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Thu Jun 08, 2006 10:54 am

What are some of the craziest things you've seen at campgrounds? I am continually shaking my head at the overabundance of crap people bring for a weekend of outdoor fun. Things I've encountered...

- Full sized home use propane BBQ grills are commonplace.
- I often park next to someone who allows their kid to bring a gas powered remote control car, talk about annoying.
- Last weekend I saw a guy polishing the wheels on his truck with a cordless grill at the campground.
- Once at a KOA in Cody, WY, there was a guy playing bagpipes after dark while I was trying to get my kids to sleep.
- The ultimate however, is a stainless steel commercial slushy machine sitting on the end of a picnic table complete with red and blue flavored ice.

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:09 am

One camper apparently brought his Harley just to tune it up while away from the house/garage. Vroom, Blatt Blatt, Vroom, Blatt Blatt Blatt, Vroom, Blatt, Vroom - all weekend long!! :evil:

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:14 am

My favorite so far is when the RV rolled out a patch of astroturf on the grass...

Satellite dish on top, too.

This was at the same time i was pulling my tent out of the trailer behind my bike that i had been living out of for a couple months. :roll: Talk about differences of approaches to "wilderness".

-Damon

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:15 am

Yikes, a Slushi Machine? I thought I'd seen it all here at Mather Campground. Had a guy last month with a complete woodworking shop, band saws & all, setup outside his RV. Spent the week making cabinets or something. Lots of folks get mad when they find out we have no electric for their Electric Rice Cookers. And then there are the Bongo Drums.....

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:24 am

Last weekend we were camping on the West coast of Michigan, and we got back from watching the sunset to find another 82 Westy parked across from us. It turns out a guy and his wife were driving through the park just enjoying the evening saw my Westy so they pulled in made some coffee and waited for us to show up. Real nice folks, as one would expect, but two 82 Westies, same random campground, same random night in MI? How crazy is that. I see very few Westies out and about period

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:36 am

At a KOA in Key West (southern-most) out towards the
back of the grounds (all tent camping) the couple next
me didn't like to wear clothes much. They left their tent
wide open. They wouldn't wear anything when they went
swimming near by. I just moved to another spot.
I'm surprised nobody complained. When I ended up
moving they just got more comfortable and sunbathed nude :shock:

Tom

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:39 am

This is before I was even born, but my father and my mother went camping once, and the site next to them was full of screaming, drunk and partying people. Revving up motorcycles, screaming(again), and being obnoxious. Kept them up all night. Kept other people up all night.

So, the next morning, my dad took his Norton Commando 750 and backed up next to the people's tent, and revved the engine very, very loudly. The end.

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:40 am

tkelley wrote: At a KOA in Key West (southern-most) out towards the
back of the grounds (all tent camping) the couple next
me didn't like to wear clothes much. They left their tent
wide open. They wouldn't wear anything when they went
swimming near by. I just moved to another spot.
I'm surprised nobody complained. When I ended up
moving they just got more comfortable and sunbathed nude :shock:

Tom

If it were members of the swedish womens volleyball team, I think that would be alright. :lol:

tj

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:44 am

For us, and it pissed me and the wife off, was some teenage kids, with their parents right there, using an axe on a nice huge pinetree at a park in northern California. No respect at all. I can't believe the parents let their kids do that. They hacked the tree for like an hour. Shitheads! :evil:

Then we had a great late summer thunder and lightning storm that lasted for like 4 hours, and these kids played catch of a baseball in the storm, and ventured into our campground and kept running through it and the ball came mighty close to hitting my ride. It hit a tire once and I was ready to blow my top.

I thinks we need to go back to spanking kids when they are this obnoxious. Timeouts are OK I am sure for 90% but if you have a real PITA kid, show him from right and wrong and what happens when you do not respect others.

Sorry for the rant. <grin>

hehehe

tj

Thu Jun 08, 2006 11:45 am

I gotta get one of those cordless grills

T

Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:19 pm

Once at a campground next to Rocky Mountain Nat'l Park, at the base of Long's Peak (beautiful place!) a guy in a brand-new Chrysler-convertible-whatever parked at the site next to ours and cranked up Mariah Carey as loud as it would go and sat on the trunk sipping a drink. For the whole album. And a Lionel Ritchie album after that.

I was ready to go beat the guy into submission (and I am truly not an agressive person) when my wife convinced me that we should go on a hike. When we got back, he was gone.

But then he was back at 7 o'clock that night, again with Mariah Carey.

While I was looking for my tire iron, my wife went over and politely asked him to turn it down. He obliged, but then left the campground in a huff, spinning the front wheels out of the site.

I kept the tire iron handy, but he didn't come back.

Joe T.
Denver
Happy Camper

Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:02 pm

The best had to be a portable generator, had it kept going into the night there was going to be some damage.

Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:10 pm

rngr633 wrote: And then there are the Bongo Drums.....

Ah yes, the neo-hippies drumming for world peace. :roll:

Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:15 pm

Oh yeah, and then there was the time we were camped in a nice quiet cove on a lake when a bunch of Hells Angels (not kidding, the real deal) pulled in for a night of drunken debauchery, yelling, firing guns into the night sky. Very frightening. What are ya gonna do? Go over and ask them to keep it down? Not me. Another person camped near us left and called the sherrif. Within a half an hour they showed up, made a few arrests for unsafe discharge of firearms and made the rest of 'em move on.

Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:37 pm

You all act like this is something out of the ordinary! Obviously you lead sheltered lives. Most of them were violating some rules of the camping area, I am sure. Where's the inforcement? Better, is to get even. Getting even tends to be just about the only thing you can do. It's sad.

Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:45 pm

One of my favorites occurred at the Mammoth Hot Springs campground in Yellowstone. It was about 8 years ago, and I and a couple of buddies were there early in the season--it must have been the 2nd or 3rd week in May--and the campground was nearly empty. Naturally, the guy in the giant 5th wheel trailer chose the site right next to ours. He then spent about 30 minutes running back and forth trying to find the perfect location for his satellite dish. Once he was satisfied, he then cranked up the portable generator and retreated inside, never to be seen again. Fortunately, we were able to move easily (for him to pack up and move would have created even more disturbance), and it did provide some entertainment for us.

So, why drive all the way to Yellowstone to watch TV? Perhaps this niche is filled today by the National Geographic Channel?

Of course, if it's amenities you're into, go to Europe, where the cities have urban campgrounds, and all those campgrounds have bars.

Thu Jun 08, 2006 1:56 pm

Sometimes its what you don't see.

I once pulled off along the Oregon Coast for the night, there was one other van with lights still on. I usually would have kept going but was just too tired.

I got out of my van and this guy comes lunging out of his van, grabs some things off the ground, and jumps into his van, slams the doors, looks at me through the back window with his LED headlamp still on, and shuts the curtains.

OK, I thought, not the first time I've come across strange people. Maybe he got scared I thought.

So I'm setting up my bed when my dog starts growling. I listen closely and theres something rustling in the woods. I was used to animals checking out the van at night so I layed down.

As I'm drifiting off I hear a girl scream. And I mean scream bloody murder. There was not a doubt in my mind, as all the hairs on my neck were rigid.

I quickly dropped my top, started the engine and repositioned with my headlights on the other van. Nothing.

Just then another truck pulls up and stops a few feet away. I pull up to them and ask if they heard it too. The couple inside treats me like I'm on too much LSD, 'yeah, ok BRO', they mock me and pull off.

So I reposition with my headlights on the other van and wait. Nothing. I'm gripping my knife and bear spray, waiting. Nothing.

So I write down the license plates and speed off to the next town. At a gas station I report it to the Tillamook police, they thank me and go off to find the van.

I realize the people may have been trying to scare me. Maybe they were tripping and halucinating. I don't know. I'm from the city, and when I hear someone scream like that, it usually means one thing.

For the record, I was sober.

Thu Jun 08, 2006 2:49 pm

So far the weirdest thing I've seen was an 8' tall inflatable palm tree with colored lights inside of the thing. There were golden lights up and down the "trunk" and green lights on the "palms". The RVers circled their chairs around it like it was a campfire or something, never leaving the majestic palm for the duration of the weekend.
When I go camping I'm either hiking, biking or climbing and I don't sit around a concrete pad looking at other RVs the entire weekend gabbing and listening to music or watching the game. Different strokes for different folks I guess :?

Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:07 pm

i saw a few
- a raised golfcart ,yes it had a 6 inch suspension lift and tires the works
- some one at a campout used a generator for there g.forman sandwich maker

Thu Jun 08, 2006 4:07 pm

How's this :wink: