But every dawn brings a new day, a new attitude, a different mood. Now, there is a Storm in Port brewing. Under blue sky and in the absence of Hurricane Gale, fifteen bucks seemed like a rip off. You see, the BuRec'ers wouldn't accept our 50% off Govie Geezer Card. WTF? All this time I thought the Bureau of Land Management was part of the Feds, but at Red Cliffs the Right Hand says, "Not so fast, Buddy, this is one of those beautimous spots where Demand outweighs Supply. We can change the rules!" I don't know, maybe I was hung over from sailing through yesterday's storm and the IPA's it took to bring me down. Whatever the reason, I took offense to Govie's random exceptions and fine print, collected at least fifteen bucks worth of photos, left yesterday's Corn Nuts and beer in their dry-crapper, stuffed the dumpster with every scrap of trash I could find, and departed in search of a free boondock. As one of millions upon millions of "Little Guys," the only power we hold is in our amalga-nation...to withhold payment for Govie-policies deemed unfair and/or stupid. On another day, in a different mood, I might pay the money to stay and play at Red Cliffs. Evidently, yesterday wasn't one of them.
Our new Port is free, and just as beautimous! And guess what? It's on BLM land (snicker).
That's interesting. We stayed there in 2010 before Jim got old so we didn't have the pass, anyway, but that's the first we've heard about BLM not accepting it at select places. All the more reason to boondock.
ReplyDeleteI cringe whenever I hear of public land being converted to a national park or "improved" by the government in any way for the benefit of us citizens. All it means is non value-added development being done so that fees can be charged and access denied during the "off season" or the random government shutdown. Even worse, they sometimes then turn over the management of these public lands to for profit outfits that further raise fees and limit access. I'm glad we retired early so that we could enjoy boondocking on public lands while its still possible.
ReplyDeleteUnderstand your rant. Pis**d me off just reading about it. What's the fine print that allows them to not accept it? We have only run into that situation one time at a NFS campground run by a concessioner. After some conversation, he accepted the 50% off rate, as he didn't have any documentation to show my pass wasn't valid.
ReplyDeleteI've never understood the whole concept of the govt. charging us to use our own land. Even where there are nice campgrounds that need upkeep and such, I say let it all go back to nature and we'll just boondock there. National parks should be free, also. We pay enough in taxes that we shouldn't have to pay again to get in. In fact, everything should be free, now that I'm thinking about it. :)
ReplyDeleteKind of surprised the BLM didn't accept the old geezers (did I really call it that LOL) pass....hmmm. In any case I totally understand the draw of boondocking. Nothing quite like it in the Utah swell. You battled a dozy of a wind the other day! I'm rather impressed you kept going. Nothing quite like crazy Utah winds to scare the pants off you!
ReplyDeleteNina
When I got my geezser pass I was given information that indicated that all sites may not recognize the elder pass. I really resent the growing number of places that refuse to recognize the pass and even more so that they are not required to advertize that they don't, so I can plan on avoiding them.
ReplyDeleteWow I was thinking u had solar works but must not be working well seeing as how your staying at Tham high class rv resorts!,,, care to tell us how yours solar panels doing .
ReplyDeleteor are u looking for a refund on your geezer man card
Wow I was thinking u had solar works but must not be working well seeing as how your staying at Tham high class rv resorts!,,, care to tell us how yours solar panels doing .
ReplyDeleteor are u looking for a refund on your geezer man card
That's a beautiful spot you have there!
ReplyDeletewant to be even more pi$$ed off? not only do they not honor your geezer pass, they don't honor the disabled i.e. Veteran (in our case) pass... What is totally wrong with that picture?!?!?
ReplyDeleteHate to be the dissenter here, but even keeping the bathrooms cleaned and stocked costs money, and while the land is "public" and "ours" it still costs money to keep it nice, money the taxpayers and Congress don't want to pay especially in light of our incredible debt. So many folks would trash the land if it wasn't patrolled, especially those petroglyphs and cryptobiotic soil out west. These fees help keep the parks open at all, just look at all the states that have had to close their parks due to budget problems. Still, like Mark, I hate it when there are exceptions to rules. When you live out east/midwest as long as we have, you hand over the fees gladly because we have so little accessible public land this way at all. A lot of the state parks charge much more than the U.S. government does and don't give a senior discount at all!
ReplyDeleteI'll add my rant here, why is there a geezer pass in the first place? Why is the wealthiest group of Americans, the elderly, entitled to a special discount for using public lands? And how old do you have to be to get one? I am 59, what is this pass called?
ReplyDeleteI thought I would overnight in the Redwoods the other week and subsequently learned that every state park campsite in CA is $35 per night now. This land is your land, this land is my land, right!