True story. We stopped at Molly Stark state park in Vermont on the way home after vacationing in Maine. The sign coming into the park said no vacancy. When we got to the parking area I went up to the office counter and said, “We’re just stopping through. My husband is going to ride his bike for a bit and we’ll eat lunch, but we’re not staying.” The guy working said, “You still need to pay something.” I said, “Of course. No problem.” He said $4, I paid & started to walk away. The woman working said, “We have very nice clean bathrooms if you need them.” Which I thought was nice. My husband rode for about 45 minutes and then we walked to the bathhouse for him to take a quick shower. He says, “Do you have 50 cents? It’s 10 minutes for fifty cents.” While he’s showering I’m walking around with our dog. She poos and now my husband is walking towards me with a bag to pick it up because his 50 cent shower is finished. Before we can pick up after our dog the office worker comes towards me quickly and says, “Here’s a poo bag. Now you’ve at least gotten your 4 dollars worth.” I said, “Excuse me?” And he says, “You tried to get out of paying in the first place and now you’re using our showers. You said you were just eating lunch and your husband riding his bike.” My husband says, “I paid fifty cents for that shower. I didn’t steal it.” The guy says, “You said you were just stopping in.” I say, “Do you want more money?” And he says he wants another 4 bucks. I walk up to the counter to pay and say, “I try to assume the best of people. I want you to know that I wasn’t trying to get out of paying. I saw the no vacancy sign and didn’t want you to think we were trying to stay the night.” He said that he’s tired of people with the nicest stuff … a multi thousand dollar bike and a nice RV trying to get something for nothing.” I reminded him that he said admission was 4 dollars and his coworker offered the bathrooms. He said, “So you don’t think you got 8 dollars worth of time in the park?” I told him, no, that we’d been there for an hour and 20 minutes and he’d told me admission was $4, but if the extra money would make things right for him then he could have it. I just didn’t appreciate him thinking I was trying to talk my way out of paying park entry, and I didn’t appreciate him assuming I had a character flaw. He told me again that it was rich people who tried to get out of paying, he was jaded & to keep my 4 dollars. What an odd experience.
