Lemons into lemonade

One of the best benefits of full-time RV living is if you don’t like where you’re staying, or going, you can point the front end in another direction and turn lemons into lemonade.

After leaving our hideout in the woods at Mistletoe State Park, we were going to go spend a month at the Margaritaville RV Resort, Lanier islands, Georgia. We made the reservations way back in September 2020 for the most premium, and most expensive site (#118) which had a deck overlooking the lake and was looking forward to spending the month there. After Margaritaville we planned on another two weeks on Lake Greenwood at a resort with all of the sites owned/for sale, and the owners rent out when not occupied. 

Days before we are scheduled to travel, I will always review the route to make sure I know where were going in case the GPS fails.  This time was no different, I even went on the Margaritaville website to look at the campground map one more time so I could see how we were going to get to the campsite. That’s when I noticed that the propane tank was missing on the map, and our site looked more like a pull through than a back in.

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I called the resort and asked about the propane and was told” we no longer have it, and we tell our customers to go to our sister campground (a COE) about 15 miles off of the island. 

I was pissed and asked her how they can remove a utility without notifying those with reservations, especially when we were going to be staying there in January/February? I mean really? You sent me emails letting me know your boat ramp would be closed for a couple of weeks, but you can’t email me that you removed the propane tank?

I told the person on the phone that this was unacceptable and cancelled the reservation. Their cancelation policy is strict and if you cancel within 96 hours of your arrival, you don’t get a refund, instead you get a credit that you can use up to one year. Which I told her was also unacceptable since we were cancelling because of them, not us, and I wanted to speak to the Resort Manager. Well, she was in the office yet, so I was told that she would contact me by email to discuss.

I didn’t have much hope of that happening and besides I had more important things to do like figuring out where we were going to stay for the next six weeks. Time to open up the routing software, RV Trip Wizard, and see what’s around us. Hey, Barnyard RV Park is only 97 miles from us. We stayed there in November 2019 for a week, so I gave them a call. I was hoping we could stay for the 28 days we were scheduled for Margaritaville, and add two weeks to our Lake City stop, so we would be back on schedule.

Unfortunately, when I called Barnyard, I was told that they were full the weekend of 2/5 & 2/6, but they could fit me in until then. So, I booked the 12 days, and looked for another place to spend the remailing 16 days, which ended up being the KOA in North Charleston. I wasn’t too thrilled about it based on the numerous poor reviews, but we had nowhere else to go. 

On a positive note, our stop in Lake City quickly responded saying that we can come in early and since we were going to stay a month, he was going to give us the discount they set up for those working in the area, contractors, travelling nurses etc., and by doing so he gave us a $95 credited on the card we used to make the reservation.

Meanwhile, the manager at Margaritaville contacted me to let me know she understood our displeasure and would speak to her supervisor about it. After speaking to her supervisor, she let me know since we made our reservation before our new contract was released, they are going to be refunding me half ($1,900) and the other half will be in camp credit. Half is better than nothing.

So, we headed over to Barnyard RV Park, and when I was checking in, I mentioned to the manager to let me know if they have any cancellations since we would much rather stay here than where we were scheduled to go next. I even reminded her of that when I picked up our packages this past Tuesday. Well, low and behold, this past Friday the manager called me to let me know they had a cancelation, and our space is open for the month of February and wanted to know if I was still interested. Can you say hell yea? Done, extend here until the 20^th, then move 90 miles over to Lake City. We’re back on schedule.

The last time we were here it was a one week pit stop for work and we really didn’t see much. So far this week, we found a great pizza place, a great Chinese restaurant, and a good “home cookin” restaurant, a Publix grocery and numerous Walgreens in the area. And there’s propane with easy access right outside the campground at the flea market. It will be a good month. 

Until next time.