Date:         Thu, 8 Oct 2009 21:02:16 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: VW Campground Reviews
In-Reply-To:  <4C9DC56FE49F4A9582B5469CA5C99024@jimsystem>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

One way to 'defeat' a rule so silly is to connect the Westies with a token
hitch..Call one of them a trailer and you are 'in compliance'..  Families
often sleep a couple of members in a vehicle and the others in their camp
trailer...same with two Westies 'hitched' together in one site...

   This sort of blind enforcement of rules happens often. A large group in a
motorhome with a trailer will probably have more impact that two small
VWs...but 'that's not the point'..."rules are rules"  but rules can be
outsmarted..

 We encountered a similar 'rule' once in Yellowstone, where we often passed
through or visited, living so close in Jackson, Wyoming.  We were camped on
the Madison River just outside the park and decided to ride our bikes around
the park one day, right from our camp, without the vehicle.  So we rode our
bikes up to the gate and were told that our Golden Eagle pass was only good
for one 'vehicle' and we would have to pay for the second vehicle..  Two
people on two bikes...While we watched large bunches of people pass through
the other gate in motorhomes with second vehicles in tow...Mom, Pop, Grammy
and Grampy, Uncle Jim and aunt Flo...all on one Golden Eagle....No extra
charge...This was in early season, so the gate monitors were quite
strict....I tried to point out that we could go get our pickup truck and
return with the bikes in that. We would just have to park the vehicle inside
the gate and get back on our bikes...I asked if  he could just think
about it a sec. and let us in, without the stupid truck....nope..Not him...
   After a second for me to think, we pushed our bikes back a few feet out
of the toll area and I got my SO onto the cross bar of my bicycle.  She held
the handlebars of her bike and we re-entered the toll area...."OK, Fella,
Now we are two people in one vehicle, towing another, and here's our Golden
Eagle..."
  He let us through...and within a week, that rule had been 'revised' . I
went right to the Park Service and pointed out how it penalized bike people
and promoted vehicle traffic...It helped that the chief ranger was a friend
who also rode bikes..
  Don Hanson

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 3:23 PM, Jim Arnott <jrasite@eoni.com> wrote:

> I DO! I DO!
>
> In Washington State Parks, they care not whether you're driving a 50'
> Prevost or a Westy. ONE camper per site. Extra vehicle cannot have sleeping
> facilities. Oregon State Parks (at least on the east side of the state) are
> more flexible. 50' Prevost = 3 Westies.  One at full rate, two at 'extra
> vehicle' rate. Put as many Westies in as the campsite will hold. It's not
> really a money thing, it's mre a togetherness thing.  It's difficult to do
> a
> group campout when the rigs are scattered all over the bloody park. And,
> it's against MY principle to camp in a parking lot (which is what many
> state
> park 'group sites' are.)
>
> Jim
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Dave Mcneely" <mcneely4@COX.NET>
> To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
> Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 2:08 PM
> Subject: Re: [VANAGON] VW Campground Reviews
>
>
> Who knows what "Westy Double Up," means in these reviews?  Thanks, Dave
>> Mc SD
>>
>