A blog reader new to the RV lifestyle wrote to me to stay that they have been really disappointed in the campgrounds they have been staying at because the sites are very close together. He said when he thought about RVing, he pictured them being parked along some beautiful lake or river in a quiet setting in the middle of nowhere, with their only neighbors being the squirrels and the blue jays.
Okay, let’s dispel a couple of myths first. If you think you would have a quiet setting with squirrels and blue jays as your neighbors, you’re in for a rude awakening. Both of them can be damn noisy at times. Not only when are they screeching at each other, wait until you wake up to the sound of one of them scampering across the roof of your motorhome some morning. Been there, done that.
The second myth is what you picture as the typical campground. If it’s a commercial operation, you are going to have neighbors pretty close to you. Sometimes RV sites are separated with enough room to park your car between rigs. Other times, the neighboring site might be right on top of you, to the point where you can’t open your awnings. Yes, there are some places that are roomier, but keep in mind that just like with any business, a campground owner needs to maximize his profit, and one of the ways they do that is by getting as many paying customers in as they can.
So you are going to have neighbors. Sometimes they will be parked very close to you. Some of them will have noisy kids and barking dogs. Some will have smoky campfires. The flip side of that is, some of them will be great people who will greet you warmly and never hesitate to help you out if you have a problem, or to invite you over to their campfire for a visit and a drink.
Some state park campgrounds and national forest campgrounds may be a bit more open, but often you are sacrificing full hookup sites for that extra space. If you don’t need water, electric, and sewer, and can get by with just an electric hook up, or by dry camping for a few days, that might be the way to go.
Now, as to that idyllic picture you had in your mind of the perfect campsite? It probably doesn’t exist except in the brochures and TV ads the RV manufacturers put out. It’s advertising, baby, and just about as true as believing that if you buy the most macho 4×4 diesel pickup out there you can drive straight up the side of a mountain without breaking a sweat, or that the latest Corvette or whatever sports car floats your boat is going to be a chick magnet and you’ll have models and movie starlets hanging all over you. Nope, not going to happen. That’s just a marketing fantasy created to sell RVs, pickup trucks, and sports cars.
So just accept the fact that you have neighbors. What the heck, walk over next door and say hello to them. Who knows? You might make a new friend!
Thought For The Day – If you change your train of thought you change your station in life.