A major holiday in the Park

Camp Host stories Continued: 

about a dozen turkeys came into the park over the
Thanksgiving Holiday, pretty smart on their part

The Thanksgiving Holiday week has been filled with campers of all types.  We had three turnovers in about a 10 day period, with campers coming and leaving, filling every site in the park.  Some even had to wait for a campsite to open before setting up.

Lots of turkeys were deep fried at the campground and others simply prepared entire Thanksgiving feasts at home before coming out to the park.  Making for an easy Thanksgiving dinner day for those Moms who did all the prep work ahead of time.

I of course did my patrols and cautioned a number of folks about our alcohol and quiet time rules.  Everyone assuring me they had no booze with them.  Yeh, right.  Where have I heard that story before.  I thought we were doing fairly well until I had a knock on my door Sunday evening.  An older couple stopped by to tell me they saw a pit bull in the park. They thought on site 28.  I thanked them and said I would go check it out.  It was pitch black outside so I grabbed my bright LED flashlight and put on my shoes and headed on out to the offending campsite.  It should be noted that the guy that stopped by with his wife was carrying a beer bottle. Gheez, are these people really that dumb.  Well, anyway, I headed on out to campsite 28 and confronted the large family, three cars a truck and their Rv parked in their campsite. Along with a huge outdoor movie screen playing some action flick.

The park has mature oaks and pines along with new growth 

I stopped all conversation as I proceeded to ask them, does anyone have a dog at this campsite as I had gotten a complaint about it.  You see, we have lots of wildlife in the park, everything from deer, raccoons, armadillos, opossums, large turtles, sand hill cranes, buzzards and crows a plenty and it’s not a good idea to mix domesticated animals in with this mix of wildlife.  Oh did I mention we also have alligators as well who love little appetizers like little white poodles.  Yes, it ended up being a poodle.  Had to tell the couple that was visiting that they’d have to leave immediately and I would escort them off the property.  As I turned around to walk to the entrance to their campsite and wait for them to say their goodbyes, I look down next to their 5th wheel camper and see a full 24 case of beer sitting right out for God and the whole country to see. So of course I now have to address the no alcohol rule in the park and read the minimal choices they have.  Either dump all the booze now and they can stay, or pack up and leave.  If neither is acceptable I would be happy to call the sheriffs office for them.  After a short muddled conversation, two of the guys began to pour out the booze onto the ground.  But alas, one of the wives was upset that all that booze was going to waste and said “stop, I can’t see us wasting all that liquor, lets just leave.”  With about a third of the beer now poured out, they stopped, agreed with the woman (she didn’t appear to be a person one would argue with) and proceeded to pack up and leave in all of about 40 minutes time.  The main comment one of the guys said to me was, “well I guess you have to make an example of us, don’t you?”  I commented back that that was hardly the case as I had had to do this a number of times over the past week or two and he was hardly the 1st example.

Getting ready for Christmas

Later the next morning I was up at the front office and we all saw a car drive out with a pit bull hanging out the window.  Gosh, there really was a pit bull in the park.  An hour or so later, the camper tried to re-enter the park with the dog and was duly turned away.  Again a little while later, they snuck back into the park with the dog.  Two of the park rangers went after them and gave them a real good scolding and forced them out of the park once again.

By then all of the campers that were scheduled to leave on Sunday had vacated the park, leaving only a half a dozen or so campers and myself once again to enjoy a now quiet park.  Since I’d finished my rounds, I decided to walk out onto the boat dock, looking forward to a peaceful walk along the pier and waters edge.  I was surprised to see so many guys fishing and a couple with small child preparing to do a photo shoot for what they hoped would be a great Christmas card.  A red plaid blanket was laid down on the deck, a few other props including two Christmas mugs with candy canes were ready to be filled with,,,,, are you ready, Captain Morgan’s Rum mudslide.  Really!  Oh, I was assured it was only hot chocolate and if I didn’t believe them I could take a whiff.  I let it go as it was really pretty much a photo shoot and I didn’t have the heart to kick them out.  Yes I do have a heart and it does pain me to have to be the cop in these situations.  So as they began taking their pictures and attempting to get the little guy to smile at the camera, I started to talk to one of the fishermen.

He told me he was actually down visiting friends in the area and they decided to come out and do a bit of fishing before driving back to South Carolina later in the day.  As I scanned the four guys fishing, I notice a pretty blue bottle next to a lounge chair at the end of the dock.  Hmmm.  I decided to walk down to the end of the dock and check it out.  Budweiser beer in a blue bottle.  Asked the guy about 10 feet away if it belonged to him. Yes sir, it’s mine.  Time to dump it, I say.  He picks it up and starts to walk slowly back to his friends at the other end of the dock, and I assume he will deposit it in the trash can.  Does he?  No.  He looks at his friends and take a swig of the beer.  Well darn it all.  Didn’t I just tell him he had to dump it?  With my commanding voice, I let him know he’d better stop and dump it right now.  Gheez.  At that point they all hold up their beer bottles and comply with dumping them out.  One more in a small cooler is also dumped.

Normally I would have told them to leave the park immediately, but because I wasn’t sure how much they had drunk, and the first guy appeared a bit tipsy, I thought it best that they sober up a bit before getting back on the road.

What a week.  One other thing to note.  Quite a few campers are now bringing out outdoor theatres to the campground.  Big screens and video projectors.  Fine for early evening entertainment, though why you’d do that while on a campout is a bit perplexing.  And of course the sound coming from their movies fills the campground so that everyone in the vicinity gets to hear your movie whether they want to or not.  Another thing I will have to now comment on a remind campers that quiet time in from 10pm on and that includes their movies…

To show that it’s not all crap, I have to admit that I’ve come around to realizing that I am doing a service to the other campers hoping to have a great camping experience in the park.  One young mother dropped by my campsite today along with her 8 year old little girl to tell me that they appreciated the way I handled the situation last night.  As they were camped out right next door to the family that ended up leaving last night.  The mom said the noise from the outdoor theatre kept them up the previous night till almost 4 in the morning.  But besides that, we ended up talking about great vacation destinations and after mentioning that her family were planning on going to Utah this coming summer, I was able to give her some great tips on National Parks to visit, including one of my favorites, Zion National Park.  She even took notes.  I’ve been fortunate to have similar conversations about the great campgrounds, springs and State parks throughout Florida, as many campers have not even begun to explore the great destinations within Florida and elsewhere.  Many of the state parks in Florida are centered around some historic site adding a bit of education along with a campout.