July 4th Planning

Winter is when I think about camping, and plan camping.

Today, I booked our camping trip for July 4th weekend.  This makes our 2nd booked trip for 2015, since I booked Memorial Weekend back in November.  For big holiday weekends, I like to make plans ahead of time, make sure we get a site.  Since we tend to aim for state parks, the booking window starts at 6 months in advance.  Which means today if planning a 3 day weekend.

The friends we're going with have potential obligations of picking up their son from Boy Scout Camp.  Apparently, the Boy Scouts don't work around my 6 month planning window.  Seems pretty selfish to not worry themselves about someone who lives in a different state, without a child enrolled in Boy Scouts, without a child that's a boy.  I mean, really.  C'mon here.

This Boy Scout issue meant we're camping in Ohio.  Much like Michigan DNR revamping their reservation website a year ago, Ohio DNR revamped their website in the month since we booked Memorial Weekend.  Much like the Michigan revamp, the Ohio revamp required recreating your account.  Unlike Michigan, Ohio wasn't completely accurate in rolling over your previous information, like current reservations and reward points.  D'oh.  A phone call fixed the problem, but it was still frustrating to have problems.  And I'm sure the ODNR employees are frustrated with having to fix this problem.  Also, the new website take some getting used to (read: many clicks to figure out the same info you were used to getting in 1 click).  I'm sure, with time, I'll get used to it.  I'm just not there yet.

With planning ahead, we were able to get into a very popular campground on a holiday weekend.  It's a campground we've never been to, though I've been to the area about 20 years ago.

We are looking forward to the trip.  Where do you plan on camping for 4th of July?