Won't You Be My Neighbor?

Thought I would start this thread for people to tell of their experiences with neighbors while camping/RVing. Whether your neighbors were saints who went above and beyond to help you :wub: or you had the neighbors from the ninth level of heck :wacko: (or worse) let us know your story. This is your place to praise or vent. Who knows, maybe someone reading this might learn a little about campground etiquette. I will go ahead and start things off with the only neighbor from heck we have had to date.

Quite few years ago we were tent camping with a group of our friends in Leadville, CO. We were pretty much surrounded by our friends except for a site that was behind ours that was empty. Well we turned in for the night ready for a good night's sleep. Along about 10:30 or 11:00 someone came in and started moving into that empty campsite. Of course they couldn't try and be quiet about it. Oh no, no, no, no, nooooo! That would be too courteous. They also needed light to set up by. I know, lets point the car toward the campsite and turn the brights on. That gave them the light they needed. Unfortunately for us their campsite was right in between the front of their car and, you guessed it, our tent. Nothing lights up the side of a tent like brights on a car. Of course they didn't want the car battery to die so they had to leave their car running the entire time. Well they finally got their camp set up, time to go to bed. Nope! Not yet! Time to cook dinner and stand around talking. And after dinner comes the clean up. Nothing like being awake well after midnight staring at the side of your tent watching the shadow puppet theater of some dork cleaning a metal frying pan with a metal spatula (full sound effects included). :angry: At least they finally turned their car off and went to bed. Woke up the next morning and they were still sound asleep in their tent. I kept thinking how nice it would be to get my van as close to their test as possible and let the engine warm up at about 3000rpm, with the radio on, all the while making sure the horn was still functional. But, alas, i was just too nice and didn't do any of that. We just went out that day doing stuff with our group. Luckily for us, and probably for them, they were gone when we got back that afternoon.

 

Can only say that we must be the exception, as we have had mostly good experiences in dealings with our camping\Rving neighbors. Have met and made many new friends along the way. In the evenings we always have a campfire, weather permitting, with conversation, comradeship, and of course we have to have food and drink. Last year we met a couple from St. Louis at a Camden Maine campground, the gentleman was having some health problems, unknown to us, but we invited them to join us after their dinner. They join us later in the evening, and Kathy had just baked a homemade apple pie that day, so the invite included a piece of pie with a cup of tea. His health problem disappeared overnight, must have been the "apple a day", and we gained two more friends. We have had some neighbors who were less than pleasant, and their habits were annoying, but we do not let their less than favorable antics get to us as we have a more important agenda---to enjoy ourselves--- . A big plus for us is that we plan our vacation time for the month of September, with weekend outings throughout the summer at our local campgrounds. It works for us .

 

We have met many great people while rving in our area and across the united states. I don't recall a bad neighbor. People ask us all the time how we can travel with 2 small children. I can't see how else to travel since we can bring all their important items with us. We have not been to a campground yet that my oldest daughter (7) did not make new friends. The only bad neighbor I have experienced is the person that cannot park straight next to me in the storage area where we keep our 5th wheel.

 

We were in the n.c. moutains backed in and set up not a cloud in the sky left the grounds in search of a store while we were out a bad storm came in as we headed back to the camp site i was thinking the awing was gone along with the loose stuff we left on table and the one window we left up would catch all the water from the storm but too my supprise a totaly stranger we never meet that was in the site next to us had rasied my awing up put our loose stuff in his truck and taped a trash bag over our window we asked them to to dinner that night and have stayed intouch every since glad they are folks like that still around

 

I Cannot recall a bad neighbor. Most every neighbor was nice and most helpful. We had an electrical problem with our bounder, and as luck would have it, the wife was chatting with another young lady, who happened to mention that her fiance is an electrical engineer. My wife suggested that we search the campground for them and ask for assistance, worst they could say is no. Turns out, Greg allways carries his volt-meter for just such an occasion. He came by and fixed us up. We treated them to tenderloin steaks on the grill, a few cold ones, and smores. They have 2 boys, who instantly became good friends with our son. They played non-stop every day for the rest of the stay. They invited us to the beach, they knew of the secluded beaches used by the locals, not the very crowded public beaches used by the vacationers. It was one of the best camping experiences ever. We still keep in touch.[/size]

 

Bad neighbors:

1. Leave their barking dog in the rig next to yours.
2. Build a campfire where smoke drifts into your windows.
3. Forget to turn off the outside lights when they retire for the evening.
4- Make a midnight dump on the ground of smelly gray water at a no sewer site.
5. Run the engine for 30 minutes while getting ready to leave before daylight.

Thankfully, among all the great RV neighbors, they are only a few bad ones.

Rick

 

Discussion on another channel re seasonals and why is it campers and seasonals don't always get along. I've decided its jealousy as we are fortunate to be both. MHers when we can travel and seasonals to a park trailer for weekend get-aways. I was down there for this past beautiful weekend, Ed was working and could not go, no problem...nice, easy, 2 hour car ride, neighbors to socialize with...lovely.

Yep, us campers are just jealous

Kate

 

We/ve been camping with a TT now for 3 years and until last week had only wonderful considerate neighbors. Last week when returning from our shakedown trip with our new flagsttaff, we stopped for 2 nights at Payne Campground in Woodstock in order to visit some friends. Set up next to us was a family of 3 in a tent with 2 boxes (one was a puppy).. Things Started off okay, the little boy was nice and all he had on his mind was fishing. Tried to make some polite conversation with the wife as she watched us set up, but she wasnt talkative. After eating a dinner of hot dogs and beans cooked on our campfire, we put the fire out and retired for the night (around 10:30pm) We had driven 8 hours that day and were bushed. The next morning we got up to the whinings of the boxers who were tied just outside our bedroom window. After breakfast I tidied the TT and opened up the shades and windows and was greeted with the site of the husband taking a leak on a bush. Then the whole family piled into a car and took off . They must have had a trunk full of speakers because you could her their music thumping long after they were out of sight. Of course they left their dogs tied up next to our TT. Our friends came out to the campground (they are not campers) and we treated them to a lunch on the grill. As we are sitting around reminiscing about the old days, our neighbors return music blasting. They get out and promptly set the dogs free. The dogs made a beeline for our TT and whizzed on the jack. They thought it was funny. Thankfully we packed up and left the next morning.

 

QUOTE(mastercraft @ Mar 21 2007, 07:53 PM) [snapback]6604[/snapback]

We have met many great people while rving in our area and across the united states. I don't recall a bad neighbor. People ask us all the time how we can travel with 2 small children. I can't see how else to travel since we can bring all their important items with us. We have not been to a campground yet that my oldest daughter (7) did not make new friends. The only bad neighbor I have experienced is the person that cannot park straight next to me in the storage area where we keep our 5th wheel.


All it takes to be a good neighbor is to follow the rules. Fortunately most of us don't even need to be told, we know. But for the 1 in a 100 that don't get it, well, lets just hope they aren't camping! We camped next to a guy that left his motor running on his truck for no apparent reason for hours one night, so long that the fumes were starting to infiltrate our camper. I had to ask him to please turn off his engine. He did, grudgingly, then spent the rest of the night slamming doors and playing his radio. Not a true camper by any means. Sad thing is, he can show up at any park at any time. We met people that were camping in a park where the owners had 31 ducks penned right next to the site they gave them. They never cleaned up after the ducks and refused to try to relocate the fowl. They left the park and went to a neighboring campground for the rest of their stay. So what do you do when the owners are bad neighbors? Tsk, tsk, tsk.

 

I've had mainly good neighbors who were considerate, but you will always get
the one's who need light and use the car headlights pointed right at you,
the ones that go off and leave their dogs to bark,
the one's who have had way to much to drink and party until 5 am
the one's who get up early and start clanking pots and pans and slamming doors

the best one was a family who made a racket at 6 am and ignored their kid who was
having a fit because he does not want to wear the shoes choosen for him. Screaming, having a wicked temper tantrum, and they just yelled you will wear those shoes.

I guess I earned the bad neighbor award that day in their book, as I went over and said "Do you mind?, It's 6:30 am this has been going on for a half hour, quite time is not over until 8 am, give the kid the shoes he wants, shut him up, when you get in the car and out of the park and the kid is calmed down, deal with the shoe issue!" I was told to mind my own buisness
and they will choose how they deal with their child. Off I walked and just said Thanks for being thoughtful and considerate of those camping around you. Luckily after a day of site seeing
they were packed up and gone by our return.

 

Just a few weeks ago our first trip out this year. We went to our favorite campground and while I was trying to back in our 30' TT a girl the same age as my daughter (7 years old) comes walking into our campsite asking if my daughter can play. My wife told her in a little while she will be able to come over to the play ground to play (which was right across from our campsite) The little girl sits down at our picnic table and was quite the talker. I had my wife take our daughter over to the play ground just to get rid of the talkative child. When it was dinner time my family was sitting inside the TT eating dinner when the door of the TT swings open with no knock and sure enough it was little miss talkative. Asking again if my daughter can play!!! Oh my!!! My wife asked the girl what campsite she was staying in and to go back there and quite coming over to ours. (Come to find out it was clear over on the other side of the campground) The next morning I am the first one up at 700am to make a pot of coffee when there was a knock at the TT door when I opened the door, yep you guessed it little miss talkative, asking again if our daughter can play. I am a very patient person but I had not had my coffee yet, I told her no and shut the door. That poor child has no adult supervision or attention. Parents need to keep an eye on there children!
All we want to do when we go camping is spend time together as a family and not have to baby sit other people children!!

 

My husband & I just bought our 1st TT this past fall & so far have taken it out on 2 camping trips with our 3 daughters. The 1st was in the San Antonio area where the campground seemed to be filled mostly with seasonal campers who just plain did not want to socialize. We did ask our neighbors for suggestions on extending the awning & they weren't able/willing to help and made us feel dumb for asking. Our secong trip was a totally different experience. We stayed at a campground in Wisconsin Dells & had great neighbors all around who were more than helpful. To start, my husband was having trouble backing the trailer in as I was of little help directing, so a couple gentlemen came over & got him right in. Then, we realized our water hose was too short to reach the connection so another gentleman lent us his brand new one to use! Also, as we were again struggling to extend the awning, a different neighbor a couple sites down came over & showed us the correct way to do it. And throughout the whole stay everyone was very friendly, polite, generous, and quick to offer a wave and a smile. I'd like to believe THAT is how the vast majority of campers really are! ...Looking forward to the next trip & I'm sure it'll be wonderful!

 

QUOTE
I'd like to believe THAT is how the vast majority of campers really are! ...Looking forward to the next trip & I'm sure it'll be wonderful!


I think so! If you stick around this site, you'll see for yourself that just about everyone here tries to be as helpful as they can. It's a wonderful group of people and we're all campers!

 

We've had mostly good experiences. We stayed a place in May where the neighbors had all their friends come out for a rowdy midnight beerfest (we were trying to sleep)...after which they did nothing but talk (loudly) about their favorite actors/actresses..."OH, I SO LOVE MICHAEL DOUGLAS."

Made me feel like shouting out the window "I love Michael Douglas too! Especially in that one movie...what's it called? Oh yeah, 'Shut the Hell Up.'"

But then, we followed that up the next weekend with the nice elderly gentleman who gave some helpful camper tips and alerted me loudly to the fact that I was about to back over my three-year-old. Heh.

 

QUOTE(RLM @ Mar 26 2007, 01:18 PM) [snapback]6634[/snapback]

Bad neighbors:

2. Build a campfire where smoke drifts into your windows.




We had this happen for the last two nights while we were in the Spring Valley RV Campground in Cambridge, OH. I don't like sleeping with air conditioning on when it's cool enough to have outside air coming in. Of course, the way that rigs are parked here, the campfire rings are in the most inappropriate places so the people don't have much of a choice. However, not only did their campfire force me to keep my windows closed because it was practically under our bedroom window, but they all sat around it (about 10 of them) making all kinds of noise under well after midnight. Theoretically, quiet time is 11 p.m. at this place. The first night I talked to the campground manager and she said she would talk to these people. The second night it was as if she didn't talk to them (and maybe she didn't) because they were just as noisy.

Normally, we have great neighbors and have had relatively few problems.

 

I've got'a agree about the campfire smoke...

First of all, campers and RVers (as a group) seem to be all bent out of shape with regard to "Global Warming" and yet, they themselves release more carbon into the environment every night with their camp fires than the amount of carbon their vehicles release in a _week_.

Then, I live in suburban Washington, D.C., but going camping (even in National Parks and Forests) is more often than not a trip to a waste dump incinerator compared to the relatively clean air I have at home. I really don't understand the mentality of reducing a cord of wood to ashes every day. It is not like these people even need it to cook with or to heat themselves. It could be 95F and they rustle up those camp fires and burn all their trash in them (including plastics; metal; etc. -- ohhh... the stench !!!). Most people must be using green wood because they are usually making more smoke than heat and light.

Last year, I was camped next to some people that showed up late and then proceeded to talk into the AM hours while burning trash in their camp fire. Normally, I would have been considerate and would have avoided running my air conditioner next to their tent but, under the circumstances, it was button up my RV and turn on the air conditioner or be asphyxiated.

I was a tent camper four four decades and I haven't built a camp fire since I was a teenager. I've camped in deep snow since then (in a tent) and didn't feel any need for a camp fire.

Noisy generators: I'm surprised how many people still use noisy two-cycle generators in crowded camp grounds. I can't hear _my_ four-cycle generator over the noise of two-cycle generators in _distant_ campground loops. On the other hand, generator usage is usually either prohibited altogether or restricted to a very narrow range of hours. (Of course, your right to pollute the air and generate clouds of smoke all night with your camp fire is _protected_.)

This past weekend, we were giving an interested guy a tour of our unusual camper when we were on Assateague Island (Maryland). I showed him the generator compartment (which was empty) and he remarked, "That's nice, if you got a generator, you could put it in there." I realized he had no sense that our HONDA EU2000i was on the ground six feet away from where he stood and _running_ [grin!].

Noisy conversation: Maybe I'm overreaching here but, this past weekend our camping neighbors from Ohio pretty much made a point of ignoring us the whole weekend. When we left, however, I felt I knew them so well that I felt compelled to say "good bye" and that I hoped they had a "safe trip". The reason for this strong sense of familiarity was that the "Grandmother" (she was probably younger than me) was in the habit of uttering every thought in her mind in the loudest voice she seemed to be able to muster. Even from inside my truck camper, I learned their names; their ailments; the items they had purchased; the restaurants they visited; when they bathed; how 'regular' they were... ad nauseum. They were a heck of a lot noisier than my generator, and yet, my generator is technically restricted to precise hours of use.

In the great scheme of things, camping neighbors are useful. Just talking about all the mistakes they are making is a great source of entertainment.

 

Testudo;

Just food for thought, when I was a child in the 1940's, everyone and I mean everyone burned either wood or coal. Oil was not available due to the war effort. That's world war II. Sources of global warming is due to industry, coal burning power plants, vehicles, and chemicals, world wide. The majority of this pollution is occurring in areas beyond the US borders, namely China, Mexico, and the third world countries, as they are trying to bring their countries into the world markets. Campfires do contribute to the problem, but these campfires are a small, very small percentage of the entire numbers. Everyone has one, opinion that is, and thank you for allowing me to express mine.

 

I think we can all relate to the revving engines late/early.

Get this one.

We stayed in Malibu Creek SP in California. (I'll get around to a review at some point.) It's in the outskirts of LA and it's been used at a movie set many times (M*A*S*H, Planet of the Apes). Beautiful scenery.

Set up next to us was some sort of family reunion/jamboree/satanic ritual group that included about 20 kids. The parents of whom were nice enough to bring their 56inch projection screen TV, rows of folding chairs and gas generator so that the kids could watch "Finding Nemo" 'til the wee hours.

Of course, the park rangers had folded up camp and gone home by that point.

Nobody spoke English o'course so there was no negotiating. (Not judging, just a fact.)

 

I had to :lol: at this topic. For the most part, all our neighbors have been good. However, I have two "notable" stories.

1. Camping in a mostly seasonal campground. Neighbors across the road are clearly seasonal. They smoked their fire the entire day and night - I don't know what they were burning but it smoked and smelled terrible and irritated my eyes - of course, we were downwind. What really boggled my mind was at one time, the wife sat her husband down in a chair near the fire and proceeded to cut his hair and then shake out the towel so that all the bits of hair flew into the wind and of course, into our campsite. Um, ew. It was a shame too - the campground was nice.

2. Camping at a quiet, boring campground for a weekend. Friday after dark, this sizable rig pulls in to the site behind us. A family of sorts. Two little dogs (Jack Russels) run around off-lead while the husband is backing up. There is a large commotion and I assume they hit one of the dogs, well, it turns out they ran over their cellphone. Next day they are at another site and of course, the little dogs are offlead and one runs right up to our dog and is barking and snarling. We actually went up to the desk and complained about this as our dog is an akita and if he wasn't well-behaved, this could have been an incident. The following morning, (Sunday), they are ready to leave. Everyone disappears until around 11 a.m., when the one guy returns. I don't know what he was thinking, but the guy hops into his rig, lifts the jacks, and starts to pull away - WITHOUT DISCONNECTING HIS HOOKUPS. All I heard was this revving of their engine and I look outside and the freshwater hose is on the ground spouting water and the electrical cord is pulled taut. When the guy finally figured it out, he came out and unhooked the power cord, picked up his hose and drove away.

I know my husband and I were newbies at one time but we never, ever were this bad. We did laugh a bit, though and felt a lot better about all the mistakes we had made when we first started RVing. :lol:

 

Had a recent experience I thought you all might enjoy. We're from the central valley of California, and were in the middle of a 30 day exploration of the west.

Setup camp outside Twin Falls, ID at a small family owned camp in Natsoopah. We were watching a gentleman play catch with his grand daughter outside their rig. I commented to them that I wish I had brought my mitt, LOL...

That got us to talking, and discovering that they were from right down the road from our hometown. A little further chatting revealed that he (grand dad) had gone to school with my wife's mother, in fact had been on double dates with her back in the day. This led to us going over to the pool with the three of them and spending the rest of the day swimming and lounging together.

All the while, I'm thinking this gentleman looked awful familiar. Further chatting (the next day) revealed that they had a connection to an area in Cali where we have a vacation home (Graeagle area). Turns out Ed (Grand dad) had been the starter at the golf course at the development, and he and his wife owned a family home in the same area.

All in all this made for a very pleasant stay. We all had breakfast the morning we headed out for Oregon. We exchanged e-mail addresses, phone numbers, etc. and we will be sharing a fair bunch of photos we took over these three days with them.

Small world, when you're seeing it in an RV.