Lights on?

[brirene]

A serious question, with no judgements, to people who leave their porch or other outside lights on all night while camping: why do you? This past weekend, and many other times I've noticed folks who do this. Is it safety? Keep critters away? Just forget? Something else?

[BulldawgFan]

crudeman wrote:
I sleep with my eyes closed so the lights are not a problem. :B

Bahahahahahaha.... I thought maybe I was the only one. Perhaps I was doing it wrong!

[OFDPOS]

Pogoil wrote:
When I was younger my neighbor would leave a 100 watt bulb hanging on the side of his RV. It lit up our whole RV. He left it on for 2 nights as a scare light while they were in the RV.

At dark I put my halogen work light on top of my camper directed his way and in 15 minutes his light went off and never came on for the rest of the 10 days we were there. Problem solved.

Pogoil.

Some will blast you and say "why didn't you just say something to him"

Sometimes people just have to experience things first hand to understand and get it !

That little "dim" light people leave on maybe nothing to them , but when its aimed away from their rig and towards somebody else's window "yes even with the curtains pulled" its still annoying !

[Pogoil]

When I was younger my neighbor would leave a 100 watt bulb hanging on the side of his RV. It lit up our whole RV. He left it on for 2 nights as a scare light while they were in the RV.

At dark I put my halogen work light on top of my camper directed his way and in 15 minutes his light went off and never came on for the rest of the 10 days we were there. Problem solved.

Pogoil.

[Johno02]

Had a comment about my motion sensing porch light. Told them it was an insurance requirement, so that I didn't get sued whenever shortcut through our site and tripped over something, or bashed their head on my awning arm.

[pappcam]

The campgrounds that I camp at have occasional street lights on the loops that are much brighter than my porch light. I mainly camp at provincial parks where there is generally more room and space between sites.

That being said, the only time I've left it on over night is when I've forgotten to turn it off.

[GaryWT]

If we put awning lights up they stay on while we are out. The door light stays on until we go to bed unless someone is out in a tent then it stays on all night in case they need to come in during the night. Any light I usually leave on is not as bright as the lighting the campground leaves on all night.

[Veebyes]

Only lights deliberately left on occasionally will be a dull string of blue lights on the ground.

Hate door lights left on all night.

[Mountain_Mama]

Dakota98 wrote:
It allows for would be burglars to see what they are doing. :B

X2
Our previous RV had one & my DH wanted to leave it on to keep people from messing around our site. I told him they needed to bring their own lights if they were going to bother my stuff.

[dodge_guy]

mikensallyt wrote:
Why the gripe? OMG! If the light is bothering you, close your shades.

Except when you are sitting out by the campfire trying to enjoy the darkness and stars and you have the neighbors scare light tanning the right side of your face!!!

[noplace2]

K3WE wrote:
Why do so few people understand that some campgrounds are out in nature where there's a reasonable expectation to look at the sky on a beautiful starry night without light pollution
and other campgrounds are a social town like festive atmosphere where lots of lights - including decorative lights are the norm?

We've been fulltiming for 14 years. Over those years, we've stayed in just about very kind of venue out there with exception of those that are primarily "kid" oriented. We learned early on to pick those places that suit our needs and sensibilities. As to part one above we have gravitated almost exclusively to that type of place. Quiet, no kids, no "activities", minimal, if any lighting, no generators, no campfires except our noiseless and smokeless propane one and most important, if there are other people around, they are similar in terms of needs and wants and very respectful of others. Just peace and quiet. The ability to go outside, sit in a lawn chair and sigh, AHHHHH! at any time of day or night.

Indeed, we are all different, but we need to understand and respect those differences. If you pull into an entity where the atmosphere is quiet and subdued and you are party people, please move quietly on without attempting to force your brand of "camping" on the others there.

Excellent case in point: We are currently in a very small park amidst the Smokies in NC. For the 1st time in our 14 years of travels, we have taken a site for the summer. We passed through here last fall and fell in love with the place for all of the reasons enumerated above. There are only 20 RV sites, most of them seasonal. The owners try to keep 2 of them open for passers through. Over the Memorial Day w/e a small family of 4 moved into one of those 2 sites. 1st night they decorated as if they were in a place where a couple of hundred string lights, patio lights and scare lights all night were the norm. I don't believe that anyone said anything to them (although if they had been next to me I would have politely asked them to extinguish most of it at quiet time), but for the next 2 nights they were dark and the last night, one of the 2 kids had a telescope out. :B Not sure how they got here in the first place, but glad that they "got" where they were and adapted, instead of attempting to force their mindset on others clearly disinclined.

It hasn't happened for years because we do our homework and are not likely to end up in party central, but if we did, we'd bite the bullet for the night and move on early the next morning.

Leave your lights on all night? When in Rome....

[bukhrn]

OFDPOS wrote:
Funny (not really) somebody is curious and asks a simple question then gets slammed for it.

Its really sad how this world has really come to "its all about me"
No consideration of others at all anymore.

How about some of the unwritten Rules , Common Sense , Common Courtesy ,Common Decency .

Nope rules have to posted and if not listed ,it must be fine to do then ....

Unfortunately this has become the norm here.

[bcbouy]

thats the difference between campgrounds and rv parks.

[davosfam]

K3WE wrote:
Why do so few people understand that some campgrounds are out in nature where there's a reasonable expectation to look at the sky on a beautiful starry night without light pollution
and other campgrounds are a social town like festive atmosphere where lots of lights - including decorative lights are the norm?

We've stayed in both kinds of places and operate our lights much differently at them.

This is it exactly. When we did state park camping in the past, the parks were always full of people, pets and lights. We have never gone to a quiet, dark campground. Different strokes for different folks!

[spoon059]

We just bought a new trailer this spring and had it out for the third trip last weekend. The wife attempted to turn the inside lights off before bed... but the switch didn't turn the lights off. Rather than check and see what the effect of that switch was, she turned the correct switch off.

Didn't find out until the next morning when our friends commented on how bright our new LED awning lights were... oops!

[K3WE]

Why do so few people understand that some campgrounds are out in nature where there's a reasonable expectation to look at the sky on a beautiful starry night without light pollution
and other campgrounds are a social town like festive atmosphere where lots of lights - including decorative lights are the norm?

We've stayed in both kinds of places and operate our lights much differently at them.