Fulltiming Road Runners

Hmmmmm…. Thom never posts anymore.  Gang up on him people!  Send him emails telling him you want his perspective!  His email is thoma@bigfoot.com.

We’ve had a wedding party in here this weekend.  They reserved one of our group sites for Friday and Saturday night and came in Thursday night taking 3 of our individual double sites.  The actual wedding was today at 2:00 at the prettiest of our river overlook benches, and the reception was at the reserved group site today at 4:00.  All the rest of the time was reserved for setup and making it happen.  I have to say, these people were the best folk to work with.  They were anxious to comply with rules and make the wedding fit within the campground regulations.  Their willingness to comply made it easy for us to broadly interpret a rule or two for them to make the wedding and reception go smoothly.  I’m going to be sad to see them leave tomorrow.  I hope to get email addresses, but if not, I will count myself blessed that they passed through my campground & my life.

What a beautiful spot to be married.

That was the fun a beautiful part of our day.

Following is the not so beautiful part of our day…

I don’t know if I’d call it interesting or just plain disgusting the way there are those who think we are stupid and easy to be taken advantage of.

This afternoon we had a couple in a double site picnicking.  When I pulled the golf cart into another site to sign that site up for the night, this couple in the double site saw me, and quickly started packing up their picnic and tried to put out the fire, but they didn’t have water to do so.  At least they were conscientious enough to not leave a hot burning fire unattended.  I stopped to tell them they would have to pay a fee for “day camping” in one of our double sites.  They said they didn’t have any money or checks so I wrote down their license number and told them the USFS would be contacting them to collect the fee.  (they just went from the standard $16 fee to $75 for whatever the Forest Service calls the “crime”).  They took their copy of the paperwork complaining all the way out the gate.

Later, Thom had 3 cars in the same site doing the same thing and had issues with them to the point of calling the sheriff dept.  At least these people paid the fee, but it was still a sticky issue before it was all done.  These people had a very large fire going in the fire pit & I told Thom it looked like the fire wood we sell… maybe 2 bundles.  It appears we are short 2 bundles of firewood.  We’ll double count later before we say for sure we’ve been “robbed”.

Ahhhhhhhh… the life of a campground manager!  Nuttin’ better.  hehe

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

Yesterday was our “day off”.  We did a few deliveries to our campgrounds in the canyon, gathered empty gas cans from them then came home, got our car and went grocery shopping.  We stopped at Walmart because I wanted a few hanging baskets of flowers.  I now have two baskets of petunias and one of portulacas.  I also picked up another bird feeder, so now I have two seed feeders and two nectar feeders.  Watching the birds is very entertaining and even relaxing for me.

This bird doesn’t come to the feeder, he’s strictly a bug eater, but there are lots of them hopping around the trees.  He’s a Yellow Warbler.

And this one is definitely a seed eater with a huge beak to break the big seeds.  He’s a Black Headed Grosbeak.  Quite pretty, except for that gross beak.

I got a photo of one of the campsites during Memorial Weekend.  This is site 24.  The guy on a bike is actually riding on a paved path that goes right by the campsite.  The path goes through the campground and along the river.  It’s a very nice walk.

That big tree on the right is a huge willow tree.  We have one in our “yard”.  I’ll try to get a photo of it.  I love it.  It would be a kids paradise with branches very low and easy to climb on without getting hurt.

I mentioned the path we have in our campground.  Yesterday I took a walk along it with camera in hand.  Apparently we have an active beaver in our campground.  This is a shot of a tree he downed the day before.  The bottom part was shiney with sap.  Thom had to cut the top of the tree off because it was blocking the path.

We are now getting some spring flowers other than dandelions.  This flower is a Vetch.  I got lazy and didn’t look it up, so I’m not sure which vetch it is.

And this one is the Mountain Bluebell that grows all over the Ogden Canyon.

We have what I think is a wild fruit tree, probably crab apple.  I’ll get a pic of the flowers and maybe someone can tell me what it is.

It’s a gorgeous sunny day today.  I plan on taking another walk thru the campground and along the path today.  I’ll get more shots of our surroundings to share.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles!

Memorial Weekend is over, Scott and Mari have gone home (he left yesterday and she left today - *sigh*), we are done with the rush.  I already miss Scott and Mari.  They are such speacial people and so totally comfortable to have around.  I never feel I need to entertain or keep them busy, I always feel comfortable doing what I need to do and I know they will keep themselves busy or, if they so choose, not.  And best of all, they cook the bestest meals ever for us!

Our canyon campground managers are doing pretty durned good and we don’t feel we have to hold their hands.  That’s really nice because it allows us to get on with our other duties.

We seem to be putting way more hours into being the Canyon Campground managers than we are alloted, but I guess that’s understandable since all our managers in the canyon are brand new with American Land & Leisure AND with campground management.  We’re not looking forward to the time our Monte Cristo campground opens in June.  It’s at a much higher altitude (8500 ft) and opens a month or so later than the lower canyon.  We have to do a weekly run to deliver firewood for sale and pick up garbage every week.  We aren’t sure what all that entails.  I guess we’ll just report back to you when it happens.

I have a picture of our “home” here in Perception Park.  Whatcha think?  I like our site, but still don’t care much for the campground as a whole.

We found our campers from last weekend to be spoiled snobs.  This campground is considered an improved campground, thus they charge $2 more for single sites and $4 more for double sites.  The people who come here seem to expect special treatment because they pay a bit more.  Apparently, in the past, the rules of the company and canyon have been ignored by past management and now that we have to enforce them, we are getting lots of complaints.  The campers think we should allow extra vehicles and waive the charge, extra people and waive the charge, give them a double site for the price of a single…. etc.

Last year we got a bunch of compliments and accolades saying we were wonderful hosts/people.  This year, we’ve already been told twice that complaints are being filed against us.  It’s not a nice feeling, but we know we’ve not done anything different here than we did last year at the Meadows, so we’re not going to worry about it.

I still have pics of flowers and birds to share, but not tonight.  Soon, I hope.  We appreciate ya’ll for reading us and being patient with our working at getting things in order.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Tah!

  Sorry for not posting sooner, but we’ve been busier than a one armed paper hanger.  Just getting our campground managers supplied and able to do their jobs without us watching over them, and taking care of our own campers and campground have kept us hopping.  We’re confident our campground managers are okay without us looking over their shoulders now and hopefully we can now streamline our time taking care of them.

Scott & Mari came in on Wed and are staying for the holiday weekend.  We love ‘em to pieces and are always so pleased to see them.  They brought Oscar, their Quaker Parrot and Mucuy and Oscar are fascinated with each other but not sure about getting very close.

We sure eat good when Mari & Scott are here.  We had Scott’s chili last night and are having bourbon chicken tonight.

Winter before last we met this neat gal named Sandy down in Quartzsite.  She wasn’t able to get down there last winter, but we kept in contact and now she is up here in the canyon visiting us before she starts her job in Wyoming.  Sure would be nice if she could stay for the season.

We’re in the middle of Memorial Weekend now and we have 60% chance of thunder showers today & tonight, 50% tomorrow, and 30% on Monday.   At least the temps are supposed to stay in the high 60’s and low 70’s.

The next time I take a tour around the campground checking things, I’m going to take my camera and try to get some shots of the campground.  It looks quite different from the Meadows campgrounds.

I may not blog again until after Monday, due to a full campground and company, but I’ll try to get some photos posted after Monday.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

Just a quick note to let ya’ll know we are back online for the summer.  It’s been a tremendously hectic 5 days.  Hopefully I’ll have time in a day or two to give more info.  Right now I just wanted to let ya know we are back and doing okay.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles

I hate the thought of it, but we are moving again.  Tomorrow we start moving back down to Perception Park.  I love the idea of having electricity again …. AND a phone, but the physical act of moving is going to wear both of us out again.

We will not have internet for at least a week, even up to 2 weeks.  We have to call our satellite provider to change satellites and  we don’t know for sure what the tim-line is.

We are going to be the Ogden Canyon Campgrounds managers as well as manage Perception Park.  We will be responsible to see that the campgrounds in the canyon have the supplies they need to operate and to deal with any issues that come along.  We are being alloted 10 hrs per week to do the canyon manager’s job, and will have 50 hrs per week to manage Perception Park.  I have a feeling we will  be giving a lot of time to AL&L again this year, at least at the beginning.  Hopefully we’ll be able to streamline things to make it work the way it should.  To top it off, we will still be collecting from campers in the Upper & Lower Meadows campgrounds until new managers show up.

At any rate, we want to let you know we haven’t forgotten you or our blog, but will be unable to post for several day.

In the meantime, ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah.

Thom & Russ headed down mountain to fill propane tanks and pick up our new portable tanks Thom ordered last month, so I’m left here at home with no gas (propane) to make tea with, but do have the generator running so the fridge stays running.

I don’t know yet what we will be doing as far as staying here or going to Perception Park, the guys might have stopped at the managers to find out, but I’m still in the dark.

So for now, I’ll just share some of those photos I talked about.

This first one doesn’t show the colors, but it does show the shape of the male Caliope Hummingbird’s gorget on his throat.  It’s color is rose red.  He is the smallest hummingbird in the USA.

Yesterday I hung a thistle seed “sock” for the finches.  Today it’s totally empty.  I was hoping to get lots of Goldfinches, but as you can see it’s covered with Pine Siskin.  I like them as well, they’re just not as colorful.  They are smaller than the other finches we get here but much less skittish.

Yesterday I had my first Oriole at the hummingbird feeder.  Here we get the Bullocks Oriole and occasionally the Hooded Oriole.  I got a bonus yesterday because right behind the male was the female, both colorful and lovely.
The Male Bullocks Oriole

and this is the female Bullocks Oriole

And that’s all the pics I have for now and no news yet, so I’ll say g’day to ya’ll.

Stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles

So far, we are still in the Meadows campground, this may not last, but we won’t know for sure for a day or 2.  This uncertainty sure makes life 1) Fun 2) boring 3) stressful…  I vote for 3.  I will have at least 2 days to be able to let you know what’s happening before we have to shut down the internet and move on (if that is the case).  If we do have to go down, it could be 1 to 2 weeks before we are back online.

Our area managers asked us if we’d be willing to go back to Perception Park and manage that campground as well as be the Canyon Area Managers.  Of course it takes the okay of the corporate office, which may be hard to get, but we said we would do it if okayed.  It will help settle things down and let us get on with getting on!

I just looked at the weather report and it’s supposed to rain on Thursday and Friday.  The last two times we moved it was in the rain…. how much ya wanna bet, we will be moving and it WILL be on Thursday and Friday!

I have to tell ya’ll that I’m in heaven watching all the birds returning for the spring.  I’ve got pics of a lot of them, but won’t be able to share them for a while.  These are the names of the ones I’ve seen in the last few days - Lazuli Bunting, American Goldfinch, Pine Siskin, Black Headed Grosbeak, Green Tailed Towhee, Spotted Towhee, Cowbird, Bullards Oriole, Robin, Sandhill Crane.

Things are uncertain for us as far as whether we’ll be staying here or moving back to Perception Park, but other than that, we’re doing fantastic!

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles!

The father/son group behaved themselves very well last night and headed over to Willows campground to help Linda at about 9:00 this morning.  They were back here around 9:45.  Linda had done pretty well getting her campground cleaned and the guys were able to finish up for her in a short time.  They even took a turn around our campground and picked up some of the trash that’s so deep in the brush we can’t get to it without many scratches and scrapes.

Today our manager came by and asked if we could do a round of Perception Park to collect fees for those camping there, and close gates at 10 p.m. — if we had time.  I went through today and collected $84 from those who thought that since there was no manager in the campground, they could stay free.   We’re going to put in for the extra hours and see if they’ll pay it.

I’m feeling a whole lot better, even after taking the extra 1,000 units of Vit. D today.  If I feel the same after a couple more days, then I’ll increase it to an extra 2,000 units.  I’ll be REALLY happy when my low grade fever is gone and my energy level is back to normal.

It’s almost time to do rounds of our 2 campgrounds and the extra one, so I’ll close and come back soon.

Ya’ll stay healthy and happy!

Tah!

As mentioned yesterday, Thom busted butt to get the campground ready for campers this weekend.  He finished up by doing the bathrooms today.  It appears he didn’t need to.

This afternoon around 5:00 or so we had several vehicles coming in one right after the other.  They are a church father/son group and apparently arrangements had been made for them to come in and spend tomorrow cleaning our campground — they would stay here for free.  We didn’t know anything about it.  Nobody thought it necessary to tell us, the campground managers.  Not knowing anything about it, Thom drove down to Willows campground to call our bosses and discovered they were indeed supposed to be here, no charge, to help clean.  We don’t need the help so they all (our bosses & Thom) decided to let them stay here and go down to Willows to help Linda (widow) get that campground in shape tomorrow.  Currently it’s a mess and she’s killing herself trying to get it cleaned up.

Soooo… we have some very happy campers because we went the extra step to keep them from having to pay and to do their good deed.  I expect we’ll see some of them back here during the summer.

I’m feeling a lot better, but still not up to par.  Today I layed down at 3:00 p.m. and slept until 5:00.  That is so totally unlike me.  I usually can’t sleep during the day at all.

Yesterday and today I was able to get a few photos of the critters here.  It’s early yet, so the abundance isn’t here yet and their colors aren’t full breeding colors yet, but I’m thrilled to be able to see them again.

This is the male Broadtail hummingbird at the feeder on my window.  I shot this thru the dirty window.

This one is the Lazuli bunting still sporting a lot of his winter brown color, but you can see the lovely blue that will take the place of the brown.  HIs lower belly will still be a roufus color

Another of my favorite critters here in our yard is the Woodchuck.  This on is a lady and has babies she is still nursing.

Last is one of the tree/bushes that are plentiful here in the canyon.  I think its the Mountain Willow.  These are the flowers.  Here in our campground they are anywhere from 4 - 15 feet tall.

Thom is watching Patriot Games on tv and I think I want to join him.

Ya’ll stay happy ‘n healthy.

Toodles.