Currently cruising the back roads of Ohio, just getting a feel for the scene. We finally managed to see a game of baseball the other day, when we drove across the state to see the Cincinatti Reds play the Florida Marlins.

For the first four innings, the Marlin were dominating the game 3-0. The crowd was pretty quiet, and we were worried we’d wasted our money. Suddenly, the Reds got a home run and everyone went nuts. On a roll, the next inning, the Reds pulled 5 home runs out of nowhere, and everyone was screaming, leaping up out of their seats, and we were right there with them, cheering and screaming along with them all. Kind of amusing to think that we cannot stand sports in general, and yet, we were so into this game, it was a matter of life and death for the Reds to win. At the end, we went down and ran the bases, since they let anyone who wanted to onto the stadium ground, so that was even more fun.

In other news, we found the very worst campground in North America. We only stay at the cheaper ones, but this one was so bad, we had to go ask for a refund and didn’t really leave very happy at all. It was the Woodland Campground in Somerset and it was absolutely awful.

1. Told to pick any site in the campground, but when we chose a site, found we could not get tent pegs into the ground due to a couple of feet of gravel just under the surface. Were told in the morning we had chosen our site badly and we should have chosen one in a different area, at the bottom of a hill. We didn’t choose those sites because it had rained every day for the past week and we didn’t want a midnight flood. Also, we confirmed at the time that the site we chose was okay to tent in and were told it was.
2. No hot water in the showers. The choice was “cold” or “very cold”. When I went and spoke to the woman in charge, she refused to believe that the water was cold and also refused to walk with me to the bathhouse to see for herself. She would only go there in “2 or 3 hours time when I am finished doing other things”.
3. We were using the washing machine, and had it set for “cold wash, cold rinse” but the owner of the park changed the settings on it to be “warm wash, warm rinse” without asking us. We could not figure out how it had changed until a resident of the park told us she did not do laundry there because the owner always changed the settings and interfered.
4. No latches on many of the shower doors, which swung outward to expose you to the public.
5. No latches on many of the toilet doors, which swung outwards to expose you to the public.
6. No lights in the bathroom except grotty skylights which meant it was very hard to see.
7. Two of the showers in the women’s actually had no water come out of them when Di turned on the taps.
8. The dryer in the laundry was actually a “spinner” since it did not dry any of the clothes we put in there. We put four lots of 35c through it, and the clothes were still wet, not just damp. The owner refused to believe this could be the case since “it was working fine yesterday when I put two shower curtains through it and they dried”. Those of us with brains (ie: all but the campground owner) may realise that shower curtains tend to dry very quickly, and probably would be dry in 12 minutes of hanging on a line, and, if the machine really worked, you would not put shower curtains into it.

All in all, it was a terrible park, and when I went to seek a refund, the woman in charge refused to give me a full refund (we got $8 of the $16 back) since:

1. “We don’t just give out refunds to everyone”
2. “You must not have been putting the right money in the dryer” (this one was a little hard to fathom, since the coin operated machines do not work at all unless the right money is inserted)
3. “You’re from Australia and obviously don’t understand how things work.”
4. “You went to the bathroom and I believe that is worth $8 for that facility.”

So, in terms of where to camp - DO NOT CAMP AT THE WOODLANDS CAMPGROUND IN SOMERSET, PENNSYLVANIA.

In over 5 months of travelling through 37 states of the USA and 3 provinces of Canada, it is the very worst campground we have been to!

In more positive news, we did go to the local truckstop that allowed us to shower at half-price in sympathy of the poor treatment we had.

Since then though, our time has been more fun. Last night we went and checked out an outdoor drama called “Tecumpseh”. About 15 minutes in, it began to pour rain and they put everything on hold for a short time, but then it began again. Definitely worth going to - a great story about an Indian brave that almost defeated the white people settling the USA, and really well-performed and interesting. We did not even know it existed until we stopped at the campground last night and the person registering us mentioned it, then mentioned a discount coupon. So, if you want to go, and save money, go on a Monday night. It only costs $8 per adult, not $14, which is a decent saving indeed. The coupon was in the local Advertiser paper, which is a free publication, and the show is definitely worth checking out. We thought it would be kind of bad, but it was done very well and we left, along with everyone else, having seen a great show.

From here to Columbus to catch up with a colleague met in Brazil at the IGC, and discuss lots of exciting research stuff.

Categories: Travel, Odyssey 2001