Making the Best of a Bad Situation

Continued from Massachusetts: The LEAST RV-Friendly State?!

We had quite a long drive day, considering we only went 45 miles. We left Wompatuck at 11AM and found ourselves finally setting up camp at 6PM. That's what happens when things don't go as planned. We were fortunate to have our fallback, though, the trusty spot in Nicole's parents' basketball court. We're sure it begs the question, why not just stay there like you did over the wintertime? There are a few reasons for this:

1. When it's this hot out, we want to have more electricity than just the 120 volt garage outlet, and we don't want to constantly run the generator because it's loud and it sucks up a lot of gas.
2. We simply like to stay at campgrounds. We like being near walking trails, so we can wake up in the morning and take Tanner for a walk before it gets too hot. The house has lots of yard space, but beyond the yard there isn't any good place to walk.
3. In the winter, we didn't have the option of booking a nearby campground, because they're all closed for the season. We also didn't expect to stay that long, but we got a bit detained.
4. They're not enforced, but technically there are town rules against staying in an RV on someone's property. For that reason we'd like to try and not make a habit out of it.

All that to say, we were happy to have a place to go after our Pinewood debacle. Because of our plans while we're in town, we have to stick close by, and the last thing we wanted was to try and scrounge around for another expensive campground in the area, on the chance they had last-minute availability for 10 days. We would much rather just stay put and regroup.

By the time we got unhitched at the parents', it was dinnertime and neither of us had eaten all day. We still had to unpack the RV and we also had tons of laundry that had accumulated at the laundry-less Wompatuck. The original plan was to check in at Pinewood and use their laundry facilities. The new plan was to hold off unpacking, let the animals hang out in the house for the evening, and head to a laundromat, as to not hog Nicole's mom's washer for the next several hours. We decided to make a night of it. Throw in laundry and run to the store, and then when it's in the dryer, grab dinner. Thankfully our impromptu "date night" salvaged the day. The heat subsided and left us with the most beautiful evening, and we got to spend it dining al fresco at Ocho Café, a Mexican place up the street from the laundromat. There was live music, dancing, and delicious food - a nice lift in our spirits. It was exactly what we needed to blow off steam and reset before heading back to Pinewood the next morning.

We had our day all planned out. We would go to Pinewood late morning, as the manager was supposed to be there until 12:30PM and we didn't want to miss her in case she left early. Then we would head over to the Plymouth Waterfront and kill time before our planned activity, a whale watch. That was our choice for a "touristy" activity in Plymouth. We heard it was a really good season for whales. There's some species of fish that they love that happens to be abundant this year. Abundant fish = abundant food = abundant whales. Neither of us had ever seen a whale in the wild, and it's on our wildlife scavenger hunt game, so we were ready to spot some!

We were originally scheduled for the 9AM whale watch, but we had to reschedule so we could catch the manager. The people at Capt. John Boats were very accommodating. Finally, some helpful customer service! So we embarked on the 2PM voyage.

We're not sure how many whales were spotted on the 9AM cruise, but boy were we glad we were on the 2PM. We saw over a dozen whales, probably more, though it's hard to tell which ones are the same ones. All the whales were humpbacks except one, a fin whale, which we didn't get a good look at. Nicole was still carrying around a broken, half-working phone, so she seized the opportunity to charge up her mirrorless camera and bring along her zoom lens. Good thing she did! Granted they're still not the best since it was incredibly sunny and there's no stabilization in the camera, but at least you can tell they're whales!

"Pro" Tip: When going on a wildlife venture, sometimes it's easier to take video.

It was a gorgeous summer day, perfect for getting out on the water. Plymouth has changed a lot over the years, but the historical integrity remains. That's what we love about this place.

It would have been nice to camp in town, but at least we were able to have this lovely afternoon. But was this a celebration of a successful attempt at a campground refund? Sorry to keep you in suspense. Yes, we were in fact able to convince the Pinewood manager to give us a refund. First she told us that she could give us everything except the first night. We kindly threatened to dispute the charge with our credit card company because they failed to provide their agreed upon service. She chuckled nervously, went in the back to "check with the owner" (Jeff?! Is that YOU?!) and then came back and issued us a refund for the entire booking.

The following day Nicole got her phone repaired, thus ending our Pinewood debacle once and for all. Now we can look forward to our remaining time in MA, experiencing New England summer in all its charm.