While overall, RVing is one of the safest lifestyles there is, we must always keep in mind that no place is ever 100% safe. A man killed two people, held a woman prisoner and sexually abused her for several hours at the Orlando Thousand Trails Wednesday, before being captured a few miles away, after she escaped and sought help. More details can be found here.
When we were fulltime RVers, Terry and I stayed there many times over the years for two or three weeks at a time with our membership, and we always enjoyed it.
I remember early in our RVing life, we attended a sales pitch for some campground membership, and the salesman said membership campgrounds were great places for kids because unlike state parks or public campgrounds, only members could get in. I asked him if they ran criminal background checks on prospective members, and he said of course not. My next question was, what’s to keep an ax murderer or pedophile from joining? He ignored me after that.
But think about it. We saw kids running and playing all over campgrounds from coast to coast and border to border, having a great time, as kids should be doing. But at least half of them were unsupervised. What would keep a predator from pulling a child inside his RV and driving away? They could be miles away in minutes, before a child is even discovered to be missing. Please, wherever you are, always be vigilant.
And finally, here’s a chuckle to start your day from the collection of funny signs we see in our travels and that our readers share with us.
It’s Thursday, so it’s time for a new Free Drawing. This week’s prize is an autographed copy of Big Lake Quarterback, the 17th book in my Big Lake mystery series. Big Lake High School’s star quarterback seems to have it all. Handsome, popular with the girls, adored by the fans, and a talent that his coach is convinced will take him to the big time in professional football. So when Gary Gunkel goes missing a week before the homecoming game, some people in town believe he’s just a typical young man sowing his wild oats. But when the missing boy’s mother shows Sheriff Weber a series of gruesome threatening letters he has received, the sheriff agrees that there might be something more sinister happening. Even more startling, his investigation soon discovers another side to Gary Gunkel, a side that makes Weber question how much he really knows about the young people in his small mountain town.
To enter, click on this Free Drawing link or the tab at the top of this page and enter your name (first and last) 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 Sunday evening. Note: Due to the high shipping cost of printed books and Amazon restrictions on e-books and audiobooks to foreign countries, only entries with US addresses and e-mail addresses are allowed.
Thought For The Day – What other people think of you is none of your business.
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
Thats a terrible lesson for us all, especially forsolo campers. Its also a sad reminder of when camping used to be a safe and healthy activity. It’s the reason my hunting brothers leave me with a pistol when they are off hunting and I am the camp stay behind. I know how to use it too.
These kind of things are not new, but they are rare enough to make the news. If they were common, the news would not be so shocking. Decades ago we stayed at a very nice campground close to where we lived and a couple people were shocked we stayed there because of a murder in the 1990s at the campground. I don’t think something like that has happened at the particular campground since and it is a very popular campground.