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That Special Moment Just Before a Tsunami

Many people have probably watched videos of the tsunami that hit Japan a half dozen years ago. Some people describe the shoreline pulling out to sea just before the tsunami hits. Sometimes they talk about an eerie silence. I guess that is easy to explain: as the shoreline pulls away from you, the usual sound of waves on the shore is further away from you.

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 Today I was trying not to surrender to Fear and Dread about the upcoming holiday since there should be one more day of normalcy, it seemed.

It was late morning and yet the wind was not howling. The morning outflow of campers was already over. The campground had an eerie silence to it. I turned the engine off so I could just soak it in. It was a precious moment and deserved to be honored.

Then suddenly, without any warning, cars started driving into the campground. Their driving wasn't blatantly aggressive, but somehow it seemed menacing. Oh no, here it comes! I thought it would hold off until tomorrow. That perfect moment of peace was over. The horror of a holiday in Coloraduh had begun.

from geologypage.com

Comments

Ted said…
Ave Imperator, morituri te salutant.

The two campgrounds I host go reservation-only on Friday, for the first time, so there’s a lot of nervousness about how it will go. Before then I just have to make sure the first-come campers don’t pay past tonight. They won’t get refunds. There are signs but you know how people don’t read them.
Hard to believe that people camp with reservations. That would seem too strange to me.
Putting your "adventure" on a calendar schedule!

Would that kind of camper also plan out the next month for the times they are going to make love to their wife?
Or perhaps they are the kind of sailor who gets out their calendar app on the phone and schedules in advance what days the wind will be perfect.
Ted said…
Basically the same old thing as reserving a motel/hotel room, a plane ticket, a concert, a rental car, and so on. I’ve reserved sites now and then when I didn’t want to hunt & scramble for the night while traveling to a destination with a time limit (e.g. CamperForce start dates). Also to visit places that are super popular (e.g. Bryce Canyon last year) and/or very busy pit stops along the highway that fill up fast. It’s easy to do online.
Ted said…
On the park’s side, reservations mean that they get paid for all the occupied sites. Freeloading scofflaws can’t do their cheats, like filling out a receipt to put on their post but not dropping an envelope in the iron ranger. I must say that I feel good knowing that every camper I meet and spend my time helping from Friday on will be here legitimately.

There are merits to both sides of the camping reservations debate. But it’s the new normal in many overcrowded campgrounds and I don’t expect it to revert to the way it was.