Originally, we thought we might stay at this campground for at least a couple of months, as we tied up some loose family ends in Wisconsin and Iowa. However, there have been a few potholes on that road.
When we signed on for the month, the owner of the campground warned me that "he's only one guy", and things can take awhile to get some attention. That only raised a little red flag. On the other hand, we might have thought twice if he had said: "The toilets may go ten days without getting cleaned, and the showers don't really work."
Now, you may be thinking, "what about the bathroom and shower in the Scamp?" It's true that there is a small wet bath, but Julia doesn't like to use it, especially if there's a full showerhouse and toilets less than 100' away.
The showers here are coin-operated. Two minutes for a quarter. In theory. Thinking that she needed a good six minute shower, Julia plugged 3 quarters in, and nothing happened. I advised going to the other shower, and trying just one quarter. The guys' shower starts up right away (with cold water). After a minute, the water turns lukewarm, and I add more quarters, if needed. The women's shower started right up, but sprayed sideways, soaking all of Julia's clothes and backpack. After moving her stuff, she managed to get a decent shower in with additional quarters.
On the next day, Julia went back to the shower that "kinda worked" and stepped in when the shower warmed up. She added two more quarters for a six minute shower. As soon as she got wet and lathered up, the shower abruptly stopped without warning. Julia was not a happy camper and has been taking showers at the school swimming pool since that time.
Yes, she did tell the owner. And he said, "I'm only one guy, you know. But I'll look at it."
He hasn't, so we took a road trip to another campground between Wisconsin Dells and Portage and signed up to switch over there in mid-June. It's much nicer with lots of amenities and many guys making sure everything is clean and working. More expensive, but if Momma ain't happy, no one else is happy.
The downside to all of this is we love this area. We can walk to one of Wisconsin's best breweries.
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| Scaredy Cat Oatmeal Stout |
We see eagles and pelicans on the river walk nearly every morning. It's a close enough drive that I've been able to play lots of advanced pickleball.
And Callie gets a four mile walk in the morning and a couple of miles in the evening.
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| Kennel? |
In other news, I made another trip to Iowa last week to further prepare my mom for a move to senior housing. Julia and I will both go this week for the actual move, which will also involve Two Men and a Truck. Once she is settled, we can turn our attention to relaxing for awhile in Wisconsin. There's a family reunion in mid June (Julia's side of the family), and then we're flying to Tucson for a week to look for a house. Callie will stay behind at the kennel.
6 comments:
A GREAT post!
Did you say the one-guy campground is privately owned? I hope you broadcasted its condition to every camping website.
It *looks* really pretty. Mosquitoes? Humidity?
Oh, no! Not a kennel? Is it a dog motel?
Yes, it's privately owned. We will post an appropriate review after our stay ends. We are paid through middle of June. The area is beautiful. We had a few mosquitoes one day when it was unusually hot (80's), but it's typically in the 60's and 70's this time of year. The kennel is very basic (block concrete walls). They have one job: keep Callie away from other dogs and safe. She does not play well with other dogs. They've done a good job with her on three other occasions and update her shots when she stays.
Functional inconsistency and other people's gunk are why I stopped using campground facilities, other than for a daily dump, years ago. But then again I have the dual advantages of no one else along with me, and being more feral than not. My sisters get around the issue be insisting thier rig have a fully functional bathroom and a 50 gallon potable tank!
What we are currently doing isn't really camping. We're just living in a campground temporarily in a very small camper, while finishing up some obligations. It's also worth saying that we are missing some of Tucson's very hot summer.
It was interesting talking with some of the weekenders here who couldn't believe that we are staying here for a whole month in the Scamp. Yes, they all had functional bathrooms and huge holding tanks.
So, you'll be house hunting here in Arizona? Tucson is very nice and not so much Urban Sprawl as Phoenix. I think housing is more reasonably priced too, here in Metro Phoenix the housing prices have soared, I'm glad we bought when Interest Rates were 2%. I'm done Moving, it becomes more of a chore the older you get, I ended up accumulating a lot of Cargo. *LOL* Camping is a mixed bag, isn't it, on the one hand it's a Wilderness Experience, which The Man loves, but me and the Kids, not so much coz we like Modern Amenities. So, I rather see the Wilderness and then go to a nice Hotel/Motel. *Ha ha ha* The Man on the other hand could be a Survivalist on one of those Reality Shows and never want to come back to Civilization.
Yes, we have visited Tucson at least a half dozen times over the years, and it seems to make the most sense for us in terms of a new start. Julia's mom lived in Sun City Grand, and we never really vibed with Phoenix during our visits. As you mentioned, Tuscon is much more reasonably priced and has the mountains that I love to hike. Colorado was also too expensive. Santa Fe was a Fanta-se, as my fellow-blogger Michael says. Nice place to visit but we can't afford to live there.
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