Raven’s RV
The ongoing education and adventures of two rank newbie RVers

Oct 24, 2007

Our first campground

Filed in Blog

We rolled into the RV park which looked suspiciously like a KOA with its faux Swiss cottage reception and little wooden cabins. We stopped in the staging area, a strip of parking in front of the office, and went in to register.

A quick chat with the staff on duty revealed that it had in fact been a KOA until the family-owned business had become tired of being told what to do. So they went independent and KOA went ahead and opened another campground nearby despite (allegedly) saying that they wouldn’t. It hadn’t apparently harmed them: when the weekend rolled around it looked like every space was occupied, and about half the park was full when we moved in midweek.

They warned us that the campground, a standard field planted with trees and rows of RVs, was right next to the railroad. I had no problem with that. My first home in the USA was also right next to the railroad and I find the sound of passing trains and their sirens very soothing.

Parking and backing up was easier with walkie-talkies. They cost about $10 from a drugstore and, incidentally, if you see bulk packages of AAA batteries, grab them with both hands (or buy rechargables) because they’re definitely not as common as AAs.

We did hook-ups for the first time. The electricity is supplied from a little closet on a pole. You flick the breakers on and plug your RV into the appropriate location (sometimes there is a choice between 15 amps, 30 amps and 50 amps, and ours is 30). Apprently the two types come with different plugs, so it’s hard to get it wrong.

Then we did water and sewage. We dumped our tanks and swilled them out as best we could. Interesting gassy smells emerged, but it was otherwise remarkably easy and not at all the horror that I had expected from watching RV. ;)

We needed to go get more hoses for the water system. I hopped on the back of my own bike and rediscovered exactly how painful it is to sit on a bike that with the rear footpeg missing for more than about five minutes. I did however learn something new: there are special garden hoses rated for drinking water. The others are made with petroleum products which can leak nasty chemicals like bleach into your water.

Trains passed, a few every hour. These were not passenger trains but great long freight trains, and they sounded an interesting variety of horns off at all hours. Sometimes it felt as though they were honking just for the fun of it, great monsters in the dark communicating with one another. Tucked up in bed, it felt as though we were in our own world, far from everyone and everything.