I had made reservations at a Jellystone Park, as
these were the lil one’s favorite after staying at one in Texas on a weekend
camping trip in a tent during the summer.
We were expecting to stay busy with all their activities the campground
normally plans, for the busy travel season.
When making these plans we had visions of sitting in the hot tub,
bouncing on the pillow, playing putt-putt, evening hayrides meeting the
neighbors; and on special weekends zooming down a CHOCOLATE slip-n-slide, who
wouldn’t love THAT?!?!
We couldn’t wait
to get there and when we did, boy what a surprise it was. The date being 2
weeks prior to Memorial day never dawned on me until that moment. Our being new to RV’ing is what I’ll blame
this one on, you see Memorial Day is the day when most campgrounds kick off
their Summer activities, and not a day earlier. If you’re thinking ‘What could go wrong now?’,
well thank you for paying attention and noticing that we very often seem to
have some of the worst luck possible.
We
pulled in and the first thing in our vision is of course the big Yogi Bear
photo op statue with nothing but a drained pool that is being repaired behind
it. We looked around and the bouncing
pillow was deflated, the golf course was closed, the hot tub was also drained;
nothing like we have envisioned for our first weekend in South Dakota. While getting checked in they did let us know
that on request we could get the bouncing pillow blown up in a matter of
minutes if the lil one wanted, that made the day a little brighter, but the hot
tub was out of the question.
It
didn’t take too long to set up, knowing it was only going to be a weekend stay,
I knew what needed to be unpacked and what we could live without. My dream is to eventually get the whole rig
down to only the things we can’t live without, and that is why I call it a
dream, forever out of my reach. Learning
that the park was not operating at 100% we had to plan the day, actually plan
the day; Yogi wouldn’t be hosting crafting hour and puppet shows this weekend
to entertain the lil one. Us being us,
the tourists that we are, this wasn’t very hard to do. The locals suggested going to Falls Park to
see the waterfalls Sioux Falls is famous for, the Great Plains Zoo was close by,
open, and it was a nice day outside;
seems tomorrow was planned in a matter of minutes.
After getting the dog walked and the bellies full,
we settled in for the night. Being that
we were still in the ‘off-season’ the park was empty and very quiet, it made
for very peaceful rest. This is the
double edged sword you walk choosing where to stay and what season to be there
in. For all the fun family activities,
the squeals/screams of kids as they play well beyond dark around the blazing
campfire as the parents move onto their liquid diet, you have to put up with
people all around, all the time. For the
peace, quiet and solitude on the side of a lake with only 3 kids total in the
whole campground that have bedtimes, you have to get off the beaten path, as
the lil one’s parents like to do. The
parents just don’t always get their wish and we have to visit these tourist
traps every now and then to keep the tranquility.
Until Next Time…..
When using a public campground, a tuba placed on
your picnic table will keep the campsites on either side vacant. ~Author
Unknown
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