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Topic ClosedTeaching people to camp

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Keith-N-Dar View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Topic: Teaching people to camp
    Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 2:58pm
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
Keith-N-Dar
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StephenH View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 3:13pm
I think you handled it well. I might have had a little less patience with the party after quiet hours began. We've had noisy neighbors at campgrounds before, but they did have the courtesy to quit before 10:00 p.m. OTOH, we were at a campground that specified generator hours and I could hear a generator (likely not inverter) running well outside those hours.
Being courteous and offering assistance (if you know what is needed) is not a bad thing to do. Insisting on helping after assistance is refused would not be a good thing. Overall, I think you did the right thing in offering help where you could and then leaving them to figure things out. If they had engaged in conversation, you might have offered some hints (practice backing in an open parking lot somewhere, for example), but sometimes, it is better to sit back and relax. These things have ways of sorting themselves out.
StephenH
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Leo B View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 3:24pm
+1   
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 3:30pm
It's a quandary. I also do not have patience for obvious rule breakers, like late noise. It's a shared space. I have in past offered help, but am leery of becoming a co-dependent to inexperienced campers. If I do notice something really off the wall, like the guy said "I had the right to remain silent, I didn't have the ability". I have had some really bad experiences with camping neighbors, to much to mention on this forum. I think you did well.
Mike Carter
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 4:01pm

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!     



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Leo B View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 4:15pm
LOL
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 4:42pm
No doubt about it. I'm gonna have to meet Dixie. 
bp
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Keith-N-Dar View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 4:55pm
Originally posted by GlueGuy

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


I bet she likes bacon
Keith-N-Dar
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 5:08pm


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

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


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Leo B View Drop Down
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Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 Apr 2018 at 5:20pm
Brings back memories....................volunteered to help one of the K-9 guys...................Once!!!!  
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