Can You Tell Me Why???

[Ruffus]

Can anyone tell me why campers and Rv'ers say that they enjoy their camping and travels yet once they get there they find it neccessary to leave their porch and scare lights on all night to shine in their neighbors bedroom window or play their music loud enough to wake the dead while they sit by a campfire supposedly to watch the stars and experiance nature? Are they just idiots or affraid of the dark? Please someone tell me why?????? #1 or #2 ???

Please think about others!!!!

[antiqfreq]

Oh we figured out during our fulltime travels that they aren't 'really' campers because they ARE afraid of the dark.....

It IS annoying and once or twice we have countered with our scare lights on the next night for a few hours but those dense enough to do it the first time don't really get the hint........

oh well!

Jo

[chuck&gail]

Inconsiderate idiots are everywhere, including campgrounds.

[Ruffus]

Got up this morning at 5:00 AM and went out to check the area. There were 38 campers/RV'ers in the camp ground and the only one with their scare light or porch light on were the one parked next to my bedroom window. I'm going to buy a lottery ticket today, must going to be my lucky day. Oh yeh the DW wouldn't let me go next door last night and ask them nicely to turn the $%#@&%$ light off. Oh well, another beautiful day even though the sun is not going to shine and we'll be back on the road heading North East from a nice little RV park in an old hay field in Liberal Kansas. See my review in the campground section.
Happy motoring yall.

[THedges]

That's the reason we boondock! My perfect camping spot is one where I can't see another camp site. The problem we come across is people who leave trash all over the forest! Very frustrating!!!!

[mikell]

In our campground we have 100 spots and over 30 lights on poles and if even 1 is out people have a fit. Some want quiet and dark but most want the city life it looks like to me

[HigginsPod]

I put room darkening curtains in the bedroom. I find I wake up in the middle of the night and want to look outside and it is easier than lifting the shade. If there is light .... between the shade and the curtains it is blocked

[KenJFerguson]

We are at Lake Hartwell State Park for the weekend which has 25 sites ringing a peninsula jutting out into the lake. There is a mix of TTs (including a couple of vintage trailers), tents, pop-ups, and fifth wheels. For some reason, every one of the modern fifth wheels has vertical strips of fluorescent purple/blue lights running down their front domes that stay on 24/7. Unfortunately, we are surrounded by 4 of these at the start of the thin end of the loop making it like some weird combination of Las Vegas and a country bar at night. Our pull-down shades are no match for this light pollution that affects our sleep. We'll be stopping by the office on the way out to suggest they add a dark sky policy to their 10 pm quiet time rule and get the address to write to whichever bureaucrat is in charge of the state park system.

[Pull Toy]

The beginning of the end was the year some bored rv engineer asked himself…”How many people can we p*ss off by adding outside speakers?” Now it’s pink flamingos, palm trees, scare lights, rope lights and every banner imaginable, etc… etc…

Fortunately, more campgrounds are enforcing a mandatory quiet hour with kids back on site at a reasonable hour, and fires out before bedtime. A few we’ve been to are now limiting light displays and political and/or offensive signage etc.

Now that the “Covid Era Newbees” found out that camping wasn’t for them, and are now selling their units, us old school families can get back to enjoying nature.

Good luck,

[KenJFerguson]

As we were getting firewood at the office I asked the Ranger if he could guess what it is about 5th wheels that I don't like... he replied... "You must be in site 57 or 58 opposite sites 32, 33, and 34 and their blue LED dome lights are keeping you awake at night."

I suggested that he feed it up the food chain to add a lights-out rule to the quiet time rule. If we all do this we can start a movement.

[notanlines]

If you think those blue and purple lights are an irritant, y’all should hear this model water heater in our Eagle come on repeatedly in the middle of the night. Fast recovery 50 gallon industrial aren’t as loud. We turn it off Friday and Saturday nights as it has become a joke in our group.
While I’m at this, would it be out of line to simply ask your neighbor to just turn the lights off? IJA

[flyingjack]

notanlines: Agree, just ask politely. Usually a favorable outcome.

[JRTJH]

Originally Posted by KenJFerguson

As we were getting firewood at the office I asked the Ranger if he could guess what it is about 5th wheels that I don't like... he replied... "You must be in site 57 or 58 opposite sites 32, 33, and 34 and their blue LED dome lights are keeping you awake at night."

I suggested that he feed it up the food chain to add a lights-out rule to the quiet time rule. If we all do this we can start a movement.

From your conversation with the ranger, it's apparent that others have already complained about the bright lights. If he is doing his job, then he has already discussed the issue with the occupants of sites 32, 33 and 34.

So now, the issue should be resolved. If not, and the lights are on tonight, then it's apparent those "campers" simply aren't concerned with "rules that only apply to other people, not to themselves"....

[dutchmensport]

I've been SCREAMING about outside lights left on all night for years and years and years. It's done nothing but fall on deaf ears too. It almost seems, the bigger the RV the entitled those folks are to display their Las Vegas lights. I don't mind all that stuff turned on IF sitting outside after dark. But once going inside for the night, those lights should ALL be turned off.

This is the biggest reason why I completely enjoy camp hosting at Pilot Mountain State Park in North Carolina. I've been a host there twice and returning next year again. There is no electricity or water or sewer on any campsite, except 1... the host site.

Guess what? It's dark at night .... really, really dark at night. The only lights are campfire lights and maybe battery operated string lights of some sort, an occasional Coleman gas lantern and flashlights. Quiet hours start at 10:00 pm and quiet hours is STRICTLY enforced by the park rangers. If a conversation from any campsite is heard from the road, it's too loud. And yes, the Rangers walk the campground around 10:00 pm every night, in the dark with no flashlights so they can hear and see what's really going on. And yes, they do step up and address those who are too loud.

99% of the time, it's a wonderful night. But, ever now and then a group of clod-hoppers will come in who think rules don't apply to them. And oh, they also call the campers back to clean up their trash and nasty fire pits if they've left a mess, or else face a $300 fine for trashing the place. Guess what? There is very, very little litter ever left behind, maybe a plastic tooth pick floss stick or a gum wrapper, but that's about it.

When we leave that park, we usually stop, at least, for an over night returning home to Indiana. We don't boondock at Wall Marts, but get sites in actual campgrounds. It's always a shock to return to a regular RVing campground that has electricity to see all the scaredy-cats leaving their lights and Las Vegas displays on all night again. Even worse, some campgrounds have street lights. We just pull the shades, spend the night, and get moving again the next morning.

At home, we camp mostly in the middle of the week and avoid week-ends, just so we can experience darkness (minimal campers) at State Parks. I don't fuss and complain about lights at night so much any more, because ... well ... there's just no one else in the campground near us during those times.

[KSH]

Wow that is a lot of complaining for something with a simple solution. Screaming about it, wow..

https://www.healthline.com/health/he...st-sleep-masks

[dutchmensport]

Originally Posted by KSH

Wow that is a lot of complaining for something with a simple solution. Screaming about it, wow..

https://www.healthline.com/health/he...st-sleep-masks

It's not so much about "sleeping" (that's what curtains are for), as it is being able to enjoy the darkness, the campfire, the moon light, and the stars. The night camping ambiance is completely destroyed when the Las Vegas strip gets light up.

I live in the country and even though we have neighbors on both sides of our property, it's dark out here with corn and bean fields for wonderful vistas to experience looking out your back yard or across the field.

The stars and the moon are marvelous. The eyes adjust to the darkness and I can see every item in the yard, especially my little dogs when they run around outside looking for a place to "go". When the moon is lit, there's enough light to see completely across the field (a mile) to the next tree line. I've often seen coyotes running across the field in the dark.

But when the porch light comes on, the eyes are completely blinded, you can't see anything except what is RIGHT in that light.

People who leave their lights on all night just don't get it. You can actually see better, especially movement, in the dark without artificial light than you can with artificial light.

Plus, as we discovered in the mountains of North Carolina, if the artificial lights are left off, the deer will actually come into your campsite while you are sitting there. Now that's awesome!

I took my grandson on a night hike at an Indiana State Park. I had him turn the flash light off and navigate the trail in the dark. After his eyes adjusted to the dark, he was amazed how much he could actually see. And then he realized there was nothing to be afraid of "in the dark", because the "dark" really is not all the dark ... once the eyes adjust. I think we walked over a mile that night.

THAT is why some of us want the darkness.

[KSH]

Yeah that's all fine. The lunacy of screaming about it seemed a bit much.

[Jonahex2099]

We've had all kinds of rudeness this summer - lights on, neighbors with large dogs just letting them crap in front of our camper and not cleaning it up, putting their starlink dish in our spot (which I wouldn't have minded had they *asked* but they did not), then when the site manager asked them to move it, they yell at her, people complaining about the fence in our paid for spot for our dogs (permissible in the place we stay) because they couldn't cut through with it there....the list goes on....park etiquette isn't hard - people just choose to be a$$holes.