Day 54: Get That Crazy Blond Woman Away From Us!

Woo-hoo!  The high temperature today was over 70!  And it was even over 60 degrees when I started my ride!  It's almost enough to help us remember why we love doing what we are doing.  We're probably pushing our luck, but hopefully this will all happen again tomorrow...

The Shawangunk Mountains.

There's not much to say about the ride today.  There were good roads, reasonable traffic volumes, fair winds, fair weather and great scenery.  It's been the sort of pleasant, though unremarkable, day that we'd like to have much more frequently.

The rail-trail bridge over the Hudson River - the world's longest pedestrian bridge.

We are camping at Margaret L. Norrie State Park, which is located just north of Hyde Park (where the Roosevelts and Vanderbilts had lived).  We are in a primitive site which has cost us $22.75 for the night ($15 + a bunch of nonsense add-on fees).  The park is not fully revved up for the camping season, so we had to go down to the marina for a hot shower, as the showers directly across from us probably won't get started up until tomorrow.  The sites are all pretty unremarkable, but we're just back from a bluff overlooking the Hudson River, and there is a great river trail nearby.

We ventured into Hyde Park to pick up some supplies, and on our way back we scavenged some firewood from adjacent campsites before settling in for the evening.  We had just finished dinner and had a great fire roaring when a blond haired black woman wearing white rimmed glasses invited herself onto our site.  "Hey, I'm sorry, but you all are gonna have to move.  I reserved this site and I was here last night...blah, blah, blah, blah" (we got the full history of her last two weeks here at the park, including how people had paid her for being caught on her site).

Alea and I looked around at all the adjacent empty campsites, and then looked at each other.  I told her that if we hadn't just started a fire (with three huge logs) that we'd be happy to move, but we were in the site that we'd been assigned and there are plenty of other sites available."  That didn't sit well with her, so she went to the registration booth to stir up some trouble.

Sure enough, the poor girl there (Kathleen) came over to us with the Crazy Blond in tow.  "Is there any chance that you could move?  I made a mistake and this site was supposed to be reserved for this woman."

I reiterated what I had told the Crazy Blond, adding "We'd be happy to share the site with her, there's plenty of room for all of us."

To which CB retorted, "I can't stand all this smoke, I can't hardly breathe enough to speak.  I don't won't no smoke.  It's my site, I have a reservation to prove it."

I said, "Fair enough.  If someone can figure out a way to get our fire moved over to another campsite, we'll move.  That's my bottom line.  Otherwise, possession is 99% of the law.  There was no indication that this campsite was in use when we arrived, we've legally occupied the campsite that we were assigned, and any judge would say that you simply need to select any of the dozens of other available sites."

CB didn't take this well, and stormed off (bear in mind that CB camps in her car - there is no tent, camper, etc).  Kathleen commiserated with us for a while - this woman had been driving her nuts for weeks now.  We asked her to contact the park ranger so that he could intervene, and so that she didn't call him later in the night and try to twist the facts around.

So eventually the park ranger stopped by and talked with CB.  Undeterred, CB was on her way to confront us again when the ranger started to drive away, but stopped when the park ranger stopped his vehicle a short distance away.  CB tried to make it sound as though the ranger was confused, and those people that he needs to evict are over here in site 40.  The ranger turned his car around and talked with her some more.

Some time later, the ranger stopped by our site.  He said she'd be in a different site for tonight and she has reservations for the weekend in our site.  We said that would be no problem for us.  But if that woman steps foot in our campsite again, you can expect a call from us - she's not welcome here any more.  He went back and made it clear to her that there would be consequences if she did that.

So we spent an hour or so watching CB skulking around our perimeter, making occasional trips to the bathroom.  But she seems to be keeping to herself.

The Hudson River, as seen from the river trail near our campground.