Due to our recent discovery that one of the campgrounds we had on our list of confirmed reservations is a cull, we recently reconfigured our schedule to stay on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. We were reluctant to leave the fabulous, cool weather here and proceed into more arid and infernal climes merely because one of our campsites albeit 21 days’ worth, turned ugly.

One of the idiosyncrasies of our rejiggered schedule is that we left La Conner Marina RV and went to Mount Vernon TT in Bow, WA, a week ago. Today we returned to the town of La Conner but this time we checked into the La Conner Thousand Trails campground, not one of my favorites. It is a big place with hundreds of RV spaces and there is ample brush and trees such that we really are isolated from our adjacent neighbors and it is mostly quiet. There is no WiFi, no normal TV reception, no satellite TV reception and no sewer hookups. The roads are very narrow with large, staggered second-growth trees making passage through the park with our trailer serpentine in order to avoid roof and wall collisions with the big, recently-skinned firs, cedars and spruces.

However, it is free for us, they have satisfactory restrooms and the park is bordering Haro Strait and the Salish Sea. The Salish Sea is called by everyone I know the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Without Google Maps it is Juan de Fuca. There is good food and shopping close by and the scenery is fabulous. It is about as far as we could be on the west end of the Skagit Valley. To go any further west, we have to drive onto Fidalgo Island where we can find the city of Anacortes and ferries to the San Juan Islands and Victoria, BC, Canada.

Strangely, we pulled into exactly the same RV space we had when we were here a couple years ago. We don’t know how that happened but are mostly satisfied. Visits in previous years were short so we didn’t need a sewer hookup, instead using the dump station at the park exit. This year we want to stay a week so I queried the staff about a honey wagon service. The park rep at the gate indicated that the honey wagon is only available on Tuesdays, which will do us no good because our tanks, which are perfectly adequate for four or five days, will fill up on Thursday or 5 days from now. I am quite reluctant to load all our outside seating and barbecue, disconnect from water and power, stow said equipment, hook the trailer to the truck, pull the trailer to the dump station and empty the tanks, pull the trailer back through the serpentine roads, squeeze the trailer back between the myriad trees into our RV spot, get out our utility hoses and cords and re-connect the trailer to the shore facilities only to pull out a couple days later to repeat the procedure upon our departure. We’ll figure out something. We can’t allow these park goons to dictate our schedule so we will try something creative. Just to spite them, I’m going to poop in their restrooms.