So we arrived in Moses Lake - allegedly a popular vacation destination - to discover our supposedly great camp site (according to their website) was BESIDE THE FREEWAY and all of the caravans were sardined together with inches between them. Nearly everyone there drove a falling apart PICK UP TRUCK, most had TATTOOS, most SMOKED, all SHOUTED and SCREAMED at each other, and all DRANK heavily while sitting in their chairs outside their camper BESIDE THE FREEWAY.
There were also tons of half dead old people in ginormous RV's. They all looked really miserable. They probably were really miserable if that's what retirement has to offer them.
Is this the type of person we can expect to camp beside in future? Is this what camp sites are like???? IF SO I AM NOT GOING AGAIN.
The landscape of the place we went, was hideous - mostly desert brush type stuff. This place was allegedly an 'oasis' but it was just ugly with tumbleweeds blowing around and a lake with alternatively houses and nasty trailer parks beside it.
The local family restaurant was a real treat. We went there for dinner & half way through our meal the waitress went home and nobody else came over. We sat like idiots for about 30 mins wondering why nobody was coming before finally asking. It took them 10 mins to work out that she'd gone and another 10 to find someone to take our order for dessert. The dessert came and I had to ask that they remove the dirty dinner plates otherwise they clearly planned on leaving them on the table. Unfortunately we also went back there for breakfast this morning and had a very similar experience, this time they decided we didn't need cutlery.
The only real store WITHIN 200 MILES was WalMart. HOW do people live in places where that's all there is in 200 miles?? No wonder Religion is big in rural USA, I'd want to believe there is something better when I die too.
Anyway our Caravan was so nice and if we could ignore the surroundings we enjoyed getting away and spending time together. The kids loved it. I enjoyed playing mini-house and barbecuing and having cooked breakfasts, it was nice! We managed to take the kids boating, swimming, to a water park, 10 pin bowling, and let them play outside loads. They had a blast.
Until, that is, we got home. We got the Caravan back over the mountains without event and I went down the drive to move the other vehicles out of the way so that G could reverse the Caravan and park it. I moved the one car then went back to move G's nasty old pick up truck which was parked in the Caravan space while we were away. Wouldn't start. G came down and discovered that someone had tried to steal it and bust it in the process. WHO WOULD WANT TO STEAL SUCH A THING? It's so horrid it would have fit in nicely on the campsite. Also why go for that not the minivan? And in a neighbourhood with practically zero crime, this strikes me as VERY ODD. I guess now we have the caravan it's easy to see we're away, but there were 2 cars parked in the drive still - someone could have been there. And actually the caravan is barely visible from the drive..... so it would have to be someone VERY LOCAL...... perhaps someone who is pissed off that we have parked the caravan there & tried to make life difficult for us to return it? A neighbour with a grudge perhaps?
Anyway - the truck was towed off to be fixed and the caravan is back in position. I have booked a ton of future trips including 2 weeks in California in July - hoorah! I have learned my lesson in the type of site I need to book...... avoid the 'RV' sites..... go for the state parks or KOA sites ,they are nicer, quieter, private!
Posted by katie at May 27, 2008 11:07 AM