Fulltiming Road Runners

… and we’re rejoicing… for ourselves anyway, the company would like to see more campers, but we had nearly a whole day without a single camper.  We’ve got a couple of campers in here now, but it was really nice to be empty until after noon today.  One of our campers are here for 1 night and the other is here through Labor Day.

While we barely covered costs last week, this week (Labor Day weekend) we expect to be full by Wednesday night, and putting in one of our toughest weekend stints.

Right now we are trying to decide whether we are going to come back here as Canyon Campground Manager Supervisors or go to the Oregon Coast to a job that is perfect for me.  I want to go to Oregon, but don’t know that we can do it without any income.  The only thing we get paid is a stipend to cover fuel costs to get to and from the job.

Mike, Tiff, Coen and Tiff’s family were here last week, from Wed. thru Sat.  I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with all of them.  Coen still hasn’t warmed up to me and it feels like my time is up to make friends with him.  I feel like I want to come back next year with the hopes of him warming up to me, but this year and last year I’ve not had time to spend with him to become friends, so what makes me think things will change next year?  Maybe it’s time to move on and do things for us and hope Coen will grow up knowing we are here and we love him and he’s special to us.  I’m lucky in that Mike and Tiff are so loving and close to us.

Whatever we decide for next summer, we’ll let you know and will keep you up on our travels.

This doesn’t have a lot to do with campground hosting, fulltime RV’g, or other workamping, but I’m going to share anyway.  It has a lot to do with the quality of my life.

I went to the Ophthalmologist today to see if my cataracts were operable yet.  I was sooo hoping they would be.  They are.  I will have the cataracts in the right eye done on Wednesday, Sept 2nd. and the left eye done on Sept. 16th.  My last appt. with the Dr. will be on 9/24 and we plan on leaving here on the 25th.

It’s going to be odd to not have to wear glasses for my near-sightedness, but very welcome,  I’ll probably still have to wear reading glasses, but that’s fine with me.  Heck!  I can even get by with cheap-o sun glasses now.

I’ll let ya’ll know how things go, how I manage to deal with the cataract surgery AND managing the campground, & supervising the other canyon managers.  I don’t think it will be an issue, but we never know.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles.

I don’t realize how much time has passed between postings.  I bet Mom does though.  She counts on my postings to let her know how we are doing because I’m as bad about emailing as I am at posting.

We’re doing fine Mom, just taking advantage of the quiet moments to just chill.  We are getting more quiet moments now.  School started today so last weekend was probably the last of the big camping weekends.  Of course, we still have Labor Day Weekend to look forward to.

We had some real pains in the campground last weekend.  We had a Company Party in here that lasted from Friday to Sunday.  They had to be reminded to quiet down on Friday night and Sunday we ended up having to call the Sheriff’s dept. at around 1:30 a.m. to try to quiet them down.  It was determined they were too drunk to be kicked out at that time, so they were told to go to bed and bright and early they had to pack up and leave on Sunday.  Sunday morning Thom went around and they informed him they were going to get a fire going, feed the kids, and leave in a few hours when they were good and ready.  Thom came back to the trailer, called the Sheriff’s dept, and we had two deputies down here standing in the camp site waiting while they packed up and left.

I’ve a feeling we will be asked to close down early.  We have very little business now.  We’ve got 1 site being used and probably won’t pick up until Thursday.  I think they’ll ask Thom and I to hang around to close up all the campgrounds in the canyon and maybe even keep our campground open for a week or two.

Tiff’s family will be coming in Wednesday.  We’ll be down in Salt Lake Valley that day while I get my cataracts checked to see if they are operable yet.  I’m hoping to get both eyes done before we leave here, but it will only happen if the cataracts are bad enough.  We hope that we have time after the appointment with the Ophthalmologist to visit Thom’s Mom.

I have to figure out just what we want to do next summer.  I’d love the opportunity to spend time up here again so we can stay in touch with Mike ‘n Tiff ‘n Coen, but A, L ‘n L has to really change the job description to make it worth our while.  I WON’T manage a campground AND supervise the canyon Managers again.  I WILL require at least 12 hours a week off.

If Rick can’t come up with something we like very soon, then I’m going to put in for that Lookout Point job on the Oregon Coast next summer.  It’s going to kill me to be so far away from Mike, Tiff and Coen, but I “gotta do what I gotta do”.

OKay ya’ll… no pics again, but at least I finally made time to post.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

Lets see…. we filled up on Thursday evening.  A few left Friday morning and we filled up again Friday afternoon.  Saturday we had a couple of open spots and we really got near empty on Sunday.  I managed to “impress” a group picnicking in one of our double sites Sunday afternoon.  They plan on complaining to whomever they can find to complain to about me.  We have a picnic area which costs $5 to use… you stay within the picnic area for the fee of $5.  If you go outside the picnic area or set up in a campsite for day use, you pay 1/2 the price of the overnight use.  A double sight when then be $16 for day use.  When I told these folks this (they’d been there for over an hour), they said they’d leave.  I said they still had to pay me the fee, they’d obviously used the sight for picnicking, etc.  They said they didn’t have the money.  I said, fine, I’d turn their license # in to the Forest Service Enforcement officer and they’d hear from her.  They decided they really did have the money and would pay, then told me I was rude.  I said I was sorry, didn’t mean to be rude.  They paid me, then one of them called me a bitch.  I then told them they could leave now, they had no right to call me names.  Of course they said they were going to complain, and I gave them the phone number to call.  I called my managers to warn them they probably would be hearing another complaint against me/us and told them what went on.  Of course, they were 100% behind me… they really hate it when their managers are verbally abused.

Yesterday, Monday, we only had 1 site camped in, and another under day use.  We decided to really take a day off!  We left here around 12:30 p.m. or 1:00 and went to Ogden to do a few errands, then hung out at Mikes until about 5:00, then Mike, Tiff, Coen, and Thom ‘n I went to dinner at our favorite Chinese restaurant.  It was a great afternoon and dinner.

Then, today, we were only expecting a group to arrive this afternoon for 2 nights and whatever came in for first come first serve camping.  No new individual campers, just the ones we had yesterday.  We got two new day campers today and they were both super well-behaved and clean people.

MAN!!  If the rest of the season is like this, I’ll be 7th heaven.  I’ll be totally comfortable taking a morning going to Meadows to shoot butterflies, and even trying to find shots in my own campground.  It looks like things are finally slowing down and Thom and I can do so also.

I finally took time to call an Opthamolagist about my cataracts.  I have an appointment for 1 week from tomorrow to get a check up to see if the cataracts are to a point where they can do the surgery, and if they can they will schedule surgery for 1 eye a week from that appointment, then, assuming all heals as expected, the other eye will be done 2 weeks later.  That will give that surgery 1 week to heal before we head south.  I know it’s cutting it close, but I’ve spent weeks trying to find an opthamoligist who accepts Regence Blue Cross Blue Shield payment + 20% from me as payment in full.  This guy is the one who did our friend’s, Scott, cataracta few years back and Scott says he’s very confident in this guy, so my worries about being made blind are cut by at least 50%.  LOL

I’ll post pics again soon.  Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

Thursday evening before 8:00 p.m. and we are all full up.  What’s odd is we have a few campers planning on leaving tomorrow and a few more planning on leaving Saturday.  Maybe about half of the campers will be staying until Sunday.

We have one of our group sites rented for a company’s office party.  While I was giving them their registration papers and explaining the rules, etc, 3 of them were filling water balloons for their annual water  balloon fight.  They had 2 bags of 1500 each balloons.  I quickly asked if they planned on picking up the burst balloons.  The answer was to my liking so I let them proceed.  The other group in the group sites in here tonight seems to be a very nice, quiet group.

I did take the opportunity today to go through my recent photos.  There aren’t a lot worth sharing, but I’ve a few.

I’ll start with the Two T’s, Teasle and Thistle.  This first one is a Teasle.  The Fritillary Butterflies are attracted to this plant big time… just not in my yard.  *sigh*

This is the Thistle… the American Goldfinch go after this plant when it goes to seed.

Here is a shot of the female (juvenile?) American Goldfinch sitting on the spruce tree next to the bird feeder.

This last one is one of our campers enjoying time in the Ogden River.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Tah!

Sorry I’ve waited 4 days again.  It doesn’t seem it’s been that long since I’ve posted.  With the campgrounds in our canyon fully manned, the demands on Thom and I have dropped tremendously.  Thom is feeling a whole lot better and we feel like we’re on top of it again.

We still have a lot more campers than we thought we’d have this time of the year.  People started leaving on Sunday and more people came in Sunday afternoon.  The favored campsites have been occupied constantly for 2 weeks now.  We haven’t even had time to go in and clean between campers, so the new occupants have to put up with us in their campsite if they don’t want to clean it themselves.

Today we had something happen that hasn’t happened for at least 3 years here in the canyon.  The Fish & Wildlife came in and planted 300 rainbow trout in our river… right in our campground.  We have a pretty good population of naturals in our river, so I was surprised they brought in the hatchery fish.  The Fish ‘n Wildlife guy told me that Salt Lake City Forest Service office called and requested fish that wouldn’t cross-breed with the naturals.  The hatchery produces sterile trout and the fish they brought in here were sterile rainbow.  The natural trout in our river are Brown, Cutthroat, Rainbow, Tiger (cross between cutthroat & rainbow), and we also have Kokanee Salmon (a land-locked salmon).  The banks of the river in our campground were full of fisher-persons trying their luck after they saw the plants being poured into the river.  I’m guessing they need to wait a day or two for the fish to get over the transplant shock.

We’re still dealing with idiots in the group sites, but are getting better at not letting them keep us from sleeping at night, except when they are super noisy.

I promise to go through my photos tomorrow to find things to share in my next post.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!

Sherri ‘n Glenn are on the job (South Fork), Mari has been a great help in training Sherri ‘n Sherri is now training Glenn.  Thom is getting better and I don’t feel frazzled anymore, just tired.

The weather was predicted to be wet ‘n cold yesterday and today.  It got a bit chilly last night, cold today, but no rain.  It didn’t get as cold last night as predicted.  Today was sweatshirt temps (under 60F), and we still had kids and their parents tubing the river.

This morning I took the time to take my camera for a walk and hope I got a few good shots of flowers.  I’ll be taking a look at them later this evening.

We’re still getting crazy; self-centered; destructive; and slippery folks in here.  It’s gotten pretty easy now to recognize who’s what.

Right now, at this very minute I’m watching a Red Naped Woodpecker hunt food on the fir tree out my back window…about 10 feet away.  He never shows up when I can get a clear shot of him.

Time to get leftovers put away and sit back and chill.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Toodles.

Yesterday we had a 20% chance of thunderstorms and rain.  We got both in the afternoon.  Today we had/have a 40% chance of the same.  We’ve had wind and clouds but so far no rain or thunder/lightning.  Tomorrow is 60% chance of both.

I sure loved the rain last night and this morning.  Talk about sleeping good!  According to our rain gauge we only got .06 inches of rain.  However much, it was nice.

People are apparantly paying attention to the weather reports… it’s Thursday night and we’re barely half full.  I’d love to have a relaxed weekend.

Mari has been fantastic this week.  She has taken over the collecting at South Fork yesterday and today and saved both Thom and I trips down there.  Glenn & Sherri’s trailer was brought in today and set up, and Sherri is there tonight.  Sherri is Mari’s Mom so Mari is down there tonight training her on filling out the paperwork, etc.  I will go down there tomorrow to make it official.

Thanks to Mari, I was able to get the reports started and caught up for the week… we’re all balanced and things are well caught up.  I’ll even have time tomorrow to work on catching up on my housework.

Marv & Deb are coming up camping soon.  I can’t wait to see them.  It’s been a long time and I really miss them.  I’m not a demonstrative person, so people don’t know how much they mean to me.  I guess I need to make an effort to show them.  I understand Marv & Deb won’t be coming down to Quartzsite this winter due to family issues.  We’re going to really miss them!

I have to send an email to our Forest Service Enforcement Officer showing her the pics of the trash a non-camper came in and dumped in our garbage bins (illegal act).  We also have the make, model and license number of the pickup.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy.

Tah!

This morning I called our boss, Rick, and told him I would do all in my power to keep Thom from doing any South Fork Campground work, so I would appreciate anything he could to do to send his people (whose hours have been cut, so they could be spared) to the campground to clean sites and toilets.  They’ll be coming in tomorrow to clean.  In the meantime, Thom pretty much took the day off (I only had to threaten him 2 or 3 times).  I didn’t even have to do much today.  Mari called and said she got her campground done early and would go collect fees at South Fork if I wanted.  Did I want?  OMG (oh m’ gosh), I wanted!  I got things done this morning and this afternoon Thom and I went down to Roy to take care of some business and finally get the grocery shopping done, I wanted to do.  (got pork spareribs for $1.99/lb, and cherries for $1.95/lb, ‘n pork picnic roast for $1.29/lb)  I even got cucumbers free.  We stopped at Mike ‘n Tiff’s to drop off some things and their garden had ready to pick cukes.  Yummmm!

Thom didn’t do any work at all today other than that done in the mind and seems to be doing a lot better this evening.

The trailer for the new managers at South Fork has been moved into the campground and they will be moving in a day early… tomorrow…  so I’m feeling a whole lot less stressed and feeling a whole lot more human

Talk to ya’ll later.

Stay healthy ‘n happy!

Toodles.

We’ve been working our campground and South Fork for 6 days now, with a little help from Mari (Willows Campground manager)… she’s had her own issues to deal with and hasn’t had much time to give us, but is giving all she can.  Thom hasn’t been well the last 3 or 4 days and this double shift is really hard on him.  I called our boss night before last and asked him to try to find someone to send up to clean the South Fork bathrooms yesterday.  Luckily he was able to find someone and Thom was able to spend a few hours in bed working on getting well.  Of course, today Thom worked both campgrounds again and is still feeling very uckky.  I think I need to call Rick, our boss, and tell him he needs to send some relief before Thom collapses.  Luckily we have new managers,Glenn & Sherri coming in this Friday to take over South Fork.  From what I know of them, the training and transition time should go well and they’ll be doing great by Monday.

I have dishes on my counter that have needed to be washed for 3 days now.  I should be washing them now, but I’m so tired and worn out, they will have to wait one more night.  I’ll do them tomorrow morning before we go shopping.  If we don’t go tomorrow, we won’t get to go until next week and I don’t want to wait that long before I get fresh produce.

We had the privilege of bird sitting Mari’s Oscar last night.  I introduced him to some new foods and hope I DIDN’T introduce him to some new phrases.  My temper’s a bit short lately.

I have taken some photos the last few days, but haven’t had time to look at them yet.  I’ll try to take time soon.  In the meantime, I can’t think of anything that’s happened lately that won’t sound like a whine from me, so I’ll just say g’nite for now.  Things WILL be better in a few days.

Ya’ll stay healthy ‘n happy!

Tah!