I made my 4-night camping reservation for Grayson Highlands six weeks in advance. I honestly believed I had reserved a site with electric and water. Even though I'm camping in a tent, being able to charge cell phones and easily refill water bottles is worth the small increase in price over a non-electric site.
Grayson Highlands is 340 miles from my home in Northern Virginia. We arrived by car just after 4:30 pm and the park office had closed for the day. I found my welcome letter in the metal hanging folders outside the Contact Station at the park entrance. I was surprised that my letter instructed me to choose a tent site with a brown color marker. Brown sites have no electric and no water. With the park office closed and no WiFi at the campground there was nothing I could do until the next morning.
Since I camped at Grayson Highlands last year on site 19 I knew I wanted to try something different this year. The big field had a great climbing tree and a place to stargaze. I had my eye set on those sites. Site 34 had electric and water and it was available but I couldn't take it because my welcome letter told me I had to choose a non-electric site. I chose site 32 directly next to site 34. It was a Tuesday evening and the campground wasn't even half full. Both camp sites on either side of me were empty and most campers would not choose sites in the open field anyway due to the lack of privacy. Thinking no one would notice or care, I walked over to site 34 and plugged in my cell phone and battery charger and went back to site 32 to begin the process of pitching my tent.
My cell phone was not plugged in at site 34 for more than 5 minutes when Camp Host Larry in his golf cart was on site 34 with another man. At first I thought Camp Host Larry was looking at my cell phone with concern as if the previous campers on Site 34 might have left it behind by accident. I raised my hand for attention as if to say, "Don't worry! It's my cell phone and I'm right here!" But then I noticed that Camp Host Larry's body language and the way he was looking at me communicated annoyance, agitation and disgust. I walked over to site 34 and Camp Host Larry unplugged my cell from where it was charging. Larry looked at me with a piercing glare and said with judgment in his voice, "If you want electricity you need to *pay* for it" as if I had been caught stealing.
I was so caught off guard from Camp Host Larry's accusation. I felt horrified and embarrassed. The bottom dropped out from the pit of my stomach. I tried to save face by saying that I knew electric outlets were in the bathroom nearby and I didn't think charging my cell phone was a big deal and I explained that I thought I *had* reserved a campsite with electricity. Larry was not having it. He responded, with annoyance, that I could stay on the electric campsite for one night only but he could not guarantee I could remain there since he had no access to the reservation system after 4:30 PM and all the electric sites might be booked for the following night.
As any tent camper knows, once your site is set up you want to stay put. Setting up a site requires pitching your tent, staking the tent and rain fly, unpacking and unrolling sleeping bags, unpacking and inflating sleeping pads plus setting up the cooking stove and picnic table canopy. Setting up a camp site is about an hour's worth of work. No one wants to set up a site more times than they have to. So, Larry's offer to let me have the electric site with no guarantee that I could stay there for the rest of my reservation was not a choice I wanted to make. I declined the electric site after explaining why but he either didn't understand or pretended not to understand. I limped back to site 32 carrying my cell phone and battery charger, having been put in my place by Camp Host Larry in front of another camper. The other camper's name was Doug and I would meet him later. Doug didn't want site 34. He chose a site in the woods with privacy.
The first 10 minutes of my time at Grayson Highlands were awful. I sat down at site 32's picnic table to digest what had just happened. Camp Host Larry must have sensed he needed to do some damage control because he came up in his golf cart 10-15 minutes after he had implied that I was stealing. Larry told me that if the law enforcement rangers had caught me "parasiting" off another camp site there might be trouble for me. He framed his comments as if all he was doing was protecting me from getting in trouble with the law. Wait. Larry compared me to a parasite. Like a tick or a mosquito? And would a law enforcement ranger really notice or care where I, as a paying customer with a 4-night reservation, plugged in my cell phone? I highly doubt the rangers would even notice. They cruise through the campground pretty fast.
It took me a full two days to shake off Larry's accusations and comparisons. Every time I heard his golf cart coming I tried to keep my head down and avoid eye contact.
Even weirder, on Friday, August 16, 2019, Larry came over in his golf cart about 9 in the morning. He told me that if I wanted to charge my cell phone on site 34's electrical outlet that he would make my excuses if other campers showed up and wanted that spot. He volunteered to unplug my cell phone and put it back on my site if we wanted to go out on a hike while it charged. His offer was nice, I guess, but his comments implying I was stealing and his comparison of me to a parasite cost me two days of my happy life. Was Larry worried I would complain? Did he have a crisis of conscience? Did he think my kids were cute and realize that we weren't thieving parasites? I'll never know.
But I do know this - Camp Host Larry needs some extra customer service training.
