Travels in a Tin Can

The second type of site that we stayed in was the private, individual
one. On average these were cheaper than KOA Camps - but in terms of
quality it was a case of potluck. In St Augustine, Florida, when we were in our
third month of travelling and therefore fairly seasoned we chose a private
campsite that had a very nice advert and was quite pricey. We planned to
stay there for two nights, but we spent the next morning looking for a new
campsite. The problem was the restrooms. At $40 a night the site was one of
the most costly that we stayed at before we reached the astronomical, bank
breaking Keys, so we expected nice facilities. The restrooms were old,
grubby and had curtains rather than doors on the showers - not very pleasant.
On the plus side Ocean Grove RV Park had a very warm spa, which was a
nice way to unwind after a day on the road. The only drawback was that the
spa was close to a main road and not shielded by a proper fence. We
transferred from this camp to the nearby state park, which was nearly half the
price and had clean, and more importantly secure, restrooms.
Which brings us to the third category of campsite - the national, state
and county sites. Initially we avoided these sites because they had the
shortest advertisements in Woodall's and generally did not have any prices
listed. Our decision to steer clear seemed to be well justified when we first
visited a state campground near St Louis Obispo, California. When we
reached the reception/office we discovered that there were no staff because it
was evening. Now, that did not mean we could not check in. Most campsites
had a system in place to allow late arrivals to check in - normally just by listing
the available plots and instructing campers to choose a site and then pay at
the office in the morning. The system at this particular campsite told