This was not the experience the Humboldt County Convention and Visitors Bureau hopes for.

YouTube star Eric “The Nomadic Fanatic” and his cat Jax have traveled through many, many places in their RV, “boondocking” (i.e. free camping) their way across the country. Over the past two years their video diary has accumulated more than 55,000 followers, and their videos have been viewed more than 10 million times.

But it wasn’t until they came through Eureka that they had what Eric calls his “Worst Boondocking Experience Ever.” First an irate Starbucks customer threw a newspaper rack into his RV. Later, after he’d parked for the night, a wanted felon mounted the ladder on the back of his RV and tried to steal his solar panels (perhaps hoping to improve his camp at PALCO Marsh). And finally, after fleeing to Fourth Street by McDonald’s, he heard a series of gunshots from this month’s officer-involved shooting that left a man dead.

“No offense to Eureka; I’m sure it’s a nice town,” Eric says, rather charitably. “These are just three bad people. Well, a car-full of bad people as well, but, ah … .”

With that, he scratches his head, picks up his baseball bat and declares, “I don’t really know what else to say except, it’s a new day. Let’s get the hell out of Eureka, right?”

Sorry, Eric.