Today we reluctantly departed from TT Lake Medina and headed northeast. Due to the nature of Texas geography and traditional routes for trade, there are no roads directly from areas west of San Antonio to the Austin area. To start our journey, we were obliged to go southeast. Near San Antonio, we joined up with pretty heavy traffic on I-10 until we got to I-35 where we turned northeast.
On the map, San Antonio and Austin look like cities 60 miles apart. In reality, it is pretty much continuous city all the way up I-35. Moderately heavy traffic but pretty good roads once you get the hang of how they are laid out.
North of Austin we pulled off at TX-189, not to be confused with TX-189A which is a toll road. We drove along the cheapskate route for about 10 miles and then turned east on Hero Road where we pulled into Leander NW Austin KOA. We generally shy away from KOA facilities because they are expensive and crowded but decided to give them another try. When we called in advance to make a reservation, the nice lady (Mary) indicated it would cost $120 for a five night stay. That sounded very reasonable so we went ahead and booked the spot.
Upon arrival, we found out that Mary was bonkers and, in addition to $44 they had already collected from us, it would be another $177 to stay in their unremarkable park for five days. We forked over the $100 in mordida and pulled into space 9, a pull-through. Mary, who was not in the office at the time of our check-in, called later in the evening and initially tried to blame an office trainee named Margaret for the initial $120 quote. Peggy calmly told her that she had only spoken with Mary before, never Margaret. At this point, Mary started getting excited and naming other blameworthy folks, including the customer. My dear Peggy actually had to raise her voice, a rare occurance, when dealing with the blameless nincompoop. After a bit of Peggy barking, Mary resumed trying to be reasonable and said she will see what she could do, which will probably be nothing. Now I remember why we don’t stay in KOA facilities. They are expensive and crowded.