Crazed and Possibly Homeless Camper

We camped last weekend with some friends in Caspers Wilderness. We were a party of eight (and it was a party, I can tell you), so we needed two camp sites. When I made the reservations, I asked for two adjoining sites. And indeed I did get two sites next to each other, but they were separated by a brier patch of beaver tail cactus a la WWI trench warfare barbed wire. (We tried to get another site that was more “adjoining” but the rangers said all the sites were booked for the weekend. So whoever had site 38, but never showed and never cancelled – THANKS A LOT, YOU TURDS!)

Friday night was fine and fun. But in the late afternoon of Saturday, this crazy lady showed up at the site next to ours and claimed all she could see as her site, which left us with essentially a parking spot and a rocky patch (enough for one tent) next to the parking spot. She was adamant about having “site 35 for the next 14 days.” Essentially she was squatting.

Very diplomatically, Travis asked a ranger to come over and mediate the situation rather than argue. The ranger indicated that we were entitled to what we were using. But the problem was that we were trying to reason with crazy. You can’t reason with crazy. Luckily we had plenty of room on out other site and we made it work (a la the Tim Gunn talking bobble-head). And by the next morning the only thing on the site was one single tent. Just plain nutty.

But I know that crazy lady is still at site 35 in the Live Oak Campground at Caspers Wilderness until 28 March, 2008. Site 35 in Live Oak. I’m thinking of leaving a menacing looking lawn gnome in front of her tent. Though I am not sure if it is better to leave the gnome facing the tent for her to see when she wakes up in the morning, or standing at the door facing out for her to find when she returns from her crazy, homeless errands. I also feel bad for anyone else who has site 8 reserved for the next two weeks.

Warning: Don’t touch this thing.

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