First off, before anyone thinks I'm bashing the church, or being ungrateful for the incredible service The Place offers to hikers, I feel quite the opposite. I am truly grateful to them for this and have stayed at The Place several times over the past few years during section hikes. I always make a generous donation and also always do some chores around the house too, like clean a bathroom or sweep out some bunk rooms.
This past May when I attended Trail Days during my hike, I stayed at the campground Friday and Saturday night, but had to stay till Monday so I could mail some stuff home at the PO. The campground closed on sunday, so I hiked into town and set up my tent under a tree at The Place sunday night. On Monday morning I was sitting in the doorway of my tent lacing up my boots when a old, somewhat banged-up black pickup truck pulled up beside the Place near my tent. An older, heavyset man wearing a dark plaid shirt leaned out the window and in a very unpleasant tone, yelled "it’s time for you to be moving on". I said "what?" and he said "you can’t stay here more than two nights, now its time for you to be moving on". He was very rude and it was offensive to be spoken to as if I was some kind of homeless person who had to be "moved along". I said that I’d only been here overnight and had been at the campground all weekend. He then drove off without another word and I threw my stuff into my pack and left, feeling nettled and unwelcome. I’d always felt "warm and fuzzy" about the Place until then, but this ugly incident suddenly made it feel pretty unfriendly.
Does anyone know who this might have been and why he acted like this? I find it hard to believe that anyone from the church would behave like this, but he sure acted like he had some right to order people off the property. And it’s unlikely that he mistook me for someone who’d had a similar tent in the same spot all weekend, my tent is pretty distinctive. I guess it could have been some disgruntled town resident who was fed up with Trail Days, but I kinda doubt it. Who was this, and did anyone else have a similar experience at The Place last Trail Days?