If you have been reading my blog you know that I am not exactly thrilled with my summer home at Quabbin Pines RV Resort in Orange MA. If you follow the link today you will find an “under construction” website, which is totally appropriate because the campground itself is “under construction.” I previously reported that when I arrived on May 11 I was given a “temporary site” with no sewer hookup, electricity provided via an extension cord run from the office (20 amps) and water provided via a splitter off the water supply at the adjacent owner’s RV site. Since May 11 a sewer hookup was installed (after 26 days!) but the electric and water are still very temporary.
The impact of the water supply – other than necessitating the purchase of a 50′ hose that I will not need when I leave – is low water pressure. The main bathroom sink produces barely a dribble. But that is a minor problem as the shower pressure, though low, is adequate. The impact of the 20A electic service is more severe. I can run just one of the following at any point in time:
- The A/C (and just one of the two air conditioners that I have).
- The hot water heater.
- The microwave.
- The coffee maker.
Fortunately I don’t need a hair dryer or that would be on the list as well.
Also, as you can see in the photo at the top, the site is very sandy, thanks to the recent work on installing permanent electric service. Yes, he is making progress on that. But I have no expectation that the service will be installed and operational in the next month. In the meantime, a lot of sand is being tracked into my RV.
There is also no cable TV and no over-the-air reception. I have been without TV for over 2 months now. The wifi works and I can stream Netflix using that – or my own router, until the data plan limit is reached – but no network TV. I have been watching a lot of Mission: Impossible and movie DVDs.
So it is a pretty miserable “temporary” existence. Which is why I am leaving a month early. The final negotiated price (because there are no published prices), for 3 months, is $1,550. Less than I would have paid at a real campground, but more than this one is worth in its current state.
I am trying to think of the single adjective that best describes this place. The one that comes to mind most readily is “baffling”. Baffling because the owner could have made a shit-ton (a term I picked up from Jett’s son) of money this summer if he had been ready for business with utilities installed at all sites. He has owned/leased the campground for 2 years and yet is just now, in the middle of the peak RV season, beginning to install electric service. Baffling. The other utilities are not much better: 12 sites have sewer, 10 sites have water, 1 site (the owner’s) has electric – and even that is not permanent. That is out of approximately 100 sites on the property.
He did one thing that I regard as brilliant: he took the logs from the trees that he cut down to make the new sites and milled them into lumber. He claims to have milled over 35,000 board-feet of lumber, probably saving himself over $50,000 in lumber costs. But none of the new structures – the bathhouse, the rec center or the pavilion – are completed. And no work has been done on any of them in the past 2 months. Baffling.
He did complete, more-or-less, the swimming pool (more-or-less because I don’t believe the fence around it is legal). He also has a completed goat pen with 8 adult goats and 2 newborn kids. But that just saps his time and money. Why was getting goats a priority? Baffling.
The campground has a fire truck, too, presumably to give rides to children. But, again, why was that a priority? Baffling.
But the place does have potential. The sites are large, the roads are wide and most sites have a lot of shade (which would be great if the sun ever came out). There is a pond which could be stocked for catch-and-release fishing. So finish the sites, finish the bathhouse and rec center and add some activities and this campground could do very well. But the owner does not seem to be working with any sense of urgency, so I am not optimistic that the campground will be ready at the start of the 2022 season.
Baffling.