Chicago friends: picture for a moment, a tree-lined campground wedged between Lincoln Park high-rises and hipster amenities. Now populate it with an eccentric mix of transients and iconoclasts and add a liberal sprinkling of Airstreams and yard ornaments.

Established in 1946, Pecan Grove RV Park is a funky oasis in the middle of Austin. It’s also one of the last RV parks where you can camp just blocks from a major city’s downtown district.

Its location is its best asset—and the one that makes it necessary to reserve months in advance. Many of the tiny enclave’s sites are seasonal or permanent. The few remaining sites go fast.

And no wonder. Austin’s incredible Zilker Park, offering trails, paddling and a spring fed public pool, is just blocks away. So too, is just about any other thing you might need, want or desire. Seriously. Barbecue? Check. Micro brewery? 2 doors down. Juice store? Across the street. Artisan mini mart? Bike store? Music? Yes, yes, yes. And food trucks? So many that they congregate on corners and empty lots, forming temporary al-fresco food courts in every direction.

If it sounds too good to be true, that’s because it could be. Bob, Pecan Grove’s manager, tells us that there were two more RV parks on this street. But they, like a lot of other businesses around here, were squeezed out to make room for rapidly propagating condos and apartment complexes.

For now those luxury towers, along with the eponymous nut trees, provide cooling shade that we enjoy while chatting with our neighbors in the late afternoon. I can’t imagine a better way to get a feel for a city that reminds its residents to “Keep Austin Weird”.

Stay: There’s no shuffleboard, pool, or bingo and the bathrooms are funky, but the people are friendly and Pecan Grove RV Park’s location is hard to beat. (512)472-1067.