Teaching people to camp

We had a neighbor last weekend in a campground that seemed new to camping and could have used some help.  He came fairly early on Friday with a brand new trailer towed by a brand new truck.  The camp host parked his trailer for him, and I watched him struggle with unhitching.  It was as large a trailer as I have seen that wasn't a fifth wheel, and had an equalizer hitch that I have no experience with.  His neighbor from the other side offered assistance and it was refused.

He eventually got the rig unhitched, then put down the stairs (4 steps!) and put out all three slides.  He then discovered the sites don't have water.  I loaned him a section of hose to reach the water tap so he could fill his tank.  He hand cranked two of his for stabilizers down, then took the tags off of two brand new chairs, rolled out a new rug by his door, pumped  up the tires on two new bikes.  He and his wife sat in the sun with his power awning tight to the side of his rig.  Friday night they were quiet, and we were gone most of the day Saturday.

Saturday night was party night with several cars parking in the unused sites near us.  There wasn't loud music but loud convesation, getting louder as the evening went on.  I hoped that it would quit at 10:00, but it didn't.  At nearly 11:00 the camp host put an end to the frivolity and had the extra cars leave.  We left early (silently) so I don't know how Sunday went.

This couple seems to have taken up camping, likely upon retirement.  A nice person should have mentored them, but it wasn't me.  I did not know how to even approach them without seeming like a know it all.  In fact there was much about his setup that I know nothing about.  I need suggestions about how to approach situations like this in the future.

Thanks

+1   

It sounds to me that you did as well as you could in the situation.

My general observation is that camping has changed quite a bit, since I first started in the 70s. So has society, in general. Campers are a "representative slice" of the general population. There are those who would argue this with me but, I don't see "campers" as any sort of morally, ethically or legally elite group. They were not "back in the day" either. Though the time certainly had it's problems, people and society behaved differently than now. Today, we have much better technology but, I question if it has made "us" better. So much for my daily sermon.

At any rate, it is probably good that Dixie and I did not witness their first attempt at a dump station.....things might have gone ugly!     

No doubt about it. I'm gonna have to meet Dixie. 

"Dixie.....Bad Dumper........TAKE 'EM!!!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKvw2rAmk9g