This weekend had two main features; the first was my Anatomy final. I put it off as long as I could, and finally took it late Saturday afternoon. I did well (got a B), but I just can’t tell you how glad I am finished with it. Whew!!!
On Sunday, we packed up the cars and the boat and headed north for a day on the lake. We have been going to the same public boat dock every time we have gone to lake Lanier, so we went back, expecting to have a good time again. What we didn’t know, seriously, is that they didn’t allow alcohol at the dock. No big deal; if we had known that, we would have adjusted ourselves accordingly (flask, concealing it, or just going without).
About 2 hours into our day, a park ranger came out to our little tent and told us that there had been a report of us having Jack Daniels (the bottle was sitting in plain view next to our cooler), and that we had two options: 1) pour it out, or 2) get a ticket and have to leave the park. Well, it really pissed us off that we had to pour out a huge bottle of liquor (we actually had another one that he saw and made us pour out as well), but I think more so, the main thing that pissed us off, was that we were “reported”. We didn’t know that we couldn’t have alcohol, so we made no attempt to hide the fact that we had it. When we asked if we could just put it in the car, he repeated our two options, and we ended up pouring it out to avoid a fine of an unknown amount.
What really got us angry, is that seriously, we weren’t bothering anyone at all, the place where we had set up our tent was under a tree, and no one was around us. We were not being rowdy, nor were we being loud or disorderly. Someone had just called in to a park ranger because we simply had alcohol (again, we seriously didn’t know… and upon leaving, we did notice the 3inX5in sign saying no alcohol). I guess some people just aren’t content on letting you just enjoy your day without having to ruin it with getting “law enforcement” involved.
Whatever. If you turned us in, you suck dude, because seriously, we weren’t hurting anyone. Now, we know that when we come back, we will conceal our booze. This state has some serious issues with alcohol if you ask me.
It could have been worse - he could have made you pour it out and THEN kicked you out. Happened to me at a Georgia game last year. “Please pour that out.. ok, thanks. Now get the f’ out!” Boo!
I’m surprised both by the fact that you didn’t know alcohol is absolutely off-limits at docks and that their signs are not obvious.
In Florida, it is very clear that you cannot have booze anywhere near boats. Whether you were bothering anyone or not, it’s a sad fact that 1/3 of boating fatalities involve alcohol. Just be glad that you weren’t arrested.
Apparently South Florida never caught on to the “cannot have booze anywhere near boats.” Certainly wasn’t the clear when I was living there.
NC also has the same law - no booze around water. Everyone drinks but you have to hide it - but drinking can cause an unwanted death around water. Better safe than sorry : >)
Same thing happened when Patrick and I went to Cor De Laine , Idaho. We had a boat out on the lake all day and a ranger saw Patrick drop a beer (it fell on the dock) , he then came over to us and told us there was no drinking allowed on the lake. The odd thing was that about halfway through our day we stopped at a dock to get gas and there was a bar right there, on the same dock as the gas pump. We all went in and had mind erasers!!!!!