shf happens on the road: In the dumps at KOA
July 26, 2010
by shf
Plattekill, NY (FASTLAUGH.com) — Note to the management of Recreational Adventures Company — a family-owned and operated business — and the largest franchisee of KOA Kampgrounds of America.
Hey there, Mr. and Mrs. Kamp… and to the rest of the fine Kamp family!
You might want to consider training your staff to better coordinate their convoluted stories and fibs regarding the gross sanitary deficiencies present at the RV dump station of your Plattekill, NY KOA.
Better yet, you might want to consider actually spending a few bucks to make some simple fixes and remediate those gross sanitary deficiencies present at the RV dump station of your Plattekill, NY KOA.
On a very hot and very humid day, when that sweaty, annoyed stranger asked various members of your staff why there was no water faucet with a standard hose connector at your RV dump station — it was not a question asked of idle curiousity or of boredom.
It was asked because the sweaty, annoyed stranger very much needed a water faucet with a standard hose connector to be readily available for sanitation after de-sewaging a ripe RV holding tank on that very hot and very humid day, and because the sweaty, annoyed stranger had very reasonable expectations that a water faucet with a standard hose connector would be readily available in proximity to your RV dump station.
Instead, what a sweaty stranger encountered at your RV dump station, and which prompted him to become the sweaty, annoyed stranger that your staff then encountered, was a nearly useless stub of hose with an unthreaded fitting.
Oh, but the stories your staff spun!
“Well, I know that we used to have a water faucet with a standard hose connector, but people kept driving off without properly disconnecting from it so we just stopped providing that.”
OK, so why not charge everyone a $20.00 ‘water faucet with a standard hose connector’ deposit, and upon them successfully not being a dumb ass and driving away with your equipment still attached to their RV they get their deposit back? Nope, you didn’t care much for that suggestion from the sweaty, annoyed stranger.
“The State of New York Health Department prohibits us, and every other campground in New York, from providing a water faucet with a standard hose connector at RV sanitary dump sites because of concerns about fecal contamination.”
How wonderful that you have wisely heeded this supposed State of New York Health Department dictum, and have completely avoided all threats of fecal contamination at your RV dump station by not providing a water faucet with a standard hose connector.
Tell that bit of good news to the young brother and sister who were giddily splashing and playing water games in that puddle of fecal-contaminated water next to your nearly useless stub of hose with an unthreaded fitting at the RV dump station. Evidently, that stub of hose with an unthreaded fitting wasn’t nearly so useless after all. Just ask those kids.
When the sweaty, annoyed stranger pointed out the irony of that young brother and sister playing in sewage water to a member of your staff, and also commented on the fact that there was absolutely no signage to be found indicating that your dump station area contained both non-potable AND potentially contaminated water, the member of your staff changed tactics and resorted to unintelligible mumbling.
Meanwhile, from just a few feet away, came the continuing melody of joyful and innocent delight — youngsters at play with the hose stub, spraying each other with cool water on a very hot and very humid summer day. No matter that they were splashing around in sewage. What they don’t know won’t hurt them.
As a family-owned business, and presumably as parents, would you really want or allow your kids to be splashing around and playing in unmarked sewage?
Good thing you no longer provide a water faucet with a standard hose connector at your KOA in Plattekill, N.Y. You wouldn’t want to expose your guests to any health risks.
Thanks so much for providing a special Hudson Valley, New York memory.