What Ever Happened to Common Courtisy?

I remember watching old western movies and in some scenes I would see the cowboys at the camp. Then I would see a stranger coming to their camp yelling, "Hello in the camp". Of course back then if you didn't acknowledge the camp you probably would have gotten shot. But today it is a whole different story.

I come from a long line of campers. My parents loved to go camping and I watched them go from a very large tent to the great looking Starcraft tent trailer to an Apache pop up with fiberglass walls, no canvass. I joined the Boy Scouts and learned even more about camping and the proper rules that go along with it.

When I got married I introduced Sherry to camping and she loved it. For over 30 years we have been camping and enjoying it ever since. We took our kids and taught them what we learned in the past. One of the first things that we taught our kids was the proper rules that you must apply while camping.

One of the first rules that we tought was "Never pass through someone else's camp!"  Even if you have to walk a good distance around you never go through somebody's camp. I call this Common Courtesy! Can you tell that this is one of my pet peeves?

While we were at Inks State Park we had quite a few unwanted guests come passing through our site. One man was walking through with his child and I asked him if he could please go around our site instead of through our site. His reply was that his little boy had to go to the bathroom. Where is the consideration for your fellow man??

I guess in this day and age there is a different type of camper out there. They leave trash at their site when they leave, don't pick up after their dog and keep you up all night with their loud music and partying. From what I have witnessed in the past, they just don't care.

I went online to look for camping etiquette and came up with a bunch of sites, so maybe some people need to take a look at these sites to get an idea on Common Courtesy for your fellow camper. Enough said and time for me to get off my soapbox.

So Until Nest Time.................Be Safe.

New Addition

Well it's been a while since my last post because we were in an area that had no cell service and no internet. I guess you would call that a dead zone. Actually it was kind of nice up until the time we had to figure out where we were going. We were at a state park called Lost Maples and surrounded by mountains, it was pretty cool.

Before we got there, we were in Fredericksburg and decided to go to a second hand store for the local SPCA. Needless to say Sherry wanted to go look at the dogs in their shelter next door. We stumbled upon this little dog, a Chiuaua mix. I don't think I spelled that right but I think you got the idea. I just ran spell check and no luck, oh well.

We took the dog out of its cage and went into another room so he can get a feel for Bri mostly. In short we adopted the dog and named him "Gizmo".

He seems to be adapting fairly well. When we left the park he road in his cage in the back seat. After Fredericksburg and Lost Maples we headed for Bandera, TX. When we left Bandera we had a short trip to Burnet, TX and decided to see how he would ride out of his cage. Gizmo did very well with no problems. We are now at a state park called Inks Lake State Park.

This place is very large and has a beautiful lake within walking distance from our trailer. It seems to be a very popular place. When we got here they assigned us a spot but after looking at it, we would have never been able to fit. So back to the office and they gave us a real nice long site. No problems getting the unit in here. We will be until tomorrow and then head for Bastrop State Park.

Last September Bastrop State Park was engulfed in a wild fire which burned about 90% of the park. The CCC back in the 30's built 13 cabins out of rock and the firefighters were able to protect them during the fire. Almost 10 months later it will be interesting to see what mother nature has done to this park. I also feel that this could be educational for Brianne. Hopefuly I can get some pictures and post them later. So.......

Until Next Time....................Be Safe.

What To Do, Where To Go and The Tree

This full-time RV lifestyle is great but it does have some problems of its own. Being forced into retirement early, I never thought that I would be faced with a problem of "Where to go and what to do?"

We are here in Fredericksburg, Texas now up to this Friday. The park that we are at is nice but very, very close together. There are trees around which makes the sites skinny. When we pulled in I had to place the door side tires almost on the concrete patio just so we could bring the slide out. This left only about six inches before the slide would hit the tree. It is quiet but next time we will request a site more conducive to us.

Speaking of trees, a few posts back when Sherry drove the truck and trailer for the first time we went to a park that day and started to back in. After adjusting a few times I ended up very close to a tree on the driver's side. I think overall we were only about two inches from it. Sherry was worried about it especially when we pull out and if we will hit it.

Well guess what, I DID! Here's my thought on pulling out next to a tree. I wanted to pull out and go right. I figured if I can get the tires just past the tree I could start making my turn to the right. Well that theory didn't work out so well. Sherry was outside yelling at me to stop but like an idiot I had the window up, a/c on high, and the radio on low. Needless to say I couldn't hear her.

Now for the damages. My city water connection was ripped out and the trailer has some bad scratches on the side. I was able to fix the city water connection and learned that when you have the water pump on and start to disconnect the city water connection water will start to flow out of the connection. In the city water line there is a one way check valve which allows the water to stop at the city connection. More lessons learned, when close to a tree you can not start to turn in either direction until the back of the trailer has cleared the tree.

The park we are at now I face the same problem again. This time I have to turn left to pull out and make sure that I clear the tree. I guarantee you this,  I will not be hitting any trees. Once I clear the trees I will have to go down to another empty site and back in to that one just so I can turn around to get out of this place.

We like to stay at state parks here in Texas but are finding out that they are filling up fast. So we will have to get creative about where we want to go. As we wind down our vacation I am trying to plan to get back to the Houston area for a doctor's appointment in August. After that if the plans hold up we would like to visit Corpus Cristi as our last hurray and then head back to the gate guarding thing. If any of you have any suggestions please let us know.

So until next time.........................................Be Safe!


P.S. Today is Sherry's Birthday............................Happy Birthday Honey, I Love You!