Sure as shit, we run into them...
I wrote a piece about RV Etiquette for CoVid Campers as a primer for newbies to the RV scene. When you go camping, unless you are backpacking into the wilderness, you are not alone, but not more than a few yards from your neighbors, who came to the country to see nature, experience the stars, maybe see wildlife, and enjoy peace and quiet. They didn't come to hear your Pandora channel, your generator, your barking dogs, and the moronic things you say that pass for conversation.
But it seems that the sorts of folks who love to go on cruises or think Disney World is high art, are now deciding to go camping - as it is the only outlet available to them. Hopefully, this time next year, they will go back to whatever it is they did before - in fact, I strongly suspect they will.
We were parked near a pristine mountain lake and looking forward to several days of hiking, kayaking, and enjoying nature. We did all three for two days, and then they came. Two Karens and two Kevins - in a rented trailer that a friend dragged in for them. They were nervous and self-conscious the whole time - after all, this was only something they were stooping to do, because of the virus. So they acted all ignorant about everything, and their friend who towed in the camper had to do all the work for them.
It got cold, so they turned on the furnace - not realizing that the furnaces in RV's will suck both tanks dry within a day. So they bother their friend to go buy propane - because hooking up those tanks and all is too complicated! And like so many people today in our cargo cult society, they act as if actually knowing something is beneath them. Karen #1 likes to take hot showers - long ones. Kevin #2 uses a lot of toilet paper and flushes constantly. So, after two days, their poor friend is dragooned into dumping their shit (literally) in a portable tank for them - and re-filling the water tank, again and again. It's sort of like staying in a hotel - when you have a friend who will do all the heavy lifting for you. I wonder, however, if he had second thoughts about the whole deal right about then.
Whether the trailer had a bad battery (it wasn't that old) or whether they were using an inverter to run a television, it seemed they were constantly starved for power. They ran the generator during the generator hours - down to the minute - as if the hours given were mandatory for generator use. And of course, they had the cheapest piece-of-shit lawnmower-engine generator that someone bought at the Tractor Wholesale Lumberteria, because it was cheap. Sitting by a peaceful lake, watching the sunset and having to scream at the top of your lungs to be heard by someone sitting mere feet from you. We didn't understand why they would want to do this.
Weirder still, you would think they would look around and see no one else was doing it, either. They were the only "generator people" in the whole park. Most folks have that herd instinct, so you would think....
And the dogs. Two yippy-yappy high-strung pieces of shit that barked and yipped every time a leaf fell from a tree, and an unruly Labrador that lunged and barked at every passing pedestrian and dog. Hmmmm.... pets and their owners. The owners are unruly and loud, the dogs follow suit. Pets can sense insecurity in their owners and act out accordingly.
And loud? When you are 50 yards away from someone and you can hear every detail of their conversation, yea, that's loud. And that's how I know they didn't know what the heck they were doing and how they felt about camping - something beneath them, because they were better than the rest of us. I guess it is insecurity that drives that sort of thing.
Fortunately, we spent most of the time there on the lake. We packed a picnic lunch and spend the day slowly paddling around a pristine lake, stopping for a picnic or to go ashore here and there in the wilds. It was a glorious way to spend the day.
The CoVid campers? Well, their friend dropped off four kayaks for them, and they never used any of them. "Too hard!" "Too cold!" "Too wet!" - the Karens said. Instead, they constantly drove into town to eat and go shopping - two "vacation" activities" they were familiar with. As I noted before, poor people (and stupid people) drive all over hell's half acre, because driving makes them feel important and it kills time. It is also a sign of laziness. Yes, Karen #1, after she filled the grey water tank with her long showers, drove to the bathhouse to take a shower there. It was less than a tenth of a mile. And yes, she had an ass a mile wide, too. They all did. Typical Americans - and we wonder why the rest of the world hate us - that carefully nurtured sense of entitlement.
Unfortunately, New York State is only accepting campers with reservations, so we had reserved this site for five days. It was the only site available for all five days in a row. In retrospect, it would have been better to park for two days in one site, and then three days in another. Unfortunately, we couldn't move to a new site, due to CoVid rules - someone might reserve that site and we would be on it - the campground manager couldn't move people around, on a whim, either. The only other alternative would be to make a new reservation and move to that new site. But that would mean throwing away $75 worth of reservation for the old site.
You can't change other people - but you can change what you do. Lesson learned. Hopefully, we won't see a repeat of this sort of thing, but it does happen, on occasion. And when you are RVing or camping, you have to take the good with the bad. Once in a while, you are camped by a pristine mountain lake, with no one around, or on a beach without crowds of people. It doesn't happen often, but when it does - well, I guess it is a perfect Skinner box, with the rewards becoming more and more intermittent as time goes on.
Sadly, it seems the world is more and more full of Kevins and Karens - pushy people who take what they want, but are utterly clueless about life. Whether they are basement Nazis or "Antifas" who want free money, or noxious Trumpsters, it seems we have a larger and larger group of people who only care about "what's in it for me?" and screw the rest of the world, the rest of the country, their fellow man, and the future generations.
OK, well, that was a bit dramatic. But it just puzzles me why people can be so inconsiderate and lazy. Well, maybe not so puzzling - it is part and parcel of human nature. You have to seek out the good people and hold them close to you - and ignore the rest.
And loud? When you are 50 yards away from someone and you can hear every detail of their conversation, yea, that's loud. And that's how I know they didn't know what the heck they were doing and how they felt about camping - something beneath them, because they were better than the rest of us. I guess it is insecurity that drives that sort of thing.
Fortunately, we spent most of the time there on the lake. We packed a picnic lunch and spend the day slowly paddling around a pristine lake, stopping for a picnic or to go ashore here and there in the wilds. It was a glorious way to spend the day.
The CoVid campers? Well, their friend dropped off four kayaks for them, and they never used any of them. "Too hard!" "Too cold!" "Too wet!" - the Karens said. Instead, they constantly drove into town to eat and go shopping - two "vacation" activities" they were familiar with. As I noted before, poor people (and stupid people) drive all over hell's half acre, because driving makes them feel important and it kills time. It is also a sign of laziness. Yes, Karen #1, after she filled the grey water tank with her long showers, drove to the bathhouse to take a shower there. It was less than a tenth of a mile. And yes, she had an ass a mile wide, too. They all did. Typical Americans - and we wonder why the rest of the world hate us - that carefully nurtured sense of entitlement.
Unfortunately, New York State is only accepting campers with reservations, so we had reserved this site for five days. It was the only site available for all five days in a row. In retrospect, it would have been better to park for two days in one site, and then three days in another. Unfortunately, we couldn't move to a new site, due to CoVid rules - someone might reserve that site and we would be on it - the campground manager couldn't move people around, on a whim, either. The only other alternative would be to make a new reservation and move to that new site. But that would mean throwing away $75 worth of reservation for the old site.
You can't change other people - but you can change what you do. Lesson learned. Hopefully, we won't see a repeat of this sort of thing, but it does happen, on occasion. And when you are RVing or camping, you have to take the good with the bad. Once in a while, you are camped by a pristine mountain lake, with no one around, or on a beach without crowds of people. It doesn't happen often, but when it does - well, I guess it is a perfect Skinner box, with the rewards becoming more and more intermittent as time goes on.
Sadly, it seems the world is more and more full of Kevins and Karens - pushy people who take what they want, but are utterly clueless about life. Whether they are basement Nazis or "Antifas" who want free money, or noxious Trumpsters, it seems we have a larger and larger group of people who only care about "what's in it for me?" and screw the rest of the world, the rest of the country, their fellow man, and the future generations.
OK, well, that was a bit dramatic. But it just puzzles me why people can be so inconsiderate and lazy. Well, maybe not so puzzling - it is part and parcel of human nature. You have to seek out the good people and hold them close to you - and ignore the rest.
