Communing With the Campbells – Keeping Safe in the RV Parks
RV Safety Chat Henley Herald from Anthony Campbell on Vimeo.
Over the last couple of weeks we have been staying in RV parks as we’ve been exploring the landscapes and points of interest in and around the Grand Canyon. RV communities are quite extraordinary here in the USA. The movement is enormous and well structured with clear rules of engagement. Many of the RV parks here in the Southern states of the USA accommodate ’Snow birds’. These are people who spend an extended period of time in warmer states, living from their RV to escape a cold winter. With a level of semi permanence and many of the same people returning to destinations year after year it’s inevitable that a strong sense of community starts to emerge.
Our experience of RV parks has been nothing but positive. The moment you pull up next to your neighbours warm introductions ensue. The proximity of other people makes communing an inevitability. That alongside shared resources like showers and laundry as well as recreational spaces fosters an incredible and immediate sense of community. All that said the transient nature of the parks also means there is a constant flow of people. As parents of 3 young girls who are naturally adventurous and trusting we felt like we needed to sit them down at the start off our extended RV experience to talk them through some basic safety principles.
It’s a difficult conversation to have with kids because the last thing we want to do is inhibit their natural curiosity and friendliness. But we also need them to understand that the world (and the people within it) is not all rainbows and unicorns. I’m not sure that we got everything right in the conversation we had with our girls but I’m hoping that we’ve done enough to keep them safe as we continue our adventure.
The Campbells
