Lazy Daze Owners' Group

Campgrounds can be a lot like neighborhoods sometimes and after a while I burn out on them. Our recent six days stay at Gros Ventres was all in all very nice with a couple of exceptions. One evening while sitting around the fire our neighbor was running his pickup motor quite a while and at first I thought he was getting ready to go somewhere. Eventually I went over and knocked on his door to ask  if he planned on turning it off anytime soon. He said he was charging his batteries and would turn it off in an hour or so. I then reminded him that he was in the no generator loop and I purposely stayed in this loop so I didn't have to hear motors running. He smugly informed me that it was a pickup not a generator and he'd turn it off but it would be my fault if his wife's CPAP machine went off in the middle of the night. I told him he was running a motor to create electricity and that was for all intents and purposes a generator and he should have stayed in the generator loop if he needed extra power. He got highly agitated but did turn off his pickup. As he walked away he said " you run into all types in national parks". I then said yeah like people running generators in the no generator loop. He again responded it's a pickup not a generator and we went our separate ways. Kind of ruined the mood for our peaceful evening camp fire.
Another day another neighbor decided cutting through our camp between the picnic table and our LD was a shorter route to get out into the desert where he could let his dog take a dump without picking it up. His path was like two feet from our rear bathroom window and after he did this a couple times I intercepted him and let him know I didn't appreciate his walking right through our camp and could he go around. He acted very put out by my request like I had some nerve but he did go around after that.
Most of our neighbors that came and went were very nice as we stayed put six nights but these two were really a PITA. All part of the campground experience I guess. Just like real life it's not all peaches and cream.

For a CPAP I would cut some slack. They may already be sensitive about it. Who knows what their situation was.

But there are people finding new ways to be comedians.

A few of mine were:
- Incredibly loud gangster rap - asked if they could turn it down - got gangster - I left (so easy in the LD)
- People using my picnic table to hold their surfboards - asked to remove.
- Cutting through site to save 10 steps. Turnabout is fair play on that - I have been known to shortcut through the sites of people who take shortcuts so they know what it's like. Amazing that they don't like it when it's them.

I try not to be a jerk but the transition from doormat to assertive to jerk is a tricky one.

They were irate that we were in their place.

I would be a little miffed about a guy that felt entitled to run his engine to charge his battery for his wife's CPAP. I would try to be understanding that he was clueless and unprepared not having enough battery capacity, probably one 12volt car battery, no solar and running the CPAP with an inverter.

In my limited experience,  a significant percentage of the weekend crowd fall into the group 'unretired'.
As such, they are more to be pitied than censured. 

"We made the mistake of going into Jackson on Sunday..."

Given the amenities to be had it's no surprise! I have relatives who live in Idaho Falls who think nothing of hopping over the ridge for a Sunday excursion.