COVID Campers
- Monica
- Nov 10, 2020
- 5 min read
The past couple of weeks have flown by! I don't even know where to begin.....
Ivy and Lucy Pearl were able to complete the regular season of HS swimming before we left Jacksonville. The regional swim meet was just a few weeks after our move and I decided to make a week of it. First I went to Anderson, SC to play in a tournament at Brookstone Meadows Tennis Club. Sophie Woorons, the masked tennis professional in the photo, has taught me so much during my summer visits to the area and I finally made it to a tourney at her facility. I won my singles division and had fun playing mixed doubles and women's doubles with a couple of amazing players that Sophie hooked me up with, but I was sore for a week after playing three events.
After the tourney was over we headed to Jax. We stayed with Jeff's family one night, then the girls stayed with a swim team friend and I stayed with my dear friend Paige. While the girls went to practice I visited with more friends and played tennis with my interclub team. It was a very busy week and we were all very ready to get back "home". Jeff stayed behind in Helen and worked at our Unicoi job and dealt with the hurricane that missed us in Florida but dumped tons of rain across the north Georgia mountains. Thankfully we were protected and none of the trees that came down in the high winds were on top of our camper. The girls and I returned to blue skies and a lot of leaves on the ground. Two days later we received the news from their swim coach that they had both made it to regionals the very next week in Gainesville, FL. I was still recovering from my whirlwind trip and immediately passed the torch to Jeff. He left a few days later with a car full of girls and swim gear and I had a nice week by myself. Truth be told it was really hard to do our cabin host duties by myself and I got pretty lonely after the first night. Ivy and Lucy Pearl both dropped time in every event at regionals and won a ribbon in one of their relay events. We are so proud of them for all of their hard work and commitment to their team and their sport.
Now that we are all back together and our two busy weeks are over, we were all excited to have a few days off over the weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather. We had a few really cold nights after the hurricane but we are back to blue skies, changing leaves and temperatures that encourage walks during the day and campfires at night.
Fall is a very busy season around here, even under normal circumstances, but this year is bound to set records. "Thanks to COVID," a phrase that seems to be included in every conversation we have, more and more people are getting outside and finding new ways to travel. Every single weekend the campground at #unicoistatepark fills up, not only with RV's but also with tent campers, bikers hauling mini-trailers, retro-trailers, vans, truck tents and more. When we were shopping for our full-time rig one salesman told us that RV sales were up 800% from last year. The majority of this uptick in sales is to first-time buyers. We were first-timers once but thankfully we had 'camping mentors' that gave us advice and helped us avoid some of the common mistakes that come with a new adventure.
Camping etiquette, bathhouse etiquette, dump station procedures and park rules are the major areas that seem to be misunderstood by this new league of outdoors people. We have seen more tents in the past 5 weeks of camping than we have in the past 10 years. We have also seen more brand new RV's and met more people on their first camping trip than I can ever remember meeting in all our years of camping. It is exciting to see all these new people enjoying something that we have loved for so long, but our whole day can quickly disappear as we are stopped by one person after another to answer questions, give advice and discuss their hardships on their first camping trip. It is awesome to be able to help people but it is amazing just how little they know. We spent an entire afternoon at the dealership where we bought our first RV learning how to operate everything. We did research and read the owner's manual. We asked questions, consulted our 'camping mentors' and called the dealer back and asked more questions. From what we are seeing, sales are up but education is down.
One couple in particular told us about all the gadgets they were sold at Camping World when they bought their RV and how, so far, they have found none of them useful. As we chatted he told his wife to start taking notes and eventually told me I should write it all down and share with people. "I think I will," said Monica. And here it is -
General Rules and Etiquette for Happy Camping
This is by no means an exhaustive list, we learn something new everyday! In fact, my best advice is to do what we did and watch YouTube videos posted by full-time RV'ers and other outdoors people. There are so many tricks and hacks out there, not to mention specific videos for setting up every possible type of RV. We had to watch videos about our new rig for weeks because we bought it used from a private seller. Auto-levelers almost caused WWIII when we set the camper up the first two times. We finally called the 800-number on the instruction manual and a lovely gentleman walked us through the whole process and helped us fix our potentially huge mistakes. I will certainly be adding to this file in the months and years to come, probably with embarrassing stories about our failures and missteps, so stay tuned!
P.S. - If you have just bought a new (or used) camper you should:
*Insist that the seller/dealer demonstrate set-up and breakdown and take copious notes.
*Find a place close to your home to set it up for the first time. Work out all the kinks and make sure you have everything for your first trip.
*Research and learn everything you can about towing.
*Do your own research about tow vehicles and RV weights. Do not rely on an RV dealer or a car dealer to tell you the truth about your tow vehicle's ability to pull a particular RV.
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