Since Hollywood still hasn’t picked up on the idea of using a campground as the basis for a reality TV show and I still get a few emails each month asking about a third installment… Well, here are a few more unusual events we’ve experienced Full-Timing.

This is one we have only shared a few times because it is rather odd to bring up in a conversation. We were staying at a campground in Washington. Little did we know at the time of our arrival that the campground was located beside a cemetery and that we would be camped next to it. (You can read more about this at Campground Living: Better than Reality TV .) It was at the tail end of October, so the campground was dead (okay, pun intended) and it was just us and the current hosts camped in the park. On the third night, we were asleep when we heard activity outside. Peering out the windows revealed a woman with a flashlight and shovel roaming the cemetery across the chain-link fence. Now our first thoughts were some crazy Halloween prank, but after opening a window and hearing the woman talking to herself about getting back “the ring”… well, we grew a bit concerned. Our cell phone didn’t work well in the area, so we weren’t sure what to do until there was a knock at the door!  Normally we don’t open the door at night, but a peak out the window revealed the duty host. She heard the woman’s vehicle and saw some sort of activity and wanted to know if we had any idea what was going on. Of course, we had no clue – why would someone be at a cemetery in the middle of an October night with a flashlight and shovel? Hmm… Anyway, it was decided to contact the park owner and ask her how to proceed.  Eventually the owners arrived with the local law. The short of the story is the woman wanted her mother’s ring – she had died several years earlier. The woman was roaming the cemetery looking for the plot to dig up the ring. So forget the walking dead, it’s the roaming heirs you need to watch out for!

Your neighbors are dead-quite when you camp by a cemetery!

This reminds me of the Full-Timers we met at a RV resort in Florida who can’t part with their dearly departed pets. They have their pet ashes in little urns under their bed. Having lost a pet, I understand, but that’s a little too creepy for me. And it also serves as a reminder that if you buy a used RV to check under the bed storage area!

A question I got emailed after posting the second “Campground Living” asked if we have seen other “trophies” at campgrounds. No we haven’t – thank goodness! But there was a funny episode involving a bear.

Bear or Big Foot fur? Next time I see a bear, I hope to have the camera handy!

We were staying in California at the time and a bear made its way across the road near the campground entrance. You would think most people would go running for cover… well, this poor bear had a parade of people following it!  No, I wasn’t one of them! I ran to get the camera. Meanwhile, the bear headed down the hill, toward the lake and then high-tailed it into the woods again. Unfortunately by the time I grabbed my camera, it was long gone. But I did get a photo of some fur left behind. Although, it could be from Big Foot for all I know! And no I didn’t keep it for a souvenir! 😉

That brings me to hairy men! We stayed a RV park in Texas and were getting settled in when our new “neighbors” moved in a site from us. They erected a garage-sized tent with sides! We were in a RV-only (no tents allowed) section of the park. We assumed they were having some sort of weekend outing and had permission…but imagine our surprise when a  flat-bed trailer arrived and unloaded a custom golf cart (with speakers), large-screen TV, stereo, sat dish, tables, chairs and a Tiki bar! All these items (except the golf cart) made their way into the tent. Then came a mini van which unloaded several boxes of bottles to stock the bar. And as the day went on, the lonely tree on the camp site became a sign post, which they decorated with beer signs and tacky outdoor lights. Oh, and who can forget the flags? Not one, not two, but five full-size flags were flying by the end of the day.  Of course they put a cheap metal spotlight on the flags so they could be seen a mile away at night.  After a night of loud music and unregistered cars pulling in all the vacant sites around us… we learned this was no weekend outing. These folks were calling the RV park “home” for a few months and that a handful of the “neighbors” were welcomed at the bar – at all hours. Now we have seen a great deal while living the RV lifestyle, but this was a little more than we could tolerate and we quickly moved on. I guess camping beside grave diggers and black bear routes have spoiled  us a bit! 🙂

So Hollywood is really missing out not using a campground as the basis for a reality TV show. But I guess if they did make one, no one would believe it was reality anyway! 😉