Park Banter
Camping alerts for national park families, plus a weekly newsletter, run day to day by scheduled jobs.
- public launch
- Aug 2026
- availability watch
- 24/7
- alerts when a site opens
The problem
Campsites at popular national parks sell out in minutes, sometimes seconds. Families plan whole summers around a reservation window. I am trying to take my own kids to every park, so the reservation problem is familiar.
Park Banter helps families plan national park trips with a free newsletter and paid campsite alerts. The alert product sends email when a campsite matching the reader's dates opens up.
From a campground search to an email
The reader chooses a campground and dates. The backend keeps checking availability and sends an email when it finds a match. The reader follows the link to check availability and book the site themselves.
What the agents do
Daily intake collects park news. A separate sweep runs on Mondays and Wednesdays. Wednesday evening produces the newsletter draft, with fact checks and photos, for my review.
The recurring sections give it a shape: a park to visit, a campsite availability story, and advice for families. I make the editorial calls and send the issue.
What I do
I make the calls on strategy and positioning. I stage and send every issue myself, and approve every post, ad, price change, and new spend.
What happened
Newsletter issue 1 went out August 6, 2026. Campsite alerts went on sale August 20, by email only.
I retired the always-on agent in August because I did not like its output. Daily intake and the weekly draft now run as scheduled jobs.
What it taught me
Test signup through the database.
On August 15, the code was one database migration ahead of production. Signups returned success while failing, and the worker logged 240 errors an hour. The fix was to run the migration and restart the services. The deployment rule now requires a database-version check.
Keep the promise tied to the product.
The site once promised text alerts before SMS existed. Those claims came off the homepage and alert page on August 8. The product sends email.
Simpler scheduled jobs were enough.
The always-on agent's output did not meet my bar. Its daily checklist became scheduled jobs, including the news intake and Wednesday draft.
