The Out-of-Towners : A Clamor for Campsites : Recreation: Hundreds pack county parks and beaches for the holiday. To assure a spot, many arrived Thursday or even earlier in the week.

Robert Plumleigh struggled Friday morning to attach the windshield on his well-worn, slightly crooked dome tent. No matter where he attached the cloth cover, it still came up too short on the other side.

“Anybody know how to do this? We’ve never put the top on before,” the Thousand Oaks resident asked good-naturedly, while his 2-year-old son Wade explored their double-space campsite at McGrath State Beach in Oxnard.

Meanwhile, Plumleigh’s wife, Debi, was unloading a fully packed van and offering advice on the tent’s position.

“Is this really where we want it?” she asked. “Right here in the middle of the world?”

Like the Plumleighs, hundreds of people converged on Ventura County’s campgrounds Friday, preparing to make the most of the last weekend of summer. From the beaches to the mountains, they sought a break from city life while surrounding themselves with the comforts of home.

Besides erecting mini-tent cities, they fired up Coleman stoves, rode bikes, fished and relaxed in lawn chairs. On the coastal Rincon Parkway, RVs lined up bumper-to-bumper, transformed into ocean-view condos with outdoor carpet and canopies.

“You look out here and you’ve got this million-dollar view with the dolphins going by and the surfers,” said Ron Zahnter of Chatsworth, explaining the appeal of spending the weekend in a parking space next to the beach.

Securing a space to call one’s own was not a spontaneous affair. Most of the prime sites were won by people who made reservations two months ago, or by those who arrived early in the week.

Plumleigh said he “pushed redial for an hour” in early July before getting through to make a reservation for Labor Day weekend.

Don Magana of Inglewood said he was disappointed when he tried to reserve his favorite spot near the dunes at McGrath State Beach and was told the campground was full. But when he called back several weeks later, there had been a cancellation.

“We like being at the beach,” he said, while setting up two dome tents for his sons. “The temperature’s great and there’s facilities for showers--that’s what draws us here.”

State park aide Phyllis Morten said many people had already been turned away from McGrath by Friday morning, even though a quick tour of the campground showed dozens of empty spots.

“We’re completely full with reservations,” she explained. “We tell people, ‘You should have camped two weeks ago, not at the end of the summer.’ ”

Among those turned away, Morten said, were tourists from other countries who did not realize that Sept. 6 was a holiday for most American workers.

For those and other last-minute campers, park workers did their best to scrounge up still-available spaces along the coast. But by Friday, they weren’t having much luck.

U.S. Forest Service officials said the situation wasn’t much different in the mountains north of Ojai.

Although on most weekends the campgrounds in Los Padres National Forest are filled to capacity, holiday weekends attract even bigger numbers earlier in the week.

“On a normal weekend they fill up by about six o’clock Friday night, so on holidays people start showing up on Thursday nights,” said Leslie Jehnings, recreation planner for the Ojai district.

Besides a few spots left at Lion’s Campground, rangers were advising latecomers to get a fire permit and try camping alongside Tule Creek on California 33, across from Beaver Campground.

Closer to Ojai, Kathy LoVetere was cheerfully guarding spot No. 6, at shady Wheeler Gorge, for seven co-workers from Los Angeles who were expected to arrive Friday night.

Despite having reservations and leaving home at 7 a.m. Friday, LoVetere was still nervous about getting a spot.

“I woke up this morning thinking, ‘What if someone came in and squatted and got the campsite?’ ” she said.

Ed and Helen Lush of San Diego didn’t share LoVetere’s anxiety.

Even if they hadn’t found a spot--which they did at Lion’s Campground--Lush said he wasn’t worried. With their 20-foot recreational vehicle complete with electric generator, it didn’t matter.

The couple, both in their 70s, had taken a day-trip to Wheeler’s Gorge where they ate lunch in the parking lot.

“We just wanted to see what this campsite was like in case we come back next year,” Ed Lush said.