By Rit Carter

Saturday, regular travelers of Camp St. were surprised to see an influx of motor vehicles added to the usual proceedings.

For those not familiar with this 1.4 mile stretch of roadway, it was built in 1852 and is named for the Plainville Campground. Running north and south, it hugs the Bristol, Plainville and Farmington town lines and is most known for cars roaring down its lighted path late at night like it is the autobahn, and during election season, it is sprinkled with campaign signs.

There is no complexity to the street. It is a straight shot, with two traffic lights and a stop sign. Boom!

However, yesterday, Camp St. resembled at times a carnival of cars with many making good use of its asphalt. 

What was the root of the uptick? 

On the Plainville side of the ledger, the campgrounds had their annual tag sale. 

Meanwhile in Bristol, nearly across from the campgrounds, Gloria Dei Lutheran Church distributed food and diapers. Plus, there were a few pop-up tag sales in the surrounding neighborhoods and a party or two as well. As a result, there was a steady stream of cars keenly going about their business.

Most affected was Constance Ln. in Bristol, which temporarily received the parking spillover from the campgrounds.

By 3 p.m., it was as if a trauma scrub team came in and cleaned up because there was no evidence anything transpired.

Bristol and Plainville, two towns separated by a road shared two things in common yesterday, 1) a brief saturation of cars and 2) temporary no parking signs.