Long, uncomfortable night avoided

© 2011 Lydia Hinshaw

Our home for Saturday night, complete with wi-fi

FARMERVILLE, LA -- There are campgrounds, and then there are RV parks.  As owners of a Volkswagen Eurovan Weekender, above, we usually have the best of both worlds.

A campground will usually let us into the often-cheaper tent area, because we don't look like an RV.

RV parks, which often don't allow tents, regard us as an RV, even though our bus is tiny compared to the behemoth motor homes on either side.

Sometimes, there can be glitches.

Friday night, we wandered into an RV park in Milton, FL, which was obviously catering to the long-term stay crowd.  Many of the travel trailers had picket fences or decks.  I asked up front if there were rest rooms and showers, because it was obvious that everyone else there had brought their own, and the magic bus has no room for a loo.

The nice lady assured me all the proper facilities were in place.  We checked in, and headed out to eat catfish.  A couple of hours later, I went to wash my face and discovered a sign explaining that because of some recent vandalism, the rest rooms would be locked between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.

Yikes!  The Prince and I are past the point where we can sleep that long uninterrupted.  If we'd been told this at check-in, we would have been off to find another place to stay.

It was time for some serious diplomacy, so the Prince went back to the office and spoke to the lady who had checked us in.  No problem, she said.  Here's a key to the rest rooms, just give it back to me before you leave.

One thing about both campgrounds and RV parks:  They're almost always run by very nice folks.