Going On The Road with Monte & Rose

February 9-16, 2014

RV Dreams Boondocking Rally

Arcadia, FL

DAY FOUR

We experienced such a roller coaster ride of emotions today and I’m not really sure where to start so I guess I will just start at the beginning.

I set the alarm for 7AM because we planned on joining the group that was going kayaking. While I made coffee, Monte went outside to chat with a group that was assembled in the center.

When he returned he informed me that the kayaking trip was cancelled because of the high winds predicted.

We made our way over to the Solo Café where we had a great breakfast that included eggs, sausage and English muffins.

I passed on the tequila sunrise that Kyra offered—although I was tempted.

It was nice having a leisurely breakfast and socializing.

In the early afternoon, while I was working on the blog, Monte came home and said that Howard was calling a meeting in the circle because he had a very important announcement.

The following is an excerpt from Howard’s post. (The entire post can be found on their blog, RV Dreams)

I'll just say up front, that I should have done a little more due diligence when we decided to hold our Boondocking Rally here. But neither I nor Ed & Charlotte thought there would be any problem in this rural area with holding a week long campout on private property. Turns out we were wrong. :)

Apparently, somebody complained about our little camping group. Ed & Charlotte's immediate neighbors are all family members, so somebody that isn't affected at all by us complained.

Code Enforcement came out yesterday while we gone, and told Charlotte that we were in violation of some county ordinance. Apparently, we needed an "event" permit even though it's private property. In fact, we learned that you can't even spend one night in your own RV on your own private property unless you fall under one of the narrow exceptions in which it is allowed. With 90% of the county being agricultural, and being in a sparsely populated agricultural area, we certainly didn't anticipate this problem.

So, I accompanied Charlotte, and we went to the county courthouse to plead ignorance, ask for leniency, volunteer to pay a fine, and promise it would never happen again. I didn't say anything about being a former attorney as I thought that would more likely hurt us than help us, but I did ask for copies of the laws we were supposedly violating.

Let's just say they were stretching things quite a bit to squeeze us under their "event" law which clearly refers to events open to the general public. But that didn't really matter. They made their decision, and they said we had 24 hours (give or take a few hours) to leave. There was no way to get a quick permit.

So, we left. But before we went back to break the bad news, Charlotte made a call to a county commissioner, and I made a couple of phone calls myself. We understood the reason for the laws, but since we were all leaving on Sunday anyway, we hoped that we might be able to get an extension on our "cease and desist" order.

Back at the farm, we gathered everyone around, told them the issue, told them we had thrown a couple of "hail Mary's" and explained the options. Part of the issue was we were expecting a lot of rain overnight, so the bigger rigs might have a problem leaving in the morning. Whereas, it would be plenty dry if we stayed until Sunday.

Several folks decided to go ahead and leave this afternoon - a couple of them had planned to leave tomorrow anyway. But several people wanted to find an alternative location and continue on with the Boondocking Rally.

So, we came up with a plan. It wasn't a great plan, but it was a workable plan. We were all going to find a place to stay Thursday night, and then reconvene on some nearby public land that would be open for camping on the weekend.

Well, while trying to determine who was leaving, and who was staying on, and how the back-up plan was actually going to work, the Code Enforcement guys came back. They arrived with news that we were still in violation, but the County Administrator decided that the 24-hour notice was a bit harsh, and we could stay until Sunday. They were apologetic about the way they handled the situation, although we understood they were just doing their job.

There was much rejoicing, and we and our hosts were quite relieved. After all, we had plans and a wild hog had already given its life for our Valentine's Day pig roast on Friday. :)

The folks that were in process of packing up stopped and decided to stay. Unfortunately, four couples already left. One was leaving tomorrow anyway, but we called the other three. Two decided to continue on and one came back.

So, it was a dramatic afternoon, and we felt horrible. I, naively, thought there were still parts of this country where you could still do what you wanted on your own land as long as you weren't bothering anyone. Lesson learned.

If Charlotte & Ed will have us, we'd like to do the Boondocking Rally again here next year ... after getting a proper permit. It's such a great place to hold this "event", and the dark side of me wants to "legally" irritate those that complained about us being here.

We were so relieved because we are having such a good time and didn’t want it to end.

Gina announced she was having cocktail hour at her rig.

I contributed a cheese, salami and cracker tray and of course brought my own cocktail.

BUT I did have to try one of Gina’s special cocktails. It includes Baileys and a couple of other liqueurs. When I get the recipe from her I will include it in a later post. It was YUMMY! She warned it was potent. And it was.

While I was socializing with the girls, Monte went up on Howard and Linda’s rig to look at their roof. They recently had their roof sprayed with a permanent roof coating. Monte liked it and would consider doing the same to our rig in the future if we need a new roof.

A sudden storm came up that had us scrambling to stow things that might blow away and for Gina to close her awning.

A few people in the group decided to join Linda and Howard at a nearby restaurant. Due to tornado warnings, those that stayed behind were invited by our hosts, Ed and Charlotte, to join them in the barn.