Muskegon River Camping in Newaygo-Vic's Canoes-Salmon Run-NEVER AGAIN!!
It's summer again! In Michigan we look forward to our summer's in a big way. One of the best ways to spend a Michigan summer in Newaygo is to go tubing or canoeing down the Muskegon River. We have done it for 14 years and for 14 years we have stayed at Salmon Run Campground at Vic's canoes. Well we won't be doing that this year and my kids who are now 16 and 18 are so disappointed.
So why aren't we going camping at a place we have been at for 14 years? Why aren't we camping with the other 10 some odd couples, many of whom we met at church? Simple, last year the owner of Salmon Run Campground had us escorted off by the police.
It would be somewhat rebel like to be able to say this family of four got escorted off Salmon Run Campground for partying to hard--isn't that why most people get kicked out of a campground? It would be a heck of a story to tell for the guy who runs sound at his church. It would be fun for these teenagers to say they got in trouble for being to loud. But no that would not be the story.
So why, you ask, did this family of four, plus a friend, get escorted out of the campground by the police? Simple, for saying we would tell our story . . . . so here is what happened.
Last year we arrived at Salmon Run Campground late because my daughter was showing her horse at the Berlin Fair that day. We arrived around 9 pm. Since we have three teenagers with us in tents, we always get two sites because our living quarters horse trailer and two tents is just way to tight of a fit in these small sites. For the last approximately 4 years we have had two sites with our kids in tents on one site and us right next to them. Our big group usually takes up all of the river sites. When we arrived, however, there were several sites between us and our children.
Now mind you, the rules at the campground are that all children must have parents present. The year before, the kids were asked to quiet down and it wasn't even them-it was the site across the street. So that night the owner asked us to put up the tents all on one site with our big trailer and we would straighten it out in the morning and she would ask someone to move. I knew that wasn't going to happen because we had ended up with people between us that weren't in our group.
Morning came. We went in to talk to the owner. She said the people wouldn't move but we could use the site to park our truck on . . . WHAT!!?!?!!? There was no way I was paying $30 a night to park my truck. That would have been $60 a night for parking. I told the owner there was no way we were doing that--we would keep the tents on our site but we wanted our money back for the other site we weren't using. She said she wouldn't do that. Ok this is just wrong. This was not our mistake it was the campgrounds. She informed me that it was impossible for them to make a mistake--their computers wouldn't allow it. Ok now this is seriously commical. How many of you fine people out there have never had to deal with a computer glitch?
We argued back and forth and I could see that this was going no where so I thought compromise was in order. I suggested we split the cost and she could give us half our money back. She said she wouldn't do that unless she could get the site rented. Ok that is NOT compromise-she would end up ahead in this whole thing. I wish this was the first time I had heard something like this going on in this office--it wasn't. Over the years I have heard angry customers so we were just one more.
I said, "you can't do that, it is wrong and unfair especially when these aren't the sites we reserved a year ago". The owner said, "I can do anything I want, this is a private campground". I commented to the owner that the days of a business being able to treat customers unfairly without anyone knowing were over. These days we have the internet where people can speak out and tell their story. I turned around and walked out the door.
We went down the river which is approximately a four hour trip from where we put in. When we got back there was a note on our camper door. "Come see Annette". I walked up to the office thinking we had worked something out but what I was told was to get off her campground that no one was going to threaten her. She handed me $30 and told me to get out.
ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?!?! You are going to kick someone out of a campground because they said they would write a blog about what happened to them in their campground? Someone who had been coming there with their kids for 14 years . . .people who had made their kids pick up every scrap of paper on their site before they left. Never mind the fact that we had already paid $120--$30 per night for two sites. We had used one campsite (as directed by her) which would have amounted to $30. By my calculations we should have gotten $90 back.
I was stunned. I walked back to where my sister was camping and told her what happened. She told me to sit down that they had many run-ins like this with her over the years and that no one would kick someone off for something so stupid. She said sit down and wait till the guys come back with the tubes and we will walk up there. In the mean time, after we weren't gone for an hour she apparently went to our camper and knocked on the door. My daughter said we weren't there and the owner told my daughter that she knew we were hiding in there. Does this sound crazy to anyone yet?
We were told by someone else in our group that she had been there so my sister walked up there with me and said we were going to work this out. We were met by the police . . yes I wrote that right. They were there to escort us off the campground. My sister couldn't believe it and tried to talk to the owner but she refused to compromise. She was more than willing to kick a patron of 14 years out of a campground for asking for money back for a site she didn't reserve. Keep in mind kids under 18 are not allowed to camp by themselves in this campground. She kicked us off because I apparently threatened her by saying I would tell my story in a blog.
So this is my story of what happend at Vic's Canoes-Salmon Run in Grant Michigan. My kids are so disappointed. We have been doing this for years-they won't be camping with their cousins and all the kids they have grown up with.
As a side note, when I got home I looked up the check I wrote. When we write a check there is a carbon. I looked at the check I had wrote and on it, in the memo section, were the the site numbers we had--they were sites right next to each other. So much for computers never making mistakes.
What type of business owers throw away patrons of 14 years--patrons who have brought friends with them who made them more money. Well you know the story now and who does that. Like I said . . . .
Muskegon River Camping in Newaygo-Vic's Canoes-Salmon Run-NEVER AGAIN!!
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