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BTFT · 04-12-2019, 01:26 PM

So I am on my way to Alaska as some of you know, now in Eugene, OR. After spending 6 days in Brookings OR, on the coast at the California border, 4 of which being lashed by torrents of horizontally driven rain and rocked by gale force winds, I tried to get the Dodge Dealer there to change the Crank Case Ventilation Filter on my Ram 6.7L Cummins. I waited an additional 2 days there to be told they didn’t have the part. (?) Well, they are a really small town dealer and I contribute this lapse to the fact they are primarily a GM dealer too.

After consulting my schedule...I have to be in Fairbanks on April 24th, I decided to try a dealer along the way….so I landed on Eugene. This size of town seems to breed really decent Car Dealers for some reason...Yes they had the part...4 of them actually, and would do it tomo. So we set off for Eugene.

We called an RV park very near the city center at the confluence of I5 and OR22. The voice on the phone was pleasant...in the same way the Bates kid was pleasant at that Motel in the movie . So we took a spot for two nights...$36.97 per night. The place is easy to find and just 2 minutes off of the interstate. Sounded good.

It was gloomy, cloudy and spitting rain as we approached the front gate. First impressions were not encouraging. A sign on the door proclaimed “Showers are NOW $10!” and we were told the WiFi isnt very good...Our site doesnt have a sewer dump. “Well were just here to get the truck serviced...it’s only two nights” we reasoned.

A large, overly so, heavily bearded young man lumbered out of the building and squeezed himself into an enclosed Golf Cart to lead us to our site. With one leg dangling out of the cart's broken door he zoomed around corners ahead of us to our spot on the “Back Row”.

As we traversed the park to our spot we looked on with growing apprehension as the tree’s bare gnarled branches reached out to grab at our trailer and truck, broken asphalt gave way to large mud filled pot holes, overgrown grass devoured smaller trailers in sites and there was a legion of ancient Class A’s covered by torn tarps and broken branches, streaked with moss and mildew. A gloom was settling over us as we continued on the road to our site.

We passed signs of past glory days when this RV Park had a Dog Run, a nice picnic area and other nice touches now all gone to rack and ruin decaying in the Northwestern weather. Signs broken for years were disintegrating and flapping in the wind and fences were beyond repair. the gloom deepened. I felt like I was headed into Mordor.

I looked at my friend and traveling companion and said...”I expect to see Zombies come staggering out at any moment to greet us..”

The vast majority of the residents here are long term and are using old RV’s as affordable housing. That is clear. And nothing wrong with that...except that this country needs more truly affordable housing...But the level of maintenance and repair is...well there isn't any. It must have been a beautiful park at one time with large shade trees and green grass. How sad to see it come to this.

If you are passing through Eugene and need a place to stay...just keep on passing...

edge68474 · 04-12-2019, 01:51 PM

Pleasant reading though. Do you write books.

doc · 04-12-2019, 01:54 PM

We saw (thank goodness we found another place to stay) on the Gulf coast several years ago. I believe it was Gulfport. The road along the coast went right in front of the place. Everyone was sitting outside smoking or just sitting in the sun. Old (very old) travel trailers and 5th wheels and a few early year Winnebago motorhomes. I seriously doubt anything in the place could have been moved. We were just freestyling and finding a place to stay sometime during the afternoon. I don't know what word I am looking for, but the people looked like they are just sitting around waiting for their next check to come. No insult intended, but the place had the "look".
A couple of years later Katrina came to visit the coast and wiped out the entire area. I often wondered what happened to these guys and if they got out or lost everything including their lives.

Old-Biscuit · 04-12-2019, 02:00 PM

Don't like a place....move on
Don't like the 'neighbors'....move on

Otherwise it serves a purpose and ain't nothing wrong with that.

Any place in a storm ...so they say

SegwayGuy · 04-12-2019, 02:07 PM

I was kind of hoping that story was leading in the direction of a zombie themed RV Park where you could shoot at him with paintballs or something fun.

**Spdracr39** · 04-12-2019, 02:31 PM

We read the reviews of a park before we commit to anything. Not 100% but it certainly helps. Probably would have been just as nice in Walmart parking lot for free.

av8tor2 · 04-13-2019, 06:15 PM

Nice read OP, you know how to tell a story. I did however have that going in a different direction, in my mind. Zombies, ghouls, goblins, perhaps an evil wizard or a witch, yea.......a witch.

Fred and Bonnie · 04-13-2019, 07:15 PM

Sounds like you don't use RV park review sites, several very good parks in eugene.

Fred

bamaboy473 · 04-13-2019, 07:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BTFT

And nothing wrong with that...except that this country needs more truly affordable housing...
.

Nice story until you politicized it. Where does it become incumbent on this country to feed and house people that are lazy?

What you saw in that park is what you'll see when this country provides for anybody and everybody. The full-timers in that park could clean up and fix up that park if they wanted to, couldn't they?

Only people allowing that park to happen are the ones that are there.

ThePowells · 04-13-2019, 07:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bamaboy473

Nice story until you politicized it. Where does it become incumbent on this country to feed and house people that are lazy?

What you saw in that park is what you'll see when this country provides for anybody and everybody. The full-timers in that park could clean up and fix up that park if they wanted to, couldn't they?

Only people allowing that park to happen are the ones that are there.

RRR · 04-13-2019, 08:07 PM

I5 and OR 22 is near Salem, not Eugene.

BTFT · 04-14-2019, 08:38 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RRR

I5 and OR 22 is near Salem, not Eugene.

Ah! the only one paying attention. Yes it is as you say. My intention was to disguise this park since I was taking some literary liberties with it and didnt feel it was fair to pinpoint it.

It amazes me when I or anyone posts something like this that is meant solely to amuse or make one think about something we all encounter is misconstrued as a complaint a review or political (???) That one is still making me scratch my head...

I often write about things I see and encounter and things I have given a lot of thought to...like Electric Cars and RV's. I tend NOT to write about the typical kinds of posts so often seen on sites like this and I think that confuses some.

SegwayGuy · 04-14-2019, 09:06 AM

Everyone has a gripe about something. That's the risk of publicizing anything.

Have an opinion?
Someone will contradict it.

Have a belief?
Someone will bash it.

Tell a story.
Someone will criticize it.

It's all about expressing hatred and outrage. That seems to be the new thing. Outrage trumps acceptance.

Rinse and repeat.

It's the way of the world nowadays.

RickNC · 04-14-2019, 11:32 AM

Well I learned something! I will never be a fulltimer since they apparently are required to maintain the campground they pay rent in for free when the landlord doesn't. I could have ended up spending my retirement painting KOA's