Dear RV Shrink:
My wife and I love the RV lifestyle. We hope to visit every National Park in the country and all the other interesting points along the way. Although we stay in many wonderful state and national park campgrounds, my wife has developed an annoying hobby of critiquing each site we occupy. She can always find fault with a site no matter how perfect I think it might be.
Recently, she could hear the hand dryer sound from a nearby restroom. She said it sounded like a pressure washer outside the motorhome every time someone dried their hands. She grades them by size, how close the neighbors are, what kind of view they have, shade, sun, road noise, management attitude, cleanliness, price … the list goes on. It drives me nuts. There is no such thing as perfect. I tell her you have to take the good with the bad and ugly. Can you help me with her attitude adjustment? —Judgment Day in Decatur
Dear Judge:
Before you cure your wife of her little idiosyncrasy, could you send me her list? I know several people that would love to have it.
I think your wife is just more open than the rest of us in this department. We are all looking for the perfect site. I know many people who have learned to work the reservation system to their advantage. They continually update their campground directories with personal information of what they consider the best site locations in each park they visit. This enables them to reserve that site well in advance if they know they are going to travel that way again.
Most people keep this information pretty close to the vest. As competition heats up for campsites around the country, knowledge is king. The same goes for finding and recording great little county, city and local parks that are often overlooked when passing through an area. You can find a lot of information online but you have to do more homework to really find the gems. It’s called experience.
As long as your wife isn’t carping about every site you park in, I would encourage her critiquing. If you wanted to share that info online or around the campfire, you will find many people interested and eager to hear your input. —Keep Smilin’, Richard Mallery a.k.a. Dr. R.V. Shrink
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 ##RVT897
Maybe she should write up her critiques and send them to rvtravel.com. They might make a good addition to this newsletter.
How do you get to choose your site? Every place I go I am assigned a spot based on the length of my TT. Drive around a campsite to look for “the perfect spot” never been offered the option. Have to pay and be assigned at the gate before entering.
Many of the Campground review sites (including on RV Trip Wizard) let you put in the space number when reviewing. Have your wife start writing about the sites. I’m sure when she starts putting things “on paper” she will find the good points outweigh the bad.
I have noticed that it is not always the spouses fault. I have RV’d for about 3 decades and my husband passed away over 8 years ago. I thought he used to critique everything, but now I will drive round and round looking for the best of all possible spots as if I were choosing the last great home on earth forever (even tho only 3 nights). Then, after getting settled, paid and all situated I will critique what I have chosen. However, if I’m driving through the middle of nowhere, say somewhere in the panhandle of Texas, with a 40 MPH gusting side wind, with weather advisories out, suddenly, any ding in the road with a trash can and a semi parked for the night looks like heaven itself.
As for the wife complaining about every site, I encourage hubby to let her pick the sites from now on. Had the same problem so had the complainer go into the office or look at the map to select the site whenever possible.