Love thy neighbor. That’s what they say. But should we really?

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Let me take you to a little campground in Bristol, Tennessee. You’re a fifteen-minute walk from the iconic racetrack, and you’re excited to watch some baseball.

Yes, I said baseball.

You’ve checked the weather, and your odds are iffy at best. It’s going to rain.

We arrive at the campground with our reservation in hand (well, in phone), and after very clearly saying we are there to camp, we are told to go set up in what is obviously a grass parking area filled with cars. After some confusion, we finally get pointed in the general area of a campsite.

We find a spot, no fire pit, no table, just grass. And set up our tents.

(This is the reason we have a post now called “Why Every Camper Should Have a Portable Fire Pit”, found here.)

We walk over to the game (Bristol Motor Speedway Classic) and proceed to get rained on for three hours, while we wait on the game to proceed. It never did. They delayed it until the next day, screwing our travel plans, We adapt.

This is where my rant starts.

We return from the game wet and sad, walking with a few of the guys camped out directly next to us. We are hungry (the venue ran out of food) and tired. It is nearly midnight.

The people a few tents down have brought their own firepit, and it is roaring with flames.

One of our new friends walks up and asks if he could possibly roast a few hotdogs. Big mistake.

The men refuse, then proceed to yell about how it was rude of him to ask, and that he had no business walking up and talking to them. We should have been prepared. Fortunately for everybody involved, cooler heads prevailed, and everyone went their separate ways.

How would you have reacted? If somebody walked up to us and asked to cook some food over our fire, not only would we say yes, but we would probably offer them a beer, too. I guess we’re just different, but whatever happened to hospitality? We’re all just sleeping in the woods, it’s not that deep.

We proceeded to make do by roasting dogs over the tiny jet boil burner, but the meal was sub-par at best.

The group that called us rude then proceeded to play their music over a bluetooth speaker until 2 am, well past the midnight quiet hours of the campground. Purposefully or not, I don’t know.

Are we in the wrong, or was everybody just in a bad mood?

Thanks for reading!

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