November 2, 2012

Diamond Jacks RV Ranch

Jamul, CA

When we woke up this morning we weren’t sure where we were going.  Yesterday we had narrowed down two places, one northeast and the other one southwest.  We wanted to go to the San Diego area but when I entered the address in the GPS for the RV Park there the route was not desirable.   It had us going west on CA78 towards the town of Julian.  Having driven on that road with my car a couple of nights prior we knew it was not a road Monte wanted to take the rig on.  The pilot, who had taken Monte up on the glider, suggested we take S2 to CA79 and pick up CA78 on the other side of Julian.  It would mean an extra hour of driving but it was well worth it to avoid the 20 minutes of driving on a treacherous road. 

We found a place to pull over and eat our lunch and then continued on past the towns of Ramona, Lakeside and El Cajon before arriving in Jamul, the location of our next stay.  

I got separated from Monte when several cars got between us and didn’t realize that his GPS instructed him to exit to the right.  I was in the extreme left lane and could not get over in time to make the turn.  My GPS routed me through the town of El Cajon where my empty fuel light came on.  After I found a station and gassed up, I called Monte to inquire where he was.  He asked me if I was sure I had entered the correct address in his GPS because he had driven down a narrow road that dead ended at private homes and now had to try to make a u-turn or back up.  Then the call dropped!  I was in a dead zone and could not reach him. 

I continued on guided by my GPS and found him.  Sure enough the GPS had routed me to the same dead end.  We asked a lady passing by, who was taking a walk, if she knew where Diamond Jacks RV Ranch was and she said it was up the hill on the road we were on.  I told Monte to stay put and I went up first one drive-way then the other to see if the camp was there but they were private homes.  The second driveway was gravel and I got stuck when I tried to continue on so I had to back down the driveway to get out. 

When I drove back to where Monte was waiting he said the lady who had told us the camp was up the hill walked back to the rig to say she had been mistaken.  DUH.  She instructed us to get back on the main road and continue on for a few blocks and we would see the HUGE sign for Diamond Jacks RV Ranch. 

We finally arrived at the camp.  We parked and walked up to the door marked office in what appeared to be a private house.  When we rang the bell dogs started barking.  A lady came to the door and told us she would be with us in a minute because she was on an important call.  Fifteen minutes later she opened the door and instructed us to drive down the road and pick any site that was unoccupied.  She told us we could settle up with her later or tomorrow.  We left the rig in front of the house, got into my car and drove the loop a couple of times. All the sites had trees with low hanging branches so we based our decision to take site 2 because it had the tallest tree.  We still had branches scraping our roof as Monte backed into the site. 

While Monte was setting I walked back to the office, rang the bell and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  The sign on the door indicated that the office hours were 9am to 5pm and it was only 4pm.  Finally, a boy of around 8 years old opened the door and said his mom was on the phone and would be with me in a few minutes.  I waited another ten minutes before deciding to leave.  I returned to the rig and did my inside set-up and then walked back to the office.  I rang the bell and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  After around 10 minutes I started to walk away and the door to the office opened.  The lady opened the door, letting out her Doberman causing me to turn into a statue as I am terrified of dogs, apologized and asked how many days we wanted to stay.  I said probably only 4 as that was the limit we could stay on the PA discount of $15 per day.  She said if I wanted wifi it would be $5 extra per day or $15 per week.  HUH?  I told her that there was no indication that wifi was extra on the Passport America site.  She answered that it should be obvious that it was extra.  HUH?

I asked her if the wifi was steady or iffy.  She gave me the code, told me to try it and if I was satisfied then I could pay her.  HUH?  I handed her my PA membership card and my credit card.  She informed me she did not take credit, only cash or check.  I didn’t have my checkbook or cash with me so I told her I would come back.  She said it could wait until tomorrow.

I was so flustered that I forgot to ask about the laundry, dump station (there is no dumping at the site) and the bathroom codes.  Back at the rig, I relayed my conversation with the lady to Monte.  I turned on my computer and could not log onto the internet.  Monte took $15 cash up to the office to pay for one night because at that point I wasn’t sure I wanted to stay longer than one night.  He told her that we unable to connect.  She said sometimes the wifi goes into a standby mode and that she would have to turn it back on.  She also wrote down the code that was a different code she had given me.  HUH?

We were able to use the wifi for a couple of hours until it stopped working.  The next time I am able to get on the internet I am going to go to the PA site and see if there is a complaint section.  I put a lot of time and effort into researching our next destination factoring in things like paying for extras.  If we know up front and still choose to stay at a place that charges extra for wifi then it is our decision to do so but I don’t like being surprised after the fact.

The camp is nice enough but between the aggravation over the spotty wifi we are paying extra for, no dump station at the site and only 30 AMP service, I don’t think we would stay longer than 4 days even if we could get the PA rate.