bobhenry wrote:For those of you who recieved less than stellar Hoosier Hospitality from Barney, I took time today to enlighten his boss.......
To the senior park manager at McCormick's creek
The Tearjerkers national gathering was a wonderful time for all, great weather and a pristene park with great features. I asked one of the cleanup caretakers if we were good guests and his only complaint was there was nothing tossed out and left behind for him to clean up. With 140 of the sites taken by members of our group we visited well into the AM with folks we won't see for 2 more years many of whom we had never actually met except on computer chat forums. The little black cloud in the gathering drove a little black car. We nicknamed him Barney Fyfe.His swolen head and anal attitude about late night fire side chats caused several confrontations. The founder of Tearjerkers who came from Manhatten NY , when confronted it became an open invitation to stepping outside and settle the problem man to man. Had he appeared at our site in my presence I would have stepped into the batmobile and we would be waking you up to air this grevence. No complaints were ever recieved yet Barney had to park the stelth mobile and listen for any small sound so he could flex his muscle. There is some talk of finding another park to avoid this situation in 2015 when the next gathering is scheduled. I hope you can assure us that a bit more discression could be made when 140 camp site are all friends who would like to visit into the wee hours chatting and laughing by the fire.
Bob Henry
The "Can of Worms" has been opened. I spoke at some length with the Park people on Sunday and got nothing but "rave reviews" about our group. With the exception of "Barney" (who didn't show up on Friday night), the Park worked out very well for our group. I heard that there were a couple of complaints filed about the attitude of the "Lone Ranger" in the Stealth car but no other information was available.
Hopefully he was re-assigned to the alligator swamp duty and won't be there in 2015.
All that being said, regardless of the fun we are having, we need to follow the rules of the Park. Since the "rules" are written in stone, and there are no "judgement calls" allowed by the Rangers, (sarcasm) we'll need to keep it down after 11:00pm. That doesn't mean we have to be in bed by 11:00pm but we should wind it down and eventually taper off at that hour.
I was up talking until 1:30 on Friday night but the sound level was fairly low. Heck, we didn't even disturb the "Coons" until John chased one up a tree.
Anyway, even though we pay their salaries, we should attempt to follow the rules as best we can.
The isolated encounters were rare and there was a feeling (by the other Park workers) that our group was the "best" they have ever seen and are welcomed back at any time.
Having fun is not always completely silent..
Regardless of the small run-ins with the Ranger, the weekend was unbelievable and makes me look forward to next time.