Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 14:26:09 -0700
Reply-To: "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\"" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: "Mike \"Rocket J Squirrel\"" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Single Cab FS: North Vancouver B.C.
In-Reply-To: <AANLkTinUywLkblsD032nCjTzP2WsnN0VRvFCRwcnfGNW@mail.gmail.com>
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neil n wrote:
>
> Night-owl habits are a prerequisite to becoming a musician!
>
> But a night schedule wreaks havoc with morning people at campgrounds. ;)
>
On Tuesday morning I rolled into a quiet campground and was told by a
couple who were packing their gear (into a very pretty 64 splittie) that
something fishy was going on up at the end of the campground.
According to them, at dusk the previous night a man and a woman, in
their 20's set up camp down at the end of the campground, and then
placed a reflective red-warning-triangle signs in the middle of the
road, as if to say that the road was closed.
Later that night, after dark, there was a fairly constant parade of
automobiles heading into and out of that "closed" portion, some with
their lights off, none looking like camping vehicles.
They said that they felt there was something not right about it all, and
wanted me to know. "I read a lot of mysteries," said the woman, "and I
think that if I had to give a description of the woman, I'd say `blond,
fat, ugly,' because I didn't like them."
I wandered past the site and saw a kind of sporty car, a couple of
Walmart-grade pup tents -- no serious camper stuff.
There was no one visible, but after I passed I was hailed and turned to
see a young man dressed in black: black leather jacket, t-shirt, and
black jeans, with disheveled brown hair, standing in the road. He asked
what time it was. It was around 9am. He looked surprised and staggered
back to a tent.
Hours later I mentioned the situation to the Fish & Wildlife dude, asked
if he knew them. He said he'd seen the car in town, but whoever it was
in the campsite was still sleeping.
(There's a point to this story, keep reading.)
The Fish and Wildlife guy returned later and drove down to their site.
On the way back, he stopped to tell me that they were awake now, and he
was going to radio the rangers when he got out of the canyon.
Two ranger vehicles cruised by about an hour later, one left after 5
minutes, the other after an hour, and minutes after him were the
campers. I went to see if they'd left any kind of a mess behind. Their
fire was still live.
I have no idea what the rangers found, but it goes to show what happens
if people do not RESPECT the SANCTITY of GRUMPY OLD PEOPLE who expect
their campgrounds to be QUIET and ORDERLY.
So let that be a lesson, sonny. You come to one of my campgrounds with
your reefer-smoking hop-head jazz musician friends and their loose
girlfriends all liquored up, a-making noise and blatting on trombones
and licorice sticks and I'll have the cops come by and turn the hose on
you all and kick you out.
We can't bust heads like we used to, but we have our ways. One trick is
to tell 'em stories that don't go anywhere - like the time I caught the
ferry over to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for my shoe, so, I
decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in
those days. So I tied an onion to my belt, which was the style at the
time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels
had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Give me five bees for a quarter,
you'd say.
Now where were we? Oh yeah: the important thing was I had an onion on my
belt, which was the style at the time. They didn't have white onions
because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow
ones...
--
Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" Elliott
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
Bend, OR
KG6RCR
