Weekend warriors – you gotta love them. Some fulltime RVers tend to get the attitude that the campground is their private reserve and resent it when the weekend campers arrive on Friday with their campfires, kids, and dogs. This is mostly because of the relatively few who don’t understand campground etiquette and allow their dogs to bark endlessly and their kids to run amok. But what the heck, they’ll all have to go back to the real world Sunday night and things will get back to normal.
The Hershey Thousand Trails is a popular place all summer long, but weekends are really busy. Our site is close to the campground’s entrance, and Friday evening I walked down to the dumpster to throw away some trash and there was a line of cars and RVs at the ranger station checking in. It reminded me of summer weekends before we hit the road when we lived in Arizona’s White Mountains, a popular escape from the desert heat. One of my reporters once took a night photo of U.S. Highway 60 through the Salt River Canyon, one of two routes to the high country, and it was an endless stream of headlights.
We have stayed home this weekend getting caught up on some chores at home, and except for having to keep our windows closed because our neighbors have had a nightly campfire going under our living room window, we haven’t really noticed the weekend crowd.
I spent some time looking at our travel route when we leave here and our next stop will be at Gettysburg Farm, another Outdoor World resort near Dover, Pennsylvania. We’ll spend a couple of weeks there and then go to Harbor View Resort in Colonial Beach, Virginia. After that it will be the Chesapeake Bay Thousand Trails near Gloucester, Virginia. And, of course, all of that is written in Jello, subject to change at a moment’s notice.
Today is your last chance to enter this week’s Free Drawing for an audiobook of Maximum Security the third book in my friend Carol Ann Newsome’s excellent Dog Park mystery series. To enter, all you have to do is click on the Free Drawing link or on the Free Drawings tab at the top of this page and enter your name in the comments section at the bottom of that page (not this one). Only one entry per person per drawing please, and you must enter with your real name. To prevent spam or multiple entries, the names of cartoon or movie characters are not allowed. The winner will be drawn this evening.
If you’re in the mood for a good paranormal romance, check out Jeanette Raleigh’s Fate’s Dark Glass, thee first book in her When Were & Howl Wanderers series.
I’ve read a lot of books on writing, publishing, book formatting, and just about everything there is to do with publishing, and I’m really enjoying the one I’m reading now, The Kick-Ass Writer: 1001 Ways to Write Great Fiction, Get Published, and Earn Your Audience. The advice is pretty good, though a lot of it isn’t new to me, but the author, Check Wendig, has a way with words and an irreverent attitude I appreciate. I mean, how can you not appreciate a guy who starts out in the book’s introduction by saying “Nothing in this book is true” and warns you that “the competition out there is as thick as an ungroomed 1970s pubic tangle”? Seriously, if you want some solid writing advice by a no BS guy, get yourself a copy of this book.
Thought For The Day – I don’t believe in religion. I believe in God. – A.D. Williams
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Nick, here’s to Jello!
I especially like your thought of the day today. Thanks.
know what you mean about weekend campers and their love of campfires, the past two weeks we have had to keep everything shut up because of campfire smoke coming in our windows and even the vent, but as you say it only for the two nights except on family were there for a week and had a campfire going 24 hrs a day, she said she was sorry but since that was the only way they could cook being in a pop up she did not want it to die. Fair enough I guess but if memory serves me right out pop up had a kitchen with a nice little stove in it. We leave tomorrow heading to our next location, Hidden Lakes Resort here in Missouri, easy trip only 175 miles. When you leave for your next adventure please stay safe and happy
We like COE and State Parks because of the greater spacing between campsites so that campfires are usually not a problem. My grandkids love a a campfire and will pick up every dead twig to feed it. ( I won’t let them cut branches, etc.) It’s a really clean campsite when we leave 🙂
If people can afford to camp at all…they can surely afford to get one of those little $20 (at least on sale) gas stove things…they work just fine. Or even a small hibachi grill is less smoky than a campfire…people!! You are a tolerant person, Nick…well, I hope you at least get to get in some petting doggie times, if you have to put up with the rest of the crowds. I suppose the weekends are a good time to be gone sightseeing, etc so as to avoid some of the hassles eh??
Elizabeth it not about the 20 dollars. It is that many love a campfire. We fall in that group, and have no plans on changing.. Heck we even have a fire ring here at the house and so do our neighbors. The best advice is get somewhere that has more separation between sites…
Yes Nick, I have noticed thru the years that many seniors complain about the
campfires that working families enjoy. We started camping with only pop-ups
and then trailers when we had 5 children and now have 7 and 11 grandchildren.
And all are still “campers” and enjoy and respect the outdoors. In this group
is also 3 Eagle Scouts who know how to build fires that don’t smoke (hopefully).
This past weekend we had out annual family campout with 19 present and
8 you were unable to make it. We were at a private campground near Montague,MI and had nice deep sites where we just had 1 fire in the evening –
like everyone else there. You know in Texas, Florida and Arrizona there are
RV Parks for 55+ and no fire pits (at least where we’ve been). Don’t believe you’ll find that other places though. Happy camping to all.
P.S. Our first pop-up did not have a stove – just 2 beds on each end. We used
a Coleman gas stove.
Garry, and you are most fortunate in that obviously there are no allergy issues. But I suppose the most people out there think allergy people should just stay home (well, most often truly we do…but then neighbors in one of our last places would decide to burn their TRASH on the few decent weather days, when we could have the house open to air out, always when wind would blow it into our house…so we were again forced to keep the house all shut up). But that is life alright…one reason if we ever get into the RV life…most likely we will not stay in areas with much people.
No I don’t think you should stay home but I don’t think you should expect me to do without campfires. I don’t think people shound do without grass or flowers because of my allergies. Or that you shouldn’t be allowed to wear perfume because I am allergic to it.
I would say that the word campfire is based on the word camp in some way. May be a clue there somewhere.
And I can feel for you as many seem to think a campfire is a garbage fire. Maybe at some point there might be areas set aside as fireless sections for thoses that prefer.
I would gladly move my fire ring to try and accommodate you if that was an option.
Enjoy and may your smokey days be few..
Garry
Garry I do think it would be nice if campgrounds were set up a bit differently….maybe have some areas where no campfires are allowed…I am not against them…just would be nice if smoke did not go directly into someone else’s rig.
Though I am not allergic to many perfumes, yes, I have almost entirely quit wearing them…because there are others that are badly bothered by them. It won’t shorten my life to do so. And if you were my neighbor and asked me not to grow flowers as it bothered you, I would also gladly do so.
Nice of you to say you would put your fire ring elsewhere. I do enjoy being around a campfire sometimes…just not smelling it all night long on my pillow or in the air inside!!
Well if they burn all night I can bsure agree with you. And I still love flowers and just take my red pills. We were back in the area where we grew up this spring and my wifes allergies got so bad we thought she was sick.
It seems to have been a bad allergy year, in many places this year, Garry. Here, no one has AC….and it has been HOT (92 today) for here so we HAVE to leave the house open…with the usual problems. One of my allergy specialists said, if you have to have windows in your house open, close the between 8 PM and 2 AM as they have found that is when the heaviest amounts of pollen are given off by plants. We did that in some areas we lived and it DID help!! Well, this too shall pass….tonight and from now on, supposed to be more in 70s which is usual for here….and way nicer!! Happy camping….
Since we can only find a campfire spot once in a great while, we always enjoy a good campfire. One of the best experiences we had we invited ourselves to our neighbor’s fire, had a nice visit, and he invited Larry to go fishing with him. What kind of fish? He is a Class A lobsterman and we did go visit them at their house and Larry went out with him and had a good day. You never know what campfire experiences you can have.