I should have stayed home

Iraqvet05-JAY

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2013
Messages
1,717
Location
Kansas City
My wife is a runner and is always looking for new places to run. She and a few of her friends found a small half marathon in El Dorado, KS over the July 4th weekend. My gut told me to find us a hotel room but she wanted to camp.

I had a tough time finding a campsite within 30 minutes but finally found an opening at the El Dorado State Park. We had to book 3 nights because of the holiday but we couldn't come down to the 5th.

Before we even left, our newly licensed 16 year old backed into the front set of steps of our camper. His car wasn't damaged but the bottom step was bent bad enough to where the step would not fold in. I spent about 40 minutes swapping the rear steps to the front and we left the damages steps at home.

We make the 3 hour drive on Friday from Kansas City to El Dorado. When I stopped for gas, I apparently left the gas cap on the truck bed (the tether broke 3 years ago) and the "check gas cap" message appeared a few times on the way down.

When we got the the correct CG (there are multiple around the large lake), the traffic and crowds were horrible. As we puled up to our reserved site, we found a car and 3 younger adults starting to cook dinner at our site. I got out and told them they were in our reserved spot (clearly marked on the pedestal) and they politely, but slowly, packed up and left.

Almost every site was occupied with at least 2, sometimes 4 cars and some had boats or jet skis on trailers. There was a site with 4 tents near us that had at least 5 cars and a boat occupying the site; the State of Kansas clearly wasn't enforcing any of their rules this weekend. We saw inflatable pools at a few sites with kids trying to beat the heat. We saw 2 campers pulled head in to their sites (why do people do this?). While the CG was beyond capacity it was rather quiet to us that night from inside the camper until people in our loop started shooting off fireworks around 10.

My wife ran her race early the next morning while my son tried to catch some fish. Later that day we enjoyed shooting some .22s and pistols at the nearby state shooting range. The staff at the range was super nice and it was a great facility. We did some antique shopping in town and more (unsuccessful) fishing that evening.

We packed up early this morning and hit the dump station by 8 before the sleeping masses started stirring and headed home. Oh yeah, the lid to our propane tank cover managed to fly off on the trip as well. I told my wife this is the last time I wanted to camp on a holiday weekend and she agreed.
 
Why I have always stayed home on holiday weekends. Not to mention the traffic going and coming. Sounds like the you made a good weekend of of what could have been worse.
 

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We're always traveling for most of June and July. This is the first year in a while we were in the US for the 4th. The once a year "campers" were in full swing.

We also were in Canada for Canada Day. Also surrounded by less than ideal neighbors.

I also lost the hardware for my propane top, not managed to find the actual cover. The replacement BTW is $20 at Amazon in it's the Campco model.
 
We have had a standing rule for years, never camp on a holiday weekend. Way too many people, some with no consideration for others.

Years ago we had a similar weekend. Had a Coleman pop-up camper. Drove one Friday night after work from Wichita area to Milford State Park at Junction City, 2.5 to 3 hours. Setting up the camper one of the cables broke on the crank-up lift mechanism. It was already getting late. Couldn't find anything to prop up the corner so we broke camp and drove home that night. Shortest camping trip to date. Wasn't funny at the moment but we still laugh about that trip when we think about it.
 
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This year we traveled 3.5 hrs from home to Buffalo Rivwr S.P. we haven't been before. Nice park.

Shredded a tire, 50 miles from the park. Spent Wednesday finding 4 new tires. Luckily minimal damage.

Rook us 5.5 hours coming home. One area the interstate shutdown, guessing an accident in a single lane construction zone.

DW said we should have come home on Saturday to avoid the holiday traffic.
 
We learned years ago. Holiday weekends are for the amateurs. Too many people. Too much noise. We stay home.
 
I think the secret to long weekends is to go a few days early, if you can, and leave on Saturday. We spent two weeks at Lake Lanier, in a COE campground, and left on Saturday. Only three campers checked out on Saturday. Over 50 were checking out on Sunday!
 
We are retired and usually stay home on holidays. Sometime we are set up and stay but try to avoid driving the rig on any holiday.
 
We were lucky, we stayed at a small state park outside of Nashville TN over Memorial Day and had a great stay. But we moved into the park on Sunday and moved out on Thursday after Memorial Day. There was a problem with some squatters moving into the emergency backup camping site on Memorial Day and they left a mess for that the park staff had to clean up.
 
I Should Have Stayed Home

We are lucky enough to live at a beach area that has a couple of small campgrounds. Every major holiday we leave town and leave to the campers.
We come home to a mess on the beach.
 
Between the price increase and the amount of people, we always stay home on holiday weekends.
 

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