Saturday October 7th 2017

Today was a beautiful hot day. I didn’t do much more than hiking around the park a bit in between reading and watching college football.

Saguaro sentinels.

The day started on a sour note. Sometime while I was still asleep I got new neighbors across the street. There are two families with a total of four kids and a dog to go along with the two couples. I didn’t hear them arrive, but I did hear the kids using their playground voices not 3 feet outside my bedroom window. They woke me up. It would have been one thing if they were still on their own site but they weren’t. For some reason they were on the opposite side of my RV from their site. If I had my awning out they would have been standing under it. I can think of no reason for them being where they were. I doubt the parents were paying any attention. I don’t think my language was inappropriate, but my tone wasn’t very pleasant when I yelled at the kids to get off “MY” site. They went back to their site without even acknowledging having heard me.

Pontoon boat on Lake Pleasant.

As much as I like public campgrounds for their natural settings, they have some drawbacks. One is the inexperienced and occasional campers they draw. My new neighbors and several other groups in the campground this weekend are not familiar with basic campground etiquette. They don’t think anything about cutting through other peoples sites, keeping their campfires under control or observing the posted quiet hours. The campground host has been busy this weekend. My neighbors are actually doing pretty well compared with the group at the other end of the loop. (That concludes my “grumpy old man” opinion for this blog entry.)

Sailboat on the far side of Lake Pleasant.

To end on a positive note. I really like this campground. I don’t dislike my fellow campers. To a large degree they are entertaining. If I were awake this morning I would probably have reacted differently to the kids in my space. Besides, by Monday this campground will be almost empty again.