Reservation Rant for the Day

jplante4 wrote:

wbwood wrote:

K Charles wrote:
We have traveled for years without ever making reservations, except once at a national park. We only stayed at a "dump" once. If you are just passing thru and that's the only place it's not such a big deal.

Some of us work and only get limited time off. Going somewhere without reservations that's a distance away on a timeframe can be disastrous. I can hear it now (from wife...and daughter).... what do you mean we gotta stay in the walmart parking lot? What do you mean that we got to stay at some hole in the wall with creepy old people? or even better.... What do you mean vacation is canceled and we are driving back home 15 hours non-stop? lol

OMG! Not a Walmart parking lot!!!

The DW likes to have things planned out well in advance. I used to be the same way until this happened.

We were planning for our 20th anniversary. My suggestion was a small boat cruise down the Intercoastal Waterway to Charleston SC. She saw a show on Travel Channel about house boats and thought it would be neat, so we found a place in Ft Myers that had one for rent. We booked the boat a little less than a year in advance, and I got busy ordering charts and cruising guides and researching marinas and places to go. I wanted everything to be perfect for our 20th anniversary. The trip was in October, and by April I had the route planned and reservations made at marinas. We planned to anchor out (boondocking) a couple of nights.

Well, we picked up the boat the night before and had a couple of minor glitches that should have been red flags, but with so much anticipation, we just pushed through.

Long story short, the boat's motor broke down (most likely a fuel filter) we needed to be towed into a marina and got to spend only 1 night aboard. We spent our anniversary in a hotel room, unable to get home because of Hurricane Sandy.

I had an overwhelming sense of grief. After living for nearly a year with the plan, the charts, the cruise guide and the anticipation, the cancelling of the trip hit me like a death of a friend.

I will never again be so invested in a plan. Tell your wife/daughter this story.

Yes Walmarts are not rv parks... we don't usually "camp" for our vacations...we go to more like RV resort type of places. Normally where we are going is where everyone else is going too. We don't look forward to campfires and smores at night on vacation. We look for the beach, a pool, things to do and places to eat out at. The camping trips with the campfires, smores, and cooking at the RV are save for our weekends when we can go to the mountains and enjoy it. The only difference is this coming year. We are going to the keys and we are staying a couple state parks there. Reason being is that they are a popular destination and difficult to get into. But we are also looking at spedning time at a place like Bluewater. So it will be a combined trip. We both work over 40 hrs a week. I know I work close to 50 hrs a week plus spend about 10 hrs a week commuting. My wife works 40 hrs and is taken on a side job working about another 20 a week. We stay busy and need to plan where we are going and what we are doing. WE are planners. One day, when our daughter is out of the house and we both are retired, then we can lollygag around the country. Taking our time and visiting popular places in the off season and not worry about having to plan something or be back home by a certain date. Even on weekends, my wife pulls out a notebook and starts making a list of things we need to get done that day or that weekend. Got a lot to do or want to do and a short time to do it.

Wanted to add.... we have a favorite State Park that is about an hour away from us. 5 years ago, I could easily make a reservation a couple days ahead. Now, I can't. This past year I tried and couldn't. Looked out weeks and weeks ahead to no avail. I got lucky one day as I must of logged on right after a cancellation and got a weekend in October. They do have a few sites held for walk ups, but I'm not gonna gamble on nearly half a tank of gas in the RV and a wasted friday night to get up there and not have a spot and turn around and drive home. Add to the fact that we can not leave until about 5pm to go. That puts us there around 6 pm or so (if we can leave on time). By then the walk ups are filled.