Campground etiquette, part 2

When we workcamped at the KOA in Cavendish, Prince Edward Island in the summer of 2008, part of our job was a once a week garbage detail. This also entailed tidying up the firepits at the various vacated sites that day.

One thing that was really annoying was when people would use their firepit as a garbage can! Whether there was a fire ongoing in the pit or not, there were empty cans, bottles, leftover dinner...it was nasty. Certainly not everybody, but probably 1/3 of people left behind a fire pit full of garbage. Half of it burnt, have not. Aluminum foil doesn't burn! Oh, and while we're on the subject of garbage, when most people vacate their site, they take their garbage with them to the main trash bin, and put it where it's supposed to be. A few others, thankfully a minority, just leave their full garbage bags on the vacated site for everybody to view until the maintenance staff get around to pick it up. Unbelievable.

And spending 6 months at the KOA here in Kingston really opened our eyes to things that people really should be more careful about. Like the morons who come back to the campground late, like midnight, and seem to have no clue that there are probably 20 people within a 50 foot radius who are sound asleep. Or rather, WERE sound asleep. They proceed to slam their truck door shut with such force it wakes everybody up, and then for good measure they use their remote to lock the doors...and of course the horn gives off a toot as well just in case the slamming door didn't do the job of waking you up!

This next item relates more to tent camping, but we've had a few situations of "crowding" in the motorhome as well. One New York state park we were at many years ago in the off season had a whole section that was pretty much vacant, so we set up there. We went out to do something, and when we returned there was a family with screaming kids set up directly across from us! They would have been fine 3 or 4 sites down, but no...they had to set up right across from us. A similar thing happened once in the motorhome when we were boondocking at a Cabela's just outside of Detroit. A whole huge empty parking lot, and a couple of young guys who apparently were sharing a brain parked RIGHT beside us, and proceeded to start up their generator at 6am. I simply don't understand.

Lights...there is absolutely no reason to leave a ton of outdoor lights on when you go to sleep. Especially those bright outdoor lights that come on the sides of the 5th wheel units. Not only does it annoy those around you, but it's a total waste of electricity.

And a lot of people now have long trailers or 5th wheels take up most of their site with their trailer, and there's not enough room for their tow vehicle. But instead of moving the tow vehicle to a proper parking area, they just park it on their site with the tail end sticking half out into the roadway. Makes it real easy for the next guy driving by!

Anyway, that's my rant for today. If you're not a camper, I hope you learned something. If you are camper, you should have already known these things!