Campground Grumblings

Campground grumblings…  I don’t know if this blog will make it to the web.  If you are reading it, then obviously it did – just know that I waffled on this a long time as to whether it should.

Happy thought of the day.  One of my granddaughters and I were sitting on the edge of our sites concrete patio having a discussion when she suddently stood up, took a step forward and exlaimed “A four leaf clover!”  Sure enough, there it was a couple of feet in front of her.  We laminated it and marked it with the date and location for her keepsake box.

Early last summer, we joined Thousand Trails.  And no, this really is not some sort of long complaint about TT and whether they are a good fit for you or not.  It is somewhat about TT, perhaps more about industry in general and people who use parks as well as those who design them.

We’ve gone to a number of parks (not TT) where the campground hosts insisted on not only showing us to our spot, but guiding us into the spot.  I always wondered just a bit why there were so insistent on the full escort.  What follows is the reason why.

So, let me just jump in. We have been staying in, maybe six TT parks so far. Clearly, I’m not qualified to speak for even the majority of their parks.  Yet there are clear trends.  Every park we’ve been in has a range of sites.  Some even have brand new spacious concrete pads with brand new asphalt roads.  Many have older sites where everything is gravel often with crumbling asphalt roads.  Sometimes, if the park is busy enough, all that are left are “buddy sites” where two sites are backed right up to each other – you are lucky if you have room enough between extended slides to walk between rigs.  But even those are still better than Walmart.

Unfortunately, some parks with nice new sites reserve those for “paying customers”; particularly long term or annual RVs.  One park we went to (Sedona) had nice new sites up on a hill (we weren’t allowed to use) and old sites down at the bottom – and there was no cell at the bottom.  We were caravanning with our daughter who has to have decent cell for her work.  We had to give up our reservations and move to a different, private, park the next day.

TT parks also don’t manage who uses which site at all.  While most sites in many parks are quite reasonably sized, some of the older parks have quite a variety of lengths.  Add to this that they seem to attempt to fill EVERY site.  We went to one TT park and simply could not find two spots we could park our Class A RVs in.  We did see 15-foot trailers parked in 60-foot-long sites and we did see two empty sites we had no chance of fitting into.  The park staff were no help.  They wouldn’t let us leave and come back the next day: if you leave during your reservation – you are out for the remainder – or so we were told.  We had to scramble to find a place to stay for the duration of that reservation.

TT parks do not reserve sites.  You enter the park, register, then drive around playing the equivalent of musical chairs with your 40-foot RV.  If you get stuck in a bad spot – you can cruise, looking for people who are leaving the next day and hover outside their site the next morning waiting for them to leave.  So far, we’ve been pretty lucky to find at least workable spots.

So not to be too negative, TT has been good for us, this year.  Prior to the situation we are in now (Covid, caravanning), we never would have considered a membership.  We prefer state/national parks and boondocking.  All TT parks we were in had at least some full hookup and 50-amp sites.  Some, we ended up on 30-amp, water sites as that were all there was left.  Others, we choose 50-amp, water instead of 30 full hookups, because there was much more space between sites.  There was always one or more working dump sites.  Almost universally, staff have been friendly and helpful.

So, back to what’s wrong….  Some parks there were a significant number of sites blocked off because something needed fixing.  Roads had potholes.  Some sites were soft and rutted.  Others had nice new areas we weren’t allowed to use.  Other’s, like the one we are in now, had several older sections and a brand new one with wide concrete pads and new road.  BUT, drainage was never properly considered in the initial design.  Some sites, water runs off the hill above and spreads slimey mud throughout the site.  There are no bumpers to keep someone from accidentally backing off the sites that aren’t pull throughs (saw someone do this and instantly sunk his Class A’s rear wheels up to the rims).  To their credit, in this park, they continue to modify, maintain and upgrade the park to address issues on both the old and new areas.  Today we are treated to concrete saws and grinders so they can install two new drains across the road right next to our sites.  We’d rather put up with some noise along with improvements than to see them do nothing to fix problems.

So, switching to the other side of the issue.  Campers or RVers or weekenders – take your pick.  Some driveways are not long enough to fit a 25-foot long superduty truck in after parking the 42 ft fifth wheel,so people drive across the grass to park on the patio.  Or, people bring ATVs and golf carts with aggressive tires and repeatedly drive across the grass until its ground almost entirely to mud.  Or people can’t figure out how to park their RV without driving off the driveway, sometimes several feet.  Or they back out of their spot, all the way across the road into the grass on the other side and spin out when they start forward.  In other words, many people have no respect whatsoever for the campground property.  This is further compounded by the fact that the in the newer section of the campground there are sprinkers and valves RIGHT NEXT TO THE STREET AND DRIVEWAY(who designs this stuff?).  Thus, if someone does miss the driveway, the sprinkler heads or control boxes are crushed.  This damage is ongoing – nearly every day I see another new example.  It would take a crew several days a week just to keep up with grounds repair.  In some places they’ve put up posts next to the driveways, and in some of those cases, the posts just get driven right over.

Compressed dirt, tire damaging ledge.
Compressed dirt, tire damaging ledge.
Missed the driveway by how much?
Missed the driveway by how much?
Repeated ATV crossing.
Repeated ATV crossing.
Truck pulling trailer missed corner.
Truck pulling trailer missed corner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It’s not just TT parks either.  This picture are from a Texas State park.  This one, someone,

Ya didn't see the post?
Ya didn’t see the post?

backing in a trailer or 5thwheel not only went way off the wide road, but drove right over the site post across the street.  I realize a lot of people are newbies and newbies will make mistakes.  We did – ended up with a creased storage door trying to negotiate a tight pullthrough at a campground in Canada.  It was a pullthrough with a 90 degree turn and stumps hidden in overgrown brush, but we just didn’t look carefully enough before attempting to navigate into the site.   I believe that when and RV is sold, it should come with a 30 minute, at a minimum, driving class.  Show people on paper how to back up their rig or show a few Youtube videos, then take them out to a marked off area in the parking lot (lots of room these days) and help them back in as well as demonstrate how someone should spot for them.  We did study how to navigate our 34 foot class A around corners long before we picked it up.

I also wonder if a bit of labeling would help.  Just knowing how long a site is from the street to the back bumper would help.  Of course, some people would ignore the numbers or simply not understand, at first, what the numbers mean.  For example, if a site was labeled 40-65, then if the combined length of your RV and tow or towed was less than 40 or more then 65 feet, this this site is not for you.  I know, too much to hope for.

So, I’m not sure what the takeaway here is, except a significant portion of RVers don’t respect the facilities, or don’t have the experience to not make the common mistakes.  It is also that whomever designs park layouts could do so in a manner that minimized some of these issues which would, in turn, improve the quality of the park while reducing the maintenance and repair costs.  Seems like a win all the way around.

Fires

Firefighting Helecopter
Firefighting Helicopter
Fire & Sunset
Fire & Sunset (all pictures click to larger version)
Fire west of Cody
Fire west of Cody

There is a forest fire just down the road. (when I started writing this).   I’d thought I’d lead with that, as it’s the most exciting thing that has occurred in the last couple of months.   I guess I ought to be thankful for that considering the state of the world right now.   It took them four or five days to put it out. There were still a number of crews on site when we left the area. We were nearing the end of our two weeks stay between Cody, WY and Yellowstone National Park.  We’ve made several forays into the park.  Early on, it was quite empty.  Toward the end, traffic picked up, but by no means was it every like we’ve experienced in the past.  Only a few people wearing masks outside the stores and too many not wearing them inside the stores.  We saw Bison, pronghorn, elk, a coyote (close up), a grizzly and her cub as well as two other bears.  The only traffic jams were construction and Bison/Elk/Bear jams.  Camping inside the park was closed except for one first come first serve campground.  We didn’t want to drag the RVs all the way in there just to find out it was full up.

Coyote in Yellowstone
Coyote in Yellowstone

Grizzley

Oh, the fire – about 5 miles west of us.  It had us worried a bit, but looking at the terrain in between us and it, we felt there was enough to stop it.  There was quite a response from a diverse collection of government agencies, local firefighters, USFS, BLM (Bureau of Land Management that is), and HOTSHOT firefighters groups.  A handful of firefighting aircraft were tackling the fire as well.  We were never in any real danger, but with all the dry wind out here, it is important to pay attention.

I’ve been repairing and enhancing as usual.  I finished, hopefully, the construction of the table for the left arm of the couch.  I built it some time ago, but it needed tweaking.  Now that I’m done, it also still needs staining.  Our towing electrical connector (truck side) went bad.  I just replaced both ends while I was at it.Tow Connector replacement

I replaced the XM Radio antenna.  When we replaced the CB antenna and coax, I noticed the ground plane/mount for the CB had crushed the XM radio coax as installed at the factory.  It still worked, so I just left it.  Besides, I didn’t have a replacement and didn’t want to wait on putting the CB back together till I had one.  Over the next month, the XM radio reception went downhill to the point it wasn’t tolerable.  We had another task that lined up with this one.  Some time ago, we bought a second video monitor that came with four cameras.  We used one of them to provide a good rear view for driving.  Then we had the idea to put two of the cameras on the sides like the big diesel rigs have. (We haven’t done that yet.)  And the fourth camera – “Let’s put it on the roof to look forward for clearance!”  So, I mounted the camera on the front air conditioner cover, looking forward – it shows both front corners for “branch clearance” and the camera is mounted even with the top of the cover, to check for vertical clearance as well.  Well the camera works – haven’t had a need  to check branches for clearance yet, but it does provide a unique point of view when traveling under bridges.

Just a note about running antenna cables on a Class A.  The antenna is mounted on the roof, on fiberglass, just above the driver.  In order to run (or re-run) the cable, I have to take apart the back of the cabinet over the driver, then loosen part of the side window trim, then remove the plastic covering the left corner column between the windshield and side window.   Then pull the cable down and tie-strip it to existing wiring – then make a hole out into the engine compartment, then make a hole back through the firewall to the space under the dash, then run the cable up over the steering column, break, etc., then connect it to the radio.  Oh, I forgot – the antenna on the roof is connected to a metal plate that covers the hole in the fiberglass which must be sealed with self-leveling sealant.  It takes about three hours to complete.  The XM radio follows the same path as does our coax cable for the video camera. My daughter’s Maybach was even worse – the flat part of the dash had to be removed to make room to take the side piece out.  Her Class A didn’t have a radio and we wanted to be able to talk while caravanning.  Then we had issues with their radio (was free), so we finally thing we have it all ironed out but will see on the next long trip.

Dash – I’ve had way too much Tiffin Dash.  Whenever it was cold, the driver would complain and complain about being cold (ok, justifiably 8^} ).  There was always cold air coming out from under the dash.  There was also a pile of small dead bugs on top the dash by the windshield after every driving session.  AND the dash isn’t flat, so when the shade comes down, it wrinkles because the it doesn’t lay flat.  I found a number of small holes in the area where pedals are mounted and even in the floor – but plugging them didn’t stop the cold air.  I then realized that the cold air was coming in between the horizontal-front part of the dash and the firewall.  But no amount of caulking seemed to fix it.  After the next drive, the caulk would be cracked, and air was still coming in.  I looked it all over again and discovered one of the four screws by the windshield wasn’t screwed into the fiberglass body.  I fixed that by reinstalling the screw.  We had realized that when driving – the dash “inflates” due to the air pressure from below.  That lift broke any caulk and let air in.  I dug out the old layers of caulk and weighted down the dash to press it against the firewall bracket.  I then drilled holes in the bracket at the top of the firewall and then very carefully ran screws through the bracket into the plywood that is the basis for the dash.  I had to be careful – I needed the screws to grab into the plywood, but not stick up into the vinyl cloth that is on top of the dash plywood.  I now have 8 screws that hopefully will keep the air pressure from lifting the dash and letting air underneath.  Finally, I reran a bead of caulk.  During drove to Idaho the driver gladly reports, no cold air. And it is cold out.

The state park in Wyoming has from 10% full to nearly 100% (weekends).  We’ve seen our share of Covid Campers, in every park.  Covid campers as I call them, typically have a showroom clean RV, temporary plates or are driving a rental RV.  I realize that not everyone that fits that description is a new camper, but watching some of them set up, they clearly are.  Especially the ones you see get their dump hose fresh out of a box.  I expect and secretly hope, it’s just a fad. The last thing us full-time and near full-time people need is a bunch of ill-prepared, badly acting novices spreading Covid-19 and filling up campgrounds. Too many states already don’t allow campgrounds to be open and too many “campers” are gathering in large groups, especially around July 4rth.  We will continue to use all our available resources to find out-of-the-way campsites or boondocking spots where we can sit still for a couple of weeks or more at a time.  And yes, we wear our masks in public!  That being said, we also bought into Thousand Trails so we have alternatives when the out of the way places aren’t open or not accessible.  We don’t “like” camping this way, but when you are stuck on the road, all resources must be used.  Our hope is to spend half our time boondocking or at least dry camping and half at parks.

Once we got to Idaho – it began snowing. Not just a bit, but heavy, wet spring snow.

Tetons
Tetons

We almost had plans to drive north then west into Washington, but that would have been right into the heart of a late spring, high altitude snowstorm, so we sat there for a few days, hoping for better weather and time to create a better plan for where we go from here.  We sat here for nearly a week, with some nicer sunny weather, long wildlife drives and even a quick trip to the Tetons.

After Idaho, came Oregon and a county park, then up to Washington to our first Thousand Trails

Mt St Helens from Campground
Mt St Helens from Campground

campsite over the Fourth of July.  Most of the amenities, are, of course, closed.  It’s an older park, in need of some TLC; more than it is getting.  There are at least a couple of dozen sites closed for various reasons (utility problems?).  But it served us, fairly well, for nearly three weeks of the summer.  Repairs and modifications continue at a slow pace and we’ve spent several days on short and long day-trips, trying to view the mountains of Washington in between the clouds; only being somewhat successful.  We eventually did get to see Mt Rainier in its full glory.  Mt St Helens never quite cleared of clouds, except on days we couldn’t go see it.

Mt Rainier
Mt Rainier

 

We never planned to join Thousand Trails, but with issues finding RV park spots and the fact that our daughter was a TT member so we could both park for less (or nothing) at system parks – it made some sense.  We hope.  Camping under the Covid Cloud is different.  There was a sense of freedom we experienced when we traveled in years past.  Sure, there were always issues with finding places to park, but the virus adds a level of foreboding to everything.  This country is acting so stupid and selfish in many ways.  The daily death count seems to simply be accepted by so many.  We mask up whenever we will be near other people, indoor or out.  And despite a steadily rising death count, and a falling average age of infection, AND dwindling hospital beds in so many cities, there is still no shortage of idiots telling us that it’s all a hoax – that it will all magically disappear after the election.  That masks will kill you.  Too many of them are friends and family.  We should be pulling together as family but are letting stupid politicians drive wedges between us. How many hundreds of thousands have to die before it becomes real to everyone?  Or maybe it’s just that one person, they know, that has to die before it becomes real.

But those are meaningless fires.  We were heading from Leavenworth, toward the area north, of Seattle on Highway 2. We were coming down the backside which was 6 and 7% grade for a long way – like ten miles.  We were towing our vehicles and got a little too aggressive on the downhill. We had been on 7% downhills before without issue, but this one was much longer.   We started smelling hot brakes – pulled into a pull-off and we could see the brakes smoking. I grabbed a temp gun and hit the right front rotor – and it went off scale.  Then I realized I could see a small flame through the hole in the wheel.  I keep one of those “no residue” fire extinguishers in the kitchen – which I grabbed and put the fire out.  In the end, I think it was just that waxy gunk they put on the brake rotors to keep them from rusting before they are installed.  No question though, they were way too hot – we used too much brake on the way down and engine braking wasn’t enough.  We were only going 40-45, but that clearly was picking up energy too fast.  Our front brakes have a cooling scoop but hidden up behind all the front fiberglass – it doesn’t do a lot of good.  Our daughter’s RV didn’t even have an air scoop.  So, we waited nearly half an hour till everything was below 300F, disconnected the towed vehicles, flipped on the four-way flashers and took our time going down the rest of the way. We stopped after a mile or so and temps were down around 200.   Now we need to see if some shop time is required because we overheated everything.

Speaking of heat – did you know Washington has a desert in it?  Drive east from the shore and you hit a point where instead of everything being green and literally dripping with water, everything is brown and dried up.  Except along the rivers, where they irrigate like crazy and grow apples, peaches, pears, grapes and more.  It is also 20 degree or more warmer there, so we only stayed a day before running away from the soon to be 100+ degree weather into cooler temps farther north.  We want to do some serious boondocking, but not in 100-degree weather.

So we will be in Washington, well north of Seattle, for the next few weeks, isolating as much as possible, enjoying nature as much as possible.