You can count on two possibilities as an RVer. You will either have pleasant campground neighbors or you will not. Fortunately, annoying camping neighbors are the exception rather than the rule.
Here are seven types of campground neighbors you could encounter sooner or later and a strategy for maintaining your sanity if you do. But be nice. Campground neighbors are people too.
His-and-her high maintenance. You wonder how these neighbors get by. They assume that you have the perfect answer to everything. They ask your help in fixing everything from what’s broken on their RV to how to raise their kids. And they assume you know everything about camping and will ask about everything. Strategy: When asked, give the most outlandish answers and impossible solutions until the questions stop.
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Family with a barking dog, shouting kids. I can understand family-friendly campgrounds. They’re meant to be raucous and kid-friendly. That’s the fun in them. But a dog that barks at everything that moves? Really? Strategy: Keep a pair of earplugs on hand.
The borrowers. Since you’ve carefully planned out the amount of everything you’ll need for your camping trip, the borrowers will need some integral part of your supplies, like half a dozen eggs, and there goes your frittata. Strategy: Ask to borrow things from them, like their TV or coffee maker.
Late-night partiers. Huge campfire with copious smoke blowing in your bedroom window, lots of alcohol, booming voices including lots of manic laughing and an ability to ramp up the noise level as the night progresses. Strategy: Avoid the urge at 6 a.m. to blast your tailgate party speaker at full volume outside of their windows. Or, on the other hand…
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Hearing-challenged late-night TV watchers. Do you really want to hear every word of the “House of Dragons” episode that your neighbors play loud enough for the entire campground to hear? Strategy: Present them with earphones.
Mr. and Mrs. Friendly. Either or both spend as much time in your campsite as you do, assuming that you are now their new best friends and any time away from them is missed fun time. Strategy: Paint little red dots on your face and casually remark that you might be coming down with chickenpox.
The silent ones. Sure, it might be creepy camping next to an RV that’s as quiet as a tomb. You begin to wonder whether their RV has been abandoned, or they’ve been abducted by aliens. But in the end, these folks are the ideal neighbors. Strategy: Leave a gift basket of fruit on their doorstep.
You can find Bob Difley’s RVing ebooks on Amazon Kindle.