Originally Posted by greenstork
Based on the preceding comments, I'm going to recommend not stealth camping in Montpelier, VA
Respect is a relative term skyerocker. Some countries allow camping anywhere, including on private land. Your apparent reaction is to immediately distrust everyone, which is an unfortunate commentary on the state of the world and the culture in which we live.
And that I will agree with you completely. This is not necessarily a wondrous, delightful world unless you personally take the pains to make it so. And America is a very different place from Europe - in some ways better, in some ways worse.
I have to admit that a lot of it comes from personal background. I am something of an odd duck - a normal Sunday for me has the morning spent on a bicycle, high point of the morning being coffee at a delightful coffeehouse/folk music venue about 20 miles from my home, which is a huge cyclist hangout in the area. Afternoons and evenings of the same day are often spent in the company of 1%ers, most of whom have been brothers to me for a lot of years.
I tend to care for anyone traveling on two wheels, no matter what the propulsion system. But there's a limit to the behavior I will accept in my fellow man, and my base expectation is that you treat someone else in the exact way that you would want to be treated yourself.
As to the comment of being an embarrassment to the international community
I think most Europeans realize that Americans are awfully different as we formed a society from people that originally wanted to get away from Europe - and depending on what region your traveling through, it may seem like you've been through a couple of different countries while still within the national borders. Most rural folk are incredibly helpful, kind and Christian (in the old sense, not the current political), as long they don't feel you're trying to take them for something. Somehow, I get the feeling (which I can't prove, yet, as the term only came to light to me in the past few weeks) that most militant "stealth campers" are probably of urban background. That's the kind of stuff I'd expect from city folk
(in best Foghorn Leghorn impression, "That's a joke, I say, that's a joke, son!").
Oh yeah, to close: At the risk of destroying my image of the all-killing Neanderthal
the last time I ever actually hit a person, as in a fight, was in the ninth grade. And that includes 18 years flying colors. Fighting's not my style. Defending what's mine, is.