Respect for others

ms60ocb · October 9, 2023

Sunday evening campground check-in when south.. One couple didn't remove their TT and could not be located. They did not a cell phone but a land line over an hour away. The only 3 night stay available without moving was in a high traffic area without a desired view. Moving wasn't in our enjoyable camp out. We returned home as the sun went down. Is this getting to be a common thing?

I can't fault the campground as part-time staff bend over backwards to keep from ruining our 3 night camp trip.

Clay In NW Illinois

FULLTIMEWANABE · October 9, 2023

That's so shameful to read on their part, but alas respect in most spheres of life is a dying commodity. There needs to be such severe and enforced penalties known upfront with folks to avoid this happening to others. The CG management needs to enforce something well known up front that hurts enough not to follow what you've booked etc.

Alas if the CG management doesn't do something about it, then it'll keep happening sadly in today's age.

Sorry it ruined your trip.

2gypsies · October 9, 2023

The campground should have had the trailer towed off the site if the trailer owner didn't pay for that night & just left it.

If you had a reservation for that specific site the campground owner should have also given you a 3-night gift certificate to use at another time.

This doesn't say much for the campground!

TXiceman · October 11, 2023

There could have been a medical emergency for the RV owners, and they could not get back to the RV to move it. Let's hope that the owners are OK.

Ken

ms60ocb · October 11, 2023

The report I received they thought they had an extra night but signage and paper work did not agree. Regarding Medical Emergency, some one the park should been aware in the time line.

As for the couple, they are going to billed for the extra night and may be put on probation.

Ray,IN · October 12, 2023

12 hours ago, ms60ocb said:

The report I received they thought they had an extra night but signage and paper work did not agree. Regarding Medical Emergency, some one the park should been aware in the time line.

As for the couple, they are going to billed for the extra night and may be put on probation.

I had a lapse in memory and thought I had one more night. The state park rep. who came to make sure the site was ready for the next occupant informed me of my error. I cleaned up the site, packed up and was out of the CG in 30 minutes.

I've no idea what would've happened had we been gone, the state park has no cell service.

TXiceman · October 12, 2023

On 10/11/2023 at 8:50 AM, ms60ocb said:

The report I received they thought they had an extra night but signage and paper work did not agree. Regarding Medical Emergency, some one the park should been aware in the time line.

As for the couple, they are going to billed for the extra night and may be put on probation.

If you have an emergency, medical or otherwise, something like your camper at the park is moved low on the priority list. But you should remember where you are and at least notify the park of the situation and when you might be able to resolve the issue.

Show some compassion for people, mistakes are made by everyone. But then there are others that are just plain rude and ignorant. For these folks the is no excuse.

I know I have shown up at a campground a day early when I just plain marked my calendar wrong.

Ken

RollinAt40 · October 18, 2023

We had a situation recently where the young lady in our spot couldn't move because of high wind. She communicated the situation and everything worked out, I think the site we ended up in was a little nicer anyway.

I'm always worried about running our generator when we're boondocking. I try to turn it off by 10PM, or earlier if people are really close. Lucky for us we've been able to find sites pretty far away from other people. Our kids can get a little rowdy too, but when it starts getting late everyone has to start winding down by 9PM and in bed by 10.

kb0zke · October 19, 2023

We had a couple of situations at one of the parks we hosted at this year. In one case a camper had a relative in the hospital who was dying (she was over 100, so not unexpected). We worked with them to find them a site for each night. Since they were in a van they vacated their site each morning. One day it looked like there would be no electric sites available, but one opened up as they came back into the park, so we moved them from the basic site they had paid for to the electric site. They kept us posted each day.

The second one also involved someone in the hospital. This time, though, it was the camper. She had to have emergency surgery, so her husband had to move from site to site. Again, he kept us posted each day and I had his cell phone number so if something changed in his favor I could call him right away.

The third one was an individual who had a different attitude. She paid for a certain number of nights, but was rarely seen in the campground. The day she was supposed to leave her stuff was there, but she was not. The phone number we had on file didn't work. Checkout was 2:00 and she finally showed up at 6 to pay for another couple of nights. If the Ranger hadn't been busy with something more important she would have come back to find her stuff gone. When the second stay was up she pulled the same stunt. When I mentioned that the park superintendent wanted to talk to her she got mad, packed up her stuff, and left. She said she would never return. A few weeks later she was back, but VERY nice to us and made sure she was gone by checkout time. I suspect that somewhere along the way she may have been visited by the Ranger.

As hosts, we understand that emergencies do happen. We're more than willing to work with someone who has a true emergency if they are willing to work with us. "A coworker got sick so I had to work an extra three hours" when the job requires you to have a cell phone doesn't cut it.

I could tell many more stories about the experiences there, but I won't. Most people are willing and able to follow the rules and smart enough to let someone know about a real emergency. The rest will either learn or be unhappy.

Chalkie · October 19, 2023

On 10/12/2023 at 9:10 AM, TXiceman said:

If you have an emergency, medical or otherwise, something like your camper at the park is moved low on the priority list. But you should remember where you are and at least notify the park of the situation and when you might be able to resolve the issue.

We had an instance when I ended up in the hospital. We were staying at a military famcamp, it was at the height of the season, and my wife did not know how to move the RV. She notified the office and she was able to stay in the space we were in with them juggling things around for other visitors. We were also fortunate that the RV next to us was occupied by a newly retired pilot who assisted my wife with RV chores so that she could be at the hospital with me.

The key here was notifying the office, explaining in detail the situation and then asking politely how it could be worked out. We ended up being there 5 days longer than planned and the office staff just took it day by day. They were great and apparently when they explained the reason to folks that were supposed to be in our space everyone was quite accommodating. I think most folks can be agreeable if provided with information.

Kirk W · October 19, 2023

53 minutes ago, Chalkie said:

I think most folks can be agreeable if provided with information.

That has been my experience as well. And your approach to the office is also often a factor. It sounds like the staff did their best in this case as well. Sometimes there just is no simple answer and we have to live with that.

On 10/9/2023 at 9:28 AM, ms60ocb said:

Is this getting to be a common thing?

To respond to the original question, it has not been common in our many years of RV travels. I would say that is a very rare thing.

In all of the years, including 12 years of fulltime travels, I can only recall that sort of thing happening to us one time. There was also one occasion when we arrived at a park that we had reservations for and their sewer system had experienced a major problem that backed up and flooded many of the RV sites so we had to go elsewhere or dry camp in the parking lot, which is what we did. The staff called around and located us another spot the next morning but they were too busy moving people already in the park to do that the afternoon when we arrived.

Edited October 19, 2023 by Kirk W
add a thought

sandsys · October 19, 2023

Your own attitude makes a difference as well. When we went to register one of our RVs it had two titles: one for the chassis and one for the conversion. And South Dakota had just started using a new computer system. I stayed patient and pleasant while the clerk figured it all out with the result that, when it came to time get my plate, she dug around to find one that would be easy for me to remember when checking into parks. An attitude of gratitude can go a long way to making for a good life.

Linda