Day 57 - Madison, Virginia to Harpers Ferry, West Virgina

If you've been watching the national weather news lately, you already know that the skies have opened up in the southeast and the creeks are rising fast. Everywhere you look there are pools of standing water or small streams where normally such aquatic features don't exist.

Right now we happen to be in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, a tiny town of some 200 residents. The residents there are used to the rising rivers claiming the downtown streets every couple of decades. When that happens, portions of the town inevitably end up in another state. Harpers Ferry is the town where the Shenandoah and the Potomac Rivers come together to form the larger Potomac that flows by Washington D.C., around sixty-five miles from here.

Last night we plunked down our cash for a campsite in the RV establishment known as Madison/Shenandoah Hills. Since we weren't staying more than a day, I think they gave us the least desirable spot they could think of, one that was located right at the top of a long hill and was purported to be "a nice level spot." Well, when I got over chuckling about that bit of inaccuracy, I went ahead and slogged around in the mud getting the rig up on blocks to level it. Then, I set up the water and sewer connections. All the while I was casting a wary eye on the amount of water that was flowing over the site from "up stream" in the camp.

Well, I needn't have worried about the puny rivulets of water that accompanied my setup last night. When I got up this morning the campsite was literally under water, or so it seemed. When I got outside to pack all the various cords and hoses back into the RV, I found that we might be in danger of being washed into the nearby creek. There was so much water flowing over the site, that there was nowhere I could put my Croc-clad feet where they weren't submerged.

But we survived and were soon out on the highway headed in the wrong direction. I say "wrong" because we really needed to go north towards Gettysburg. But we also wanted to drive the Shenandoah Parkway, a fifty some odd mile long picturesque romp through the forest that is actually a National Park. The drive is so beautiful that the National Parks folks charge you money to venture there, or at least they do if you don't have the necessary parks pass that we carry.

To access the Shenandoah Parkway we had to drive south on Route 29 from our camp in Madison to catch Route 33. This meant we had to drive south for thirty or so miles in order to drive north. But it was worth it. Well, it would have been worth it if it hadn't been raining like crazy. Still, it was easy to see that in nicer weather the Parkway would be just a joy to drive. The road is winding and slow, maximum speed limit thirty-five. There are 75 pullouts along the way, as well as several places to buy groceries, get gas, or picnic if that's your bent. I wanted to try and take photos of the wintry-looking forest on both sides of us, but every time I saw a nice scene and stopped, the rain began pelting us like machine gun fire and I feared for the camera's safety.

Once we cleared the Parkway we got onto Virgina Route 340 and rode it all the way into West Virginia and our camp at the KOA here in Harpers Ferry. We picked this camp because it's right next door to the Harpers Ferry visitors Center. At the visitors center you can get a shuttle down to Harpers Ferry itself and do your sightseeing. Then you can hop back on the shuttle and return to your vehicle. Since we rolled into the park about 2:30 p.m., we had plenty of time to stroll through the historic city, visit all the interactive museum displays, and even hang out at the Park Service book store as the rain picked up outside. The book store had more Civil War-related literature per square foot than any such book store I've seen yet. It was marvelous and I picked up a couple of tomes that looked interesting, including one on a journalist's interviews with slaves.

After returning to the visitor center around 5:00 p.m., we drove the short distance to the KOA camp office and went in to solidify the reservation we'd made earlier. Here's where we ran into trouble. I told the clerk that I wanted a space as near to the laundry building as I could get as that's how we intended to spend the next hour or so -- doing our laundry. Rather than grant my request, the young teenage girl behind the counter lied to me and said that there were no 30amp hookups in that portion of the camp nearest the laundry and I would have to take one three times further away. When further investigation proved this fabrication to be a lie, I drafted the following letter which will go out to the KOA main office in the morning:

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Our stay the Harper’s Ferry KOA will never be repeated. Nor will we recommend the park. Here’s why: When we arrived and presented ourselves at the check-in counter, I asked the clerk, a young blond girl of about 18 years, for a space closest to the laundry facility because we wanted to accomplish that task before we left. I pointed to a number of empty spaces adjacent to the laundry building and said, “something over there would be great.” At that time the portion of the park closest to the laundry was about half full.

The blond girl said, “I can’t put you over there, it’s only 50amp and you asked for 30amp. If you want 30amp I have to put you quite a bit further away.” She indicated spaces that were at least three times as far to walk with a basket of heavy laundry as the closer ones I desired.

Since it was raining, it didn’t make me happy that we would have to carry the finished, dry clothes such a long distance, but I said okay and set up our rig in the more distant spot. Later, while the laundry was spinning, I decided to check out the girl’s story by randomly selecting an electrical connection in the more desirable location and lifting the electrical connection lid. You can guess what I found. The girl had lied to me as there were both 30amp and 50amp connections on the post.

But just to double check, I walked up and talked to one of the guests who was parked nearby. He told me that he had both amperage connections on his power post as well, not just 50 amps as the clerk had led me to believe.

So, there you have it. When you’re paying $47.00 to park, you expect the best treatment possible. We didn’t get it.

Furthermore, after doing the laundry, my wife told me, in a disgusted tone of voice, that the facility was dirty and she had to use her disinfectant wipes on everything she touched.

We don't think the Harpers Ferry KOA meets your standards and should be scrutinized for protocol compliance.

Thanks for the opportunity to help you rectify this situation. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I wrote the above letter, to have it ready, because KOA always contacts me after we have stayed somewhere to ask how I enjoyed my stay. I don't want to be at a loss for words when that happens this time. In the mean time, I suggest if you're traveling to Harpers Ferry, you visit the town as we did, but choose a different camp in which to park your rig.