Columnists
Residential road campers
So many topics. Only so many words. Columns in community newspapers shouldn’t take up too much space. Here it goes for this week, though.
Last week I mentioned how fast The County is growing its tourism industry and, perhaps, we aren’t keeping up with the growth. I could be wrong about this but I don’t think I am. This past weekend, LOML and I saw a different kind of evidence of our community’s growing pains. Late on Saturday night, a couple driving a large RV drove around the street where we live. We figured they were looking for a friend’s home. We were wrong. They were looking for a place to camp overnight. Yup, it’s a thing in the County now, kiddies; Residential Road Camping. Of course, we thought the RV owners might be visiting one of our neighbours. But, during our “neighbourhood watch moment” we didn’t see anyone leave or enter the trailer and watched as the wee tip-out slowly opened. Curtains were drawn and the FreshAirBnB folks, obviously, went to bed. On Sunday morning, I was tempted to bring them a continental breakfast but, who knows, they might have been “cereal” killers. By ten o’clock in the morning, they were gone. To the best of our knowledge, they never left their great big, tooheavy- to- park on a residential street overnight, RV. Ya, ya, we spend a lot of time out on our side porch. It’s summer. The porch is ours. It’s where we drink our coffee some mornings. It’s where we toast to another beautiful day in the evening.
Lightheartedness aside, we really do have a problem. I’m sure we’ve all seen and heard about “Walmart Campers”. I don’t think we need a Walmart in The County but kudos to Walmart. A big retailer like Walmart is savvy to invite overnight campers to their lots. Most of their parking lot campers will stock up for the road ahead in their stores. I imagine, too, having a dozen RVs in your parking lot is a deterrent to vandals and thieves. The thing is, even Walmart demands that campers have permission from the store manager to park overnight, and Walmart doesn’t allow parking lot campers to open the extensions or slide outs. As a resident of Prince Edward County, I found it a bit intimidating to have a big vehicle, occupied by strangers, parked overnight on the street where I live. Thankfully, the RVers decided not to park directly in front of our home. I’m not saying we are never treated to school buses, whose drivers just want a quick coffee from Tim Hortons or to a host of transport trucks waiting to deliver to Sobey’s. These drivers aren’t camping out overnight. They’re just stopping, often for less than ten minutes.
In many cities and municipalities, the parking of RV’s on residential streets (for the purpose of camping or sleeping) is prohibited. And the temporary parking of an RV on residential streets is often restricted to owners/operators who have obtained a permit and adhere to very comprehensive guidelines. I suppose we should be grateful our FreshAirBnB Campers didn’t pull a Cousin Eddy on us and empty their crapper into the storm sewer. And, I would like to believe this occurrence of Residential Road Camping in The County is an isolated incident. I’d really like to believe it, but I know it’s just the beginning. These folks have probably given this street their thumbs-up, already. Should have brought them coffee and muffins. Anything less than two thumbs up won’t look good on us as hosts.
Comments (0)