We've seen jerks do just what several of you relate. We just returned from a two week trip down the west coast to the CA redwoods. One campground, Bullards Beach in Bandon, OR, (a very nice one, by the way) had several 'reserved' sites that in the three days we were there, were never occupied. I'm told that people make severeal reservations at various parks for the same days and then don't bother to cancel. It's cheaper to pay the 8 bucks fine for not actually showing up than try to make reservations at just one park.
I'm also told they'll reserve for a two weeks, show up for the prime three or four days, and then leave-without cancelling the rest of the reservation. The reservation system--Reserve America being one...should have some algorithm in the database that says, you can't reserve at more than one park at a time on the same dates.
Of course, the jerks can just use different names, or
license plate numbers, but still...the credit card should be a tip off.
Then you have the yahoos, teens with cars whose parents don't care what they do as long as it's not in the house. There's a campground near the Dalles in OR that is famous for high school kids coming and massing one campsite..I'm talking 30 to 40...and raising all sorts of hell.
Not having reliable internet makes for difficulties when I try to make reservations. I tried for several years to make a reservation at Yosemite. I was never successfull. A reservation window opens up (six months in advance) and within fifteen minutes, everything's been scarfed up while my computer is still working on connecting.
And I don't doubt that there's scalpers working, using a bot to make the connection and making multiple reservations. I've given up on Yosemite.
Another problem is camp hosts. The vast majority are hard working and responsive. But all it takes is one to make you resentful. One time we were at an OR State park near Bend (can't remember the name) and at about 7 PM, a guy with a big RV and half a dozen kids pulled in. The kids were completely unsupervised, riding their bikes through other campsites, and the guy brought out speakers...big ones, 200 watt things, cranked them up to ear bleed level, and then began to play his trumpet along with the music.
Four of us -none of us related, the four of us were from all points of the campground-went to the camp host whose big RV was no more than 100 feet from the trumpet player. We complained about the noise. The camp host refused to confront the noise maker. First he said he wasn't the camp host, even though his RV had been in that primo spot for a VERY long time, and the sign in front had his name and the On Duty sign. Then he whined, 'quiet time is 9 PM" Then he said he couldn't hear the music or the trumpet. We had to shout over the music to get him to admit that yes, it was too loud and frankly, obnoxious. THen he said, "can't you just ask him to be quiet? I really don't want to be bothered." and retreated into his RV!
It took a sheriff deputy to put the kabosh on Mr. Trumpet.
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