Josie's Birthday

Josie's birthday was filled with adventure and ended with a nice surprise birthday dinner at the lodge.

We started out after breakfast to take the Forest Service Road (229) to the Buck Mountain Lookout that was about 6 miles off the road. The lookout sits at over 7500 feet elevation and you can get a pretty good view of the area from the top of the tower. Here are a couple shots of the lookout:

One person at the top of the tower said that on a clear day you can see Jerome and Sedona. It was a little hazy as a result of the controlled burns that the Forest Service is performing in the area and we got a shot of one of these burn areas

There were several hummingbird feeders hanging from different places on the tower and the hummingbirds were swarming around all of them. We tried to get a good shot of them but they were so fast and moving in and out of the feeder that we could only get this shot to give you an idea:
After leaving the lookout, we decided to take the Forest Service roads to Stoneman Lake instead of going back out onto Lake Mary Road and driving further north and coming back in on another road. It was kind of a mistake. A good portion of the back road was a non maintained road and made Josie really nervous because of the ruts and boulders and dips and drops in the road. Bob travels roads like this all the time on his hunting trips but it is nerve racking for Josie. Good thing we had the Jeep. We finally connected to a maintained road again and Josie was happy.

Stoneman Lake was a joke. It was very similar to Mormon Lake (swamp). It looks like such a nice lake on the map and it even has beautiful homes all around the lake. It's too bad that all the residents there have lost tremendous property value as a result of the lake draining. There were lots of homes for sale and some even looked abandoned. One home, advertising lake front, was for sale for nearly $500K and it looks beautiful but probably is only worth half that much now.

Here is a shot of the "lake":


After that disappointment, we headed back to the rig.

My plan, as arranged with some of the staff at the lodge, was to take Josie to the lodge for pizza night to celebrate her birthday. The chef was to bake a cake and we would have a nice, small celebration. It turned out that the chef prepared a steak and baked potato dinner, with party favors, wine and a cake that was a classic. It was mentioned in previous posts that Josie had become the "Mice Queen" of the staff since she has always set the traps and "captured" the mice. Probably about 10-12 since she started planting these traps in the right places. Below is a picture of the cake that was baked:

Notice the (candy) mice that they put on the top. There is even one coming out the side. We certainly had a good laugh over that. It was a much larger celebration than expected and it was much appreciated. Over all, Josie's birthday was a fun day and one that she will long remember.

The post today was delayed as a result of an outage by Alltel so we couldn't get a connection in order to publish it prior to our start for work. Anyway, that sums up the day and we have the large group coming in for the weekend so it should be fun...

Shopping in Flagstaff

We just relaxed and sat around the rig in the morning yesterday. We left for our planned shopping trip in Flagstaff about 11 AM. Our first stop was at Aspen Sports on San Francisco St in Flagstaff. It is a reputable outdoor equipment retailer in the Flagstaff area and a place where we could get expert help for choosing the right hiking boots for Josie. It cost a little more than we planned to spend for hiking boots but the advice was worth the price. The salesman was actually the store owner and he really knew his stuff. We also purchased a pair of hiking poles and the advice on those also was worth the trip. We passed on back packs as we need to decide what we want first. There are so many different styles and functions that we felt we should first go on a few hikes and get a good feel for what we need. Happy birthday, Josie.

Our other shopping goals were accomplished as Bob had his appointment with the hearing center and we went to Fry's and picked up much needed groceries. We arrived home at 6:30 and had dinner before settling down to watch "So You Think You Can Dance" on TV. It is one of our favorite shows and they are down to 6 contestants with the finale scheduled for next week.

The plan for today is to take the Forest Service road that was discussed yesterday. We will go to the restaurant in the lodge for dinner as they are having a special pizza night tonight. If all goes according to plan, it should be a fun birthday for Josie. We'll try to get some good pictures of our adventure today...

Invited Back Next Year

One of the best signs that your work is appreciated is to be invited back the following year. After work yesterday, Josie took the cart up to the rig of the on-site manager (he and his wife were off Monday-Tuesday) to review some of the things that were done and some that were not done so they can handle them while we have our days off. The manager asked Josie if we were planning to come back next year and she said we hadn't been asked, so he told her he had recommended to the General Manager that we be given invitations back. There are several staff members that will not be asked to return so it made us feel pretty good. This is one of the better paying jobs in one of the nicer areas of Arizona so it's good to have the invitation in our pocket if we don't have other plans. We would have to give it serious consideration since there wouldn't be a learning curve or training requirement when we returned.

Without going off on too much of a tangent, we talked last night about this Workamping life. We both agreed that we wished we had started earlier. There is no tension, we are getting to stay at nice places virtually free, we have time to see the areas, we work in a happy, relaxed environment and we can choose where to go and what to do. And we get paid to do it! We deal only with people that are on vacation or retired and want to be happy and enjoy their stay. True, it may not be for everybody, but we have yet to talk to anyone who wasn't happy he/she made the choice. We have just about everything that we had in our house only with no wasted space. You realize that the things you got rid of to live this lifestyle were only "stuff", and not required or needed to be happy. Enough of that for now.

Today, we plan to go to Flagstaff for some shopping and Bob's appointment at the hearing center. We don't know if there will also be time to do our mini-trip on the Forest Service Road but will do that tomorrow if not today. Tomorrow is Josie's birthday so we have to do something special for that. It is a little more difficult to plan something without her knowledge since we both are together all the time.

Stay tuned to see what happens...

Planning Our Days Off

Today is our last work day before our "weekend". We were told about a lookout that was pretty easy to get to and was the highest point in the Happy Jack area. The cross country group that was mentioned in yesterday's post used that trail and the lookout as their last exercise before leaving yesterday AM. So, after we go to Flagstaff again tomorrow - Bob has another appointment with the hearing center - we will take the Forest service Road (229) to the lookout. If we don't have time tomorrow, we will do it on Wednesday.

Josie had another long day yesterday while helping the new housekeeping person get familiar with the routine. The new person (Ola) will only be working on Fri-Mon though, so there won't be complete relief for Josie from the cabins but it will help tremendously.

Options still keep coming for our winter season stint. We received another offer yesterday for a campground on the beach at Long Beach, WA. That one may be a little too wet for us though. We received another from a company that manages about 60 campgrounds in WA and OR that has asked us to consider working in one of their parks - next summer. The parks they manage are all in the mountain areas of those states and are closed in the winter. There are some good options there. We received another offer to work a Christmas tree lot in Orange County, Ca., from Nov 26 to Dec 23. The money is again terrific but it's real hard work and only for one month. We still have some time to decide, but it's nice to know there are so many options to choose from. The one "must do" option hasn't come yet. We'll see...

Busy Weekend Ends

It seems like the weekends keep getting busier and busier even though they are not holidays. I mentioned the athletic group that was here over the weekend. Actually, they were the Desert Vista High School boy's cross country team from Phoenix. They have won the state 5A championship for 4 of the last 5 years. It was such a great group of teenage boys. They occupied most of our cabins and you hardly knew they were there. They worked out most of the day and played ball on the Ramada ball field and held meetings in the Ramada the rest of the time. Today they all go home.

Even with the manager talking to several of the parents in the campground about their kids' riding the ATV's without helmets and just joyriding, there still are a few that ignore the rules. He says that the rules will be enforced totally from now on. We hope so. It is still a ticking time bomb with the violators.

Josie has been filling in on the housekeeping side by cleaning the cabins and doing the cabins laundry. She is starting to feel the pain in her hands again the way she felt it in the flower shop. That's not a good thing. She is again wearing the soft brace on her hand and she is talking about seeing a doctor to get a shot. The best solution is to stop the heavy cleaning in the cabins and get back to her normal duties in the lodge. Of course, that depends on the management finding some other help somewhere to help out with the cabins. We hope it happens soon.

Yesterday's weather extremes were 83 high and 54 low. It was the fourth straight day with no measurable rain even though there were storms all around us. We keep hearing about heavy storms from people driving through them to get here from the Valley. Maybe the staff member was right that said we were situated on a point on the Mogollon Rim that causes the storms to go around Happy Jack.

Two more days to our "weekend". We will be back on our regular schedule this week - as far as we know. They haven't published the schedule yet which is unusual.

Later...

A Normal Day

There were no helicopters or emergencies yesterday so the day was considered normal. Josie spent part of the day cleaning cabins and the rest at the lodge doing normal activities like stocking shelves in the store, dusting areas and performing front desk duties. Bob did his normal duties at the front desk, dispensing propane, stocking the ice freezer and other computer related stuff. We again worked late - 9:45 PM - and had a few glitches while performing the closing duties. The lodge did a tremendous business yesterday with the groups in the resort. We had a slight problem balancing the till during closing but we eventually got through it.

The problem with the ATV's in the campground has been mentioned before. Finally, the manager went around to all the sites of the violators yesterday and reminded them that if the rules were not followed that they could be evicted. He probably got a little nervous after having two helicopters come in two days and didn't want to take a chance on another to airlift children out of here.

The weather is nice with a high of 82 and a low of 56 yesterday. We had just a couple sprinkles yesterday even though we heard about some heavy rainfall in the surrounding areas. The days almost always start clear with clouds building as the day progresses. The same as the Valley except we are always 25-30 degrees cooler.

We have our normal afternoon shift today and hope all stays normal...

Another Helicopter

Our morning started slowly yesterday with both of us watching the Today Show and having a leisurely breakfast while waiting for our 1 PM start time. About 12:30 we saw an ambulance at the entrance to the resort and a crowd of people standing around. Yesterday and today is extra busy as a result of a motorcycle rally that is taking place both here and at Mormon Lake Lodge. There are motorcycles everywhere and there are going to be even more today. Anyway, we decided to get to work right away in case we were needed to help in some way. When we arrived at the lodge we were told that a helicopter was on its way to airlift a patient to Flagstaff. Two helicopters in two days. Sheesh! It turns out that one of the motorcycles rear ended another on the highway at the entrance. One was stopped ready to turn into the lodge and the other one didn't realize he was stopped. Because it was a head injury, the helicopter was called. Here is a shot of the patient being loaded into the helicopter:

Let's hope that the helicopter visits are over.

We again will work the late shift today as our staff member is still participating in the rally and will not be available to work this afternoon. We got home after 9:30 last night since we can't close until the bar in the banquet room closes at, or shortly after, 9 PM. It all adds up to extra hours for us which is good.

We are stepping up our efforts to line up Workamping gigs for the winter and next summer. We have received some interesting inquiries, including running a Christmas tree lot in Florida between Thanksgiving and Christmas. It is hard work but the money is tremendous. We'll see.

As I'm sitting here writing this entry there are about 50 young boys running down the road outside our rig. Part of the group that is here is an athletic club and they are out early this morning. There is not a space to be had in the resort this weekend between the groups and motorcycle rally participants. We hope for a normal day today...

Short Road Trip & Chores

We were told about a road that went only about 5 miles into the forest before it ended at a deep canyon. The road was just a few miles from the lodge so we decided to drive it today and then do some things around the rig the rest of the day.

The road was not one of the best that we have been on since we started driving these Forest Service Roads but it was still ok. The road did end after about 5 miles and there was a huge, deep canyon with rock walls at its end. This is part of the West Clear Creek Wilderness and there is actually a creek at the bottom that has cut this huge canyon. We were at the eastern end of the canyon - see Clints Well on the link - and it was nearly impossible to get a clear shot of the canyon through the trees. The drop off from where we were was steep and we didn't want to get too far down the slope so here is the best we could do:

The picture doesn't do justice to the scene of this huge canyon in the middle of the forest.

There were huge pine trees in the area we stopped and Josie was excited to see so many pine cones on the ground. There were all sizes and she was reminded of the days we owned our flower shop and had to buy these from suppliers that did exactly what she started to do - pick up the good ones and stash them for Christmas.

The difference is we don't have the room to store this kind of stuff. She said that we were probably missing a good opportunity to gather these pine cones and sell them to shops at Christmas time. I don't think that is in our future.

It was a pleasant trip and we stopped at the Long Valley Cafe at Clints Well afterward to grab some lunch. The day then ended with Josie doing some laundry and Bob defrosting the freezer in the rig - fun jobs.

Our schedule was changed today. We will start at 1 PM and work until about 9 PM since one of our staff wants to go to a motorcycle rally in the afternoon. The late hour is a result of the restaurant staying open until that hour. This will be the latest that we have worked and it gets pretty close to our bedtime so we'll see how that goes...

Flagstaff Errands and Alarming Ending

The day went just about as planned yesterday. We went to Flagstaff at about noon and Josie got her much needed haircut, Bob had his appointment at the hearing center and Josie got some shopping done. We also went to a couple stores to try to find hiking boots for her but didn't have any luck. We miss being near the Cabela's store in Glendale. We could buy a pair and have them shipped but this is something you need to try on before you buy.

Our errands and shopping were done around 4:30 so we decided to treat ourselves to dinner. We went to the Olive Garden restaurant in Flagstaff and had a great dinner there, as usual. We brought leftovers home for lunch today. There were lots of clouds all day and even though we didn't get any rain in Flagstaff, it rained .17" here at Happy Jack. The rain keeps the temps down as the high was 77 and the low 51 yesterday.

Everything was normal as we watched the So You Think You Can Dance show and turned in at about 9:30. Josie woke up Bob at 1:30 AM this morning to watch an ambulance that arrived at one of our cabins. The ambulance left the cabin and was sitting down near the Ramada with its lights still flashing. It turns out they were waiting for a helicopter to arrive to carry the patient by air to the Flagstaff hospital. Evidently, there were three men in one of the cabins and one of them, a diabetic, slipped and fell in the bathroom and had some pretty serious injuries. We don't know more than that at this time but will find out more when we go back to work on Friday. We were told by one of the maintenance staff members that also was watching the action that the ambulances don't like to travel on the roads at night because of the number of elk that are always crossing them and they create a real danger for speeding ambulances. Makes sense.

We will do short trip on one of the Forest Service Roads today and then Josie has to catch up on some laundry. Bob will try to get some good photos today of the trip. That's it for now...

Cattle Invasion

There is a small cattle ranch that borders the far south edge of the resort property. We were shocked yesterday morning to see six cattle grazing in the playground area outside our rig.

We have had occasions where maybe one or two cows had entered the property at its edge, but this was the first time we had a full invasion. They didn't stay very long though. They heard their whistle sound at the ranch and they scampered back, in a straight line, to where the gate was located and they disappeared. Other than that early excitement the day was pretty normal.

The monsoon sure cooled things down yesterday. We had a high of only 78 and a low of 50. It was nice and we had no rain. Today is another crystal clear and bright morning. Our plan is to go into Flagstaff and take care of a couple things. Josie will get a haircut and Bob has an appointment with the Abbott Hearing Center in Flagstaff to have an adjustment made to one of his hearing aids. We will also try to find a suitable pair of hiking boots for Josie. We talked about having dinner at Olive Garden when we are done. It would be the first time in a long time that we ate out so we are due. There is a nearby Forest Service Road that we want to try tomorrow so we hope to get some photos.

Cool Down & Rain

We had a monsoon storm yesterday afternoon just as expected with all the clouds we had in the AM. It wasn't a violent storm as these monsoon storms can be. It rained for about 30 minutes with a little lightening and some thunder. The temperature cooled though to a high of 82 and the total rainfall was .21" which was quite a bit for a short storm. We understand that the Valley got some pretty strong storms with lots of high wind, dust and rain. Tis the season!

The day was otherwise pretty slow in the lodge. Josie again spent the major portion of the day performing cabin duties and she again got a couple extra hours of work time. The cabins are ready for the weekend though so she is done with those duties except for some servicing such as providing towels, coffee, etc. to any of the stay overs needing them.

Today is our last day before our "weekend". We have a trip to Flagstaff planned so that Josie can get her hair cut and do some miscellaneous shopping. We will try to find some hiking boots for her also. We are anxious to do some hiking on some of the trails that have been recommended to us. We also heard about a beautiful canyon that is fairly close to the lodge that we want to investigate.

We received another email about the Alaska opportunity at Denali Park. The opportunity is well paying but we still have a logistical problem of going there for a training session right after Labor Day for 3 weeks. That is a long way to go for such a short time only to return after the training. The jobs will be from May thru Labor Day of 2010. We'll continue to discuss options with them as it is something we would love to do. They indicated that they hire about 44 staff members each year and about half of them are people returning from the previous year. That says a lot about the area, the jobs and the management. Stay tuned...

Long Day

Yesterday was by far the longest day at work for Josie. She went to work at 8 AM and worked until we both got off at about 6:45 PM. Bob started at 12 noon, the normal start time for us on Sundays. He got a chance to watch the last round of the British Open and witness the meltdown of Tom Watson. What a shame. Here is a 59 year old golf legend, leading the tournament with one hole to play, and he only needs a par on the last whole to make golfing history. He bogey's the last hole, gets into a playoff with Stewart Cink, and gets crushed in the 4 hole playoff.

There are 18 cabins in the resort and Josie and Jamie cleaned all of them. It looks like that may become a standard part of Josie's schedule since our housekeeping crew has left us. It does give her an opportunity to get a break from the front desk and also lets her get close to a 40 hr week. We have both been trying to get as many hours as possible so we can maximize our earnings while here. So far, we have been averaging about 32-33 hrs per week. We need to get more than that to accomplish our financial goals. The biggest problem for us has, and will be for a couple years, covering Josie's health insurance premiums until she can get on to Medicare.

Today is a fairly easy day for us and we start at 8 and work till 2. That is, unless Josie has to clean vacated cabins, which may happen, and she will have to work longer. The weather has been outstanding. We have had very little rain from the monsoon so far and the temps have hung around in the high 80's for several days now. It looks like we may get some rain today, however, as the sky is very cloudy whereas mornings are usually bright, sunny and cloudless.

Later...

Adjusting & Dinner at the Lodge

Yesterday was a busy day at the lodge, especially for Josie. She had to spend almost the entire shift cleaning cabins to get ready for check-ins. Bob spent a good portion of his shift rearranging displays in the store. In between, we both were performing normal duties at the front desk. Josie was asked to come in early today (8 AM) to get a head start on the cabins as people check-out. Our normal shift for today is 12 to 6, so Josie will get 4 extra hours. Since the Housekeeping people are gone, it is going to put a temporary strain on the remaining people on the staff until a longer term solution can be found.

We went to the lodge for dinner to have their meatloaf special with mashed potatoes and green bean casserole. It was pretty good, especially the "gooey butter cake" dessert. We had the entire meal for free, since the chefs always provide free meals for the staff - a really good benefit! We think that they are only supposed to discount our meals 25%, but they said that as long they are there, the staff will not pay anything. Nice people!

Josie will leave soon for her long day while Bob can watch the last round of the British Open golf tournament before he starts at noon. Somebody has to do it...

Shuffle at Work

The impact of the inspection on Tuesday was felt yesterday when we arrived at work and discovered some changes. The first change, and not necessarily as a result of the inspection, was that one of our maintenance people was asked to leave. Of course, when he was asked to leave his wife immediately resigned and the two of them left the resort together as we were about one hour into our shift. That left us without our main housekeeping person. It appears that Josie will get some extra hours helping out to clean cabins until a longer term solution can be had. We'll have to see what other schedules are affected.

The inspection, as we are told, was almost a repeat of last year's inspection. We may have to shut down our banquet room as a result of items that were not fixed from last year. That means two more people will have to leave - the bartender in the banquet room and her husband, the entertainer who plays the guitar and sings on the weekends. You'd think that the ownership would spend a few bucks to bring things up to code to keep business coming in. Oh, well. Don't get me wrong, the lodge is in fine condition but there are some (hidden) County codes that have not been met. Most of these pertain to the way the bar is set up. Anyway, we'll adapt to whatever changes they want to make.

We did receive an inquiry from Denali Park in Alaska for jobs next summer. They have two lodges and have asked us if we would be interested in roles at either of the lodges. We don't have a lot of information about it yet but they would like the couple to come up on September 1st to the 21st of this year to prepare for the job beginning in May, 2010, and lasting all summer. We couldn't make two trips to Alaska so unless they change the requirement for a visit this year, we'll have to pass. We will get more information though. It is a goal of ours to work in Alaska as soon as possible - while we are still young enough and healthy enough to travel there. Our resume is on a couple Workamping databases and we get inquiries based upon our desired locations and work experience. This experience at Happy Jack has been very valuable for future jobs and we expect to have excellent references as a result.

Just a side note about the weather yesterday - we hit a record high (since we've been here) of 92 with a low of 50.

More later...

Trip to Pine Mountain

After a slow start to the day yesterday we decided to take a trip to Pine Mountain. We had heard about this trip from one of the campers who had taken her ATV on a couple roads in the area and said it was beautiful. The road is about 13 miles north on the Forest Highway 3 (Lake Mary Road) and is easy to get to. After about 1 mile in on the road, we spotted these elk:

There were three of them just grazing and watching us go by. The third one is behind the trees and not visible. We drove along the road for probably 4 miles and came to a marker that pointed to Pine Mountain on a trail that would be better suited for an ATV. We could see the mountain on the map but the road to get to it was just too risky, and there was no way Josie would want to go down the trail in our Jeep. Bob has been on much worse and is used to traveling these kind of roads on hunting trips but Josie would have no part of it. So we didn't get to see Pine Mountain. It's always fun taking these Forest Service Roads though and you never know what you're going to see. The road came back out onto the main road after traveling about 18 miles. It actually came out pretty close to the Mormon Lake lodge so we went there and got some water. Usually, we take a small cooler full of water but this time we walked out of the rig and left it on the counter in the kitchen. It was a fun trip and the weather was great (86 high, 54 low) all day.

The rest of the afternoon was spent doing laundry back at the lodge. We have a hummingbird feeder attached to the rear window of our fifth wheel and we have been getting a lot of traffic recently. Here is a picture of one of the regulars:

We have had so many visits to the feeder that we have been filling it about once a week. It is interesting watching some of these birds fight over the feeder. They are very territorial and each one defends it likes it belongs to him.

Today is an early day and we will be on duty at 7 AM. There is a huge crowd expected this weekend - a church group - so we will have a packed resort...

Day in Flagstaff and Water Problem Fixed

Just as we were having a leisurely morning of watching the news and having breakfast prior to leaving for our day of errands in Flagstaff, we checked the phone and saw a message from the previous night. The message was from RV Country LLC, the mobile repair people that work this area. They said they received the parts for the retrofit of our water valve system and wanted to come up and do the install on Wednesday. You may recall the problem we had with the Zurn valves in our rig. They kept failing and causing a flood in our basement. Doubletree RV agreed to completely replace the valve system with a new, better version. So much for the leisurely morning. We scrambled to get ready to go to Flagstaff and we were on the road by 10 AM. RV Country would come and start the work and we would be back by the end of the afternoon.

This time we had the camera with us to take pictures of the two lakes that are on the way to Flagstaff from Happy Jack. The first one, going north, is Mormon Lake:

This lake should actually be called Mormon "Swamp" since it is mostly marsh right now. It is in a beautiful area though and we talked about the Mormon Lake Lodge, that is on the other side, in an earlier post. The second lake, Lake Mary, is much larger and much prettier:

This is a great boating and fishing lake. We have talked about getting an inflatable boat with an electric motor to take on our travels and we discussed it again while looking at this huge lake. We used to have one these (Sea Eagle) at our residence on Lake Tuck in Washington years ago. It was a lot of fun and easy to store.

We accomplished most of our planned errands: Bob's haircut, Josie's nails, food shopping, supplies at Sam's Club and Josie's prescription at Wal Mart. We headed home and got there a little after 5 and the RV Country people were just finishing up the install. They told us it was a joy working with the Doubletree people on this project. They described some recent horror stories while working with other manufacturers on other fixes for people. That says a lot about Doubletree and helps explain why they are still in business while a lot of other major RV companies are out of business. Anyway, we think that the fix will prevent any valve failures and flooding in the future.

Today we plan to take a ride on a couple of the Forest Service Roads that branch off the main road. Hopefully, we can get some pictures along the way.

That's it for now...

County Inspection

We had heard for about a week that the County Inspectors were expected on Tuesday for their annual look-see and evaluation of the lodge. Last week we had a surprise visit from the Health Department for their annual evaluation and we passed with just a few minor violations. Those violations were all in the banquet room and they are repeats of last year. The inspection yesterday was a physical inspection by the County for construction violations and inspections of electrical, plumbing, etc.

The managers came in on their scheduled day off to make sure everything was prim and proper before the arrival of the inspectors. We mopped, dusted, cleaned, washed and pretty much polished the lodge in preparation for their arrival. They did arrive at around 11 AM and everybody who was anybody was there: General Manager, Maintenance Manager and Staff Managers. There were four inspectors, all with clipboards and very official looking faces. We kind of chuckled at the front desk because it was made into such a huge event. Maybe it is. Maybe they will find serious violations and shut down a part or all of the lodge. Not likely. Anyway, we left our shift at 2 PM and they were still walking around the grounds doing the inspection. I'm sure we will hear about the results when we go back to work on Friday.

Today we decided to go to Flagstaff instead of Payson. The things we need to do are better accomplished in the larger city of Flagstaff. They also have a WalMart (albeit not a super center like Payson), more barbers, more salons, a Fry's supermarket, a Sam's Club and more choices than Payson. We will have a leisurely breakfast then try to leave around 9. The camera will be with us just in case.

Later...

Scheduling Our Days Off

It cooled off a bit yesterday (86 and 48) while the temperatures stayed around 113 in the Valley. We had no rain though so the monsoon must still be on break.

Every month we change the codes for entry into the RV storage area and the bathrooms/showers. That means that people that go directly to these facilities try the code they know and, of course, it doesn't work so they have to come into the lodge to get the new codes. The problem is that people that try to use the old code at the storage facility across the street have to get the new combination from us at the Host campsite outside of business hours in order to gain entry. We get a couple people knocking at our door after each code change to get the new one. Yesterday morning at 6 AM a gentleman came to the door to get the new storage code. It's one of the few inconveniences of staying in the Host Campsite.

Today will be the seventh straight day of working for us so we will be glad to see the two days off tomorrow and Thursday. We will definitely be planning a trip to Payson to get some supplies and prescription refills at WalMart. We also need some groceries so we will probably go the Safeway there in addition to WalMart. Payson also has a Basha's but we never go there since the prices are usually higher than both Safeway and WalMart and now, we hear that they are gong into Chapter 11 bankruptcy. This economy is sure taking its toll on businesses everywhere. Josie has heard of a pretty good salon there so she will probably have some work done there while Bob tries to find a barbershop to get his hair cut. We have been saving a lot of money in gas since we've stopped the trips to the Valley to finish up our cleanup duties.

There will be some fun things planned after the day of errands. We are looking at a couple different trails (Forest Service Roads) to take to try and discover some hiking trails that would be suitable for us older folks. We're not looking for an Everest type hike, so we will try to determine their ratings of difficulty from several local hiking publications that we have at the lodge. Anyhow, it's always fun discovering new things on these back roads while also keeping an eye out for elk and other critters. Bob obtained a map of the Coconino National Forest that is the Bible for ATV'ers and hikers around here. It shows every road, trail, ridge, draw, hill, mountain, lake, pond campground and even hatcheries in the forest. The camera will definitely be along.

Stay tuned...

Lifestyle Discussion

Every once in awhile we get into a discussion with visitors about how we arrived here at Happy Jack. It is usually while Bob is dispensing propane and the discussion leads to why we got rid of everything and began this lifestyle of traveling across the country while stopping to Workamp along the way. The people who have been a real inspiration to us are Howard and Linda Payne of RV-Dreams.com. Bob has been following their travels for at least three years and marvels at their philosophy and experiences. Following is an exerpt of a discussion that Howard also had just yesterday:

"As the discussion progressed, he said he was a painting contractor and business is so bad everyone in his area had cut their prices by 40%. He said he is struggling to keep his home of twelve years, he is behind on mortgage payments, services have been cut off, he had had to cancel health insurance.
It had been his dream since he left Chicago to own a home and now everything is falling apart. They were thinking of giving it all up and moving to Alaska to find their way. I could see this fairly young, good looking, intelligent guy was overwhelmed and in despair.
Then his focus turned to me. As these conversations usually go, soon I was telling him we were full-time RVers. I was explaining how we quit our jobs, sold all our stuff and have been traveling the country stopping every once in awhile to take on jobs.
The couple perked up, and once I divulged that I used to be a lawyer and accountant, the questions started coming in rapid-fire fashion. With a big grin, I responded "Yep, I was a real estate attorney and now I'm picking aluminum foil out of your firepit". :)
She was nodding with every statement I made. You could tell she had been telling him some of the same things about "stuff is just stuff" and there is more to life than owning a house. He kept asking questions and saying he could see a twinkle in my eye.
I told him about other full-timers we know that lost everything on a business, started out in a tiny trailer, and worked their way out of debt on the road. I told him about our website, about Workamper.com, about Caretaker.org.
By the end of our conversation, his wheels were turning. He said their one-day camping trip was worth those few minutes we spent together. They have a long road ahead of them, but I think they will at least have some hope that there are other alternatives and they can live a simpler life and still be happy."

We can attest to the fact that life is much more simple for us. This lifestyle obviously is not for everybody but if people need to connect better and realize there is more to life than material things, there is none better.

Anyway, our journey is just beginning and we look forward to the adventures and the simplicity that this lifestyle offers. Already, Josie is not feeling the constant pain and numbness she had in her hands and back that she had working everyday in a flower shop. She also has said on several occasions that she feels like she is on vacation and keeps expecting to have to go back to "real" work. That is a feeling that almost everybody gets in this lifestyle. So much for that right now.

We had a small storm go through the resort yesterday that dropped .01" of rain. It only lasted for about 15 minutes but it sure cooled down afterwards. We do the early shift again today and will be off around 1:30. That's about it for now...

Warmer Yet

At 87 degrees yesterday it was really roasting in Happy Jack. That is, until you see it was 114 in the Valley. People that live in the Valley, which is almost 100 % of our business, look for any excuse to come up here on weekends. One fellow that we changed his storage site from a 60 foot storage space to a 36 foot storage space said he would be up tomorrow (today) to make the switch. He said he was looking for a reason to get out of the heat in the Valley. Another person said he had an air conditioner problem during the week before he arrived yesterday and the repair people are so backed up he waited almost a week for the fix.

We like having the early shift on the weekends because we get free breakfast from the restaurant. We don't get to sit down and eat it like most people but there is enough of a break in the morning to eat it while we work at the front desk. Bob had a pancake and sausage, hash browns and some bacon and scrambled eggs. Josie had the same except for french toast instead of pancake. Sometimes we don't get there in time to eat breakfast when we have the late shift which is our turn today. Bummer.

We have decided that the rules regarding ATV's are just too hard to enforce. It seems that we are the only ones trying to stop the violations. The other staff members don't hand out the rules when people check in and, except for us, don't attempt to stop the people that still violate the joy riding and kids that still ride around without helmets. It's a shame because it's a serious accident waiting to happen. Last year the lodge had asphalt roads throughout the campground but because of so many potholes they tore up the asphalt and spread 3/4" rocks (gravel?) instead. The roads are still difficult to ride on with vehicles and RV's - in some places the rocks are so deep and loose you can't even walk on them until they get compressed by traffic. Maybe we are wrong and shouldn't care so much.

We will relax until we begin work at 12 noon. That's about it for now...

Getting Warm

We set a new high temperature record for us - 85 -yesterday. While it was about 109 in the Valley it doesn't sound too bad. Actually, the lodge isn't air conditioned so it does get pretty warm inside. We had to move some of the chocolate candy into the refrigerator in the back of the lodge because it was getting soft. We put a sign on the shelf that there was more candy in the back. A delivery was received for lots of other store goods, including ice cream, and we had to hustle to get that into the ice cream freezer display before it melted. With the windows open and the ceiling fans going, it was still a challenge to create good airflow. Even though it's really hot in the Valley, they are not used to temperatures in the mid to high 80's here. We expect another couple days of temps in the high 80's while the Phoenix area will be 113+.

There was still some smoke from the controlled burns in the area. The wind direction shifted in the early morning though and took most of it away. It is amazing how these fires impact the ATV riders that are here. They religiously look at the National Forest Service reports to make sure that the trails they will be riding will be open.

This is a long stretch of working days for us. Since we had Monday and Tuesday off last week we have to work seven straight days until our next "weekend" on Wednesday and Thursday this coming week. It's not too bad except for the days that we start at 7 AM. That means early to bed the night before and early to rise the day of work. Today is the second straight of those. Tomorrow is a late start day so we will enjoy sleeping in a bit.

Later...

Controlled Burns

Just before the Monsoon took a break this week we had some pretty good storms that skirted the Happy Jack Lodge. Although we got little, if any, rain from them, there were three lightening strikes in areas fairly close to us on the 4th of July. The National Forest Service has been dropping off daily reports for the ATV'ers about the fires and how they are progressing. These lightening strikes started fires and the NFS uses these strikes to perform "Managed Burns" in those areas. We can see the smoke from these fires every day and it's very interesting to watch how they use these fires to better control the undergrowth in these forest areas to prevent huge fires in the future. This morning is a bit hazy from the smoke so the wind probably has shifted so that the smoke is coming our way. It's not too bad but it is noticeable.

Today is another early start at the lodge - 7 AM. We are talking about taking another trip or two on the back roads on our days off. There are so many places to go it's hard to decide which ones to see. Hiking is also in our future but not until we can get some needed items: backpacks, hiking sticks, boots for Josie. It may be awhile before we are totally outfitted for hiking.

That's about it for now...

Where To Go Next

After visiting the Mormon Lake Lodge and talking to the Manager there, we began thinking about where we want to spend the winter and the seasons beyond. Our original thought had been Florida for the winter. Josie has family there and we have never spent more than a short vacation anywhere in the state. It would have to be in the southern part of Florida since the winters can get pretty cold in areas north of central Florida. Anyway, we did send out some feelers over the last couple weeks and have gotten less than stellar responses so far. It may be because it is still early to seek those jobs or that most of the resorts and parks have the same people coming back every year and they don't need new couples. We will keep that option open.

Our plan was to possibly go to Alaska next summer while we are still young enough and healthy enough. If we go to Florida, it makes for a long journey to Alaska when the season ends. So now, we are considering something possibly along the coast in California, Oregon or in Western Washington. One thing we will need to do between jobs is schedule a visit to our daughter, Patty, and her family outside Chicago before starting the next job. We miss seeing our grand kids so that will be a given. Probably, the best way to do that is to stay in one of our Thousand Trails campgrounds for free and leave the fifth wheel there while we fly to Chicago. Anyway, we are starting to plot the next 9 -12 months.

The weather continues to be ideal with a high yesterday of 81 and low of 54. We haven't had any rain from the Monsoon for 5 days now and that is nice. We are off to work at 8 this morning and scheduled till 3. That is a little longer than usual day for us since we normally are off at 1 or 2. They are trying to get us the 35 hours per week that we were promised when we took the job. So far we have been averaging about 30-32 hours per week. The reason is that the management hired one more person for the front desk than is actually required so the hours are being spread more evenly. Oh, well...

Visit to Mormon Lake Lodge

Our plan for the day yesterday was to stay home and do some cleaning and organizing in the fifth wheel. By the time the afternoon rolled around and the weather was so beautiful (80 high, 49 low) we decided to take a short drive somewhere.

We had always driven by the turnoff to the Mormon Lake Lodge on our way to Flagstaff and have wondered if that really was a lodge - similar to our Happy Jack Lodge - so we checked it out.

We were amazed at the facilities and the size of the lodge. Also, there are many homes and RV's surrounding the lodge and roads going off the main entrance road leading up hills to even more homes in the woods. We walked into the store to see how it compared to ours. They had many items that we don't carry in our store and people have asked us where they can buy them: packaged liquor, cigarettes, fishing tackle, etc. Even though the lodge is about 24 miles north of us, it adds an alternative for people asking for things in our store that we don't carry.

We talked to the Manager of the lodge at some length after we left the store and checked out their restaurant, saloon and RV park. She indicated that they would be looking for Workampers for next year to host their RV park and encouraged us to apply. We decided, on the way home, that even though there were more amenities at the Mormon Lake lodge, it wasn't as nice as the Happy Jack setup and we would not apply there for next year. We really don't know where we will be next year. We will, however, submit an application that they gave us for the Forever Resorts group of nationwide resorts on the chance we could possibly work one of their other locations. The RV park they had was not anywhere near as nice as ours, and the host would only be paid minimum wage for 20-25 hours which amounted to much less than we were making at Happy Jack.

So ended our two days off. We work the morning shift today and for the next 4 days, and then work Sunday afternoon to end our work week. The place is quiet once again with the holiday crowd gone for now...

Winding Down From the Holiday Weekend

The schedules were shuffled again this week so we have Monday and Tuesday off this week. Yesterday was a good day to have off after the frantic weekend. We slept in a little and pretty much just hung out at the fifth wheel. We did take a drive into Payson in the afternoon to do some grocery shopping and we went to the casino again while there. Again, we didn't spend much money, hit a couple small jackpots, and left with about the same money we went in with.

Today will be another rest day and we will enjoy the weather once again. It was 82 (high) and 42 (low) yesterday. It appears that the monsoon storms will take a break for awhile.

Not much else to report for now...

It's Over!

What a great finish to the busiest day we've had since we arrived.

The weather was perfect - 83 high, 49 low, and the day was mostly sunny. It was non-stop business in the restaurant - over 90 buffet breakfasts served - and people coming in to check-out and buy last minute stuff before they departed. We had to bundle the 20 dollar bills before 11 AM because we had so many. It was so busy that Josie was recruited to work in the kitchen and the other front desk person on duty, Grayce, was recruited to help bus tables in the restaurant. That left Bob to work the front desk alone and it was a steady flow of customers all morning. Following is a picture of the dump station taken after we got off duty:

The dump station began to back up in a big way after this shot was taken and enough of the RV sites had vacated so we could send some of the "dumpers" to the pull thru sites to dump in order to keep the line down at the dump station itself. Many of the people would empty their tank and go directly to the storage area (below):

The number of people returning their rigs to storage was so great that the gate at the storage area was never closed all day until late in the afternoon.

The day was capped off with a bonfire outside the Ramada where there was entertainment and light refreshments for anybody that wanted to attend. Our entire staff attended since it started after we closed the lodge. It was a festive time. Below is a picture of Mystique, the Maltese dog of one of our staff members - Jamie:

She has several outfits for the dog, including a leather motorcycle outfit that will make a great picture.

The entertainment started at about 7:30 and with the darkness beginning to set in, everybody was singing and having a great time. Here is a picture of the bonfire in full swing:

The last shot is of a little boy that caught the festive spirit and started dancing to the music in front of the fire. He was dancing away for about a half hour and even mooned the crowd during his dance:

We returned to our fifth wheel just before 10 PM, with a full moon outside. A great time and a great end to the holiday weekend. Like Josie said, it feels like we are on vacation and not working at all. We hope that feeling continues...

Fourth of July Party

Yesterday saw the largest crowd we have seen since we came here. One of the seasonal site people threw a party in the Ramada starting about 1 PM and the place was jumping. It happened to start about the time we got off work so we went over and joined in. It was a pot luck for everybody and anybody that wanted to attend. Here is a shot of Josie after she filled her plate:

The party lasted all afternoon and evening and there were games and fun for all. It was a record day for the store. We had to move bags of ice from the rear Freezer in the banquet room to the store ice freezer at least three times on our shift and I'm sure at least that many times on the late shift. There was a steady stream of store business all day. There were kids and ATV's everywhere.

An update on the child that was injured on Friday PM: She had 2 pins placed in her elbow to repair the break and she was returned to the campground last night. It was not a very happy Fourth celebration for that family except that the injuries could have been worse.

It rained for a brief time in the late afternoon but again, the storm just skirted the lodge area and we didn't have any measurable rain this time. The high was 79 and the low was 50 - while it was over 105 in the valley. We'll take it! There were no fireworks allowed because of the County restrictions and this was the first time in many years that we didn't see fireworks on the Fourth of July.

We expect that the people will begin leaving today and that means super busy dump business. This time though, we expect a larger number of people coming in from the back woods who have been boondocking over the weekend. With the sites filled, we will not have drive-thru spaces to use as backup for the dump line. It may be a circus...

Full House and First Emergency

The rest of the crowd arrived as expected yesterday. The day was bright and dry until about 2 PM when a monsoon storm passed through. We had wind, hail and heavy rain for 20 minutes. It rained .20" in that time frame. Then the sun came out again and the rest of the day was fine.

The campground is loaded with kids and I took a couple shots of the playground area to show the crowd:



Shortly after these pictures were taken we heard on our radio that "911 is on its way". It turns out that a little girl was trying to put her dog on the roof of the playhouse in the above picture and fell backward and landed hard on the ground. The fire and rescue trucks arrived from the Blue Ridge Fire District, about 15 miles up the road, and prepared her for transport to Payson. We were told that she broke her arm at the elbow and it was a nasty break. With all the kids playing in the area this weekend it's amazing there hasn't been more accidents. Add to that the many kids that are still riding the ATV's around, without helmets, and there is another recipe for disaster.

We heard lots of music and partying well into the evening. There was a huge party in the tenting area that is right next to our Camp Host site so it sounded worse than it really was. Anyhow, we have one day to go with the festive crowd and we hope there are no more incidents.

Bob has had a software problem of some kind since yesterday as the communications has been super slow using the data card. It is about as slow as dial up service - or worse. He finally got the post completed though and will try to solve the problem before tomorrow...

Weekend Invasion

The invasion has begun. People started showing up early yesterday for the big holiday weekend. The biggest problem was the weather. It was overcast and raining lightly all morning and it appeared that the weekend would be a repeat of the Memorial Day weekend with the rain and mud problems. It did stop raining in the afternoon and we only had measurable rain of .04" for the day. This morning it is bright and clear - so far. We called the ranger station in Happy Jack early yesterday to get an official weather forecast for the weekend. They said that the rain chances would be diminishing as the weekend progressed. That was from a high chance of 50% on Friday to a low chance of 30% on Sunday. Those seemed like odds in favor of rain for the whole weekend but right now it looks like they were wrong. We hope so.

We are holding our breathe that the dump operates without a hitch. As you may recall, we had problems with the dump station a couple weeks ago when it backed-up so the lodge did a band-aid repair. The dump station was outfitted with a lock this week so that just adds to our problems making sure that the key gets passed from one user to the next and we don't lose the key. About half the expected crowd is already checked in so this morning should be hectic with the balance of the crowd arriving. We will be glad to see 2 o'clock arrive today when we finish our shift. The General Manager will be here helping this weekend so that should help make things run smoothly.

The restaurant is also open for its weekend evening dinners and Saturday and Sunday breakfasts. We expect large crowds for that also. Bob was certified on the tractor use so that means he will be on standby to operate the hayrides for the kids this weekend if needed. That about sums it up for now...

Combined Post

We didn't do a whole lot on our days off the last two days so I decided to do a combined post.

Tuesday was a sleep-in day (7 AM) and a leisurely morning. We decided to take a drive into Payson in the afternoon and try out the only casino in the town - Mazatzal. It was a pretty decent casino for being the only one within about 50 miles. The parking lot was not overflowing and we got a space pretty close to the entrance which is highly unusual for us. Our first impression was that it was small but when we entered it opened up into a huge gaming area. We were able to choose machines though which is different from most other Indian casinos where you have to walk around and grab a machine immediately after somebody leaves. It had some of our favorite machines but nothing below quarter machines except for a bunch of those penny machines that you need to put in at least $1.50 on each spin in order to win anything. We didn't spend a lot of money and except for a few small jackpots didn't win any money. It's always about the fun anyway and if you go without expectations you leave happy.

We got caught up on our reading and resting most of the day yesterday. It rained in the afternoon and was strange because it wasn't a vicious storm but a slow and steady rain like you get when a low pressure area moves through. We got .35" for the day and it was 80 degrees for a high and 56 for a low. Not bad.

Today it's back to work and we most certainly will see the crowd beginning to show up for the weekend. Our co-worker stopped by on his way home after work last night and told us the resort is totally booked for the holiday weekend. There should be some exciting stories and events to report over the next several days. We hope it's a fun time...