Quiet hours 11:00pm to 7:00am

What's so difficult to understand? Seems pretty self explanatory, yet this simple campground rule is the one biggest thorn in my side as a campground manager.

Part of the problem is that there is no hard and firm description of the word "quiet".

Because quiet does not necessarily mean silent. Although it could. Apparently there are different levels of quiet. You could think you are being quiet, but your neighbor would like you to be a little more quiet. "More quiet".

One guy started swearing at me and calling me names when I asked him and his group to keep their voices down. This was the second time. The first night, they just stared at me. I said thanks and walked away. The second night, he got abusive and I told him he was out the next morning. He ended up staying, but only because I felt sorry for his wife and kids who were on their family vacation. Not their fault the old man is a moron.

The problem of course is that I'm not allowed to kick anybody out at night. Because they've been drinking, it would be my fault if I was to send them out on the road half in the bag and they killed themselves, or worse, somebody else. Yep, thanks to all you lawyers, my fault. So all you can do is ask them nicely, and 95% of people meekly say "oh sorry, we'll try and keep it down".

And of course this is all happening at 11:15 or 11:30 at night. Then, if there are any that I'm worried about, I have to stay up another half hour to wander around again and make sure they have called it a night.

So this past long weekend I had four nights in a row where I was up until past midnight. Tried to grab a quick nap during the afternoon each day. Even a half hour seemed to help.

Of course sometimes problems go on even after we've gone to bed. Last night for example, two sites right beside each other where one site stayed up pretty much all night long. I checked with the neighbors all around that area and nobody heard a thing. "Nope" they said, "Things were pretty quiet."

But apparently not quiet enough when you are parked only five feet away. One of the things we can't stand about a lot of campgrounds and RV parks. We've got some well spaced sites here, but others are too close together for our liking.

One of the most common excuses? "Oh, sorry, we didn't know".

So you figured that you could just make as much noise as you like, even though the person parked right beside you has obviously gone to bed. Or tried to. Even if there were no official quiet hours, some people have no respect.

Anyhow, for the people who don't read the pamphlet that we hand them when they check in, I have now made our large sign board (which they can't miss) read "Park quiet hours 11:00pm".

We'll see if that helps.

Another pretty Saskatchewan sunset.