So Now I'm Homeless

**SilvrSurfr** · 03-15-2014, 19:38

Fellow forum member P-47Chowhound, who lives a few miles away, called me up today and asked if I could take a look at a hammock he's having calf ridge issues with, and maybe put a ridgeline on it and help him sort it out. "Sure," I said. "Why don't we meet at Jackson Woods?" It's a park not far from my house where I walk my dog.

So we're setting up our hammocks when this nosey, little old lady strolls up. We were way back in the woods off the beaten path so she had to go out of her way to come back there and approach us. "Excuse me," she says. "Do you mind if I ask what you're doing?" So we explain to her that we're hammock campers and we're just testing out our gear. From the puzzled look on her face, you could tell she didn't buy our explanation.

"Can I ask another question?" she asks, and we say sure, fire away.

"Are you homeless?"

We got quite a laugh out of that, and assured her we were not homeless. We explained to her that we were campers and as we got older, sleeping on the ground wasn't as appealing, and that's why we sleep in hammocks. We even offered to let her give the hammock a try. She walked away less than convinced of our story.

**halfastronomical** · 03-15-2014, 19:40

mwahahahah. The mental picture was just priceless.

**Redpath** · 03-15-2014, 20:07

Funny. So did you solve the calf ridge problem?

**SilvrSurfr** · 03-15-2014, 20:16

Originally Posted by Redpath

Funny. So did you solve the calf ridge problem?

Can't say that we did, but hey, we had a laugh!

**Christo456** · 03-15-2014, 20:25

Thanks I needed that laugh today. Too funny

**Zilla** · 03-15-2014, 20:40

How long did you stick around there??, She may have went home and called the cops on you guys, but i have to say that if she truely thought you were homeless then she was either one brave old lady or one dumb old lady to aproach 2 - so called homeless guys in the woods !! wow, god bless her!

**Deadphans** · 03-15-2014, 20:50

Surely you know of tent city in Lakewood, ss. Maybe start a hammock city in your area :-)

I'm in lol

**SilvrSurfr** · 03-15-2014, 20:51

Originally Posted by Zilla

How long did you stick around there??

We weren't there for more than 45 minutes. Truth be told, it's an "inner city" forest, surrounded on three sides by what appears to be section 8 housing. When I first started hiking around there people told me it was a gang hangout and I was crazy to go in there.

I've never seen gangs, but I have seen homeless people there. In fact, when I went by there later today a homeless couple had parked their pickup truck there for the evening. They had built a plywood camper over the bed of the truck that was waterproofed with a Wally World blue tarp. In the bed of the pickup was a queen mattress and all their belongings. They also had two dogs sleeping with them. The woman yelled at me to put my dog on a leash.

**SilvrSurfr** · 03-15-2014, 20:52

Originally Posted by Deadphans

Surely you know of tent city in Lakewood, ss. Maybe start a hammock city in your area :-)

I'm in lol

I thought they evicted the tent city residents, no?

**jwright** · 03-15-2014, 21:36

Originally Posted by SilvrSurfr

"Can I ask another question?" she asks, and we say sure, fire away.

"Are you homeless?"

We got quite a laugh out of that, and assured her we were not homeless. We explained to her that we were campers and as we got older, sleeping on the ground wasn't as appealing, and that's why we sleep in hammocks. We even offered to let her give the hammock a try. She walked away less than convinced of our story.

You could have told her that you may not be homeless but have been reported as missing before