OK. For the longest time I thought that restroom facilities in marinas were the iffy-ist you could find but I stand corrected. RV parks have it all over marinas. During our travels this season Chris & I have begun to judge RV parks by their restroom facilities and, quite honestly, it boggles the mind what some people consider adequate. They run the gamut from “rustic-doesn’t-even-come-close” to luxurious 5-star-hotel-ish accommodations. As a woman who has never been a big “camper”, one of the aspects of traveling as a way of life I’ve had to get accustomed to is the fact that you are almost always using someone else’s bathroom. I have friends who always shower in their RV’s or on their boats but taking a shower in a closet where every cup of water must be rationed and the amount of hot water available is minuscule is something I prefer to do only when necessary. I don’t mind as much on the boat since the trade offs make it worth the slightly more primitive lifestyle, but, somehow, it seems to me that when you are staying in a land based “mini-town” I tend to expect a bit more in creature comforts.
So…on to the facilities: The park we stayed at for much of the summer had lovely showers. There were two buildings…a small one in the front (with one shower) for the “transients” and another at the back of the park for “long termers”. This second building had 5 showers in it. Each was a separate small room with a locking door, a shelf for your “bag of accouterments” and a couple hooks for towel, clothes, etc. The shower curtain was large enough to cover the entire shower entry (so the water stayed inside the stall), there were shelves inside for shampoo, etc., and there was ALWAYS hot water. In the main restroom area there was a large sink/countertop and mirror with 3 sinks and 3 outlets. Perfect. These people know how to run an RV park!
This summer we discovered state and federal parks where camping is available. There is good and bad to this. The good is that these are usually beautiful spots that are well maintained. There are camp hosts to provide guidance and do general cleanup and the park rangers make sure “rowdies” don’t disturb everyone else or cause a nuisance. Restrooms…well, sometimes they are wonderful and sometimes they are what you would expect at a campground. One place we stayed was in a lovely old growth forest at the edge of a lake. It was a beautiful, peaceful place and we would have been happy to stay longer if we’d had the time. The one thing I did balk at was, after paying over $30/night, the showers still required quarters. Another very nice state park had free showers but they were in a building open to the elements. Oh, they had doors and were private enough, but with cement floors and no heat it was a challenge getting naked and waiting for the water to heat up. This would have been fine in Arizona but Oregon is an entirely different climate zone…even in the “heat” of the summer!
One of the RV parks we pulled into in Arizona looked fine from the outside but the restrooms were brutally backward. There were clearly a number of “liveaboards” in this park so I was shocked at the facilities. The women’s room had a door that stayed open all the time and anyone walking past looked directly into the shower area which was only hidden by a very old, nasty, torn shower curtain. Beyond that there were 2 stalls…only one of which had a shower head and that was so low it hit me about tit level (too graphic?) so hair washing was a real trick. This restroom had two toilets but neither door had a latch and the sink did not work. Mind you, the nightly cost was higher than a number of better parks that we stayed at.
We found a real gem in, of all places, Bakersfield, CA. The park itself was beautifully laid out with nice, wide, paved driveways, level spaces, a strip of grass and picnic table for everyone and the cost was less than most. And the restrooms were amazing! The shower facilities were totally separate from the bathrooms and each of the 5 or 6 showers were beautifully tiled, had a locking door on the outside and a glass door on the shower stall. There was room to put a bag, hooks, shelves in the shower, unlimited hot water and a shower head that delivered lots of water above my head! The large vanity area was at the far end of the room and separated by a partial wall that kept the mirror from fogging up from steam. And it was impeccably clean.
We have begun keeping notes on the good, the “OK for one night” and the awful for future reference. Suffice it to say that part of the “experience” of traveling seems to be the unknown challenges one will face at the end of a long day of driving when you make that first walk to the shower to wash the stress and dust off.
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