have you ever been concerned about your personal safety while you're out RVing
stay tuned because we've got some really important tips with a special guest
that's gonna help you be able to feel more safe as you're out there enjoying RV life
hello and welcome back to the channel if you're new here we invite you
to go ahead and click the subscribe button so that you can get all of the
notifications when we post new content and we invite you to like this video and
leave us a comment as well today we wanted to talk to you about personal
safety when it comes to rving there's been a lot of fear that's kind of fun in
the RV community lately due to just some things that have happened here in the
United States with RViers and when it comes to personal safety there are
just you know things that you want to make sure that you avoid you don't want
to put yourself in a situation that you feel is unsafe and so what we wanted to
do today is we wanted to give you some tips on things that you can do to ensure
your personal safety as you were enjoying the RV lifestyle so we are
going to be joined by a special guest today who's gonna give us some tips on
personal safety for RViers and campers so I am here with officer Robert
Brannon and we are at a beautiful boy Lake State Park here in the Northern
Colorado area and I'm just gonna give a little plug if your travels plan on
taking you through northern Colorado this is a wonderful state park to be
able to camp at with your RV travel trailer tent however that you choose to
camp but we were having a wonderful conversation in your office earlier
about some steps that people can take when their RV camping or tent camping so
just keep themselves safe and secure so where you don't have to you know have
any sort of fear of anything happening but just practical steps so do you want
to share with us what some of those steps are that you suggested because
they're awesome suggestions yeah thank you charity so I think one of
the main things and you guys do a great job of emphasizing this in your other
videos is the importance of planning ahead and that really takes place in
safety as well which is you know planning ahead to know where you're
going to be what are the first responders that are going to be
in that area for example if you're going to be camping in a state park like ours
we do have State Park Rangers here but we also have Larimer County Sheriff's
Office which is our also a first responder so that would be the
non-emergency phone number you would call if you needed assistance and you
weren't able to get all to a ranger so planning ahead to know where you are and
who you're going to need to call if you did need help in a situation is
important another important thing for planning
ahead is knowing your social media and maybe not posting where you're going to
be ahead of time if you're going to be away from your home for an extended
period of time people can use that public information on social media to
potentially do something at your house while you're away so posting after you
leave or after you get back from a trip it's a good way to protect yourself from
that kind of thing another good step for safety here is to know your legal
protections as far as while you're camping know your area and what legal
protections you are permitted as far as defending your property when you're set
up in a camper or an RV another point that we talked about was potentially not
advertising when and where you're leaving when you're full-time camping
whether your vehicle is a trailer with a tow vehicle that you can leave your
trailer and drive off it can be pretty obvious to other people in the area
whether or not you're at your campsite so the importance of maybe locking up
every time you leave even if it's just going to be a short trip that way no one
has the opportunity to sneak into your RV that kind of thing while you're gone
and one thing too I want to just talked with you about again is that you had a
great suggestion about if you are RVing in say like a Motorhome or you don't
have a tow vehicle share what that's kind of some of the things that you were
talking about with being able to be mobile on a moment's notice if you need
to yeah you never know what's gonna happen in any kind of emergency
situation it can be important to be able to pick up and go at a moment's notice
so if you are in an RV without a second vehicle it might be a good idea to think
about maybe not using those levelers not using this jack stands not using those
awnings that way if you do need to pull up and go it can be a more of a quick
thing where you don't have to take all that stuff down for you through I think
that's especially important for people that do choose boondocking
a lot of RViers and a lot of campers do you enjoy boondocking it is a
great way to be able to kind of you know get out a little bit but in those types
of situations if some reason you were to run into an
emergency or something I think especially in those boondocking
situations that that would be very critical and I think that goes into
planning ahead to you know knowing if you had to pick up and go you know
where's the nearest hospital or am I gonna have phone service where I'm out
boondocking that kind of thing and planning ahead for those situations to
know you know do I have a satellite phone or another option to get help if I
need it ya know those are great suggestions
share with me a little bit about some of the suggestions that you had especially
because there are a lot of solo female campers that have you know chosen this
lifestyle which is a wonderful lifestyle but for maybe somebody that is a solo
female camper what's tips do you have for somebody in that situation um so I
think dogs are great it's they're great companions on the road it's good to have
a co-pilot and a friend if it's not possible to actually have the dog for
your situation and maybe just putting out a dog bowl by the door putting out
maybe a few extra pairs of shoes by the door some boots something to indicate
that maybe you're not the only one there and that it's not as much of an
opportunity people might not see you as vulnerable that way
so tell us a little bit about how that camp hosts can actually play into
keeping us safe absolutely yeah most of the parks you visit if you're staying in
a developed campground like ours will have camp hosts and what they do is they
exchange in exchange for some volunteer hours there at this day in the park as
as long as they can usually for a season and I'd say as far as safety goes
they're a great resource because they live in the park they know the
campground probably better than anybody and especially from the perspective of
someone who's living in an RV which the other park staff might not be as
familiar with because they're actually out here doing it so I would encourage
people if they are staying in a campground it has camp posts to take
advantage of that go talk to them they're happy to talk to people that's
why they're out here doing it anyway so they'll be excited to talk to you and
share things about the park and also be able to give you some tips about
personal safety so Robert tell us another reason why that you know just
getting to know the camp host is a great idea yeah I think having the camp hosts
because they're really gonna be your neighbors while you're staying in the
campground and you can rely on them for some stuff like that you know maybe if
you're not going to be at your campsite for a couple days you can let them know
so they can keep a closer eye on your stuff
make sure there aren't people coming and going from your site when you're not
there yeah and I think that's a great idea I know that even some of the areas
that we've been in you know you is an RVier or you kind of think about your base
right and where you want to be as far as okay here's where we're gonna base
ourselves out of for the next week or the next two weeks but there could be
some things that are maybe you know a hundred mile drive or something that are
close enough to the area that you want to go see that just makes more sense to
do it in an overnight trip so you choose to leave your rig there and you know you
lock it of course but I think that is a wonderful suggestion of just being able
to you know check in with those camp posts and say hey just so you know and
know that you've got an extra set of eyes I think it's important that people
take advantage of that resource because they really have a perspective of being
in the community staying in the campground and from the point of view of
another full-time rver and they will be able to have some tips and tricks
that'll not only tell you you know places that might be fun to go visit or
some hidden gems in the area but also places to possibly avoid out of you know
a sense of personal safety and you know they enjoy talking to people that's why
they're out here doing it so I'd encourage people to take advantage of
that and you know go make a relationship with the cam posts where they're staying
ya know that's great I love that in just a thought for some of you that are
looking to reduce costs if you're a full-time RVer being a camp host is a
great way to do that isn't it yeah absolutely and it's a great way to
really get to stay in a community for a longer period of time especially if you
have friends or family in the area and you are doing the full-time RV lifestyle
it's a good opportunity to maybe set down roots for a little bit
before you hit the red deer next stop so that was an absolute wonderful interview
that we had with Officer Robert Brannon who had a wonderful amount of tips for
us and some things that we didn't even think about before that we had a chance
to talk to him I did want to share with you one of our personal experiences that
we had that actually kept us safe while we were RVing and that is to do some
checking in some of the locals social media groups or some of the RV forums
online in talk to people that are in a specific area about maybe where that you
should stay if you're planning on visiting that area what happened for us
is that we wanted to visit the st. Louis area
and so we started looking for campgrounds that we wanted to stay at we
talked to some people that were in that local area via social media and they
told us that the East st. Louis area was a little bit sketchy and not really a
place that you would want to stay with your family if you were campers so we
chose to stay somewhere that was not in the East st. Louis area but we stayed
somewhere else in the st. Louis area and had a wonderful time visiting st. Louis
well it was very interesting that we saw just recently another vlogger shared
their experience where they didn't have that information ahead of time and they
booked a campground in the East st. Louis area and is there in their
campground going to bed at night they're listening to gunshots being fired
so using Facebook groups or social media groups online forums is a great way to
talk to people and ask about specific areas in different places that you may
want to avoid if you're booking a campsite in that area and places that
you would want to stay when you're booking a campsite in that area another
tip for personal safety is to make sure that you do have that points of contact
that you're always keeping in contact with when you're full timing or even if
you're part timing it's good to let someone know exactly where you're going
to be and when that they should expect to hear from you next having that local
point of contact or just a point of contact in general can help you out if
for some reason they don't hear from you then they are alerted that there could
be a potential concern and that they can get help on the way if that's what's
needed as always common sense really is the best sense to have if you don't have
a good feeling about a particular area that you've stopped in or if you're
looking for a boondocking site and you just aren't sure feel a little bit
uneasy then it's probably a good idea to move on to a different area or a
different site if you just don't have a sense of peace about that particular
area so thank you so very much for joining us for this video about personal
safety and steps that you can take as an RV or camper to ensure your personal
safety while you get out and enjoy some of the wonderful areas that are out here
there are a lot of wonderful nice natural areas out there and some of them
may even be in your own backyard absolutely so get out there with your
family and really just enjoy the state parks and campgrounds
in your area and state parks are a wonderful option and just kind of like
officer Brandon shared with us too is that a lot of the state parks will have
some sort of you know either law enforcement presence or some sort of
just security type of presence to where state parks can be a wonderful place
that you can stay and get out in nature still but really just enjoy the outdoors
you know state parks could maybe also possibly be a good alternative to
boondocking because a lot of people that Boondock boondock because they want to
be you know more out in nature yeah and so if you're at a state park then that
really is you know it's it's a good way to kind of meld nature with your you
know full hookups or you know whatever some state parks you might just have
water and electric or whatever but I think that you know if you don't feel
safe boondocking or you're concerned about safety while boondocking or
something like that but you want to feel like that you're
more camping versus just you know you're kind of you know more commercialized
type campground I guess for lack of a better term that a state park could be a
really good alternative to that from a safety aspect as well right plus you get
the added bonus of most state parks are actually less expensive than a regular
campground like a koa or different type of campground like that yeah and we've
stayed in several state parks haven't we yeah definitely
most of them are clean well-kept they all have camp hosts very happy with
state parks one last plug is if you do choose to visit a state park make sure
that you are paying the fees that you need to pay a lot of state parks are
funded with those fees and they do just help to keep the employees compensated
that are there for your safety but also to keep the grounds improved and things
like that plus a lot of state parks or even national parks are owned by the
people that either live in that state or if it's a national park they're owned by
every citizen of the United States and so this is really your land and we want
to do everything we can to be responsible and to take care of the
lands that have been entrusted to us well thanks for watching our video hit
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so we'd also encourage you to leave a comment let us know if you have any tips
that you take or steps you take for personal safety while you're out on the
road we will be sharing some of these in the weeks to come in our Facebook group
with others so that everybody can kind of collaborate and talk about different
tips that they take for personal safety so we'll put a link below to our
Facebook group as well and we encourage you to come check that out and we'll be
sharing some more tips for personal safety in the weeks to come I'll do
image
did you see that ah it's a state park behind there all right
there really are a lot of nice natural areas aren't there absolutely