As the title states, I got evicted. Many years ago, 2007 to be exact, my oldest son and I came up to BG to see the nationals. We always camped at the campground next to the dragstrip. That Friday afternoon after the car show we were visiting John and Jenn Everett at their campsite. A big thunderstorm came into Bowling Green. This thunderstorm had some very powerful straight line winds! As we stood at John’s campsite watching the powerful winds. I started laughing, and pointed towards this pup tent literally rolling across the campground as the fierce winds blew it away. It was really funny until my son shouted, “That’s our tent dad!” After the storm had passed my son and I collected our wet, soggy possessions. One of the fiberglass legs to the tent had snapped in half. Luckily for us John Everett had a small piece of PVC pipe and 2 worm-clamps. John did a real good job “setting” our tents broken leg. Thanks John! Ever since that harrowing day my son and I have set our tent up on the stage of bath house number one, and we use the shelter portion as our private carport. We did this for the next 14 years. All of the campers that came to Bowling Green to see the nationals knew our signature campsite. We enjoyed meeting and greeting all of our fellow Buick enthusiasts as they would walk over to use the bathhouse during the morning and evening. Many times we would host impromptu get together’s. Whether it be a bonfire and a beer, or just people coming over to get out of the weather. We always had a great time there. Many times other Buick enthusiasts would use our shelter/carport to load their vehicles on their trailers if it was raining. One time a fellow Buick attendee came over and asked us, “Can I use your shelter to load my car while it is raining?” My son and I started laughing and said, “It is not our shelter. It belongs to the campground.” By all means bring your car and trailer over here. We always shared. The campground custodians always enjoyed our visit. As soon as we would show up to the shelter we would take our blower and blow all the dirt, dust, and cigarette butts away from the shelter. We always cleaned up our mess and left the shelter looking better than when we got there. One time a custodian said to us, “You guys are about the smartest people in this campground. The weather is not going to deter your camping.” We camped out at the shelter for over 13 years. This year as we were setting up our campsite I said to my youngest son, “One of these years somebody is going to tell us we can’t use the shelter.” Well guess what? This was the year. Bummer! Late Wednesday afternoon good old Dallas, and his daughter, came over to our campsite and told us we had to leave. I was as calm and mannerly as could be. I told them we had done this for many years. We always clean the place, and leave it better than when we got there. I told them we were hosting the Friday afternoon barbecue. It didn’t matter what I told them, we were evicted. Mean old Dallas, in his delirious mind, told us we had 10 minutes to get our stuff out of the shelter. At least his daughter was a little nicer. She said, “Don’t listen to him. You have until the morning to get all your stuff out of here. Gee thanks lady. So Wednesday evening we hurriedly packed up all our stuff and moved under the big tree just outside the men’s bathroom. I won’t lie. I was pretty upset! We packed up and moved so fast that I had no idea where most of my stuff was. It took me almost a day to find everything I was missing. We still managed to have a real good Friday evening get together. One woman, I will call her a neighbor, camps out there often. She actually volunteered to make the most delicious potato salad for our barbecue. Thank you Debbie! Another couple, Buick people, made macaroni salad and more chili for the get together. They also made warm toasty chocolate chip cookies for dessert. Awesome! So, I guess we lost the shelter, but we still have our friends. And if it starts to rain you can bet that we will still take the shelter over.
Some pictures of this year’s shelter camp as we were setting up. Some years we were pretty elaborate, hanging banners and putting up lots of lights. Goodbye home sweet home.
I don't know this Dallas, and I'm only getting one side of the story, but some people seem to enjoy being a pimple on the fanny of progress.
John / Waterboy I had forgotten about the tent incident. This was another great year just not long enough. Not use to leaving Saturday night, I know you aren't John C. Dallas is a hands on owner that has to deal with an extreme variety of personalities, but he is almost as old as Bowling Green. I worked for Dallas when I lived in the area. Never an issue with him and he was quite helpful to me. With higher age many people get grumpy. John handled the situation great and we moved on. I was just a few sites down from his new address Briz was in front of me, Gallagher was behind him and about 20 other members were staying in the immediate area. We had a great time...
PS.... I’ve got lots of pics of my home away from home from previous years, but I can’t post them right now. AT&T is working on my internet right now.
I was getting grief from the lady in the booth at the entrance because I was planning on sleeping in the bed of my truck with a camper shell/topper on it. Don't know if it was because I wasn't leaving a tent behind to mark my campsite? But after I told her I was setting up a pop-up canopy tent to leave there, she grudgingly said that would be ok. She had said someone told her that unless you had a camper or a tent, she shouldn't rent a spot.
John/Waterboy, Sorry to hear that you were evicted from your normal set-up, however with this year being my 1st year to attend your get together/BBQ, I will say, you had a great set-up. Plenty of food, good shade and great company. Thanks for hosting again this year.
Dallas may be fighting other issues that you both (John and Jim) got caught up in. My friend and neighbor Craig had trouble finding a place to take a leak over near Bruster’s Ice Cream in town and accidentally found a homeless camp. Between that news, the three or four nearby restaurants who wouldn’t let him in, and all the cardboard sign holding bums in town, BG has a problem. Wouldn’t surprise me if the campground does (or could without vigilance) have the same problem. I’m not saying y’all look homeless, but if he lets y’all camp in a vehicle or stay in the buildings, who knows where it could go. It makes ‘get out!’ become the policy. Patrick
Hey, I always volunteer to make my kids something delicious. They, however, have learned from experience and generally turn me down. At least that nice woman came through..
Patrick...... an interesting analysis. I wouldn’t doubt that had something to do with it. It did seem like they were being more strict this year than other years. Dallas.... Yes unfortunately like all old people, he has gone downhill a lot. Sad but true.
PS..... back in 1991 there were a bunch of Buick people literally sleeping in their cars. They drove from all over the place. Their cars were not very nice looking, and I’m sure they did not enter them in the show, but they were there for support. I’ll bet the people at the front gate would not have wanted them sleeping in their cars today. Interesting........ Part two, I partied with all of them and they were some seriously awesome people, kind of like all Buick people are. We all had a mellow great time! I do want you all to know that I was high class. I towed a small pop-up camper with my 68 Buick up there. I put 15 inch Camaro rims on my GS with 235/75/15 tires on it. That gave me overdrive.
The lady at the gate said basically the same thing to me. Wheres your tent / camper. I'm sleeping in the back seat of my truck, plenty of room for a short guy. Told her I was staying through saturday and left at 2am on Sunday. She charged me for 4 days and that was all the interaction I had with them except coming and going. This yr the battle with the park squirrels was a victory on my part.They didnt get one bite of my food. My camp from a few years ago. The tree you see on the R side is now on its side and I had to move over 20'
Good question Bob. We did last year. We stayed at the shelter, I mean my home away from home, and slept in the car hauler. We didn't have any problem with them. Something has changed. Maybe Patrick's thoughts are very true.
Now this is a real "bum encampment." The 2018 Nationals at the shelter. The story... I stopped by my son's house in the middle of the night to pick up his new tent. Nobody was home. I know where the hidden key was. I got what I thought was his new tent. When I got to the campground I quickly discovered I took his sun shade instead of his tent. YIKES!!! You should have seen the look on the custodians faces in the morning. They were laughing their butts off!!!!!!! I had a portable heater, a microwave oven, and a coffee maker, but NO tent! Luckily my son came 1 day after me and he brought the tent. In case you are wondering... Yes, it was cold! No, the portable heater did not work very well!
As one of those who can now be considered as "high mileage"; its somewhat comforting to know the rest of the journey is ALL down hill.... I was worried that I could be climbing towards a cliff!
Waterboy did handle the eviction well... I had a blast camping with you guys and hanging out with everyone there! I don't think the lady that checked me in even asked where I was sleeping. I would have told her the same as I told everyone else... This Suburban is my camper.
