Yep - that's my question for you. Do you meet neighbors at the campground/RV park/wherever you are, or do you keep to yourself? What's your move if you meet people - wait till they walk the dog? See them sitting outside and go over? Take them food and see if they chase you away?

I am curious because I am a Hermit, but force myself to be a Meeter. If I see a neighbor out, I will purposely strike up an conversation (sometimes even an awkward Howdy Neighbor!), introduce myself, try like hell to remember their name until I can walk back inside and write it down. I don't know why - I guess I figure I live in an RV park, I am suppose to be neighborly.

Ang and I also have escape clauses built in when the visiting goes beyond the comfort zone. If a dude is bending my ear for an hour, she picks up on it and gracefully rescues me. It works well.

So, what are you - Meeter or Hermit?


--kev

We're usually anti-social hermits when we're in RV Parks and try to choose spaces as far away from others as possible.   With so little space in our RV, the space around us becomes very important to feeling like we have room.. and I need my space to feel as private as possible.    My home has always been my sanctuary and recharge space (and hang out naked space). Even prior to RVing, I kept to myself and avoided my neighbors as much as possible. It's been a key element for me in our travels to have space where I can feel as secluded as possible.  One reason we designed to be off-grid and off-road capable. 

We try to be meeters but we just love gettng away from it all.  It's bad nough that we live out in he middle of nowhere so when we go somewhere we do he samething, enjoy our hermit/hermitee life style.  Nothng wrong with a qick "hello" but hen i's all about us on our own.  Been that way for te las 13 years so why change it now.  Once in a blue moon the wife will get us to tep out of our comfrt zone for a day, then we are meeters for that day. Exhausting. Thi does give us something to think about, meeters or hermits? Weenjoy the hermit style.

I do the same on camping trips and don't really see that changing. I say Hello to be polite and usually keep to myself. Sometimes I meet like minded people and hang out with them or vice versa.

Thought provoking!

Here I am living on my beautiful Colorado Mountain property, one mile off the county road down a cowpath.  A breath-taking valley all to our own as neighbors visit infrequently.  A hermit's life for sure.

I find that in my past lives, I was a meeter. 

When we're in RV parks and campgrounds (rarely) we are meeters by default, because of the need to get out with our Shepherd, Wyatt Ray. He's an instant catalyst for meeting folks because he's handsome and he's a tripawd. When we were dog-less, life was pretty lonely, we rarely met any strangers when we were parked.

A little story about meeting people in campgrounds, since you asked....

Right after our first dog, Jerry, died, we were just having a helluva time getting back into the groove of being on the road. Life was just sucking hard, and there was one particular bad day on the road when we were just about ready to go buy the first stick house and call it quits.

We spent the night at Hell's Canyon in Idaho (how appropriate). Sitting there sad, broken and pathetic at the picnic table, we looked at all the happy people around us and just felt so sad.

Then, this jolly youngish Kiwi comes up to us to say Hi, and starts talking our head off. He was on a long sabbatical traveling around the U.S., and he was some kind of shaman-in-the-making to boot. Slowly, this guy brought us out of the deep funk we were in, and even read some kind of tarot cards that told our futures. He was actually spot on, those cards were damn accurate.  We had a great, almost spiritual time with him that night around the campfire.

My point of this story is, you never know what Meeter might come up to you and change your life for the better. Don't be shy people, this world needs more love and happiness and the only way it's going to happen is if we all get out of our comfort zones and sincerely say "Hello!" when walking by.

Peace.

I am quite an introvert, and my home is my castle. I really dislike unsolicited visits because they put me on the spot and I'm often interrupted from work that requires concentration and focus. OTOH, I love to visit people we've interacted with and made an arrangement to meet with on both our terms. But after visits, I usually need to have quite time to "come down."

It's hard to say, really. When we were living in a Lodi campground we'd often say howdy to neighbors and had some interesting chats that way. Or vice-versa. A friendly hello is a bit of an energy boost. Sometimes I go sit in coffee shops just to get a bit of people-time without the need to go bug anyone, i.e. just people-watching.

OTOH, I can happily hide in a forest for days without worrying about it. So, more of a hermit and very private. I need more down time than social time.

I'm a meeter, Terry is a hermit...I realize that not very many people are meeters though, so I respect their comfort and usually just keep it to a "Hi, how are you, sir or ma'am?"  If they respond with more than a nod or I get the idea that they may want to speak more, I'll pursue cautiously until I sense that they (or I ) have had enough.  I do not usually like to just stand and talk to a stranger though for more than a few minutes before I get uncomfortable...

Chronic_Frailty wrote: ....  I do not usually like to just stand and talk to a stranger though for more than a few minutes before I get uncomfortable...

Same here, unless they offer me a beer or something. Then it is game on :)

KevsKnight wrote: Chronic_Frailty wrote: ....  I do not usually like to just stand and talk to a stranger though for more than a few minutes before I get uncomfortable... Same here, unless they offer me a beer or something. Then it is game on :)

Depends on the beer...the right kind and I may spend all weekend with them...hahaha

Chronic_Frailty wrote: Depends on the beer...the right kind and I may spend all weekend with them...hahaha

For me lately, "depends on the beer" just means "free"*.


--kev

*offer excludes any and all Anheuser-Busch products, especially Bud