Lesson Learned?

[pwb01]

We have a favorite campsite at a favorite campground where we stay maybe 4 or 5 times a year. We mostly dry camp but not without a faux utility post where we're seemingly the only camper with water and power in the whole campground.

We noticed last year and again this year we're having trouble being first on the mouse trigger 9 months in advance for especially holidays on Reserve America to reserve the site. Someone else beats us.

I think I know what the problem is and would not want to face the poor campers next summer who were elated this winter when they found that they actually got the only site with utilities.

No lesson learned here. I'll continue to use it because I still like the reactions when people walk by and take a double take. I meet more nice people that way.

 

[justatourist]

pictures of the faux connection. Sounds like fun for sure. Couldn't you see the eyeballs popping in the WallyWerld parking lot?

 

[SteveC7010]

We both have them and have even used them at the ADK M&G. Folks who drive through the loop at that gathering do a lot of double takes!

Here's mine:

The hose isn't hooked up in this pic which I took at home after I finished making it. I added cable TV and phone connections later on. Paul's has an LED light on the top. I am going to add one when time permits.

There is a 50' electric cord attached to mine which runs to the generator. Pile some leaves or pine needles over the base and the orange wire, and it looks totally real.

Great fun!

 

[justatourist]

I love it!!!!! Gotta do it.

 

[pwb01]

utility post and accessories

 

[mbart5fan]

That is sooooo funny Paul. (and I love the presentation of the electric bill when you exit campground)

Mike

 

[pwb01]

It was at one meet and greet at Nick's Lake where the ranger said that all of their power for theri own utilities had red pilot lights. I had a LED light on top before the next trip powered all summer by 3 AAA batteries so thers's no question that it's real.

One district supervisor cited a ranger for not catching a camper who was hooked up to the water. The ranger thought it was a riot because the supervisor had to recind the paper when she showed him it was fake. He didn't notice the power.

Another ranger came to my site on the last day of my stay and presented me with a $10 utility bill on DEC letterhead.

Once I pushed the camper into the site between two trees with about a foot on either side. Many people questioned the utility post but nobody asked how I got the camper in when the post was located right in front of the hitch.

Try this one. On a busy holiday weekend, set the post along the road and DON'T hook up to it. People will offer money to swap sites since you don't need it anyway.

I've had people a couple of times ask me on the last day if it was real and tell me about the bets that were about to swap hands.

Each night after dark, move it to another location.

Once with 3 or 4 people standing around, One said that with a wife and 4 kids in his camper, he sure could use it. I reached down and pulled it out of the ground (spike on the bottom) and asked to return it when he was done. I thought they all would split a gut.

On each trip, people stop and look at it and I get to meet many nice people who would have just walked by.

 

[justatourist]

I can't read the small signs but it all looks so official. No wonder these things are so much fun. Are they mounted on a small diameter rod driven into the ground?


I can see the back of the tow vehicle getting full of "required camping equipment", LOLOL!

 

[Gene-SUN]

That is priceless, I love it.

 

[SteveC7010]

I can't read the small signs but it all looks so official. No wonder these things are so much fun. Are they mounted on a small diameter rod driven into the ground?


I can see the back of the tow vehicle getting full of "required camping equipment", LOLOL!

Paul changes the site number on the sign on the post itself to match the site number they are on.

I drilled a 1/2" hole in the bottom of the post and use a piece of 1/2" rebar about 16" long for a stake. I keep reminding myself to make up a base out of plywood and put a 1/2" bolt on it for those sites where there is only rock. Have to toss a couple of hands full of leaves and woodies around the base anyway to hide the power cord.

We heard that someone else had a post in a very busy campground. Another camper went so far as to go to the park office and rather angrily demand a site with hookups for himself. Park staff later came by and told the owner of the post that they could not make him take it down but that it was causing problems for the office staff.

Paul, tell 'em about the lady....

 

[pwb01]

People do go to the ranger and try to reserve the site knowing they'd never get it on Reserve America. One lady complained and said it WAS NOT FUNNY. A couple of times when I check out the Ranger said "thank goodness".

I basically did the same thing as Steve. I drilled a hole in the bottom and cut the head off those Wally World tent pegs that look like giant nails and drove them in.

The signs are our names, city, & Sunline model and were made to blend in with the scheme of New York State Dept of Environmental Conservation signs whose campsites we frequent. The Small sign says "Sunlines Only".

I have a picnic table at home painted DEC brown with a site number in the same scheme mounted on it just to make people ask where I got it.

Between Steve and I, the Adirondack meet and greet has had two sites with utilities for the last couple of years.

And by the way.......the tow vehicle is in fact full of required camping equipment all summer. Good thing I have a tonneau cover.

 

[justatourist]

It looks like no expense has been spared to pull other campers legs.

 

[SteveC7010]

It looks like no expense has been spared to pull other campers legs.

One only pulls what can be pulled.