No place to go

This is the one about the truck stop blues!

Wednesday was one of those rare days where we just couldn't find a place to stop for the night. We decided to stop well before sunset - a lucky thing. We found a listing for a KOA campground in the countryside in New York state, but as we wound our way down tiny back-country roads, I noticed I hadn't seen a single sign. Usually for big chains like KOA, there's plenty of advertisement. We zeroed in on the location, passed by some farms and one redneck house with some dead vehicles in the yard, and kept right on going down the road, away from the spot where Karen the GPS had said there was a campground.

Great.

I found another one in Karen, "Yogi Bear's Jellystone Campground" or something very similar, about 15 miles away. As we neared, we joked about the fact that there were signs this time. And there were! Things were looking promising! We drove down yet another tiny country lane, this time along a picturesque river, and spotted a few RVs up at the end of the road. Success! We'd found Yogi Bear's Family Campground (or whatever). We pulled over to the office, walked right up to the office door, read the sign that said they were closed for the season, and walked back to the truck.

Well dang.

I decided I'd see if the facilities were accessible - never hurts. They were, what a bonus! It will be a special thing to have my very own bathroom that never goes away when we get to Nova Scotia. Anyway when I got back we looked bitterly at the smattering of big RVs that were parked in the campground. We also noticed that there was some activity at the campground. People who were obviously employees were driving around in trucks and golf carts, studiously avoiding looking at us. I think they were all mean. We stayed for quite a few minutes in order to devise a new strategy and at least three employees passed right by, trying really hard not to notice us.

So, a truck stop is usually not closed for the season, right? All we wanted was a place to park and, as a bonus, maybe a shower. We went to the nearest truck stop and I am listening to all the big trucks driving around and idling as I type. They do have showers here. TEN DOLLARS per shower. Uh-uh! We're going WWOOFing tomorrow and I'd hoped to show up looking and smelling nice, but our first impression will have to be a grubby one instead. Oh well!

We're not 100% sure what the rules are here. Can we stay all night? Will they kick us out at 3am? There's a Walmart within reasonable driving distance so that's our backup plan for the night.

Hey! look! We're having an adventure...right? There are at least 50 big rigs in the parking lot behind me. It's time for bed.