“What day is it? Thursday…no…Friday? Are you sure?”
~ Donna or Vic…at least once weekly
So much I could write about, but after almost 2300 miles, 12 campgrounds, 5 states, 4 national parks, 3 Harvest Hosts (referral link) and a Walmart parking lot, 2 attempts at a gray tank valve repair, and 1 pretty significant logistical oops, it’s hard to condense it all down.
So I’ll start with the oops, since it’s top of mind and still providing a few laughs.
On Sunday, August 14, we enjoyed a leisure morning on the last day of our week in Forks, Washington. We didn’t have far to go that day and check in time wasn’t until 1pm so we were in no hurry. Forks had been a nice stay with plenty of time to enjoy the northwestern corner of the northwestern state, exploring tide pools and rain forests, and the amazing hike down to where Washington dumps in to the ocean at the westernmost point of the lower US. This was the second week in our three-week tour of the Olympic Peninsula. We started in Sequim, Washington, where I had my fill of amazing seafood and we explored lavender farms and the eastern part of Olympic National Park. The upcoming week would be the last week in the region and we were celebrating our 3rd anniversary. We planned a week in Copalis Beach, Washington, and a nice RV park just minutes from gorgeous beaches. Vic made dinner reservations for us in nearby Aberdeen and we had hopes for horseback rides and maybe even renting mopeds.
Getting these three weeks planned and finding suitable week-long stays in each town was challenging when I made these plans back in April. Lots of places were filling up and those that weren’t full had few spots that we might fit into. It’s relatively easy when you can just plug the dates into the online reservation tool, but when you have to wait for return emails and phone calls, meanwhile hoping the campsite at the other place doesn’t get filled before you can confirm this place, it’s a little more challenging…and stressful. Getting the dates to align at three different campgrounds in three towns around the peninsula without backtracking was a puzzle, and one I was proud to have figured out. But it was done. We could relax and look forward to the experience.
Back to Sunday morning. We hitch up, have a light lunch before hitting the road, and set out on the 90 mile drive. Right around 1:00 we pull into Driftwood RV Resort in Copalis. Like many RV resorts and campgrounds, the camp host met us at the entrance to get us registered. I’m pretty sure her name was Mary, but I may be misremembering. There was a little confusion about which name the reservation was under and after a trip back to the office with no luck, Mary asked what site we had reserved. When I told her #15 she had a funny look on her face and headed back into the office a third time. I followed along, opening the reservation email on my phone to clear up any confusion.
And boy did the confusion get cleared up.
Remember how I said it was Sunday, August 14th? Well, our reservation in Copalis was for Sunday, August 21. A full week later, in the middle of a busy summer season, at a popular and well-reviewed RV park in a beachy place along the Washington coast. For seven nights. Not these seven nights, but the NEXT seven nights. I immediately flashed back to April when I was researching all available RV parks and campgrounds and despite this one being a little more expensive and having a very restrictive cancellation policy, we decided it was worth the risk because it was in the right place, we could fit, and the location was ideal. I recalled that there wasn’t anything else suitable for miles and if they were, they were further inland. And it was our anniversary week and we wanted to spend it at the shore….like when we first met.
After I recovered from the realization and explained it to Mary, she was relieved it wasn’t her mistake. I laughed. She sighed with relief. Then we both just looked at each other. “Well, do you happen to have anything at all we can use for a few nights?” While she set to trying to solve our problem, I had the pleasure of telling Vic what I’d done. He’d been patiently waiting outside and trying to help another driver navigate around our extended roadblock of the entrance. For the first time in two years, I’d goofed the dates and left us without a place to stay. Oh, I’m sure I’ve messed up dates before. But if so, it’s been quickly realized and remedied and never left us standing at check-in a week before our reserved stay. Did I mention the restrictive cancellation policy? We stood to lose almost $500. Now we both laughed. Because. What else would you do?
Back in to the office. Mary pulled a magic trick and was able to get us into one of the long-term spots that was vacant until Friday. Five days was a heck of a lot more than I could have hoped for. And it was a snazzy, landscaped spot with wonderful shade trees and a huge “yard!” We held out hope that the incoming reservation would cancel and we could stay the weekend, but nope. That didn’t happen. In the meantime, I’d gone back to the drawing board, between foggy beach walks and breezy naps. By mid-week, we had already decided that even if a different space in the park opened up, if we had to pack up and move, we might as well move on.
Needing a spot on short notice for the weekend meant we would likely stay in two different places. It wasn’t really worth the trouble of checking in, setting up, unhitching, packing up, hitching, etc., twice in two days, so we found a couple of Harvest Host locations enroute to our next stop that offered quiet respite, something to entertain ourselves, and didn’t require us to unhitch. Our batteries and propane would easily get us through the two days without power.
Both ended up being two places we probably never would have stopped at otherwise, but are happy we had the opportunity. The first was The Chehalis Washington Veterans Memorial Museum, an amazing collection of stories and artifacts from local veterans of all wars. We stayed in a field next door and spent quite some time enjoying the museum before cooking up an easy stove top dinner and watching the world go by.
The second was at Gather and Feast Farm in La Center, Washington. An event farm owned and managed by a catering couple. We slept to the tunes of coyotes and woke with the roosters. A quick visit to the farm stand yielded fresh eggs and homemade zucchini bread for breakfast.
Back on track and richer for the experience, we arrived on Sunday, August 21 at our next stay in Memaloose State Park. You can be sure I tripled checked THAT reservation! Also, because life is full of irony, just days after we arrived here a guest blog I wrote for Lippert posted to their website. The title? “How to plan an RV trip.” I feel like I should submit an edited version to include…double check the dates!
Our summer vacation comes to an easy end next week when we check in at Cape Lookout State Park (not that awesome National Seashore place in North Carolina – but another fabulous coastline on the other side of the country!) for our volunteer gig selling firewood to campers. With a 16 hour work week, maybe I’ll catch you up on the food, the fun road trips, and other excitement of the summer.
Safe travels!
Where To Now 