What Are Your Pet Peeves Rv'ing?

Maybe it's the heat this summer but we have been getting grumpy lately in our 5th week on the road with 3 more to go.

Here are a couple of mine:

1. Rude neighbors. Just left a really nice RV park in Springdale UT with people next to us who not only used their picnic table but appropriated ours, which we do use, just not constantly. The clincher was coming back after dark and they had moved our table across the center of our site so we had to get out, drag it to the rear before we could hook-up. Grrrr. I wanted to leave them a note (in their language-French) but my husband talked me out of it. I did tell the park manager and she replied in one word "Europeans."

2. Smoky campfires. I guess it's un-American to say it but I hate them. In good weather we have to close our windows or inhale smoke which makes my head hurt, my eyes water and then cough. I have actually enjoyed "Fire Alerts" in national parks to prevent people from making camp fires. I like breathing fresh unpolluted air outdoors.

3. Tailgaters on national park roads (both cars and other RV's). My next rear window sticker will say "The closer you tailgate the slower I'll drive". Do they think our RV stops on a dime? I pull over as often as possible to let them pass but there is always someone new. I am not a slow driver BTW just not a speeder.

So what gets to you? (Don't give me a hard time about #2 peeve, I had asthma and still have allergies. Breathing is important to me).

 

People AND ESPECIALLY CHILDREN walking through MY campsite. Yes, I PAID FOR IT SO IT'S MINE FOR THE NIGHT!

Parking lot campgrounds. Ones where your neighbor's picnic table is "in your back yard" so to speak. That is TOO CLOSE!

 

Rude folks captures it for us as well.
Am usually out in the great outdoors to get a break from these people: in the office, on the roadways, in the store, in the stands behind me at a grandchild's game...

 

1> People that don't pick up after their pets. I am an dog owner. I pick up after mine but I don't like having to pick up after yours (but I do anyway).

2> Rude and or or nosy neighbors.

3> Parks that allow campfires where there is not adequate room and or poor placement of the pit. I don't mind a fire but not when it's only a few feet from my coach.

4> RV Parks that are engineered so that you face your neighbour. I like a little privacy.

5> Low hanging limbs and branches that scratch my coach. If you allow big rigs make sure you can fit us.

I seem to see a lot of common sentiments.

 

Pet peeves include:

1. Noisy, out-of-control, kids (and sometimes their parents).

2. People barging through our campsite on their way to the restroom (or wherever).

3. Smoke....either from camp fires or cigarettes.

4. WiFi that is advertised but barely exists.

5. One shower to serve 100+ sites.

6. Bunched-together site assignments when a park is half full (or less).

7. Pets allowed to run off-leash.

8. Sites so narrow that you can barely get your slide out.

 

Being lied to by rv park personnel. That's my #1 right now. Here's my present scenario: we're staying in a $55-per-night campground so I expect things to work. When we check in, I ask "can we get wi-fi at our site?" Answer, of course, is yes. Get to site, get set-up, a few hours later try to log in....no wi-fi. Call down to the office and a told, oh, well, you can't get it up there, you'll have to come down to the office. Walk down to the office....no wi-fi. I ask why. Answer: well, it goes down and the managers don't know how to get it back up. Can I speak to a manager? No, they're off duty and I can't bother them. At that point, another camper tells me there hasn't been wi-fi for days. I complain but just get the same answer. Next three days, no wi-fi. I complain every day....same answer: managers don't know how to get it going again. Of course, no managers to be found. I point out that their brochure and website say: free wi-fi available in most of the park. Since it's not available, can I get a reduction in my rate (silly question, I know, but it's worth a try). Answer: no, it's free, so we're not charging you for it. Huh? I point out that $55 a day should cover "free" wi-fi. Get nowhere. Today, we come back down to the office to lodge our daily complaint (in the meantime, have been going to Micky D's down the road to check emails). Lo and behold, there is a manager present who says she'll try to reset the wi-fi. She does and tells us that at best, it's only good for 300 feet from the office. I show her the line in the brochure where it says "wi-fi available in most of the park". Her answer: well, you can come down here and use it anytime you want. When? It hardly ever works! Shrug from the manager and I'm told if I don't like it I can leave anytime I want. No refund, though. Boy, somebody's gonna get a bad review in a few days.....

 

A lot of the items listed above can bother me, but I can usually tolerate them to a certain extent. My biggest pet prevent is music. Generally when I camp, and I'm outside my coach enjoying a campfire, or just sitting under the awning, I really don't want to hear my neighbors music, even if its off in the distance. I would rather hear the natural music of kids laughing, people setting up their campsites, etc.

Even if my neighbor is playing all my favorite songs, I don't think that's the right setting to hear them.

Thanks for letting me vent.

Oh, and I don't like KOA charging for additional people over two.

 

QUOTE(Fitzjohnfan @ Aug 8 2012, 11:30 AM) [snapback]30415[/snapback]



Oh, and I don't like KOA charging for additional people over two.



I refuse to patronize KOA's, and one time I was desperate, and all I saw was a KOA, but I just kept on driving.

I stayed at a KOA once and I got JUNK MAILED! When I stay at your park, my giving you my address information does NOT constitute any permission for you to put me on a junk mail list.

 

Number One. The worst Pet Peeve!!! Barking dog(s) Screaming kids no problem. But dog(s) barking I hate the most.

Number Two. Why do people have to listen to a radio or TV outside? And why is it always so loud I can hear it inside my trailer with the windows closed? I have no interest in listening to your music or TV. I have my own.

This one has to do with driving the car. It doesn't bother me when driving the truck or when pulling the trailer.

Number Three. Other drivers pulling up 3 feet or less from the bumper of our car at a stop light. I give the driver ahead of me plenty of room. You can get another car between me and the car in front of me at times. So I try to pull forward a couple feet just to have the driver behind me pull up too. Sometimes even closer. :huh:

 

QUOTE(JDOLLEN @ Aug 8 2012, 07:39 AM) [snapback]30406[/snapback]

... I am an dog owner. I pick up after mine but I don't like having to pick up after yours (but I do anyway)...

Thanks JDollen.
Traveled with a beloved rescue rottie, a decade ago. Lost count of the piles of dog waste I picked up in our RV life travels, that was NOT hers. She would always give me a look when I picked up some other owner's mess. Always wondered what she was thinking. (Humans are strange.)
:lol:

 

QUOTE(Nolan @ Aug 8 2012, 07:27 PM) [snapback]30427[/snapback]
I have no interest in listening to your music or TV. I have my own.


Agreed. I will play music sometimes using the outdoor speakers, but the first thing I do is walk all around to see how far my music is travelling. Usually the awning, vegetation, and the sound of the river make it impossible for others to hear mine. Last weekend the Mexicans on my rights put a boom box on their picnic table facing my site, and the young guy to the left left his car door open so he could hear his stereo - but since it was a pull through site, the speaker in the door was facing us. Fortunately the ranger came around and asked them both to turn down their music.

QUOTE
This one has to do with driving the car. It doesn't bother me when driving the truck or when pulling the trailer.


Now my biggest peeves come while towing. I'm tired of cars that try to enter the Interstate while going 45 in the merge lane - that lane is there for you to get up to speed. Or the ones that get right next to you and expect you to slow down to let them in, though they still have 500' of that lane to accelerate. It takes me a lot longer (and use more fuel) to get back up to speed than it would for them. Now if I'm coming to a busy exchange, and there is room in the left lane, I will pull over - but then those entering will not let me back to right lane, they accelerate and pass me on the right - and by then everybody in the left lane has caught up to me and start passing me on the right, mad that I'm in the left lane.

And don't even get ms started on those cars at the rest areas that park in the Truck/RV section.

 

For the most part I have just one pet peeve: NOISE!

I love dogs, just not the owners who let them bark incessantly. Dog Owner Deafness we call it.
(Maybe it has a related condition called Dog Owner Poop Blindness for those who fail to clean up after their dogs).

We like kids, too - but not their parents who let them scream from dawn til midnight and say it's okay because they're outdoors. "Outdoors" in this case is about 10' from my bedroom window.

Music? Yup, I'm a fan. But please don't force me to listen to yours.

Windchimes. They're always out of tune and sound like trash can lids being banged together. If you just can't live without your chimes, hang them inside your rig. Yeah, that makes about as much sense as hanging them outside.

Friendly neighbors? Wonderful and most welcome. Just don't scream back and forth between campsites to hold a conversation, please. Not everyone in the surrounding 25 sites needs to know that you woke up with a crick in your neck or that you're on your way up to the loo.

Also,

I don't really understand people who ring their sites or rigs with lights on the ground. Nor the guy who set up a huge stand-up Halogen light similar to those found on highway construction sites. Although those things seem kind of over the top and unnecessary to me when camping in the woods, at least I can sleep through them so it's not really a pet peeve.

 

I don't have any pet peeves.
I deal justly with rude campers on a case-by-case basis, then forget about it.

 

My pet peeve?

people with a long list of pet peeves.

 

The worst are the folks at the beach that carry a little shovel with them and then when Fido craps they dig a little hole and toss it in and throw a little sand over it. A landmine just waiting for the first victim. Please just leave it on top of the sand if you are too trifling to clean up after Fido. At least I can see it and not discover it when I begin to wonder where that pooh smell is coming from.

 

I don't like people who have never over nighted at Wal-Mart bashing those of us who do. They keep saying we are cheap and just don't get how we do it for the convince. They are along the X-pressway and easy in and easy out. Frequently we don't even uncouple the toad. We can walk to dinner, shop and frequently get free WiFi from other places in the area.

 

QUOTE(Lindsay Richards @ Aug 13 2012, 08:31 AM) [snapback]30555[/snapback]

I don't like people who have never over nighted at Wal-Mart bashing those of us who do. They keep saying we are cheap and just don't get how we do it for the convince. They are along the X-pressway and easy in and easy out. Frequently we don't even uncouple the toad. We can walk to dinner, shop and frequently get free WiFi from other places in the area.



I have never stayed at a WalMart but did at a Flying J one time. IMO there is nothing wrong with this type of overnight sccomdation if it suits you. I did it because I was dog tired and there was no campground near that late at night. I would do the same if it was allowed at a WalMart under the same circumstances as before.

 

Three peeves, 1 Barking dogs, 2 Large family groups at several adjoining campsites 3 People driving on cruise control in the left lane oblivious to all traffic around them.

As far as some of the other peeves like music, wind chimes, campfires etc., gee, unless it is really burdensome, let those folks enjoy their time away by what they like to do too.

Finally, I think we all know there are Wal-Mart campers who think they are at a KOA (I do not support them either) and those who use Wal-Mart's at just a place to pull in at night, grab some sleep and be on with their journey the next day. Don't think anyone minds them and how they use WM.

 

My pet peeves are related to people, rather than facilities:

1. Neighbors who do not know the term "bedtime", and are outside laughing and talking at the top of their lungs at 1am, 2am etc. just like it were the middle of the day. When this has happened I usually just shut the windows and turn on the air conditioning to drown them out and get some sleep.

2. Pet owners who make no effort to quiet barking dogs, or clean up after them. The park I am at this week has an interesting policy: they charge campers a $25 fee if they are caught NOT cleaning up after their pet, and give campers a $25 payment if they turn someone in NOT cleaning up after their pet. It must be working, as I have not seen any pet waste.

3. Smokers who feel the earth is their ashtray. I stayed at one park that was fairly new, overall kept clean, but had over 200 cigarette butts in my site alone (no I didn't count them, but that's accurate). I'm not a smoker, but assume it must have been someone who stayed more than one night.