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Love Thy Neighbor
Love Thy Neighbor
I have just returned to my home base campground near Knoxville where I am working. We had gone away for a long weekend with to our hiking club’s annual meeting. The weather was glorious, and it was a great joy to hike and speak with old friends. We enjoyed our campground and elected to stay over and extra night. By the time we drove back I had forgotten what day of the week it was. It felt wonderful to be truly relaxed.
When we pulled into our home base campground I had a shiny new neighbor…a Fleetwood Discovery motor home. As I got closer to I noticed my neighbor was in the campsite backwards. RV campsites are laid out with utility hookups (water, sewer, and electric) on the driver’s side to the rear of the site. As is generally the case the campsite is angled so backing or pulling in (this campground has pull through sites) is easier.
My neighbor was in the site backward. He had pulled into the site against the angle. He had positioned the coach so his utilities on his site were on the far side of where the coach connection points were. I can’t recall ever seeing an RV in a campsite backwards before.
I pulled into my site and Judi moved the car I had parked on the site to reserve it. After all I pay by the month. The bikes and stuff locked to the picnic table were still there, as were the extra water hose and sewer hose I had left in place.
When I got out of the truck to begin checking my level and placement in the site I noticed it. My neighbor had connected his sewer hose to the sewer on my site. He had run his water and electric lines under his coach to connect to his own hookups. This meant he knew he was in the site backwards, and he knew he should not be using that sewer hookup.
I was no longer relaxed.
I stared at his sewer hose. It was leaking.
My home base campground is unique when it comes to sewer hookups. The campground is built on a flood plain of a nearby small river. Many loads of fill were required to raise the campsites above normal flooding levels. The sewer lines were installed with fill dumped over it I guess. Or it was just poorly installed. In any event the sewer connection sits high above the surrounding ground level creating a challenge of gravity fed sewer applications like my coach.
But that is not all that is unique with my campground sewers. The campground is very new and was laid out not by a large, professional chain operation. The electric and water hookups are at the rear of the site as is normal, but the sewer was placed in the forward third of the campsite. If a camper could reach the sewer his electric cord would not reach. Much to the owners expense he had to install second sewer hook ups in the rear third of the camp site.
Thus I had the option to pull as far forward into the site as the electric cord would reach. I had spare water hoses to extend that, but a 50 amp electric line is expensive, dangerous if you try to use extensions, and heavy. I have only one. Since my electric connection to my trailer is above the rear bumper, and my sewer discharge port is mid-ships my unit was perfectly configured for this unusual campsite lay out. I would pull forward.
I told Judi I would express my complaints to my neighbor. She advised consideration and compassion. Maybe he came in at night and didn’t know. Maybe he is new to all this. WWJD?
Nope. Not buying that. He used my sewer because it was the only one he could reach, but used the correct water and electric hookups. He had the site reserved for a week. I had done everything but placed a reserved sign on my SEWER.
Then my neighbor came back home. He shouted “Welcome home!” and came right over to where I was standing. The body language spoke volumes. He slide up next to my side, and turned sideways like a dog expressing submission. He was inside my 3 foot personal space to express familiarity.
I returned his greeting with “Your sewer hose is leaking, creating a health hazard. You can buy a new one at the office.” “Oh, last night when I put it in it split. I have another one, and will replace it.” I guess he couldn’t be bothered last night, and not this morning either. He did however replace it right away.
I told him I had decided to pull forward to use the sewer hook up in the front of the site. Since it was now safe, and since he now realized there were 2 sewer hook ups, he volunteered to move. “ No, I am still hitched. I have measured the lines. I can fit.”
He told me how the coach is new, replacing the other one he had had for two years. So much for being a newbie.
After I finished I drove out to do an errand. I notice then that another FLA motor home was parked next to him but pulled in correctly. This created a courtyard for the 2 units traveling together to share. The picnic tables were pulled together and the kids were coloring.
All the evidence was in. He pulled into the site backwards on purpose. He knew he was using a sewer hook up belonging to another site. He just thought he’d see if he could get away with it. And he did.
I returned to work the next day. Camping is better than working. I went to a bookstore at lunch. When the student is ready the teacher will appear. There on the back cover of a book by the Dalai Lama on happiness, the cover caught my eye as I walked toward the magazines, was a quote from His Holiness that said in effect happiness flows from its beginning of meeting all people with compassionate concern, flows thru connectedness and on into action to help and serve. Perhaps this student is not truly ready, but at least I recognized this message as one directed toward me and folks like me.
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