Deer Are Back

Shortly after my post of yesterday and just as the sun finally came out, guess who showed up outside the rig? Right, the deer family is back. They were walking all around the fifth wheel and I happened to get this shot of one that was grazing right outside our rear window:

They were all standing up and staring at us as Josie and I left for work at 8 AM. They probably are happy to see the sun just like we are.

Our last day of this long work week is today. When we are working 8 hour days and working 5 of them in a row, starting at 8 AM, it makes it seem longer between play days. That, plus having very few customers in camp and in the store make it seem even longer. Today is actually a 9 hour day for us - 10 hours for Josie. You see, the schedule shows Josie working 8-5, and me working 9-6 today. But since we are the only ones working, I actually go in with Josie to help her open, and she stays until 6 to help me close. Actually, Josie gets credit for 10 hours today since she will take the phone home tonight (to answer off hours calls) and will get an extra hour credit for that. Today is also the final day for this pay period and we are always happy to see those days come along.

It has been great watching the Olympics on TV these last couple weeks. It is always a little sad for us to see them end with the closing ceremony. Our team has done us proud and will end with the most medals which is a first for our country in the Winter Olympics - and will set a record for most medals won. It seems fitting that the final event would be the gold medal game for hockey between the US and Canada. Go USA!!!

Yikes. Stop The Rain.

Today makes 8 out the last 9 days we have had rain. Yesterday's total was 1.03" and so far this morning, we have had .45" and the day is still young. We can't remember the last time we had so much rain. Even in Washington, it would almost always be less than .25" in any one day. Even though it rained often, it was in small doses. With 2 days to go in February, we have had nearly 5" of rain for the month. The folks back east better prepare for another winter storm since it seems like the storms coming through here ultimately end up in the Northeast as snow.

There was an individual that checked into the park last night just before 9 PM. Since I had patrol duty for the night it was my responsibility to site him - in the pouring rain, of course. I kind of felt sorry for him though, as he had to unhitch and set up his rig in the rain. We now have 2 campers in the short term sites. It must be a drag for anybody that has come here to spend a weekend and have to sit and watch it rain. That's the chance you take. So much for the song that says "It never rains in Southern California".

Today is also our next to last day of work this week. It's been a few days since we've seen our deer family, so they must be hunkered down somewhere in a dry spot (where's that?). We brought home a flyer that we have in the store that shows 21 wine tasting stops in this area. Maybe we'll take that tour on our days off and at least stay dry - or at least, not care about the weather. Later...

Marching Through the Week

We had our weekly meeting about the website yesterday between 11 AM and 12:30. It reminded me of the many meetings I attended over the years I worked. It was mostly a waste of time in my mind. There were 6 staff members plus Bill in attendance and the majority of the meeting was spent doing an exercise in figuring out who our customer was. Everybody had to write down suggestions, one each on a post-it, and the moderator would place the post-its on a board and we all would discuss and prioritize the responses. Sheesh! This is part of the project to redesign the website. There was one major step forward though. It was decided that the original author of the website, Harv, would be responsible for implementing changes to the old website and I would be used to help design the new, replacement website. That was a relief. There was no way that, with 60+ pages of the old website written in strange software, I could maintain the site. I know it sounds complicated. The fact is, I didn't think I was signing on to do any of this "corporate" work. The Lodge at Happy Jack also had to redesign it's website and they hired a web developer to do the work - that's the way it should be. It was more fun when I was taking pictures of the groups in the campground and putting together collages for them to take home.

It was another "look-for-things-to-do" day for Josie. It is really tough to stay busy when there are only one or two people coming into the store every day, and no customers checking in. We know it is going to get busy again soon. There are some groups scheduled to come in during March and that should help. There are 3 more days left in our work week and then we can play again. We're certainly looking forward to that time again. We are really getting a good taste of how different jobs can be on this adventure. It is a great learning experience for us and even though it may sound like we aren't enjoying the experience - we truly are and still wish we could have started years ago. There is nothing better than the freedom to go where we want, when we want. The wonderful sights we see and the fun things we do in our free time make it worth the hours we spend working. Til tomorrow...

Normal Work Day

Everything went according to plan yesterday. Work, and work some more. It has become a drag for Josie in the office since there aren't any guests staying here now. We are both getting a little nervous about the schedule with everybody working and no income stream from guests. I mentioned earlier that Bill doesn't need the income to survive because he owns this place debt free and gets a nice monthly income from permanent residents. He still needs to justify expenses. The next group (club) scheduled in is next week, so it should pick up a bit.

There is another meeting scheduled for this morning at 11 AM with the committee that is responsible for determining the changes to the website. I have been grinding through software tutorials in preparation for making the actual code changes to the site. I still don't feel comfortable with that responsibility, so we'll see how that turns out. The original author of the website is conducting this project but he is not going to be involved much in the redesign. His wife is suffering from what appears to be terminal cancer and he will be in and out for the foreseeable future. A sad story.

The good news is that the rain appears to have finally stopped after nearly 2.50" of the stuff over the last 6 days. The forecast has more on the way though. It figures that we would have one of the wettest winters ever while we are here. That's something we can't control so we make the best of it. I was surprised after talking to our neighbor in the next site to find out that our deer family likes to spend time every night around our rigs. He is here to work as a contract nurse at the medical center in Sonora for the next couple months and comes home late at night. He showed me some pictures he took the other night of the deer lying all around our two sites. Of course, we were in bed by then so we wouldn't see them. That's about it for now, so it's time to get ready for work...

Twain Harte Visit

We had heard that the city of Twain Harte was a very nice place to visit and since it was only a few miles up the road, decided to go yesterday. It was a little bit disappointing to us since it was much like many of the towns we know in Washington, and didn't really offer anything unusual or different. The town is built on the hills with all the homes in the woods. They must struggle with getting light into their homes - the trees are so thick around the homes that even on a clear day, it has to be dark. The downtown area is very small and not unusual. I had the camera with us but didn't take any pictures because it was all "ho-hum". By the way, the town was named after Mark Twain and Bret Harte, two of the founders' favorite authors. Anyway, we didn't spend a lot of time there and we came back and walked around downtown Sonora for about an hour. There were some neat stores that we wanted to visit so it was a good opportunity to do that.

The rain held off until mid afternoon yesterday, but has been coming down in buckets since. As of this morning, we have had .87" of rain in the last 15 hours. The winter has sure been a wet one. We have had 13 days of measurable rain so far in February, and we still have 5 days to go. We do need the rainfall though and I understand the snow pack in the mountains is about double what it was last year.

Today begins a 5 day stretch of working - Ugh! We do the late shift today, but the other 4 days will be early shift, which means 8 to 5 PM. We enjoy the play days much more than the work days - no surprise there. Until tomorrow...

Day at Home

Yesterday was the day we should have traveled to the Gold Mine since it was beautiful. You never know about the weather. We spent the day around the campground catching up on stuff. Josie did some laundry and we went into town in the afternoon to get her nails done, and I was doing some reorganizing and computer stuff while watching the Olympics. All in all, a quiet day.

There are several places we have been looking at to visit that are fairly close. One is a small town called Twain Harte that is suppose to be a great place to visit so we may venture there today. Of course, it is cloudy again today so we hope the rain holds off.

We stay in communication with Kathi, the lady that managed the Western Horizon park in Desert Hot Springs, and she is trying to get us to work with her this summer in Ocean Shores, WA. She has said that those jobs would be paying more than just the site which is different from the park in Desert Hot Springs. We're still deciding what to do for the summer. We also have an offer from the park that is on Hood Canal in Washington that sounds pretty good. The folks here are hoping that we will stay through the summer, so decisions have to be made pretty soon. The important thing for us right now is, again, to make the most money we can while enjoying a different area. Later...

Sutter Gold Mine

We left around 11 AM yesterday to do the tour at Sutter Gold Mine, located in Sutter Creek about 45 miles north of here. It was a fun trip even though we had rain all day. We arrived around 1 PM, after stopping in the town of Jackson to have lunch at Denny's. After you park your vehicle, you walk into the gold store to get information on the tour and to purchase tickets. The store (below) is an event in itself. It is loaded with gold jewelry, gold mining information, maps and tools for mining gold:

There was also a theater in the store where you go and watch a narrative of the gold rush days and the history of the mine while waiting for the tour "buggy" to arrive for the one hour tour. It cost us $30 total for our tickets (after senior discount) and we were ready to go:

There were just 5 of us going on this tour, which is conducted every hour, on the hour. You can see that hard hats were a requirement for everybody. The driver indicated that this tour was not for everybody, since we would be going deep into the mine, in a tunnel, and there would be some close areas. Josie and I both got a little nervous but I suggested we pretend it was a ride in Disneyland or Universal Studios and that settled us both. The opening to the mine (below) was a little intimidating as we approached it:

We rode a long way down this shaft, stopping occasionally in some lit areas to view some mining equipment and tools used by the miners to extract the gold. There were several side shafts along the way (below) that were dug by the miners to follow quartz veins where the gold would be found:

We walked through several different areas of the mine and the tour guide showed us some actual gold that was still in a quartz vein:

This was gold (on the ceiling) that could not be mined because of a water table that was above the rock. If any further digging was performed on this vein, it could potentially flood the whole mine from the water above. Also, they stopped mining here in the early 60's because the price of gold was so low at that time that they were losing money. There is now talk about reopening the mine since the gold price is very high.

The tour was very fascinating and we were glad we went. It was a beautiful drive to the mine and I took some shots of the countryside along the way:

We drove through another neat town - Angels Camp - that reminded me of the French Quarter in New Orleans (except for the traffic):

There are many, quaint little towns like this all over this part of California. We arrived back home around 6:30 PM and had a light dinner while watching the Olympics.

Today is a day to catch up on chores. Josie needs to get here nails done and do laundry, and I need to reorganize our basement storage in the fifth wheel. We still have another day tomorrow to find another fun place to visit. Take care...

Another Unbalanced day

Just as I described yesterday, Josie had another boring day and I had another day filled with computer stuff. There were no more people coming into the park so Josie and the girls in the office spent most of the day chatting. My day was filled with doing tutorials for the different software packages. We're glad it's time to play again for the next three days.

We have decided to take a trip a little further north today to visit a place called "Sutter Gold Mine". It has won recognition as a "must see" place and has won several awards from companies touting the best tours. We hope to have some pictures and a happy story to tell from that trip. We have kidded that we are going to pan for gold while we are here and this may be a good time to start learning the process. Supposedly, 70% of all the gold in our country is still in the ground. Of course, at around $1,000 an ounce, it is a good time for anybody to find some gold.

Our plan originally called for a visit to the Railtown State Park that I mentioned yesterday. We found out that you can see everything at the park, but the trains only run from April through November, so we have put that trip on hold for now. We may still go, but we would have liked to take one of their train rides through the gold country. We'll see. That's about it for today...

Boring Days in Office

It was another boring day for Josie in the office yesterday. There are only 3 (paying) units in the campground now. There are about 35 sites available for daily use and another 30 or so that are permanent residents that are paying a monthly fee to stay here. Bill, the owner, really can survive nicely with just the monthly fees he is getting since he owns the campground debt free. There are definitely too many people (3) working in the office every day and they end up standing around and talking most of the time. There are only so many times you can dust, clean the floors and stock the merchandise. There are no more clubs scheduled in until early March, and only a few singles are scheduled until then.

My days are another story. With all the development that is required for the website, the pressure is on to learn the software and how it all interacts with the existing systems. There is very little slack time in my days. It would be nicer if we each had balanced days but I guess it will eventually become that. We hope so.

The rain came in last night just as we were finishing up having nachos with some of the staff in the barn after work. Of course, the only reservation we had for the day showed up at exactly that time and I had to stand in the rain and help site this person - part of my job. We only had .10" of rain yesterday and I think it all came during that time last night. There is rain forecast for just about every other day for the next week so we will have to plan around the weather. There are some nice places we can go (starting tomorrow) that will keep us indoors if necessary. We'll see...

Back to Work

It was a mostly uneventful day yesterday. Josie worked the office and store and I worked on computer stuff. We had a staff meeting that ran from 11 AM to noon, with staff members that have a connection to the development of the website we have. There are many changes planned for the website, and I believe that I mentioned before that I would be involved in those changes - more than I anticipated as it turns out. They appointed me the Webmaster for the new website and that kinda scares me. I'm not an expert , by any means, of the software that they utilize for development. I will have to become familiar with it pretty quick. Josie reminded me that in most places, website developers demand huge fees for their work, and Bill is getting me real cheap. That may be true, but the experience is valuable for me and maybe I can learn enough from this experience to help us down the road somewhere.

We have had beautiful weather the last week and it looks like there may be a chance of rain today. The clouds are here so the forecast is probably right. It's OK for it to rain on our working days, but we obviously like the nice weather for "play" days. We need to decide where to go next but we do have a lot of choices. We are anxious to go to Yosemite, but we want to make sure there's not a problem with snow. There is a place in Jamestown, about 15 miles from here, called the "Railtown 1897 Historic Park" that we want to see. It has the last, still operating, railroad roundhouse in the country and was the place where many of the railroad scenes were filmed in the old westerns. That should be interesting...

Trip to Modesto

It was decided that we should take the trip into Modesto to get a few much needed things at Costco and to make an attempt to resolve Josie's phone problems. It was just over an hour away and it was a very pretty drive through farmland with green, rolling hills and lots of cattle. There were also many orchards along the way. Some were grapes and some were fruit of various kinds. The distance was 54 miles which isn't too bad for an occasional trip - especially if we can keep these trips to once or twice a month.

The first stop was the Verizon store that was in the same shopping mall complex as Costco. We finally convinced them that Josie's phone had problems and they replaced the phone - and the charging cord. This was after three tries at other Verizon locations. Maybe they just got tired of seeing us for the same problem.

After our stop at Costco, we left Modesto and got home around 5 PM. It was great watching the Olympics yesterday with all the medals that were won by the US team. It has helped us to keep up with them with the Distant Network Feed option that costs us a few dollars a month. DIRECTV has this option that provides east coast feeds for the major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX) in addition to the west coast feeds. That means that we can watch the games 3 hours earlier on prime time TV so we can see the results before we go to bed. It is one advantage that full timers have since this option is only available to mobile users. I guess somebody could figure a way to beat the system and get it anyway.

It's back to work today at 9 AM so we will have to put off our play time until at least Sunday. Take care...

Calaveras Big Trees State Park

After relaxing in the morning and watching some of our copied Olympics coverage, we headed out to the Calaveras Big Trees State Park. This was the trip we started to take last week but turned around due to the threat of snow in the higher elevations. The State Park is only 23 miles from our campground but most of the trip is uphill. It goes from a 2100' elevation to over 4,000' in those 23 miles. It was a good thing we didn't go last week since there still was quite a bit of snow in the park, as you can see from the pictures. In fact, the entire South Grove was still closed as a result of the snow. We started out walking the North Grove Trail and because we were wearing our tennis shoes, had to go back and get the car because of the snow. We drove around the portion of road that was open and did see some unbelievable trees. It started out with some smaller trees such as the one below:

We saw some very huge trees although the largest ones were in areas that were closed because of the snow. The picture below shows how tall they grow - the largest ones can be 300 feet tall:

The tree that was the original "discovery" tree was cut down shortly after the discovery of the trees. A hunter was chasing a wounded grizzly bear and stumbled upon a tree that was about 30' in diameter. He became the founder of the grove and had the big one cut down around 1852. Based on the rings of the tree, it started growing around 600 A.D. Below is a picture of Josie standing on the stump of this tree:

A log that was cut from this tree lies next to it. It would have been an experience to watch them cut down this tree with the tools they had in 1852.

We will plan a return trip to this park after the snow melts. It is fairly close to us and we want to see the larger trees in the other "South" Grove. The snow will melt quickly if it keeps warming up like it has this week.

Today is our last day off before going back to work tomorrow. We talked about going into Modesto, about an hour away, to go to Costco to pick up some stuff and go to the phone store, to once again take Josie's phone in for the same charging problem. There is also some laundry that needs to be done, so the schedule for the day is still up in the air. Until tomorrow...

Natural Bridge Hike

During our trip to Murphys last week we saw the sign for the Natural Bridges that were probably 4 miles from our campground. We had stopped to look at the area to see if we could walk it and see the bridges, but we weren't prepared then. Yesterday, we put on our hiking shoes, got some water and headed out to see the bridges. The hike itself is a 2 mile round trip and not so strenuous, although there were some pretty steep sections of the trail. It was an easy start as you can see below:

It rapidly became steeper until we reached the bottom. There was a river that was cut through the side of the steep hill and formed a natural bridge:

We were told that many people swim into this "cave like" area and come out the other side. The water isn't very deep so it's hard to imagine anybody swimming through it. There were unbelievable stalactites hanging down from the ceiling of this bridge, which looked more like a cave, and there was water dripping from them under the entire width of the bridge which was about 40 feet. The river was interesting in itself. There were a couple families there with their kids and dogs and they were having a grand time playing in the water. The water ran through rocks and became rapids in several spots that we could see. You can get some idea of the river flow from the picture below:

There were huge areas of smooth granite rock which is what Josie is sitting on in the picture. After about an hour at the bottom we slowly returned to the top. It was a fun trip and provided some much needed exercise.

We plan to take a trip to the Calaveras Big Trees today. That was another trip that we were going to take the day we went to Murphys but because of a threat of snow, decided against it. There is not chance of snow today. In fact, the temperatures have been warming up to the mid 60's here, and there are no clouds. So the day today will include another local attraction and probably some more Olympics. Someday, not too far off, we hope to have everyday like yesterday and today...

Valentine's Social And Olympics

The day was fairly slow yesterday except for a Valentine's Day Social that our staff put on for everybody in the park. It was a cake and ice cream social that ran from 1 to 3 PM. Evidently, not a lot of people saw the flyer's that were posted around the campground, or they were busy watching the Olympics - or were on diets. Anyway, there were not many people that showed up. We did skip out of the office in the afternoon to go over and grab a piece of cake and some ice cream on our break. Since we were the only two in the office, we went separately and had to eat it in the office:

Today begins our 3 days off and we are looking forward to them. It was nice to sleep in this morning and we finally get a chance to watch the Olympics as they are happening. The way the schedule works, after working 5 days, we have 3 days off then 3 days working again before another 3 days off. It works out to 8 days working over a 2 week period which is the pay period. It's not complicated although it may sound like it.

The weather is getting more beautiful each day and we can see some of the trees budding. We have a map of all the wildflower areas in this part of California so we are anxious to get out and see those. The map not only shows the areas, but lists the month to see them and the names of the flowers to look for. There are also some things that we want to see after the threat of snow goes away, like the Calaveres Big Trees and Yosemite Park. In the meantime, we'll just enjoy the local scene and do some things in the Foothills close to home...

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! It's an unusual one for us since it is the first time in about 24 years that Josie isn't working in a flower shop somewhere. She is still scheduled to work in the office today, but it's not the same. She wishes she had the whole day off though, to make the day a little more special. Actually, we are the only two people scheduled for the office today so it is our first time without experienced office help around.

The park is completely full now and we had a couple special occasions last night. We had a "Ranch Spuds" night in one half of the barn where baked potatoes were offered, with all the "fixins", to anybody and everybody. The other half of the barn had a pot luck dinner for the big club (Golden Nuggets) that is here. One of our staff members - Larry - is an entertainer and he kept the place jumping with his singing and guitar playing. I have a shot below of the gathering:

There were probably 30-35 people in the building and it made for a fun time. I was out and about the campground yesterday at different times taking candid shots of the group. I made a collage of the pictures and was going to hang it up in the barn last night but the printers in the office were low on color ink and, therefore, the pictures didn't look right with faded colors. I'll try to find a printer today that can be used. I don't want to use my personal printer since the print cartridges are expensive.

I also got some better shots of the office and store where we work. The first one shows the front desk area and entry:

The office is behind the desk and the person with Josie in the picture is Joyce, who has been here for a long time. The second shot is from the far corner of the store and shows the rest of the store and the sign that says "Hospitality Nook". That is a small area (off to the left) that was previously used for socializing but is now an area that I use to do the computer stuff:

It isn't a very large store but it still carries most of the items people need and at a pretty good price.

Now that the Olympics have started, we are copying most of the TV broadcasts so that we don't miss anything. It's always fun to watch them in our free time. Enjoy your Valentine's day everybody...

Park Is Almost Full

Yesterday was the busiest day we've had here so far. There were 13 rigs that checked in and they were from 3 different clubs. There are a total of about 25 rigs in the campground now. Actually, the last two came in at 9 PM last night just as I was starting my patrol duty. It must be hard for people to have a schedule that forces them to squeeze in a weekend camping trip by arriving so late on a Friday night. They will be gone Sunday morning so essentially they come here for one full day and two nights. Even with all the people here now, it is nowhere near the crowds we were used to at Happy Jack on a busy weekend.

One of my responsibilities now is to take photos of the clubs for posting in our newsletter and around the meeting barn. I was out walking around the campground snapping pictures every place I saw some people. Fortunately, it was a nice day and just about everybody was outside enjoying it. I also took a couple shots of the store but I didn't like the way they turned out so they will appear tomorrow after I take some more today. Even with the flurry of new arrivals yesterday, Josie still could have been given the time off to work the flower shop for this weekend. Oh, well. There are plenty of people working every day and one would not be missed.

Today is a 9 AM start for us so that means we have to close tonight. We would rather open than close since it is a much easier and faster function. Now that the Olympics has started, we want to spend more time at home to watch the events. Two more days and then we have 3 days to relax and watch the Olympics if we want. It looks like another nice day coming as the sky is clear and blue this morning...

Ready For The Club

There were 3 rigs that came in yesterday from the "Golden Nuggets" club from Modesto. The rest of the group - 9 more rigs - is scheduled to arrive today. The big concern for us in the office is to make sure that they don't create a traffic problem in the street if they "caravan" and all show up at the same time. We only have room for two at a time before the rigs back up into the street along the front of the campground. That isn't so bad except that the road has a curve just before the entrance so that people rounding the curve can't see the backup until it's too late -CRASH! Our job, in this case, is to get everybody into the campground any way we can and clear of the street. That means siting them immediately and having them register afterwards. Every campground has it's unique situations.

The meeting we had yesterday was mostly about how to change the look of the website to make it more "user friendly". There were five of us in the meeting: Bill (Owner), Harv (Manager and original developer of the website), Jerry (The short term marketing guy I mentioned yesterday), Larry (Another staffer that is working in Maintenance and wants to get involved in Marketing) and myself (The idiot that has convinced everybody that he knows the computer). The bottom line is that any changes to the website will probably be done by me. Jerry is leaving in March, Harv has a wife with cancer and will not be spending much time in the office, and Larry has no computer experience at all. Hmmm. Somehow, I don't think I am being paid enough to do all the things they expect me to do.

We have another full day today, starting at 8 AM again. Josie had the phone all last night as it was her turn to cover after hours calls. There were none last night. There are two duties that require after hours coverage - the phone and performing night patrol at about 9 PM. Josie gets the phone occasionally, and I do night patrol occasionally. The good news is that we do get an extra hour added to our time card each time we have to perform those duties. That's about it for now...

Welcome Signs

The office person responsible for booking and handling the RV clubs that come here asked me if I would prepare some welcome signs for clubs coming in over the next several weeks. That was an easy chore using the Microsoft Publisher software and I did signs for 5 clubs and made her happy. Some of the computer work that I need to do is complicated and boring, but the signs were fun and I enjoy doing the creative stuff anyway. Josie is learning all the ins and outs of the office procedures and will be able to work solo pretty soon without the experienced staff around to help out. It amazes us how complex the procedures are for this 50 space campground versus the 300-500 site campgrounds at Western Horizons or Thousand Trails. Maybe it's because this one is privately owned versus company owned for the others - although you would think it should be the other way around.

I have a meeting with Bill this morning in the gazebo with another, short term staffer, to discuss marketing programs for the campground. I mentioned some ideas for bringing in some new guests when we first arrived and now he wants to pursue some of those. The short term staffer is an individual who came in about a week ago with his wife and is only staying for a month. Evidently, he has a marketing background and Bill wants to take advantage of that. He is the one that put together the Super Bowl Party. In my conversations with him so far, I've found out that he is a former Disc Jockey and that's about all I know.

Josie says she better be busy over the weekend to justify her giving up the Valentine's work at the local flower shop. We will handle that kind of situation differently in the future as I mentioned before. Our first obligation is to this campground so it will work out fine.

Today is an early start day - 8 AM, so I need to get ready. Later...

Taxes Done

Almost the entire day yesterday was spent completing our income taxes for 2009. That is always a relief when you can send off the final copy. We get a very small refund this year, even without the interest for the house. The tax software (Turbo Tax) makes it a breeze and the good thing is that I don't have to worry about mistakes in addition or percentages being applied to certain fields on the return. It is worth every penny of the $85 it costs, and that includes the software for the State return, which takes about 5 minutes to complete once the Federal return is done. In the days before this software it took me at least a week to complete.

It's back to work today and we both start at 9 AM. The rain appears to be over for now - at least the sun is out this morning. We finished yesterday with .35" inches of rain. The temperature this morning without the cloud cover is 33 degrees. Brrrr!

We expect to be busy beginning tomorrow with the big club that is scheduled to arrive. The staff stays very active with these groups to make sure they are happy and get all the facilities they need to have their parties and meetings. It is a different clientele from the parks we have been in so far. The others were almost entirely made up of single unit guests and had very little group activity. This park is very group friendly with all the extra facilities like the barn, gazebo, camp fire ring and gold panning area. Our next days off aren't until Monday, so we will hunker down and make the best of our work days...

Out and About

We decided to take a drive over to the town of Murphys where we drove through on the way to the Ironstone Winery a couple weeks ago. As you may recall, this is the small town that reminded us of Julian, CA. We took another shot of the main street below:

If you get a chance, read the link that is provided above about Murphys. It is named "One of the Top 10 Coolest Small Towns in America" by Frommer's. Everything about it is "cool" and you can spend a whole day walking up and down the street going into the many shops. One of the buildings we went into was the Museum for Murphys and the surrounding area. There was an older couple that were hosts in the Museum and they guided us through the town history and all the memorabilia and artifacts in the Museum. We also stopped into one of the many cafe's and I had an ice cream cone while Josie had a chocolate chip cookie and coffee. After leaving Murphys, we started to go up the hill out of town toward the Big Trees, which is a state park containing giant sequoia trees that are 250 - 300 feet high. Since the skies were threatening and the park was at a higher elevation about 15 miles away, we turned around and came back to Columbia in case there was snow at the park. We'll do that on a warmer, drier day.

Instead of going to the Big Trees, we went to the old Candle and Soap Works that is at the edge of town about 3 miles from our park. It is also a fascinating place and we ended up buying one candle for the rig but will come back another time to get some soap and other aromatic candles. Below is a shot of the old place:

That completed our afternoon of travels and we went to the El Jardin Mexican restaurant directly across the street and had an early dinner. It was excellent, and with a pitcher of margaritas it only came to $30 for the meal.

Once again we wake up to rain which makes six consecutive days of rain. It is an especially wet winter season and we see that it is pretty much the same all over the southwest. Fortunately though, it stops long enough between storms to allow us to take in some local sights and discover new things on our days off. Nothing is planned for today - yet - except I want to get some more done on our taxes so that ugly chore can be completed soon. Later...

Super Bowl Party

Yesterday was the day of the big game. It was also the day for our Super Bowl Party. The plan was to invite everybody in the campground, but the club left early in the day and it left only our staff and a few "straggler" guests. There were probably 20 people in attendance. It was a great spread with everything from chips and dip, crackers and cheese, weenies, meat balls and various other finger foods to banana pudding and donuts for dessert. Josie made "pigs in a blanket" and they were all eaten. I was in charge of the Super Bowl pool, and that was fun. Because there fewer people than we expected, I had to sell each of the 100 spaces on the pool for $.50 instead of $1.00 so that we could sell all the spaces. The prizes were $10 to the winner after each quarter with $20 going to the game winner. Josie won $10 as the third quarter winner.

It was a great time watching a great game. The pictures below were taken just before the game started. The first one is of Harv (on the left) who is our office manager, and Bill, the owner:

This second picture is of everybody watching the pre-game show:

There were two large cups on the food table, one for each team, for people to place a paper with their name on it into the one for their favorite team. After the game, names were drawn for door prizes out of the winning team cup. Josie and I both were for the Saints and we both won a door prize. I won a hat and Josie won a patch of the campground logo. That's not bad since there were three prizes handed out. Yes, there were more than three names in the cup.

Everybody enjoyed the game and the party so it was a fun day for all. Our next two days are free days, but we aren't sure what we we will do. This morning, at least, we are just relaxing and watching the Today show. Until tomorrow...

Enough Rain Now

When the entry was done yesterday morning we only had .01" of rain so far for the day. We finished the day with .52", so it rained most of the day. In looking at the data since we have been here, the longest stretch without rain has been 3 days. It is beginning to seem like Washington. I'm sure the other areas we've stayed also have had good rainfall (snow, in the case of Happy Jack) this year. There should be some beautiful wild flowers this spring.

For the second day in a row, Josie started work at 8 AM and I started at 9. We had the same breaks though and she left at 5 PM and I left at 6. The difference yesterday was that I had to do patrol at 9 PM, so that added an extra half hour to my day. Patrol is done every night by one of the staff to check on everything in the campground. Sometimes there are doors unlocked that should be locked and there may be some problems with leaks, etc. at a site that is occupied. Those things are checked along with enforcing the quiet time rules of the park.

We are off today but there is a big Super Bowl party in the barn. It starts at 1 PM and everybody is supposed to bring a "finger" food, such as wings, chips and dip. We have to go to the store this morning to get our food and so far we are undecided what to take. I have to stay the whole time since I am running the pool for the game. Josie can leave if she wants which is probably what she'll do since she doesn't care about football. I thought everybody loved the Super Bowl.

The weather is supposed to improve today and we hope to have a great Super Bowl Sunday. Enjoy it everybody...

Park Filling Up

It was mentioned that clubs make up a large portion of the business here. One checked in on Thursday - a group of 7 rigs - and another with 6 rigs checked in yesterday. That makes for a nice crowd that utilizes our facilities to the fullest. I spent a portion of yesterday trying to diagnose a problem that one group had setting up the DVD player in the barn meeting room. It turns out that the TV in that room isn't used at all and there is a large screen that pulls down in front of the TV and uses a projector, set up in the back of the room, for all media. That is where the Sunday Super Bowl party is scheduled to be held and the game will be televised on the large projection screen. There was only one staff member that knew how to set it up. Now there are two.

Both of us did our normal tasks - Josie at the front desk and I was in a corner of the store doing computer stuff. We learn a little more each day and I watch the staff as they perform closing procedures so that I can back them up when necessary. We finished the day with a hot dog dinner at the gazebo in the park. The staff does this often and it is a nice way to get to know everybody better. Even park guests are invited to these impromptu dinners.

We had a visit from our deer family again yesterday morning after Josie left for work but before I left. They seem to like this particular area of the park. We have had rain the last few days - not much, but enough - .33" on Thursday, .35" yesterday, and .01" so far today. It is also cooler here than in Palm Springs as you would guess, but not so cold that snow is a problem. We are getting to the time that most storm tracks go north of this area so we are anxious for that to happen.

Today is our final work day for this week. Our next scheduled day is Wednesday, so we get to enjoy some more "discover" time for the next 3 days. We do look forward to those days...

First Day Impressions

We both went into the office at 9 AM yesterday for our inaugural work day. Josie is working the front desk and handling the store, and I am doing backup for the store and front desk along with welcoming and siting new guests and doing computer work. The computer work will involve several projects. These include: developing a newsletter, upgrading one system from Microsoft XP to Vista, upgrading the network and cleaning up their data base of 20,000 records. It is no small task as I am not a software giant. I can do the basic stuff but will need help from another computer software guy to complete the other, more complicated tasks. There are two people on the staff that have good technical backgrounds on computers, so they will help.

The initial impression that both of us have is that there are too many people working at one time. There was a tendency yesterday for everybody either to be standing around or bumping into each other. This may be a temporary situation since people come and go on the staff. Bill says it is better to have many, different skills available than to be shorthanded. He pays the bills. There was an hour for lunch which is a first for us. We are used to only a half hour. The day seems long, but we again prefer to have the three days off so are willing to work the longer days.

There was a club that came in yesterday and kept us busy siting them. Because of the hills in the park, we need to assist everybody with backing into their sites so that nothing drags on the ground while getting settled even though the sites themselves are level. There is a trick to backing into many of the sites. That's one of my jobs and we generally have at least two people helping with siting the guests - one stays in front, and one stays in back. The clubs represent a major portion of the business here. There is at least one club that comes most weekends.

It turns out that Josie probably could have worked the few days over Valentine's weekend. One of the office staff said she should have gone to Bill with the request instead of the scheduler. Now we know. Also, this shop was offering her about 30% less than the Palm Springs shop so it works out ok. So far, so good...

Change in Work Schedule

After finalizing everything with the flower shop yesterday, Josie went to the office to discuss the opportunity with the scheduling person (Harv) in the office. He indicated that normally there would be no problem with her doing the Valentine's Day work schedule but there was a problem this time. It turns out that there is a huge RV Club coming in next weekend and the park needs every worker for the whole weekend. So, Josie had to call the manager at the flower shop and tell her the bad news. She understood and the door was left open for any future needs at the shop. Other than that, it was a quiet day at home. Josie did some laundry in the afternoon and we picked up one of her prescriptions at Walmart.

Today begins our normal work schedule. The days are longer than normal, 9 AM to 6 PM (or 8 AM to 5 PM), but we only have to work 4 days of the week. We did work several days with this kind of schedule at Happy Jack so we are somewhat used to it. We prefer to have the 3 days off per week anyway. Also, there are a couple extra responsibilities with this job. We occasionally have to take the phone home to handle late, after hours reservations or inquiries, and occasionally I have to do patrol at 9 PM to make sure that everything is locked up and all guests are quiet. We get credit for an extra hour (each) each day we have to do these.

We are looking forward to a good experience here. The length of time we stay depends on a couple things. First, do we enjoy it enough to stay longer than 4-6 months, and second, can we make enough money to meet our goals if we stay. Time will tell...

Deer and More Work

One of the places we went while out the other day was to the Columbia Nursery and Florist which is just down the road from us. Josie wanted to drop off a resume in case they ever needed seasonal help, especially for Valentine's Day that is just next week. She received a phone call from them yesterday asking if she could work on Thursday through Sunday next week. That was a pleasant surprise. They discussed some details yesterday, but they needed to finalize everything today. One of the things we need to do is make sure we can clear those days from her schedule here. Bill will most certainly accommodate any schedule she needs. That is one thing we were counting on for extra cash when we went into this adventure - Josie getting work at local flower shops during holidays. That also allows her to keep up her skills without getting burned out. More about that tomorrow.

While sitting at the computer yesterday, I watched outside the window as some deer came down - almost to our door - grazing in the grass. There have been one or two that we have seen since we arrived here but yesterday the whole family showed up. Below is one of the pictures of the family:

There are six deer in the picture above, but I got this shot of one that wasn't quite sure about this new "rig" that showed up in their yard:

The site we are on is in a good place to see the deer since it is surrounded by trees and grass and is more remote than most sites. They aren't bashful at all.

Today is our last "free" day before our work schedule begins tomorrow. The schedule has us working 8 hour days from Thursday - Saturday this week. We have gotten a little spoiled with all this free time we've had...

Checking Out More Local Stuff

We used yesterday as a "discover more about town" day. After breakfast and watching a little TV, we went to town to check out some places we had seen while on other trips there. We started with the post office in Columbia that is only about 4 miles away. We wanted to find out if it would be easier for us to get a post office box there or have our mail delivered to the park. One advantage of having it delivered to the post office is we would have access to the PO Box 24/7, while we can only have park access during business hours. The other advantage to the post office is we would get our mail earlier in the day instead of waiting for delivery around noon. The big disadvantage is cost. It would cost us about $50 for a PO Box for 6 months. Right now, at least, we decided to stay with park delivery.

Following that, we stopped at the Social Security Administration office on the edge of town in Sonora. We wanted to check on when Josie can apply for her SS, and how much she would be getting. She can sign up in June, but her first check wouldn't be until September. The good news is that it doesn't pay for her to wait until she is 66 to receive benefits. With the married couple feature, she gets extra money each month to make her benefit equal to half of mine. It turns out that with that extra money each month, the benefit would equal the same amount as if she waited until 66.

We wanted to also check out the thrift store in Sonora, which is a huge Salvation Army outlet. There were some old clothes that we had boxed up when we went through everything a couple weeks ago so we dropped those off and checked out the store. It is a very nice store but they all look the same once inside. They all have the usual old style clothes, old furniture, old technology electronics and very used books. You can probably find some good buys though if you know what you're looking for.

While we were out we decided to make a stop at a familiar place since we were close - the casino. It is never easy passing one of those with Josie. We played $20 each and were able to play for over an hour and we walked out with our original $20 each. That should happen all the time.

We have two more days - today and tomorrow - before we start our regular work schedules. Right now, we don't have anything planned, but with so much to do around here we hope to get out and discover something new. Until tomorrow...

Staff Pot Luck

I thought that I would have to work a couple hours yesterday morning setting up a computer that had been moved. It turns out that one of the staff members, Harv, already had set it up on Saturday afternoon and he was off on Sunday so I came right back home again. The only thing we had to do was get ready for the pot luck dinner at 3 PM.

We wandered over to the "barn" with our salad in hand a little after 3 PM and we were the last to arrive. Everything was set up and ready to go with lots of good food set up on a table that included BBQ chicken as the main course. The dinner was a lot of fun. The tables were set up in a circle and everybody told his life story after dinner. It was interesting, to say the least, to hear how varied the backgrounds were and where everybody was from. There were 15 staff members at dinner with only two missing. That's a pretty large staff for a park this size. One of the staff members was an entertainer for part of his life and he played the guitar after dinner. He will be welcomed at the campfires during the summer when the park is full of guests. Sorry there are no pictures. We had the camera, but got so involved in the happenings that we forgot to get some pictures.

Today is an off day for us. I plan to begin gathering info to start on our taxes (UGH!), and I guess Josie will just relax since she wants no part of that. We still have to get the W2's from Happy Jack before we can actually do the taxes. This year's taxes will be very different as a result of the lifestyle change. It will be interesting to see the end result. That's about it for now...