Bound to Happen

Worst Campground Ever

I have passed a few dumps this week while on The Outer Banks, but I finally stumbled into what I hoped to be the better of the two private campgrounds in Ocracoke. The third choice was the National Park, dry camping for $20. I have done it before, could do it again, but it is suppose to gust to 40 mph tonight and thought I would freeze to death in the sand dunes, my worst fear in life. I selected Teeter’s, what I hoped would be the better of the two (neither are listed in Frommer’s Best Campgrounds in America) and took refuge in my RV under threatening skies. Thank God for broadband wireless internet connections, electricity, curtains and my own bathroom. I could drive and ferry back to Hatteras Village, but would have to backtrack in the early morning.

I’ve learned a few lessons while RV camping, most of them this week:

1. If you automatically cringe when you go over a speed bump, you are going too fast. If there are no speed bumps and you are still gripping the steering wheel like a life perserver, maybe the road is in bad need of grading and could be a sign of what lies ahead.


2. If dogs are not leashed in a campground, you better watch where you walk, be prepared to clean up after someone else’s animal (less you step in it) and leave the cats inside. And most likely, forego the showers.



3. If Halloween decorations look brand new and are juxtaposed to faded Christmas décor which includes a deflated Snowman, it is not a RV campground. It is an RV Park.



4. Avoid RV parks if possible. Park is more closely defined with the verb park, not the noun park, as in National Park. The verb park means the sites are littered with “campers” that have been parked since Aero Steams first went into production. The permanence of the campers redefines them as trailers. This is not to be confused with travel trailers because these things haven’t traveled since Lewis and Clark returned from the northwest.



5. Barking dogs are just a bad sign altogether.



6. Know the ferry schedule so you can get off the island when you want to get off the island.



7. If you don’t get a receipt for payment, don’t be surprised when you return and find your campsite taken. Be suspicious when you don't get a car pass, their is no fence, security gate and it is difficult to determine where the "check in" office is.



8. “We only take cash” is a red flag.



9. Expect trouble with the neighbors who have a fence around their site and it runs around your electric pole. Okay, so they don’t unplug it in the middle of the night, but their dogs will chew the hell out of it. Again, the dogs.



10. Wetsuits hanging on the railing, surfboard scattered about and young men with frazzled (sand and salt) hair taking too much notice as you drive by...not a good thing.



11. People yelling at each other, also not a good sign.

First available ferry leaves at noon tomorrow. I’ll be on it.

Well, hell I am here, lets see what this place has to offer before it starts to pour.