Reservations Make My Head Spin

I’m usually a pretty patient person.  I try not to let things bother me too much, it doesn’t help one’s life expectancy letting every little thing get under your skin.  There is one thing that drives me absolutely bonkers, though.  It’s trying to make reservations at campgrounds.

It used to be easy, you’d look up a campground and they’d have listed their campground rates.  Now it seems that many of them won’t let you know what the nightly rate is unless you go through a laborious matrix of picking dates, providing your credit card information and then they’ll tell you the rate.  I don’t always know what dates I’ll be there and just want to research for the most bang for my bucks.

I especially am not fond of the Reserve America system that so many campgrounds are defaulting to for their reservation system.  Not only do they charge you for the privilege of letting them make your reservation, if you have to make an adjustment to the dates you’re going to be at the reserved campground, they ding you a penalty fee.

I’ve just spent a couple of hours looking for campgrounds outside of St. Louis, MO.  Our son Ryan, and his family just transferred to Ryan’s new assignment,

the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Cheyenne, homeported in St. Louis, MO.

The Cheyenne is a river tender, it has the responsibility to maintain navigational aids (buoys, channel markers and such) up and down large stretches of the Mississippi River. 

Built in the early 1960’s this cutter will be quite a challenge for Ryan to keep running in top condition, but then, he’s the man for the job.  It will be a three year tour for him unless he promotes himself out of a job again like he did in his last assignment.

So we’re researching campgrounds just west of St. Louis where they’ll be living (we’re open to any suggestions).  We want to spend some time visiting them in September and look forward to many more visits over the next several years.

Back to the campground search, we hope to find something close by that doesn’t eat our budget alive.  KOA?  No thanks!  They must think pretty highly of themselves to charge that outrageous fee per night.  I guess I’ll just have to spend more time looking at other campgrounds and state parks and suffer through the crazy reservation system. *sigh* 

Good thing I’m retired.

But it will be worth it all when we get to see the girls once again.

 

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