Monday, May 6, 2013 - National Park Gestapo Strikes

Woke up to a gorgeous morning, with sun breaking through the clouds, and me looking forward to getting in a nice ride today, since the weather had finally turned in our favor. Unfortunately Hubby wasn't feeling very well, he thought he might have caught some kind of bug from the dampness of the past few days, so I assigned him sleep duty and sent him back to bed. Around about 11:00, a couple of guys were out mowing the grass and doing other landscaping chores, and they let us know that it was possible with all the rain that the road coming into the campground might run across the road, but we said it was no problem, as we weren't planning on going anywhere until Friday, and the rain was mostly passed, except for one more possible bunch this afternoon or evening, plenty of time for high water to recede. Then after 2:00 in the afternoon, a ranger came by and informed us they were closing the campground, and that we HAD to LEAVE! I tried to point out that we weren't leaving until Friday, and we were self-contained and didn't need to go out, but no matter what argument I used, he was determined to force us to leave. I explained my husband wasn't feeling well. No go. I showed him our high clearance vehicles that could easily traverse almost any water crossing. No go. I explained we didn't have anyplace else to go, especially this late in the day, since it would take us a good two hours to pack up. No go. No matter what I said, he just became more belligerent. When I asked him what he would do if I simply refused, he claimed he would call for a tow truck and animal control and forcibly remove us!! Look, I get they want to keep us "safe," but it created extremely difficult problems for us, and all because it MIGHT rain some more, and it MIGHT overflow the creek over the road, and it MIGHT make it temporarily impassible, and at that inopportune moment we MIGHT have an emergency that would require a first responder, blah, blah, blah! As much as I appreciate them notifying us of the possible danger, that should have been the end of it. It should ultimately be up to us, the citizen, to decide whether or not we're willing to take the risk, not up to the jack-booted rangers to force us to do something that created immeasurably more difficulties for us. I even called the main ranger station and got the same nonsense from them, claiming the decisions had been made at the main office (who have no knowledge of the circumstances on the ground) and were equally intractable. So after much argument and bad feelings, Hubby had to crawl out of bed, get dressed, and start packing up everything. I told the ranger he could go away and come back in two hours, which is about how long we figured it would take us to pack up and leave, but he insisted on hovering over us (without helping, of course), treating us like a couple of prisoners and he was the warden. Very annoying. I finally had to ask the woman at the main ranger station to radio this guy and get him to back off, my attitude was not being helped by his overbearing presence, and he finally left. True to our timing, it was just after 4:00 before we were ready to go, and we passed him in sullen silence as we went through the campground gate, ignoring him completely. As we passed the bridge in question, we were stunned that the water was still several feet below the road, and unless they had tremendous amounts of rain (which only a little rain was forecast), it posed no threat whatsoever, so our entire episode was unnecessary. As soon as I could, I called ahead to Kings Mountain, which was the only horse camp between us and Charlotte, and we didn't want to go further away considering we had to come back in a few days anyway, so we let them know we were coming, but that we couldn't make it by 5:00. They said they'd keep an eye out for us, and true to their word, a nice young ranger was waiting for us when we arrived. We spent a few minutes dumping our black water while I checked in, then we headed down to the campground. At least there's a cell phone signal here, though satellite is impossible, as it's too wooded with no openings to point through. What a waste of a beautiful day! We ran into nothing but sun and partly cloudy skies, no sign of rain whatsoever, which did little to soothe my irritation, and, of course, the extent of my exhaustion from such a busy few months was such that I was a long way from full rest and recovery, so I was much more irritable than I ever like to be. Of course, it's compounded by my ever-growing realization of just how close we are to a police state in this country, when we are forced to rescind our right to take care of ourselves and take risks and responsibilities on our own, and hand over that task to a government that continues to prove time and time again that they are not capable of looking after themselves, much less the citizenry. The day of revolt is coming, I fear, unless people wake up and realize just how bad it's getting and change the political system back to a responsible republic, not the nanny-mothering (or should I say "smothering") state that it's rapidly becoming. Enough of my rant, I'll be better once I get back on my horse!!