zespectre
Flashlight Enthusiast
Did the 5'th annual river trip this weekend along with a decent sized group of friends. The campsite where we (and other boaters) overnight mid-trip is really a large mowed field at the riverside. It's not monitored (no camp hosts or whatever) but there are posted rules however I have never before seen a situation that required contacting the property owners to get someone ejected. In fact it usually gets quiet pretty soon after dark as most of the people present have been in canoes or kayaks all day and we're typically pretty beat.
Not this time though.
We put to shore at the campsite and here's this colorful rainbow of tents curving along the shore with a parallel band of canoes, kayaks, tubes, and rafts. Very pretty. Then further back away from the shore is this sort-of huddled circle of tents all off to itself. I should have trusted the "huh, that's odd" feeling I got when I saw it.
So more and more people are coming off the river, and as usually happens there's about 25-35 of us all walking back and forth and shooting the bull and telling river stories and trying each other's cooking and generally being friendly. Then just about dark this other whole group of 9 people drives into the parking area, unloads their cars and moves into that circle of tents with plenty of whooping and carrying on and so forth.
9:00pm - The boom box music starts
10:00pm - The drinking is seriously underway
10:30pm - Some of the other boaters swing by that circle of tents and politely ask them if they could keep it down so others could sleep. They say "sure" and turn the boom box off. Still a lot of very loud talking and laughing but the rest of us pretty much figure "live n' let live".
10:45pm - Pot is added to the mix of alcohol and such.
11:00pm - Out comes two guitars and a set of bongo drums and pretty soon they are all singing at the tops of their lungs in spanish and english.
11:30pm - "quiet hours" go into effect. Several people again swing by that group and ask them to please keep the noise level down. The sound dips down for a few minutes after each request but then works it's way back up to full roar again.
12:15pm - I've freakin' had enough. I come out of my tent to see about 15 other guys in a small circle talking intently about what to do with these jerks.
AH-HAH! I grab all of my flashlights and distribute them amongst the group and tell them what I want to do. So we spread out in a half circle around that other campsite and when I step forward all the other guys turn on the lights at the same time <BLAMMO IT'S DAYLIGHT>!!!!!
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is well after quiet hours and we have asked you several times to quiet down. If you can't show enough respect to let others get some sleep we are going to have to ask you to leave!"
I back off, all the lights turn off and we all go back over to our tent area.
Silence... then one of the guitar guys trys to start up again and his own buddy grabs his guitar and punches him hissing something like "pare que usted idiota" (Stop that you Idiot!) and they all break up and go to bed (thank God!).
To their credit, in the morning two of them did come back around and apologize for being jerks then they admitted that we had really scared the crap out of them with all the bright lights.
Not this time though.
We put to shore at the campsite and here's this colorful rainbow of tents curving along the shore with a parallel band of canoes, kayaks, tubes, and rafts. Very pretty. Then further back away from the shore is this sort-of huddled circle of tents all off to itself. I should have trusted the "huh, that's odd" feeling I got when I saw it.
So more and more people are coming off the river, and as usually happens there's about 25-35 of us all walking back and forth and shooting the bull and telling river stories and trying each other's cooking and generally being friendly. Then just about dark this other whole group of 9 people drives into the parking area, unloads their cars and moves into that circle of tents with plenty of whooping and carrying on and so forth.
9:00pm - The boom box music starts
10:00pm - The drinking is seriously underway
10:30pm - Some of the other boaters swing by that circle of tents and politely ask them if they could keep it down so others could sleep. They say "sure" and turn the boom box off. Still a lot of very loud talking and laughing but the rest of us pretty much figure "live n' let live".
10:45pm - Pot is added to the mix of alcohol and such.
11:00pm - Out comes two guitars and a set of bongo drums and pretty soon they are all singing at the tops of their lungs in spanish and english.
11:30pm - "quiet hours" go into effect. Several people again swing by that group and ask them to please keep the noise level down. The sound dips down for a few minutes after each request but then works it's way back up to full roar again.
12:15pm - I've freakin' had enough. I come out of my tent to see about 15 other guys in a small circle talking intently about what to do with these jerks.
AH-HAH! I grab all of my flashlights and distribute them amongst the group and tell them what I want to do. So we spread out in a half circle around that other campsite and when I step forward all the other guys turn on the lights at the same time <BLAMMO IT'S DAYLIGHT>!!!!!
"Ladies and gentlemen, it is well after quiet hours and we have asked you several times to quiet down. If you can't show enough respect to let others get some sleep we are going to have to ask you to leave!"
I back off, all the lights turn off and we all go back over to our tent area.
Silence... then one of the guitar guys trys to start up again and his own buddy grabs his guitar and punches him hissing something like "pare que usted idiota" (Stop that you Idiot!) and they all break up and go to bed (thank God!).
To their credit, in the morning two of them did come back around and apologize for being jerks then they admitted that we had really scared the crap out of them with all the bright lights.
