camping?

I have spent the last three weeks trying to arrange a location for the Brownie troop and Daisy troop to camp together. It has been fraught with misunderstanding and miscommunication, getting priorities out of order and just plain bad timing, but I think we have finally succeeded.
It all started with exploring the state parks and their reservation website. It was very easy to see that this was not an option for us. Daisy scouts in our council must have raised beds and/or four walls in order to camp. We needed cabins, obviously. Lots to choose from, but they were all full. I was stunned at how many people camp! Next I looked into Youth Primitive camping at individual parks, each accessed by its own phone number. Several nice rangers later, that proved fruitless as well.
Next I directed my phonecalls to the GS council headquarters and that is where the 'fun' began.
At first, it looked promising; one site for Daisy scouts was available. When I got preliminary go-ahead from my troop leaders, I confirmed that there was also space for the Brownies and I learned that there were several sites available. As treasurer, I cut a check to reserve half the camp and started planning meals and activities. When the paperwork hit the council office however, it was a different story. 'So sorry, that is not available that date' What?!? I pleaded and cajoled, but could only reserve as much as I wanted by switching the date of camping. I did agree to switch, thinking it was better to take what we could get rather than give up. Wrong decision! They locked in a date that turned out to be very wrong for us. Then they denied a refund or even a check hold for a future date. Dangit, we were about to lose our deposit because of some scheduling screw-up! I felt like a victim of bait and switch!
Finally, after more phone calls and emails, we are allowed to switch back to our original date of camping. We don't have half the camp; in fact our number of campers is limited, but at least we didn't lose all our money.
Now we just need our paperwork in, and we can start getting excited again! Yay, camping!