I am going up to get my
Scamp 16 this coming weekend. I am not a fan of the paid campground experience so I start looking for national / state campgrounds. The feds have their system, each state has their own system. None of them work very well. Given the small size of the states in the northeast the state by state is a royal PITA.
I am looking at PA I think. It shows a hundred different campgrounds (state parks). It asks me the details of what I want, the size of my trailer, the type of my trailer, do I want electricity etc. Then it filters the results. I start clicking on each one in turn and am told that park doesn't meet my criteria.
HELLO!!! Why is it showing up in the map if it doesn't meet my criteria.
I spent hours last night looking (poking) futilely at campground after campground, state after state only to find this one has only tent sites, this one has no sites, this one is booked solid.
I assume that if I am a hiker I can expect to back little one man tent into any of these and set up camp, but what about us? Are we unwanted? Is this active obstructionism?
Or is it just me?
As a programmer / database guy this whole thing makes me cringe. Maryland's web system looks like a toy by some web designer selling suits. Some flash looking thingie, broken into districts. Excuse me, the whole damned state isn't as big as the county I grew up in. They need to break it into north / south / east / west? Then you pick one and poke and prod and ... move on to Virginia because MD isn't going to help me. LOTS of crap about tourist stuff, all about the battles fought and so forth. What about CAMP SITES AND RESERVATIONS?
To say I am disgusted is an understatement. Poke your finger at a park, show up and hope like hell you can camp there?
And so I turn to the infinite expertise of our members, their soothing and calm rational voices explaining how it all really works quite well... and just do...
So what do I do? I want a state or federal campground, somewhere between Hershey PA and Washington DC which will let me make a reservation. I have given up on electricity, just a spot to park the TT. Quiet, no pool, no general store, just a campsite. Water and sewer would be nice. Lacking that a hose and a dump station at the entrance?
Whaddayasay people. Caaaallllmmm meeeee dowwwwwnnnn and help me out.