The Downside of Hosting

[edatlanta]

A knock on the door at 2:25am. A camper was still awake, and now I was too, due to what he described as a "seance" going on in the site next to him. He said they were chanting, howling, and beating drums. Knowing there aren't any park rangers here at this hour I called the county sheriff which is our procedure. It will be interesting to talk with this camper this morning to see how it went.

[Bassdogs]

Unfortunately, isn't that part of the job! Hosting can be fun and interesting if you've got the beans to handle it, but there are sometimes responsibilities that aren't so enjoyable.

Was in an Oregon State Park a couple years ago about 75 miles or so east of Eugene. Camping for a few days with our Son's family [tent and rented Mhome]. Kind of a long story, but the short version is that a drunk, reported to have a gun, was confronting folks on the road to and from a Bathhouse. It was after 11pm and one of the people threatened was my daughter-in-law. Off I went to wake up the host armed with my trusty swiss army knife thanks to Oregon not recognizing out of state CCW permits. Another case where only the bad guy has a gun, but I digress. Host was not happy when we [had picked up 2 young ladies who had been rousted from their tent on the site next to ours] pounded on his door around midnite. "What the h*ll do you want?" was pretty much what he said when he finally opened the door. After we insisted [Host wasn't sure it was serious enough to call the Sheriff] he followed us back to the loop and was informed by others that this guy was out there somewhere and had told many people that he had a gun and was going to shoot people if they bothered him. Finally the sheriff was called.

Sorry we had to roust the host, but they are at the end of the day, the person our receipt said to contact if we needed help. Nothing said it was a 9 - 5 help line.

[Seann45]

I have been hosting for the last 3 years.. Being woken up in the middle of the night is rare but something you have to be prepared for. The ones I hate are the ones that knock on your door at 1 am and ask "its one am do we still have to pay for a full day?"

[edatlanta]

I had no problem with the 2:25am knock on the door. That IS why I am here, but at that time of the night a call to the Sheriff is the only thing to do. They get paid for handling out of control people in the middle of the night, I don't. I am certainly thankful they are there to call.

The offending campers were scheduled to leave that site yesterday and they wanted to move to another site for a few more days. The park declined their request and they are gone.

[Bassdogs]

Understand the enjoyable side and the not so fun side of being a host. No judgement from this camper, just pointing out that some may not be cut out for the task and see hosting as an easy way to get some free camping in a nice area.

[clutch]

Just about every host I have encountered has been friendly and very informative and helpful. My hat is off to them.