How We Find Camping Spots on the Fly
One of the questions I frequently get asked is how we find camping spots on our cross-country trips.
For those who like to plan their trips carefully you would not be able to travel the way King and I do. Routes often get changed on the fly, which means campgrounds are also found on the fly.
Avoiding the Pitfalls of “Shorter Routes”
There have been occasions when Google Maps will tell me “We have found a shorter route.” I’m not quite certain who “We” actually is, but I’ve learned to ignore them. The last time “We” found a shorter route we ended up on gravel roads meandering through Indiana corn country. When King and I came to a crumbling one-lane bridge with weight restrictions we idled for a moment and then King said, “It’s short. I can drive fast.”
Using Reviews to Find Last-Minute Campgrounds
We generally drive until King gets tired and then we look for a place to stay for the night. Sometimes we drive 300 miles, sometimes it’s closer to 200 miles. We have no timetable. When King has had enough for the day, he tells me to look for a place to stay. I do a Google search for “campgrounds near me,” and start looking for reasonably priced ones with decent reviews.
I’ll be honest, some places are pretty bad, some are ok if you consider we are only staying for one night. However, I do read reviews. When you get consistent one- and two-star reviews and comments like, “Well, no one died here this week,” you tend to keep on looking.
The Problem with Negative Reviews
But what I’ve also found is there will often be places with decent reviews and then one really bad review. I suppose it’s the reporter in me, but I often wonder why this person left their poor review. So, I do some digging. I usually find other reviews this individual has left and invariably EVERY review they leave is negative. That’s my ah-ha moment … the one where I realize I’ve found yet another tattle tale. The cowardly individual who hides behind the anonymity of social media. These people are generally the individuals who would complain about a free meal because it didn’t include tiramisu for dessert.
Tattletales and Their Impact on Social Media and Beyond
Remember when we were kids, and the playground whiner ran and tattled to the teacher about some perceived egregious behavior?
“I’m telling on you,” were the famous words that made us roll our eyes when we heard them. We all hated those tattlers and the adults who were the recipient of the tattle didn’t think much of them either.
Those tattling whiners are still with us today. Take a look at social media or Yelp reviews and it’s fairly apparent some children never outgrew their propensity to tattle. Rather than be an adult and address some misperceived behavior they immediately make a post or leave a bad review. They huff and puff, limber up their fingers and start firing (tattling) away.
I recall a review where the reviewer complained about the fence at the campground’s dog park. Except the campground was also a horsemen’s campground the “dog park” was actually a horse pen.
Most of the time I can shrug my shoulders and move on, but sometimes I want to grab their little cheeks, give them a yank and kindly ask them to “Grow the heck up.”
Finding Positivity in the Camping Community
But it’s not just social media reviews. Even the corporate world can’t seem to be able to escape those who love to tattle. Disagree with someone about policy or debate the reasoning behind a decision and sure enough they will start sending out emails complaining to your supervisor, your supervisor’s supervisor — right up the chain of command generally ending with the president of the company — or better yet, they send an email blast to the entire organization. These individuals often feel justified in their actions, but the reality is, that chain of command often gets tired of listening to, yet another whiny-assed-crybaby and Human Resources gets tired of wasting their time with yet another absurd incident. Pretty soon those whiny-assed-crybabies get tuned out. (But not always, some whiny-assed-crybabies continue to whine and have a following four years after the fact).
I have to wonder how unhappy these individuals must be. Is there is nothing positive in their lives? Does anything good ever happen to them or is their life just one big disappointment after the other? How much unhappiness do they bring on themselves and how much unhappiness do they heap on others with their tattling?
Unfortunately, there are people out there who can find something negative about everything … they would run screaming to tattle if a happy little rescue puppy waddled up to them, sat up and offered them a paw.
Something to ponder.
Be kind, leave nice reviews. Don’t kick sand in the sandbox. Be sure to vote.
