Screwed Up

Yesterday, August 4^th, we left Newport and drove south on US 101, destination Honeyman State Park, just south of Florence, OR.  I emptied the holding tanks before hitting the road; in the meantime, Trish scanned the Honeyman reservation printout.  When I got back into the truck, she informed me that I screwed up when I made the reservation: it was for the 5^th instead of the 4^th.  ‘Mikey, you’re a dumbass!’ (she didn’t say that; I did).  So, we were homeless trailer trash.

T called Honeyman to see if they had a one-nighter available.  Nope.  We lost cell phone coverage a few minutes later so couldn’t check on other possibilities along our route.  We stopped at a Forest Service campground near Yachats which had open sites but none large enough for our rig.

 A few minutes further down the road, we stopped at a small private RV park on the ocean side of the road.  They had an open site and a laundry, which we needed, so Trish said, ‘We’ll take it!’  The check-in lady said, ‘That’ll be $72.67’.  T and I looked at each other in dismay, never having paid that much per night, nor anything close.  We told the lady that we’d check out the site before we signed up.  It had a partial ocean view but no privacy and, being only 50’ off Hwy 101, had big time road noise, definitely not worth $73.

Back on the road, we soon came upon a state park/camping sign with an arrow pointing to our right.  I got into the right turn lane and was one car length from the turn when a much smaller sign appeared: Day Use Area (arrow pointing right); Campground (arrow pointing left).  Shit!  I’m in the right turn lane, but have to turn left!  No cars coming either way, so what the hell, did a hard left across 3 lanes of traffic and made the turn okay.  ‘Dumb SOBs.  The signs suck!’  Good thing there were no state troopers around.

The state park, Carl G Washburne Memorial, had a few sites available but only one looked long enough (45') for us without unhooking.  We nailed it, full hookup, for $31, and became happy campers once again. 

Now, doesn’t this little story just make you feel warm all over, and - dare I say - renew your faith in mankind?  The heroes, faced with sudden horrendous disaster, staunchly soldier on, only to fail in their first attempt at redemption, yet valiantly persevering, failing again but still undaunted, keeping a stiff upper lip despite severe trials and tribulations, and finally, after a lengthy (at least 90 minutes!) and arduous struggle, finally succeeding in their quest.  Oh yeah!