Moving on

Sunset over Loop 1

Today we'll be hitting the road, sort of. After the S.O. is up and moving (he's not a morning person), we'll do the few things left to do to get the Guppy ready to roll out.

It's been an interesting month. I'm told it was a lot quieter during the first couple of weekends than usual -- the wintry weather discouraged some groups so either not as many people showed up or they were more subdued.  It did seem less busy than it had been in the fall, and the campsites less elaborate, i.e., fewer large pavilions.

Low budget camping using an up-cycled 1978 Ford Ranger. These guys didn't
have particularly elaborate gear, but they were nice enough to bring a keg
instead of multiple cases of Busch Lite. End result? No cans in the fire ring,
Even better? All their red SOLO cups went into the dumpster. They let their
site spotless. 

There were one or two groups that got a little noisy, but we only had one weekend where other campers came knocking on our door late at night to complain about noise.

That was, IIRC, the same weekend the law enforcement ranger got to haul someone off to the drunk tank after the fellow persisted in driving backwards (as in Reverse, not as in ignoring the One Way signs) around the campground. Apparently most of the month has been a little colder and nastier than usual for Missouri in March (it must be Obama's fault), so even though all the reserved sites have been 100% reserved just about every Friday and Saturday, not all of them have been occupied. I personally do not understand how people can be so casual about paying in advance for a campsite at $23 a night and then not bother using it, but then I come from a long line of cheap frugal ancestors and live with a person who, as the saying goes, "knows the value of a dollar."

Another low budget rig. When I saw this coming into the park my first thought
was "Someone dragged an ice fishing shack to Missour?" It's just a box made
from OSB with a door at the end facing the rear of the trailer.  There's an OSB
 patio,  too, in front of the door. They were another group that had a good time but
left their campsite in great shape.

One thing I did notice this year more than in October was how many campers seem to be confusing the fire ring with a trash incinerator. This past weekend there were at least half a dozen fire rings that were absolutely disgusting: filled with half burnt food waste, plastic, tin cans, etc. It's one thing to imbibe a few too many beers and start tossing the Busch cans into the flames; it's quite another to deliberately try to get rid of your trash by burning it instead of bagging it and taking it to the dumpster. I don't understand how people can do that -- they'd complain like crazy if they got here and found a fire ring that looked that bad, so why do they think it's okay to leave the site filthy? I'm tempted to mutter about "trailer trash" because with a few exceptions, the nastiest fire rings were left by people who are camping using large, expensive trailers. It's not the low budget or the tent campers who make the worst messes.

We've already been asked by a number of people if we'll be back next March. At this point we have no clue. It's possible that the simple purchase of an electric blanket and few more modifications to the Guppy (e.g., insulated vent covers) would convince us cold temperatures wouldn't be as annoying. It's equally possible we'll decide to try a longer volunteer commitment at one the National Wildlife Refuges or National Parks farther south, someplace where snow is a lot rarer than it is in Missouri. We may decide to do what a lot of people do -- just head down to the cheap RV parks in south Texas and hang out there doing nothing for several months. We could opt for volunteering at a different park here in Missouri, just out of curiosity. Or we could just stay home. Who knows?

One thing we do know is we'll be back here at Montauk in October. Maybe then I'll actually go fishing.