by tent campers and day-use on nice weekends - to the point that it is a bit uncomfortable for RV staying due to lack of respect for privacy (people walking through sites, using picnic tables, not aware of site courtesy, etc.).
• Hickory Creek - reservations through the federal government site, recreation.gov. You can reserve and stay for up to 14 days out of any 30 days. Senior rate is available to holders of the Golden Age (federal park) pass, and I think also the America the Beautiful pass will get you 1/2 price rates (since the rates for 50A sites are $30/night, and the America the Beautiful pass costs $80 for a year, it would be worthwhile for me to get the pass if I'm going to stay there more than 5 nights as it would save me 6*$15=$90). I am not certain how far in advance sites can be booked - I just tried to book for a year in advance, and it didn't let me choose any dates beyond December, 2019. Cancellation fee is 50% of the first night's fee. You can hold multiple reservations at one time, as long as you comply with the 14 nights in 30 rule.
• Pilot Knoll - I don't know as much about this campground; we only have stayed in it a couple of times.

Trying to figure out where to go when is challenging!