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.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
But that’s the adventure of camping.mm
Put the jacks up Disconnect the water hose the electric hose the sewer hose,
GO Boondock ing
Better still buy a 10 acre piece of Forest property
Or you could buy into a high-end class A motorhome campgrounds( i’m sorry resort ) you might get a little more room
And if you don’t want to crowd don’t buy thousand trails camp membership. You will know how or sardine feels in a can,
Your blog reader is more reasonable than some, who expect that idyllic campsite to have great cell phone service, be close to stores and restaurants, and cheap.
Don’t forget Bill Joyce, they also want fast wifi to stream their shows & movies. OK, that’s a stereotype but there’s a lot of complaining about wifi on the rv discussion forums. There’s a lot of BLM land out there to boondock on, as others have posted
We downsized for many reasons, one of them being so that we can fit into the small state and national parks and forest campgrounds as we prefer rustic. Depending on where and when we are traveling, we sometimes include commercial campgrounds into the mix. Some are not worth stopping at again, most are adequate for the purpose, and a few have been stellar, worth “using” again.
We went camping to t.t. in Arizona the people there were very insulting ,no one would say hi when we went to the game room everybody left and I will admit we were the only brown people there and the guy at the gate said that legally he can’t turn us away. At another t.t. in the Sierra mountains they had a sign that said ” keep t.t. klan.”
Yeah… that’s why I’m not a fan of campgrounds.
I’m not sure how, this commenting works, so I’m going to try this again. Randy I’m so sorry that happened to you. It’s inexcusable, most people I think (I hope ) are nicer than that.
Regarding camping in close quarters… We’ve stayed at some really nice state parks, and other places through Harvest host, and as long as we have a little bit of electricity, or can run a generator, we do just fine. we did learn not to get a site by a playground however. LOL, just kids are having fun, but anyway. There’s always generally water or dump station someplace nearby. And we also watch full time RV folks on YouTube that Boondock a lot, and the scenery they will wake up to the morning is beautiful, mountains, rivers, lakes. It is possible. Have a good day.! Lisa