2020 Winter Camping Trip Day3

 2020 Winter Camping Trip Day3, 2020/11/28

This day we drove to Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. 

What I knew about Kentucky was, only Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Believe or not, KFC is very popular in Japan, especially for Christmas season food. People like to buy KFC for Christmas food. Although vast majority of Japanese are not religious, KFC is successfully advertising their chicken as a Christmas food. In the TV commercial in Japan, Colonel Sanders is giving chickens to children. You Americans might be surprised, but I need to mention here is that Japanese KFC tastes really different from American KFC. First time I had American KFC I thought that chickens are super greasy.

We entered the different time zone, so we arrived at a campground in the park around 3:30 p.m. It was first time we arrived at campsite before dark. For the social distancing, campsites were open only every other site. I am not sure it is very meaningful, since each site is quite big, but I think that it is still a very good idea, because in that way crowd in the restroom or entrance check-in/out area can be avoided. Guys don't know, but sometimes campground ladies room has a line. We foraged and had campfire and looked at sunset. It was very nice! 

Nice campsite

While we were sitting by fire, a guy from a few campsites away walked by with a dog and talked to us from 10 feet away. "It is a beautiful site!" Mr.N replied, "Yes we saw sunset." He replied,"Oh my God, it is nice." He was talking to every camper. Very friendly guy. We really liked the site until the middle of night. 

Campsite 71, across our campsite, had RV. They were running generator in the evening. I hoped that they would stop it soon and went to bed. At 2 a.m. I woke up by the sound Mr.N was going outside of the tent. Sometimes we go to the toilet in the middle of night, so I thought that he went to the restroom. I also noticed that the generator was still running. A few minutes later I heard that Mr.N and a guy talking. I couldn't hear what they were talking, though. I asked Mr.N what he talked with the guy when he came back to the tent. Mr.N was pissed that the generator was still ON at 2 o'clock in the middle of night and talked to the guy in the RV. Mr.N basically lit his headlamp into the RV until the guy came out. MrN asked to stop generator but the guy said they had two babies saying cold, and their rental RV was crappy and had to keep generator on. Campground rule is generator is allowed ONLY 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. 

Huh? If heat is needed one should not go camping. Stop generator and go to a hotel!!! Being cold is a part of camping. Besides, car camping you can have jackets and blankets as much as you want. We should have gone to camp host at 8:01 p.m. 

They turned off the generator next morning at 7:50 a.m. So annoying. 

Next morning I saw their kids. They are not "babies". They are old enough to talk and walk. They had plenty of layers including down jackets. That made me angry, and thought, "Sigh those Americans. That's why you are not welcomed as travelers. So selfish!" The guy apologized and said they were leaving that day. Mr.N said that we were leaving too in the angry mode. The guy apologized but his wife didn't. On the way out campground, we stopped by the booth and talked to a camp host. We told her the incident and she was like, what the hell, and said, "Cold is part of camping. People need to respect other people. I will talk to campsite 71." She looked very motivated to go talking to them. I felt much better after talking to her. 

EVERYONE! Follow the time frame when generator is allowed. Be respectful at campsites! People go camping to be peaceful and enjoy nature, not to hear artificial generators!

To be continued...