Occoneechee State Park

[Sterling]

An email I sent to the director of parks and recreation.


For the last four years I have met several buddies to fish twice a year at one of your parks. We first started camping and then we started renting a cabin. As I pulled my boat out of the ramp to go check into out cabin I went to slow down to pull into the office and I had no brakes. I pulled around the office and due to the fact there was already a truck and boat in the place for trailer vehicles I hit my emergency brake and got it stopped in normal parking for cars. When my truck finally stopped my front tires were on the grass and I was cross ways of the parking lot. Mind you there is plenty of parking at this facility. I immediately call AAA to come get my truck and my buddy with me is going to go drop his boat off at the cabin come back and get my boat and AAA is coming to get my truck.
I go into register and a park ranger comes in and wants to know who is parked on his grass, so I explained I had no brakes and he said he didn't care, I had to move my truck off the grass. I again state I have zero brakes. So then I said I could back up and he said that's not going to work because you have my parking blocked. He said I would have to park someplace else. He told me to go out of the office go right and it is uphill and there is a picnic area on top of the hill I can pull into, being it is uphill I should be able to get it stopped.
It bothers me that someone would be so concerned about parking to jeopardize peoples lives by knowingly have them drive a truck pulling a boat through the park with no brakes. At the point I got my truck stopped my emergency brake was no longer effective and I had to slam my truck into park.
On a side not as we were leaving we realized that the truck that was going to tow my boat home the hitch was to low. Maintenance came right over with the proper tools to assist us in switching the ball around on the hitch.

[skeeter202]

Man sorry to hear of your troubles , they are everywhere , idiots that is .This guy misunderstands his job responsibilites.He says his grass and his parking but he works for us who paid for the park and provides his pay ,I know you were being nice and trying to do what he said but I would have handed him the keys , explained the problem and told him to put it where he wanted it or call the police.I thoroughly understand that rules are made and they should be followed but if this went down like this ,then they should reprimand him harshly . How many kids ride bikes thru that park or walk and play? He was endangering public safety by his actions which I would think would be a complete opposite of his job description and I think you did the right thing by passing this on . Suppose you had hit and killed someone while you were doing it , they would have blamed you and he would have denied everything and you would have to live with it . Someone needs to really look at the governing of state and federal parks anyway, no common sense,years ago I blowed an intake gasket on the parkway and had to wait on a sunday evening for about 6 hours for them to find someone in Richmond to ok a wrecker to get my car because it(the wrecker) is a commercial vehicle....

[Hump]

That stinks Sterling! I have had nothing but good reports for anyone working down at the parks around Buggs. Been lucky to only have dealt with the good ones, I have even comment I wish some of those folks worked for the parks depts here in central Va. Only takes one a-hole to ruin things.

Hope your repairs went well and you'll be joining us Sunday.