Since my first encounter with Bill McDannell a couple of months ago, I like to check in on him occasionally to see how his "Walk to End the War" is progressing. Bill passed through El Paso back in January in his cross-country protest against our endless Iraq and Afghanistan wars. I had the pleasure of walking with him for a couple of miles back then.Bill's wife, Jonna, and his two dogs accompany him in their RV support vehicle called Nessie. It's been quite an adventure thus far. Leaving their home in San Diego the end of last year, they now find themselves in Missouri. And after reading the latest entry in Bill's journal, I can honestly say he had the strangest encounter of his long walk to date. And of all places, it happened in Peculiar, Missouri!
You see, Bill's found nothing but supportive folks all along his trek - even in such strange places like Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas. But the really weirdest thing to happen occurred yesterday in Peculiar. (See Bill's journal entry of May 10th.)
Having walked through four red states and found nothing but supportive folks against the war, Bill let his guard down. He made a mistake in Missouri when, to protect themselves from moisture laden skies, Bill put a blue tarp atop his camper. And in Peculiar at the Peculiar Park Place RV Park, in the red state of Missouri, that's an open invitation to get banished by the owner.
After walking his dogs early in the morning as Bill tells it, "I was returning to the camper when a white haired man...stopped and asked if I had the camper located in space 29. I told him that yes, that was mine. He informed me that I'd have to take the tarp off of Nessie if I was going to remain in the park. 'I can't have any blue tarps in my park.'"
As he was checking out of the Peculiar RV park, Bill related his cross-country experiences to the attendant up to this Peculiar point; how they had all been positive and supportive. But this weird Peculiar one was noteworthy and wanted them to know he would be noting it.
After reading of Bill's encounter, I looked over some reviews of that Peculiar place. One in particular stood out. It was written by a couple who had made reservations four months in advance to stay there.
"We had reservations and had checked several times to see if they still had our reservations. We had driven all day from Western Kansas. We were very tired. We found they had sold our site for more money. The owner of park was very rude. He told us we could stay there and pay $27 for no hook up or sewer or anything.
"We have never been treated so badly in our entire life traveling. No apologies or anything from the owner. He said very smart mouthed for us to have a safe trip. And then sneered and laughed at us."
Those folks drove 45 miles further to a nice RV park where they had stayed before.
I don't know if the owner had really sold their reserved space to someone else or if maybe he caught a glimpse of a blue tarp they had along with them. Or maybe it was a bumper sticker they were sporting that tipped the owner off and triggered his vile side to rear its ugly head.
Perhaps those of you familiar with the Seinfeld series remember "The Soup Nazi" who served up a great soup but would deny it to anyone he discerned as challenging him. Well, in Peculiar, MO they have their own version of the Soup Nazi. Only he's an RV Camp owner Nazi.
So if you ever end up in Peculiar in a camper or pulling a trailer, be sure to cover those objectional pro-peace, anti-Bush bumper stickers on the ass end of your vehicle. And for God's sake, don't ever show your blue tarp! That's because in Peculiar, Missouri, blue tarps make peculiar people see red!
2 comments:
That pecular RV nazi sounds like someone who gets a little too much pleasure from shafting weary travelers. He probably sits alone every night in his roach-infested trailer with the permanently clogged sewer, watching his bad TV reception, eating beans directly from the can & belching keystone beer while he carefully crafts ways he can f*ck up someone's travel plans. This is the only power he has & he uses it ruthlessly. He's especially vigilent to make sure his patiotism is wisely displayed by total discrimination against anyone with a blue-state license plate, blue tarps, blue bumper stickers, etc. He fully expects that one day Mr B or Mr C will come driving through & reward him, maybe with a plane ticket to some exotic fun place like iraq.
Sheeeesh, thanks for this, Dada, now we'll be on the look-out. We've NEVER had encounters like this in our travels ... well, except for some vegas hotels, but you know they were just looking for bigger 'ola. I'm gonna go catch up on Bill now. When I left, he was OK in OK. ~~ D.K.
NO camp for you!!!!!!!!!!! NEXT!
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