Sunday, July 20, 2025 we left Mountain Range a at 9 am and drove 4 hours to Big Horn View RV Campground. Cindy tells me this is a new RV park. This is another one-night stay.
It was about 2 miles off the Interstate down a couple of gravel roads past farms and grazing cattle. But it curved back toward the Interstate, so we could hear the traffic roaring by from the campground. It’s a flat expanse of gravel and dirt surrounded by waist-high prairie grass.
What A Way To Run A Railroad!
We pulled into the campground at 1:05 pm for a 1 pm check-in and found some random guy setting up his fifth-wheel in our site. I got out of Voyager and approached the RG.
Me: Hi. Do you have a reservation for this site?
RG: She said take any site on the south end of the campground.
Me: Who is “She” because we have a reservation for this site.
RG: The woman on the phone when I called three hours ago. She said take any site on the south end of the campground.
Me: OK, you said that already, but as I said already, we have a reservation for this site.
RG: Does it matter where you set up?
Me: It doesn’t matter to me which site I set up in, but I don’t want to set up and then have someone pull in and say they have a reservation for that site. You DO get that, right?
RG: Yeah…
He pulls out his phone and starts calling the number of whoever he spoke to while Cindy calls the number we have. He has his on speakerphone so I hear a woman answer his call and as he starts telling her that he’s trying to get set up. I hear her say “Can you hold on I’m getting another call” and then I hear Cindy say “Hi, we’re at the campground and someone is setting up in the site you gave us a reservation for.”
The woman says we can just pick a site and it will be fine so I tell the random guy he’s good to stay and I remark “What a way to run a railroad!” and he just has a totally clueless look on his face about why I’m talking about a railroad in an RV campground.
Some people just have no exposure to the world of cartoons, I guess.
That phrase became widely used and popular after a single-panel cartoon ran in a newspaper back in the 1930’s that showed two locomotives on the same track speeding towards each other. A railroad employee is watching the scene and the caption of his thinking reads, “What a way to run a railroad!”
Over time the above caption became a saying that generally refers to discontent with the way a business is managed. Which was, of course, the point I was trying to make to random guy.
It seems random guy didn’t know that and maybe you didn’t either…but now you do.
We pulled into another site on the front row and got set up. It’s uneven gravel but we deploy our trusty levelers and soon we’re all set-up with full hook-ups for the night. That’s good because we’re going to dump here before heading to our next stay.
About an hour later there’s a knock at the door. It’s the woman that Cindy knows as Jeannie from the phone and random guy knows as “she”, apologizing that someone took our site. I want to tell her that no one “took” it but that rather she “gave” them our site. However, because Cindy had told me this was a new campground and I assume the people running it are new to this as well, I hold my tongue. She asks if we’re OK with our site and again apologizes for the “mix-up”. I tell her we’re good and she goes on her way.
Later in the afternoon Cindy has her weekly Sunday FaceTime call with our friend Tim. Cindy has known Tim for more than 25 years since they met at the original Lake Eola Market in Orlando and they have remained friends ever since. Several years later Tim met his now-husband Alan and we have been to their home in California and met them in New Mexico since we started being The Wandering Wetheringtons.
The rest of the day was quiet and we were in bed early again because the next day we were heading to Cindy’s favorite state park. Can you guess which one it is? If you’ve kept up with our posts you may have seen me mention that it is her favorite. Here’s a hint: Wildlife Loop.
Drop your guess in the comments if you’re of a mind to do so.
Thanks for following The Wandering Wetheringtons.
Pingback: Custer State Park near Custer SD July 21 – 24, 2025 -
I had not heard that phrase! Good job holding your tongue though