In my last blog I was talking about Winnie Dam, on Lake Winnebegoshish in Minnesota.
We are not feeling totally up to par yet, but feeling pretty good so we decided to get some traveling done. It was time to leave Minnesota and head on towards North Dakota. At 3:30 in the afternoon we crossed into North Dakota on US 2.
We have beautiful blue skies with puffy white clouds. The weather was great and we just traveled on down the road looking at what was coming next. We were losing more and more of the trees and the hills of Minnesota, not to mention all of the lakes too.
The prairies and grasslands now beckoned as we drove on further west. We were admiring the fields and the farms, and a lot of the terrain changes as we went along.
We weren't quite sure how long we wanted to drive or where we were going to end up. A lot of it depended on how we were feeling. We did do a little stop for a few groceries and kept on moving along.
After about 150 or 160 mi, I started looking ahead on the maps to see where we might want to spend the night. We found a place called Turtle River State Park. The pictures sure looked cute. I checked ahead on their website and saw that they had plenty of empty sites. No need to make a reservation. I thought we would be saving a reservation fee that way by waiting to get to the park.
Well, North Dakota state parks don't work that way. Once you reach the park and select a site, you still have to go online to reserve it. And that's an extra reservation fee.
The site was $25 with electric, plus a reservation fee of $5.80. Well, that was okay I guess. But then we had to pay an extra $7 for a vehicle permit fee. Then we found out we had to pay for both days that we were there for one overnight. You pay for a $7 vehicle fee on the day you come in, and you pay another $7 vehicle fee on the day you go out! So that's an extra $14 on top of the $30.80. So now we were up to almost $45 for an overnight. That's a tad too rich for our blood. That is why we like the Corps of Engineers where they honor our half price pass, and do not require a vehicle permit, nor a reservation fee.
The park was really pretty and we entered in about 5:00 p.m. or so. We noticed that a lot of the campsites were just pull through parallel with the road. It meant that the side of your rig was actually alongside the gravel road. We weren't really nuts on that but it was okay. We were only staying for one night.
Here is their website:
https://www.parkrec.nd.gov/turtle-river-state-park
We got settled into (what we thought) was a nice site.
We got the dog out and walked around to get the kinks worked out of all of us. We noticed a lot of families pulling in, which was kind of strange on a Sunday afternoon? Three of them occupied the sites directly around us front, rear, and next to us through the bushes a few feet away.
Each site has electric and water which are right on a post next to the road. We were plugged in but we really didn't need to add any water. But it's nice that it's available.
We stretched out on our lawn chairs, and much to our surprise, the campsites around us started getting noisier. And noisier.
All three sites around us, through the bushes, were situated actually very close. We could hear every sound and every word and every slam of every door from all three sites around us. And all three sites were suddenly occupied by families with multiple children.
Don't get me wrong, we love kids. And we have grandchildren. And we really enjoy listening to children having fun. That's the whole idea of family camping.
As it was close to supper time, we heard a lot of whiny kids and a lot of complaining and a lot of irritated parents snapping back at their kids. Soon all the kids were fed and it was a little quiet for a while. But then all these children tended to become whiny and cranky and overtired and possibly sugared up from treats and candy. Again, we were privy to every single word and every complaint and every irritated parents' retort to their child's complaining. Multiply that by about five or six or seven children all situated around us.
To top it off, to the campsite just a few feet from us through the trees, both parents were smoking. We could smell all of the cigarette smoke wafting our way. It would have been a lot better if it was campfire smoke, believe me.
We gave up, went inside and closed all of our windows. We turned on the air conditioner to fan mode even though we didn't need the cool air. It became a movie night for us! Lol! Inside.
Here is the YouTube that I made of our stay while we were there. It's not very long.
We woke up in the morning and were serenaded by the voices of cranky little kids who are hungry and wanted breakfast right away.... lol.
Time for us to pack up and head on out. I hope the families have a great week. And I hope that the children enjoy their camping and have fond memories of Turtle Creek.
We traveled 187 miles today
We've traveled 628 so far
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I don't remember being cranky and whiny as a child. My father would not have accepted that, I am sure. Why do so many parents do so today?
ReplyDeleteLinda Sand
Not enough attention, my guess. Same with the dog barking. The little kids that live behind me we nicknamed Cryer and Screamer. Makes it hard to be in the backyard when they're outside. They do seem to be growing out of it, some. My brother used to whine like a dog when his kids started in. Seemed to shut them down fast. Almost like they didn't realize how they sounded.
DeleteI am sorry for the fees. We have stayed in state parks before and I don't remember having to pay the fee as you leave as well.
ReplyDelete