With the Memorial Day holiday fast approaching, it was time to make plans and reservations. Every full-timer dreads the holidays when finding a discount at a campground is impossible unless you stay somewhere for a month. Forget using Coast to Coast, Passport America, etc. The Good Sam and Escapees discounts will usually still work and if you get reservations way in advance, there are always state parks, regional parks, and Corps of Engineers campgrounds.
My cousin and I had been trying to get together for a trip all year. She came up with the bright idea to meet up near Washington, DC to camp and spend the holiday in Washington at the museums and Arlington Cemetery. Now personally that seemed a bit crazy with the obvious traffic and crowds that would be there but after thinking about it, it also seemed rather perfect and certainly smacked of adventure. To keep the cost down and get around my work schedule, I went in early.
To get to Washington DC from Pigeon Forge, I had to stay overnight in Blacksburg, VA at New River Junction Campground. Now there’s a campground I would NOT recommend even to a gopher. While it sits on the banks of a lovely river, provides tubing and canoeing, and is a Passport America park, they have no bathroom facilities at all, are surrounded on 3 sides very closely by quite active train tracks, and the person who checked me in gave me a major load of attitude. He questioned why I would come a little out of my way to stay there for one night and flat out called me lazy for not picking up a phone and calling ahead for a reservation. Since when do campgrounds, hotels, motels, etc. absolutely have to have a reservation?! Isn’t the point to be there for weary travelers as well as those who actually know they need to stay there? And with the campground nearly empty what the heck was the big deal? I hadn’t called because I was not sure how far I was going to drive that day and since it was still out of season, the risk of him being full was minimal not to mention there were other campgrounds down the road if needed. How far out of my way I go is also none of his business. I don’t know what business that guy thinks he is in but it certainly isn’t hospitality. I will NEVER EVER go there again.
I left early the next day headed to Wilderness RV Park in Spotsylvania, VA where I have stayed previously as a C2C member. A couple of very cheap nights there would help the budget. Along the way a trailer tire blew out. A very nice trucker pointed it out and pulled over with me for a few minutes to make sure I could handle it. I called the Good Sam Emergency Service and waited for them in my trailer. It was nice to be able to “use the facilities”, make a sandwich, and grab a cold drink while waiting. The service man came and quickly changed the tire at no cost to me. Within an hour I was back on the road and refreshed.




















