Dave and I had an unpleasant experience while traveling recently. It only goes to prove that as long-time campers and current full-timers, we still have things to relearn!! Notice how I said, relearn. Through our RVing, there are many things we have learned, for example, when we are leaving a campground, we always do a safety check to make sure the tail lights and signal lights for the motorhome and the Jeep are working properly.

Apparently, there are other things that we have become a little slack about. Things we have had to relearn!

This is a tale of two campgrounds on I-10 / I-12 in Louisiana.

In our travels we have had the pleasure of exploring much of Louisiana. My mouth just starts watering when I think about the Cajun food in the French Quarter of New Orleans or The Blind Tiger in Shreveport! Ah, but I digress. Great Cajun food can do that to me!

Dave and I have traveled the 250 miles of I-10 / I-12 in Louisiana east to west and west to east many, many times. We have spent time exploring Lake Charles, Lafayette, Breaux Bridge, Baton Rouge, New Orleans and many places in between!

On this particular trip we relearned a couple of things. We were just driving through Louisiana to “make time” (please see our blog on What is Traveling to “Make Time”?

What we relearned was:

• Paying more for a site doesn’t always make a better experience.
• Be proactive about your site.
• It is okay to change sites.

In the grand scheme of life, our experiences were not life shattering, did not cause irrevocable brain damage and did not alter the course of the universe. We had some aggravation and we lost some sleep. But it did cause us to think about paying better attention to the details.

We have deliberately not named either campground discussed in this blog. For the most part, our negative experience was our own “fault”, so no blame should be placed.

Similarities and Differences

The campgrounds had some similarities and some differences.

The similarities:

• Both campgrounds were easy off and easy back onto I-10.
• Both had concrete pad pull-thru sites with full hook-ups.
• Both had very convenient gas stations sharing a driveway to the campground.
• Both were clean, well-kept, safe RV parks.

The differences:

• The Price
• One promoted itself as a destination resort and charged $92.12 per night.
• The other promoted itself as being convenient for those just passing through. The convenient campground was $36.29 per night.
• Amenities
• The resort had MANY amenities for families, a couple of pools, a beach on a small lake, mini golf, a volleyball court, a basketball court, a pickleball court, multiple playgrounds, etc.
• The convenient campground offered none of those amenities.
• Quiet Hours
• The quiet hours at the resort were 11 p.m. to 7 a.m.
• The quiet hours at the convenient campground were 10 p.m. to 8 a.m.

What we had to Relearn

We knew the price of the resort when we booked it. We knew resorts frequently mean families (i.e. kids and noise). We knew if we are unhappy when we see a site to ask for a different one before hooking up. We knew these things, but proceeded anyway. Hence the opportunity for us to relearn what we already knew!

First Relearn

Paying more doesn’t always mean better. It may mean there will be more things to do (amenities), it may mean a full hook up (FHU), it may mean convenience. It does not necessarily mean wider sites, more level sites or even a better night’s sleep.

My bad. Perhaps my expectations were too high. One night we paid $36 for the night, slept well and woke up refreshed for travel the next day. The second night we paid $92 for the night, were forced to stay up well past our normal bedtime and woke up still aggravated. When I went to the office to express my displeasure, Cindy the manager was not there. I left a message, but of course she never called me back. Guess where I will NEVER stay again!

Second Relearn

When I am booking a site, I always ask for a quiet site, but frequently things change by the time we arrive. We expected road noise at both campgrounds due to the close proximity of I-10 / I-12. But…

We are delighted to see kids out playing, laughing, and running around being kids. We would never dream of saying kids need to be quiet and/or not have fun at a campground!!!!!! Having said that, neither do we want 8 floodlights 15’ from our bedroom window until 10 p.m. Neither do we want those same kids 15’ from our bedroom window at 11 p.m. playing basketball (think: bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce for 4 hours) or playing dodgeball on the volleyball court (think: ball thrown, someone screeching, lots of giggling and laughter, over and over and over again for 4 hours).

Upon arrival at the campground, before going to your site, ask the person checking you in where your site will be. If you are traveling with kids, you will want to be where we were. If you are like us and want some peace and quiet, this was not the site.

My bad. I didn’t verify where we would be located in the campground at check-in. The consequence was being inconvenienced by the noise (i.e. lack of sleep). I was aware enough to ask about the noise level at the site at booking, but not when I checked in. I need to be more vigilant about this!! Lesson relearned.

Third Relearn

We saw the volleyball court and the basketball court when we were escorted to our site. We even commented on how nice it was to see kids out playing and having fun. At the time nothing tripped in our minds that this scene wouldn’t be so nice when we wanted to go to sleep before 11 p.m.

A little awareness on our part, and we would have asked for a different site before we even pulled in and hooked up services. At 9 p.m. when we are calling the front desk to ask when the flood lights go out and what happens if the kids are still out playing ball after 11 p.m. is NOT the time to move to a different site.

My bad. Nothing tripped in our minds that noise might be a problem for us at bedtime. It is really okay to get to the site and return to the office to say the site isn’t going to work for you. The resort was not full, so we could have moved to a different site before hooking up services. We need to remember this!! Lesson relearned.

Take-away Point

You don’t have to relearn things! You can learn from our “mistakes”, i.e. “learning experiences”, i.e. teachable moments!

Your partners in travel,
Kathryn, Dave and Lucky
RVing Nomads

It’s a lifestyle

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