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Date:         Sun, 8 Aug 1999 15:15:28 -0400
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <ron@NETCARRIER.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <ron@NETCARRIER.COM>
Subject:      Re: Gathering on the Mountain (no VW content)
In-Reply-To:  <37AB75E7.F0788B59@paonline.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Well, we had a great time at the Gathering on Saturday but left early today due to the rain.

We spent the first night at a place called WT Family Campground, near the festival, which we had used a couple years ago. Without going into details, I would strongly recommend that this facility be AVOIDED at all costs. The management was so nasty and hostile to its guests (not just us) that we checked out early and are planning to contest the charges for the one night on our credit card. I'll spare you the details since they have nothing to do with vanagons, but I'll just say that I've never felt more unwelcome in a campground in my life. And we were just an unassuming family with a child, not wild partiers or anyone undesirable whom the owner might have had reason to dislike. I'd hate to see what they do when they actually do have a "problem" camper!

We ended up at a place nearby called the Mount Laurel campground, which was essentially a large field surrounded by woods. You paid Dom, the owner, $6 per person, he went back into his trailer and you picked a spot near one of the picnic tables and fire rings. No hookups, no bathrooms even, just an outhouse and a manual well pump, so it was very rudimentary. But it was just 5 minutes from the festival and not crowded, and for what we wanted (a place to go back and sit by the campfire after the day's events) it suited us just fine. Not that I don't like the state campground or Hickory Run, but Hickory Run gets a little too overrun during the Gathering for our tastes (great if you're the party-all-night type - I'd have loved it ten years ago - but I have a toddler now, so my party-all-night tends to wind down at about 1 am, about when the folks at Hickory Run are just getting started :). The state park on the other hand has an alcohol ban that keeps me from relaxing with a late night ale around the fire after the fest. (I may be older than I was when I followed the Dead around but I'm not dead yet. :-)

The festival itself (at least on Saturday) was great. For a commercial event, they do a very nice job. Continuous music, reasonable prices at the vending stands (other than food, of course), and they let you back out to your car whenever you want. So we were able to set up the awning on our Westy and go back between bands to cook lunch, etc. We'd still be there now if the rain hadn't hastened our retreat. By the time we left, it had pretty much been raining continuously since 8 this morning.

Didn't run into any listmembers at the gathering yesterday. Did see a couple of nice busses, though, including two Eurovan poptops and a poptop Ford van. (??)

- Ron Salmon The Bus Depot, Inc. http://www.busdepot.com (215) 234-VWVW


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