Interesting week.

 

The intent was to get away to the White Mountains of New Hampshire for a week to enjoy the clean air and the peace and quiet.  It didn't quite turn out that way, but vacation is vacation and I'm glad I got to enjoy the beautiful mountains for a few days.  I cherish every minute I get to spend in my RV, and it was so good to take it out again.  I don't get to use it as much as I'd like to, so I'm grateful for the times I can.

We stayed on a friend's property.  I'll call the friend "P".  The idea was to use the graciously offered piece of land to park the RV and camp for the week.  We had our own water and our own food.   We planned on setting everything up just like we would on a campground - awning, camp chairs, grill, screenhouse - and dry camping for the week.  P offered the use of their electricity, which we accepted.  I don't have a very powerful inverter (on my wish list) and though we would have been fine on battery and generator power, it's much easier to use electricity to run everything.  I have a 30 amp to 110 adapter and 50 foot heavy duty outdoor extension cord in the RV at all times, so we would be able to hook up to their electric easily.

Using their electricity turned out to be necessary anyways as we were parked a lot closer to the house than I wanted to be.  Because I don't have an up-pipe (if it would have even made a difference) and they had all their windows open (it wasn't warm enough for them to turn on their AC), running the generator would have been out of the question.  Being close to the house also afforded us the use of their wi-fi.  Our phone services was sketchy at best, so we couldn't use our iPhones for the internet (or to make a call, for that matter).   That said, who knows if we could have gotten a better signal from the other side of the property and/or access to their wi-fi.  We were parked between the house and the office for the local utility company, so it's possible that the opposite side of the property (a wide open space) would have been better with less interference.

However, in retrospect, I would have gladly traded the electricity and wi-fi for a spot away from the house.  Being that close with all the windows open was a bit uncomfortable at times.  Let's just say that the family wasn't having one of their best weeks.

Though P was more than generous, not only offering us the use of their land but feeding us dinner on two nights (we provided dinner on the third night), it was not the relaxing and peaceful week I had planned on having.  When we weren't listening to their arguments first hand, we were listening to P's side of the story.  Incessantly.  We had almost no time alone.  As soon as she saw movement in the RV in the morning, she showed up (the first morning she brought muffins, which were delicious).  At night, we ate dinner in the house (you can't say no when someone has cooked a meal for you).  We stayed and visited for an hour or so afterwards, excusing ourselves at a reasonable time in order to spend some quiet time in the RV before bed.   However, within minutes she showed up in her jammies to spend even more time with us. Yay.

P is a great person.  She really is.  But she talks a lot.  A REAL LOT.  It's impossible to enjoy a movie (RV with Robin Williams - what a hoot!) with someone droning on and on and on for hours on end.  It was absolutely exhausting for me.  I am a fairly quiet person.  I don't talk for the sake of talking; I only talk when I have something to say.  I'm also a bit of a loner and I desperately need some "me time" every day. When I'm around people 24/7 I get a tad grumpy.  Except for my daughter, that is.  I never tire of being with her.

I simply can't relate to (or tolerate) people who feel the need to talk constantly.  First off, they don't seem to understand that a conversation is a two way street.  With them, it's almost always one sided despite your best efforts to convince them otherwise.  They generally tend to talk about themselves or about things that they are interested in, whether or not you are interested in those things.  Secondly, they aren't really good listeners.  When they talk about, say, a TV show that they love and you tell them over and over that you have never seen it, they continue to talk about the show as if you have a bloody clue what they are talking about (or that you give a rat's @$$ at all).  On the remote chance that you do get to change the subject, they will invariably bring it right back to whatever they want to talk about.  Thirdly, they tend to interrupt or talk over you.  In the beginning when you are actually participating in the conversation, you find yourself waiting for them to breathe so you can have a chance to speak.  Of course, many times it's a false alarm and they're only taking a mini-breath and you don't have time to say anything because they're off and running at the mouth again.  Fourthly, they don't leave (or won't let you leave) until they are done talking, which is usually late into the night.  They don't notice or don't care that you are completely exhausted and need some sleep.   You have to tell these people that you have something to do or that it's getting late and you need to go to bed because...

Lastly, they have zero observation skills.  Meaning that they've been flapping their gums for so long that you've gone from active participation, to nodding and grunting while your eyes glaze over, to actually turning away from them and ignoring them completely and they STILL don't get the hint that you want them to STOP TALKING FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.  I have a sister in law and a co-worker like that ( I can't get away from them - they're EVERYWHERE!!!).

Though we sincerely appreciate everything P did for us this week, it would have been far more restful to just spend a few dollars more and camp in one of the local state parks.