More TRUCK accidents happen while backing than in any other situation. If it’s true of trucks I’m sure it’s just as true of RV’s and RV’ers. Get Out and LOOK!
Yesterday’s post must have had me feeling guilty about something because I was dreaming about backing up all night long. No — no one hit anything in the campground. And No — no one was a bad example of anything. Last night’s dream was about the different ways people do things.
Every couple — whether they RV or not — has their own peace between them.
Why partners (or other RV spotters) stand in such a place where they cannot see the driver they are trying to direct is beyond me. That’s sort of like spitting into the wind!
In the days when I was still legal to marry people I would do pre-marital counseling with each couple, because I didn’t always know the couple very well, and I was fascinated by the different kinds of folks who decided to couple. Surely I could never have picked out some of the couples if I had not known who they ‘belonged’ with — but, there’s no accounting for matters of taste.
Over the years we’ve seen all sorts of variations on how to back your RV into a campsite. Some couples never make a sound — relying on their own version of construction site hand signals. Other couples are yelling at each other. Some partners try to direct the backing operation from the front of the truck and others stand on the wrong side in the back waving their arms like crazy unaware that their partner can’t even see them.
Backing does become an object of interest in campgrounds!!!! Though I’ve never seen anyone selling refreshments!!!!
Peggy and I have walkie talkies but we don’t use them much. We get them out if she is driving the car and I’m driving the coach. And we get them our for a few minutes while we back into a site. After a million miles in a semi I tend to trust my own visualization of what I need to do. I pre-position the coach on the road, so that the back end is where it needs to be. That is almost always in exactly the same spot on the camp road. Then, I (usually) get out of the RV and do a walk-around to see what’s ‘in my way’ — what I need to maneuver around, etc.. I need help with something specific I try to tell Peggy what I’m concerned about and that is her job. Then I use my mirrors and the backup camera to position the coach as I have already visualized it in my head.
All of which goes back to the point I make so many times that there is no single right way to RV. We are all different. We communicate differently; we understand differently — it only makes sense that we won’t do things the same way. It doesn’t pay to observe someone else and then try to copy what they do. That works for them. But you find something that works for you. Whatever it is.
What is scary though, is the person that refuses to listen to anyone. Fortunately I haven’t seen many of those this summer. Mostly because on Friday we’re manning the kiosk at the entrance and the majority of campers come in, get into their site, and we don’t have to watch any of the drama! 🙄 😜 😇
There are advantages to having the host site away from the campers. 😀
Anyway… thanks for stopping, and I’ll be here again tomorrow. How about you?
Embrace Serendipity 
Quite often, there is a well-meaning person who tries to assist the hubby back in, as they feel the wife isn’t capable of doing the job alone….even though (unbeknownst to them) she’s done it hundreds of times before. A simple “if you guys need help with anything, don’t be afraid to ask” is nice, but we usually stop and thank the person that jumps in without asking and send them on their way….unless it is a campground worker trying to protect the utility posts and trees.
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And much of the time the wife does an infinitely better job too!
I don’t think well-meaning helpers realize the importance of communication. If the couple has figured out a way of giving directions that works for them, that’s a lot better than following someone else’s directions that may not be very good at giving directions — cuz being able to back and being able to give good directions are two very different things.
So far the RV parks where they send someone out with you to get you parked have usually been pull throughs. We only went to one KOA and they came out with us to get us to a back-in site but it’s wasn’t a hard site to get into. Public campgrounds tend not to have such ‘amenities.’ as parking guides 🙂
Sometimes the property-protection crew is a good idea though. All sorts of things happen when you aren’t looking and if there is one bad habit I have noticed more than any other since we went mobile it’s that people what hit things with their RV’s tend not to be the most forthcoming about any damage they have done. For all the good things about RV’ers — causing property damage is the one place a lot of RV’ers seem to fall down and fail to report. But that’s just our experience — maybe others see a different class of campers. That’s possible.
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