Making up Stories – Episode 2

Adding on to my earlier post Making Up Stories: Flat Black Camper Guy. He spent the night last night across from and a few spots down from us (and didn't just fill up his water tank, look around nervously, and leave — like we've seen him do many many times before).

I snapped a quick dramatic shot of him passing the camp host on his way out this morning (camp host coming in, Flat Black Camper Guy going out), thinking I might add it to my earlier story as a visual. But I'll just put it here.

I saw the head of a little dog (not the German Shepherd who rides in front) sticking out of the back window, so probably that's who he was yelling at the other time, and not, in fact, a prisoner. We've now seen him register two nights in a row, so I guess he's now a paying customer. Booooring.

Another story — when we pulled in the other day there was a pile of stuff about 6 feet x 6 feet x 4 feet covered with a huge tarp in the space next to us. No RV, no car. Just stuff and a big blue tarp. Eventually a single guy with a black dog returned to the site in an older model truck loaded with landscaping supplies and tree clippings, and the man carried a brand new boxed tent to the end of the paved parking pad and started unboxing and putting it together. It was a HUGE tent — a studio apartment-sized tent. We soon saw that underneath that tarp were boxes, crates, big plastic bins, a microwave, pots and pans, duffel bags, and a potted plant with no plant — just dirt — and a dog bowl and a frisbee for the dog. The man seemed happy and smiling and the dog seemed happy and smiling, and the man began setting up his HUGE tent while his dog watched. It took a while, but now he's completely moved in. The first night, he cooked outside on a camp stove, but it's been raining quite a bit so now the only things outside are the dog's frisbee, the dead no-plant, a pick axe, and a wadded up tarp under the picnic table. (What is that pick axe for?) The large tarp that was guarding the pile is now on top of the tent as a rain roof. Definitely a good call.

So what's his story? Is he not from around here and working locally and just needed a cheap place to stay for a couple weeks? Did his wife kick him (and his dog) out of their house and he's now apartment hunting during the day? When the weather is crappy, it's not easy to strike up conversation and find out the story. So for now, we'll just make some up.

(Posted by Laura)