The Blue Ox RV park in Albany Oregon has it's mascot cast in fiberglass in front of the office looking like some kind of demon smurf yak. This should have been a warning to us, but we were lured in by the ease of parking, the clean showers and the pool. (these features are as alluring to the RV crowd as a legless pomeranian is to a python) As a disclaimer I want to point out that the Blue Ox RV park is a clean, professional, and pleasant organization. Much like a cracker barrel, you know exactly what you're getting and you know there's gonna be some clip-on sunglasses involved. That being said, living at the Blue Ox is like living in giant parking lot with a bathroom. I'm sure that's just fine if you never leave your trailer. (which is fairly common behavior, the only time i saw anybody else was when the power went out and it was like the RV park had hatched a brood of TV-fed pork sausages in denim cut-offs) The week that we got there the temperatures rose into the 100s and TIffany, the 3 mammals and I were trapped in the air conditioned trailer. Now for me to stay in the trailer happily for a week with Tiffany, the baby, and two dogs would require a divorce lawyer, an adoption agency and an unscrupulous vietnamese restaurant. So we did what any kentucky-bred, travel-wisened wanderers would do; we hated life and plotted ways to kill each other. There was nowhere to go! We were trapped between the interstate and the airport in a parking lot with 84 square feet of air-conitioned space. as soon as we had a day off we fled for the only other place within 30 miles of here that had an open RV space, the Benton Oaks Trailer Park in Corvallis. Now, we had checked this place out on our first surveyed the area and found it lacking but after a week under the demonic possession of the icy yak-god, the trailer park appeared like a lidless trash can in front of a family of starving raccoons. We have large shady trees and friendly neighbors. The dogs can wander about. We're on a bike trail that goes 60 miles form the mountains directly to a brewery downtown. We're far enough east that the coastal breeze chills the evening air. We're home. (well, we're paid through theend of the month anyway)

photo: not the trailer park, but we can pretend