Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

Sleeping at the endurance ride is hard enough to manage even at the best of times -- what with worrying about your horse, everyone else's horse (one or more of which are sure to get loose at some point during the wee hours to charge around the campsite in a thunder of excited hooves), all those last minute critical items, and the vulgarities of camping outside in the weather (too cold, too hot, too windy, rain, sleet, snow ... you name it and everyone at some endurance ride has had to endure it) -- to have to listen to someone's stupid generator whining and buzzing into the late hours in total disregard to everyone within earshot.  I would love for ride management to section out all the generator equipped trailers into their own part of the camp, and let all the non-generator trailers and tenters have their own peaceful sections of the camp free from the annoying whine of a internal combustion engine.

 

At Biltmore one year an older model motor home camper pulled in during the early evening and parked right behind my trailer. The owner cranked over his generator at about 8PM, the thing vibrating like a turbine on the Grand Hoover Dam.   I turned in at about 10:45PM figuring the owner would honor the ride directive to shut off his generator at 11PM, but the thing continued to vibrate away as the clock ticked past 11:45, the annoying sound penetrating even through my industrial strength earplugs. By midnight I finally had it. Furious, I got up, marched over to the camper.  The first thing I noticed was there was no horse, no corral, nor hint of any riding equipment. I banged on the door of the camper. No answer.  I then yelled out loud as I banged harder on the door.  Still no answer.  Finally I tried the door, found it unlocked, and looked inside the camper.  It was empty. The owner was nowhere to be found.   

 

Now I was really burning. Some people at a campfire nearby said they knew the guy and he was probably hob-nobbing with friends. When they told me he was there merely to visit his pals, not to ride,  I pretty much lost it.    I WAS there to ride and it was already approaching 12:30AM. One of the group figured they better go find the guy while I stormed back to my trailer to get dressed to go find management.  I wanted to string that jerk up from the nearest tree.  Fortunately for him, he was found and promptly came back to turn off the generator.  He made a backhanded apology to me the following day, but I wasn't about to accept it. He was pretty chagrined when I finished with him and I am pretty sure he'll never again waltz away at a ride leaving his generator to ruin everyone's sleep.  What a jerk. Still pisses me off when I think of it.