Meeting With Managers

Last week I mentioned that the hard drive in our DirecTV box was dead and we had to get a replacement box from DirecTV. Well, it came on Monday and I installed the new box that afternoon and packed up the old, dead one, and took it to the office yesterday morning to be picked up by FedEx. While there, Terry asked if Josie and I could come down at 11 AM to have a short meeting with the managers that arrived late Monday afternoon. We went down and met with the managers, Jim and Mary, until about noon. We discussed responsibilities, schedules and the operation of the campground and had some casual conversation that allowed us to get familiar with each other. Our initial reaction is that they will be nice folks to work with. They will be taking every Sunday and Monday off, and we will get every Friday and Saturday as our days off. This is the first time that we will get at least one weekend day off as part of our normal schedule. Sounds OK to us.

The run of rainy days continues. There have been 8 consecutive days of rain, totaling over 4", since we arrived. That is only an approximation since the weather station blew over on Monday night and there were several hours that we didn't receive any data, except temperature. The winds also continue, although today we haven't had any gusts over 10 MPH - yet. We know this is unusual weather for this time of year since we keep seeing the reports on TV about all the unexpected snow that is in the passes and on the western slopes of the mountains that are between the ocean and I-5. We had hail late yesterday afternoon, so we know there is more snow in the hills. As a result of the weather and the meeting yesterday, we stayed home and did some stuff around the fifth wheel.

Depending on the weather again today, we may venture out to someplace that is nearby. There is an outlet mall in town that we want to check out, so that is a possibility. The casino is another option but we would like to save that for after pay day, which is tomorrow. Of course, we have to work tomorrow, so we'll see...

Blown Down

There was a situation that I was not aware of when I completed the blog entry yesterday. Everything that was said about the wind and rain was true, but what I wasn't aware of at the time was that our weather station had blown over sometime during the night. It wasn't discovered until it got light outside and Josie looked out the window and saw it on the ground. The readings for yesterday then, are short of reality. My guess is that it blew over sometime after 1;20 AM which was the time I received the highest wind gust of 35 MPH. The reports we heard during the day were that the wind gusts in our area exceeded 60 MPH. I believe it, and will say that there were more than a few gusts like that. Also, our rain totals are therefore also short for the day. We have had measurable rain every day we've been here (6 days) and there is no end in sight. Are we ever thankful we drove up here when we did as there is snow in the passes we came through.

Our work day yesterday was from 7:30 - 2:30. Terry had us leave a little early to begin our time off which will include today and tomorrow. We see that there is a rig in the space that is reserved for the managers, so it appears they arrived sometime after we left work yesterday. Their names are Jim and Mary and they have been park managers for the Premier RV Resort parks for many years.Terry indicated to us that they were the couple that "molded" the Redding park into the nice facility it is today. We will be anxious to meet them on or before Thursday.

Today and tomorrow are the first full days we've had to enjoy and explore the area so we are talking about places to go and things to do. I know that Josie is very anxious to walk on the beach but I'm not too sure about doing that in this weather. There are lots of other things we will be doing so stay tuned...

Relentless Wind So Far

We had another good day working yesterday and feel very comfortable in the office and in doing the other assignments we've been given. We are getting really nervous about all the wind we've had though. There has been serious wind every day we've been here except one day so far. Gusts have been near 30 MPH or higher each day with rain included. Our concern right now is for our "topper" awnings that cover the slide outs on our rig. You may recall that we had to repair one of them before we left Columbia as a result of damage done by winds in Ocotillo Wells last year. When the wind blows constantly, they flap and, in addition to the noise, can move on their track and make it difficult to wind back up on their spindles when we close the slide outs. We will keep an eye on those. The wind has also made it difficult to sleep at night - and there is rain forecast for the next several days. Bring on the summer!

Our boss, Terry, took us out to dinner last night to a place called Pier 101. It was a nice gesture and he let us know that he was very satisfied with our performance so far. Josie had good old fashion Fish 'n Chips, and I had a bucket of Washington Steamed Clams which I haven't had in about 20 years. Both meals were terrific and Terry had a combination seafood platter that was also delicious. It was a good chance to learn more about each other in a casual environment.

Today will be our last working day before getting a couple days off. Josie will again do the continental breakfast and I will open. Actually, Terry indicated that today would probably be a short day and we would be off by about noon. We love working but are beginning to get a little tired with the busy schedule we've had so far. There will be a formal schedule established when the managers come in later in the week so we are looking forward to that. Until tomorrow...

Day Three and Going Strong

After working our third day on this job, we are still happy about making the move here. So far we are enjoying the people and the work is getting even more comfortable for us as we are gaining back the familiarity we had previously with this campground reservations software. The version they use here is a more recent one and some things are even easier to do than they were in Happy Jack. The day was our longest though - 9 hours.

Josie gets to set up and run the continental breakfast this morning and I will open the front desk and run it alone until Josie finishes at 10 AM. Terry has indicated that he wants us to close tonight and prepare the deposits and he has asked us to go to dinner with him following that. We still aren't sure when the managers are arriving so we still plan on working every day until that happens. It seems like they are expected on the 1st of April.

The rain returned during the night last night - along with the wind. We already have over a half inch of rain this morning. The storm track is lined up to give us rain for the next 4 or 5 days. It doesn't seem quite so bad when you have to work though. There isn't much else to report today so we'll close until tomorrow...

Sailing Along

We opened the office for business yesterday which involved firing up the computer system, counting the cash drawer and getting the check-in and check-out lists together. This is very similar to the procedures we followed at Happy Jack so it was a breeze. Josie and I both checked in several guests yesterday and did some other chores around the store and office and worked until 4:30 yesterday afternoon - another 8 1/2 hour day. Josie will get to run the continental breakfast tomorrow and we both get a chance to close and prepare the bank deposits tomorrow night.

It stopped raining yesterday afternoon and the sun came out. We are supposed to have another sunny day today so we hope the forecast is accurate. Spring Break is over for the Oregon kids this weekend, but it begins for Washington kids next week so we get a steady stream of families checking in. We are surprised that this park gets as many walk-ins as it does since Oceanside campgrounds are usually in demand and require reservations. That will almost certainly change for the summer season. It appears that our first day off to explore the area will be Monday at the earliest. We did go to the local Safeway in town yesterday for some groceries after we got off work and discovered the Casino. It is near the top of our list to visit when we get some time off. Surprised?

We are getting a new Manager couple next week which will allow Terry to return to the Eugene resort where he normally works. They were suppose to have been here by now but had transmission problems in Texas with their motorhome. They have managed here before and are good friends of Terry. We are hoping they are as nice as Terry and as easy to work for. Our fingers are crossed...

Good First Day

Our first day on the new job went very well. We met Terry at 8 AM in the office and jumped right in filling out the paperwork for employment. That was all wrapped up in about a half hour and we then each got a cup of coffee and sat down at the front desk and began learning the system. The system that is used here is Campground Manager which is the same system we used at Happy Jack. It didn't take us long to get in the flow of things and Terry was very happy that he didn't have to "train" new people. The differences here are all positive so far. The policies are very customer friendly and it's a pleasure to work where the almighty dollar is secondary to creating satisfied customers. I mentioned before that there is a free continental breakfast and free newspaper to each guest every morning. That is so rare in campgrounds and usually only found in hotels.

We feel, right now at least, that this is going to be a very pleasant stay and that the relationship with Premier RV Resorts may develop into a long term relationship. The day flew by and Josie and I both checked in customers and made sales in the store. We will open this morning at 7:30 and work again until around 5 PM.

The only negative for us so far is the weather. We have had over an inch of rain the last 2 days but the real negative is the high winds that we've had. Yesterday we had high gusts of 22 MPH and already today we have had 26 MPH gusts. We hope that this is just an occasional situation and not the norm. Temperatures are in the 50's during the day but we know that will change soon. That is one thing we knew about the Pacific Northwest - count on rain and cool temperatures until around June every year. But after that, it is absolutely beautiful and pleasant. We are certainly looking forward to those days. That's about it for now...

Ready To Go

We got started a little later than planned yesterday because we met Terry (VP Operations, and the boss) in the office when we went in for our breakfast. He showed us an easier way to get to Lincoln City than the Mapquest route we were going to follow. The original route had us going over some small mountains and his route, although slightly longer, was much easier for hauling a big rig. It was only 112 miles so we arrived at Lincoln City at 1 PM. We were very thankful that we had beautiful weather the entire trip. The rain has moved in - .28" yesterday and .22" so far today. We anticipated that it would be wetter and also windier.

After setting up in our space, we took a couple pictures before heading out to the nearest Wal Mart for some supplies. This first shot shows our rig, situated in space #1 next to the office/lodge:

And this picture looking up the small hill to the campground:

It is a very nice campground and is directly across the street from the ocean. The first problem we encountered after we got set up was pulling out onto Highway 101 to go to the Wal Mart for some supplies. We were told later that it can take up to 20 minutes to pull out on the road, especially during the summer months and holiday weekends. Most people do their shopping after dinner when the traffic slows. Anyway, we headed south toward Newport and found the Wal Mart and also a nice Fred Meyer store that we haven't seen in probably 10 years. Josie took several pictures along the way and below is one of the ocean:

We are meeting with Terry at 8 AM this morning, assuming he makes the drive up from Eugene on time. We are anxious to get our assignments and begin this new chapter. One thing is for sure and that is that this is very different from anything else we've done. Stay tuned...

Better Travel Day

The travel day yesterday ended much better than on Monday. We left the park in Redding at 9:15 and arrived in Eugene at about 3:15. Even though we traveled about 70 more miles, the roads weren't as winding and twisting as coming out of the foothills. Although we were on I-5 the whole day, we still had to go through mountains in both California and southern Oregon but we could still make better time than on the back roads. There were a couple shots we each took while traveling yesterday. It was difficult to get good pictures while driving, but we managed to get these. The first is a picture of Mt Shasta as traveling north on I-5:

As you can see, it was an absolutely beautiful day. This second shot is shown because it is the view that Josie has had each of the last two days, and will be the same view again today on the trip into Lincoln City:

I felt sorry for her but she is a trooper. She hates driving through mountains and over passes, but at least there was no snow.

It was nice that the reservation was made for us and the site was ready when we arrived. It is a nice pull through site that is near the lodge. This is a very nice park that Premier RV Resorts has purchased and remodeled and greatly upgraded. We are impressed, so far, with the quality of the resorts. We even get daily newspapers delivered and morning continental breakfasts included. Both of those are gratis items that you don't usually get in RV parks.

Setup was a breeze and there were no problems this time with either the refrigerator or the cable. Even though we can't use our satellite system, we were able to get the cable connected to where we received a clear picture. I am convinced the problem Monday was a bad cable connector since I did nothing different to connect this time. We went down the road to a Pilot station and topped off the gas for today's trip and had time to walk around the campground and have a leisurely dinner.

This morning we plan to go to the lodge for their continental breakfast and then get ready to head out at about 10 AM. There are only about 115 miles to go to Lincoln City so we should arrive there in the early afternoon, around 1 PM. We're looking forward to seeing our new home for next several months...

Good Start, Bad Finish

It was 9:45 when we finally got on the road yesterday. Part of the delay was last minute goodbyes and conversation that lasted longer than it should have. The early part of the drive was on winding, twisting roads out of the foothills and on to level road. We finally reached I-5 in Sacramento by noon and it was smooth sailing the rest of the way. We arrived at the campground in Redding at just about 3 PM which should have given us plenty of time to relax and enjoy the rest of the day.

The first problem we had was that the campground wasn't expecting us and they had no reservation. The VP of Operations for the company, and the gentleman that hired us, failed to make the reservations because he thought we wouldn't be in until Thursday. I rechecked my email later and verified that I had the correct dates, so he somehow got confused. They tracked him down in Lincoln City and verified that we were to be given a space. Of course, they were almost full and needed to do some shuffling to get a space for us that would be large enough for our fifth wheel. We finally found one but it didn't have a sewer hookup which was OK for us for one night.

We proceeded to get set up in the space and as Josie opened the door to go inside, I heard this loud "Uh Oh". You guessed it. The refrigerator door was not locked and with the winding, twisting roads we were on, everything was scattered on the floor. The milk dumped, the ice dumped, the Italian dressing dumped, and everything else that was in the refrigerator was on the floor. We will have to get a check list put together for departures so this kind of thing doesn't happen again in the future. Another lesson learned.

The next challenge was to get the satellite up and locked on to a signal. Even though there were lots of trees, I was able to get the dish locked on. The problem was that I kept getting an error code from the DirecTV receiver. When I contacted their customer service they informed me that the error code indicated that the hard drive was dead, and I would need a replacement receiver. Great! We're leaving here and can't take delivery until Wednesday in Lincoln City. Of course, that also means that all of our recorded programs and movies are lost. So, we hooked up the cable - free here - and watched TV with a very snowy and grainy picture. Don't know what settings need to be changed that weren't.

Josie is preparing our snacks for travel as I wrap up this entry. Let's hope that today is a better day...

Heading Out Today

Just about everything went according to plan yesterday. The fifth wheel was moved out of the space and down to a large, open space at the bottom of the park. There was less of a problem than we anticipated and there was only one glitch during the move. All of the slides on our unit have "topper" awnings which are used to keep debris and moisture off of the slide itself. The awning over the bedroom slide has had a problem since we left Ocotillo Wells. The awning shifted about an inch off its regular alignment during one of the wind storms there. It hasn't retracted normally since then, but still rolled up well enough for travel. Well, it didn't roll up yesterday because of rainwater sitting on the top that wouldn't allow the fabric to roll up completely. The result was that one of the awning brackets snapped off and the awning had to be repaired. Two of the great maintenance men we have here fixed the problem with the bracket and they straightened the fabric. The rig is now ready to roll.



We had a wonderful dinner in the barn last night where everybody brought a dish and said their goodbyes. That's a first for us at any of our stops which was a very nice gesture. We didn't realize we forgot the camera until the dinner was almost over, but we got it in time to take some pictures of some of the people still there, cleaning up, and singing to the music of Larry on the keyboard:

Besides Larry at the keyboard, there's Eric next to him then Jerry on the left and Harv next to him. We have some individual shots of people but wanted to show the following picture of Carol and Susan, who were the two ladies that Josie worked with in the office and became very good friends:

Everybody will be missed.

We are planning to leave here at about 9 AM and arrive in Redding, CA, between 2 PM and 3 PM, depending on stops. We're all gassed up and ready to go. Josie is making snacks while I complete this entry. I just have to complete some packing outside and I'll be ready. We'll be on the road in about 45 minutes, so see ya later...

Get Ready Time

It was mentioned that the space we are in is a nice, remote site, that we chose because of the clear shot for the Satellite. Everything about it was perfect except it is a tight space to get in and out of. Today we will pack things up inside and close the slides and move it to the bottom of the hill into a nice level space that will make it easier for us to leave in the morning. I took a picture of the space so you can see how small the opening is:

Not only is the opening small, but the terrain gets pretty steep once you get out of the space. They use a special short bed truck to do these moves. There is no way I could use my truck with the added girth of the dual wheels and the extra length. Anyway, we will rest easier when the move is completed.

Our final day yesterday was a pleasant one. We exchanged more emails and wrapped up some projects and Josie turned in her keys. We went to dinner last night with the couple (Susan & Larry) that are from Massachusetts and Minnesota. They are a very nice couple that we will keep in touch with. Susan is a painter and has also written a chilren's book that was just published and Larry is our entertainer at the group dinners and functions. He is excellent on the guitar and has a good voice, too. Susan worked in the office with Josie and Larry did maintenance on the grounds. We're thankful that we made many friends while here and will stay in touch with most of them.

The staff has planned a pot luck dinner tonight to see us off. That was an especially nice gesture since we were only here a couple months. The rest of our day will be taken with packing up and securing everything for the long trip beginning tomorrow. Later...

Wrapping Up

There are still a couple things that need to be done in the office today before we can call it quits. I need to finish up on some promotional cards and website stuff and Josie had the phone last night for the final time and will turn in her office keys at the end of the day. As far as the fifth wheel is concerned, initially we only have to get ready for the move down the hill tomorrow from our tight space. Our space has worked well for us but it is tricky getting in and out. If not careful, we could scratch the side of our rig on either the fence post on one side, or the rock wall on the other. That's why we're taking a separate day to move down. There's no rushing that job.

We received another inquiry from a park in Coleville, CA, to come and Workamp for the summer season. This particular one is located just on the other side (Eastern) of the Sierra's from where we are and is located near the eastern gate to Yosemite. Of course, we passed on it. The jobs are plentiful for the summer right now. We are hopeful that our new job will work out for us at least through the summer, and perhaps longer. This will be a real test for us to see if the ocean is a place where we might want to spend many years in retirement - not necessarily in Lincoln City but somewhere along the coast. That's for another discussion down the road.

It's amazing how dramatically the weather has turned around the last week, and for the foreseeable future. We're in the 70's now everyday, with clear, blue skies. As far as we can tell, it will be a nice trip north, weather wise. We're getting anxious...

Two To Go

The countdown is a short one to the end of our work days here. Only two to go. We are gathering email accounts from our friends here and will keep in touch, just as we have with friends from our other locations. The large guest group that is here is leaving today, so the park will once again be nearly empty. There are about 15 rigs in this group and they call themselves the "Half Fast" club. Kind of a unique name.

We've started performing the duties for our departure. I called the mail forwarding service to have our mail held until we arrive at our new location and will be filling up the truck with diesel either today or tomorrow. We only drove the truck once while we were here and that was the first trip we took to the "Big Trees" back in February. It sure is nice having the Jeep to do our local driving to save all that money on gas. It will take a pretty penny to fill the truck which will take about 60 gallons of Diesel to top off the 20 or so gallons left from our previous fill. The auxiliary tank on the truck will allow us to drive any single day, all day, without a gas stop which is always nice when you're towing a big fifth wheel. A full tank should take us almost the whole way to Lincoln City.

The weather forecast is for nice weather all the way up - at least for now. We all know how fast that can change, but the real concern is that we don't get any snow while going over the Siskiyou's into Southern Oregon. We should be past the snow at this point in the year unless there is a freak storm. Time to get ready for our next-to-last day of work...

Yosemite

One of the big reasons for our coming to this area was to see Yosemite National Park. We finally made it there yesterday and it didn't disappoint. It was a beautiful, Sunshine day, with temperatures in the high 60's and was perfect for our first ever visit to this park. We came in through the northern entry which had just reopened the previous week. I actually took about 75 pictures for the day, and Josie took another 50 or so with her camera so there was no shortage of shots to put in the blog. Of course, we have to start with the entry sign:

The park is just filled with beautiful rock formations and natural water features. It helped that the Spring runoff of snow had begun and all the falls, creeks and rivers were running pretty good. Below is the first falls that we came to, called the Bridalveil:

There was an uphill walking path of about 1000 feet to get to the bottom of this falls but it was worth the climb. The next shot is of the famous El Capitan:

The drive through the valley to the Yosemite Falls, where the visitor's center is located and the lodge is located is about 20 miles and there are beautiful landscapes the whole way there. Below is a picture of the Yosemite Falls:

There are several shots that we took of these falls, some up close, but I put this one in since it was such a neat setting. After going through the Village Store, Visitor Center and Lodge buildings that were nearby, we started the trip back out of the Valley. We stopped to take this picture of what is called the Hanging Falls:

It is called the Hanging Falls because there was a stream that flowed along the top of the plateau that was cut off by a huge glacier, leaving the falls to "hang". One of the more famous formations is called the "Brothers", below:

We spent the entire day there and returned home at about 6 PM. The distance to the park was about 75 miles so it was a trip we had to take before we leave this area. Yosemite is the kind of place you wouldn't mind coming back to over and over like the Grand Canyon. We're thankful that the weather was beautiful, especially after all the rain and cold weather we have had.

Today begins our last 3 days on the job. Our plan is to move the trailer down to the lower park area on Sunday, and head out Monday morning. We will do that to make sure that there is plenty of time to remove the fifth wheel from this tight location. That's about it until tomorrow...

Final Play day

Today is the last free day we will have to take any kind of trip. We have scheduled a visit to Yosemite and will be leaving shortly. Everything is finalized for our new job in Lincoln City - we received the agreement in an email last night and will execute it and fax it back this morning.

There was a meeting yesterday at the store and Josie attended it without me. Since it was about office procedures and I wasn't really feeling that well, we decided to let her go alone. It's a good thing because the meeting was 2 hours long and I wouldn't have done well sitting there for that time. Once again it was a meeting that pretty much wasted everybody's time. Josie has put in for the 2 hours as worked time since it was our day off.

The weather is cooperating and is beginning to warm up so our trip today should be pleasant. We are expecting to still see some snow in Yosemite since it is at a higher elevation but we're sure the roads will be open. Hopefully, we'll have some pictures to show tomorrow of our final trip...

Committed

Our mindset now is to prepare for our departure to Lincoln City. There were a couple of potential employers for the summer that we sent emails to in order to inform them that we would be taking another job. This is the best time of the year to get commitments for the summer season. The job market started in January with a few jobs being offered each day, but now it is running at a rate of about 10 jobs a day being offered in the Workamper Hotline. Of course, most of the jobs are offered in areas that we aren't interested in - yet. We expect to head east and work for a time, maybe as early as next winter. You may recall that we were looking in Florida last year and we will do the same this year. But for the time being, we're happy to have located a nice park, on the ocean, in Oregon for the summer.

Another thing we'll miss here is our deer family. They came around visiting again yesterday and were grazing all around our fifth wheel. It still surprises me that with the 8 or 9 deer we see all the time, we have not seen one buck among them. We are told that there are some big ones around but we haven't seen them. Anyway, this is probably the last photo we'll take of these deer:




There is a meeting in the office that was called for today at 10 AM. We aren't too happy that they scheduled a meeting during our days off but we aren't the only ones who have to go while they are off. I guess if we had scheduled a trip somewhere, we wouldn't have to attend. Darn. I'm still nursing my cold so we didn't schedule anything yesterday or today, but we're thinking that tomorrow we will venture out to Yosemite. We have been looking forward to that trip...

Looks Like It's Lincoln City Next

Everything is done except the paperwork. We are going to the Premier RV Resort in Lincoln City, OR, for our next Workamper gig. Our final phone call yesterday afternoon was a summary of all the details we discussed that will be put into a formal offer letter that will be sent to us either today or tomorrow. There were some pleasant surprises that came out of the discussions. First of all, we will get complimentary stays at both the Redding, CA Resort and the Eugene, OR Resort on our trip up to Lincoln City from here. Secondly, they will give us what they call a Value Card at the end of our stay which is now scheduled for October 31. We just need to work out our travel itinerary and let them know when we can arrive. I had a preliminary discussion with Bill, the owner here, yesterday and informed him of our decision to leave. I think he was both sorry and relieved since they are presently overstaffed until summer, and he also has another couple scheduled to arrive on April 1st. Josie and I can't figure out how he would have scheduled all of us into the office with business being so slow until the peak season in the summer.

It appears at this point that we will leave around the 21st of March, stay in Redding on the 21st, Eugene on the 22nd, and arrive in Lincoln City on the 23rd. That will give us a chance to start working before the 1st of April. They use Campground Manager software for their resort which is the software we learned on at Happy Jack last year. That was one of the reasons they were interested in us and will definitely shorten the training period. I will also be doing some landscaping (mowing, fertilizing, watering, pruning, etc) and we both will be filling in to clean the meeting rooms and bathrooms as needed. I'll describe our duties in more detail after we arrive.

We are excited about the new location and at the same time will miss some of the things we didn't do while here. A trip to Yosemite before we leave may be a possibility but we have been putting off that trip because of snow. We'll see. We have 3 days off now and then work our final 3 days before leaving. Since I'm nursing a cold now, we aren't sure where we will go today, but we will be taking advantage of our final play days in some way...

Happy Daylight Savings

Wouldn't you know that the day we have to turn the clock ahead - lose an hour's sleep - is a day that we have to work the early shift. Coupled with the cold that I am coming down with, it is not a fun morning so far. It's a good thing that this is our last day before getting three days off.

It was mentioned a few days ago that we have been looking at places to go and Workamp for this summer. Actually, we are very close to getting an agreement with Premier RV Resorts which is a growing company of high end campgrounds. We expect to have a final agreement by the end of today to work at the Lincoln City, OR resort. Our original plan was to stay here through the entire summer, but a couple things have occurred that have changed our thinking. First of all, there is not enough business here to keep the whole staff busy until the summer crowd arrives, and secondly, the money will be better with Premier RV Resorts. The other, and most important factor for us is to get our foot in the door at a growing resort company like Premier that has multiple locations in nice areas that we will have first choice to work if/when they have openings. We are negotiating with the VP of Operations for the company and he indicated that, right now, we are the only people he is talking to about this opening in Lincoln City. It also satisfies a desire to spend some time at an oceanside resort. There are some other perks that will be mentioned after we get a final agreement.

This has been a tremendous area for us and we hope to leave the door open for a future return if we can. One goal we have set for ourselves is not to burn any bridges with locations we have worked. So far, we haven't burned any. I hope that tomorrow's entry will be a confirmation and we can provide more details of the next step in our adventure...

Spoke Too Soon

Yesterday I mentioned that the sky was clear and blue while doing the blog entry and that the forecast was for nice weather. The forecast is still for nice weather, but beginning today. The clouds rolled in around 10 AM and by noon it was raining once again. We finished the day with .94" of rain - one of the heaviest days of rain we've had. So far, we have had 6 days with no precipitation in February. That's OK as long as it clears up in time for our days off beginning Monday. It is again clear this morning.

The upgrade on the computers in the office was mentioned yesterday and I spent almost the entire day trying to get my software working again the way it did before the upgrade. I'm still not there yet. Josie was busy for a change checking in people and doing things to assist them in getting settled into their spaces. There were 12 rigs that checked in. The day was busy for both of us which made the time go faster.

We skipped the hot dog roast last night because I have been catching a cold the last 2 days and was not feeling all that well. I just wanted to come home and crash on the recliner, which I did. I will probably get the camera out today to take pictures of the people in camp so they can have something to take away with them. That was very popular with the last group we had in the park. Just 2 more days till play time...

Software Upgrade

With all of the other changes the park is making to the website, they threw in an upgrade from Windows Vista to the new Windows 7 Operating System. Now nothing works, and all the brand new software that I have been learning to use needs to be re-installed under the new system. Of course, with all upgrades I've ever gone through, nothing ever runs the same with the new operating systems as they did with the old. Frankly, I can't see any advantage to doing this upgrade - especially at this time. Sheesh!

There are 2 groups coming in today that represent a total of about 10 rigs. It will be nice to see the spaces filled and to have real people walking around again. That means that I once again get to take pictures for the groups and Josie gets to stay a little more busy in the office. It looks like clear, blue skies outside this morning and the forecast is for clear weather at least for the next 6 days. We haven't had more than 3 consecutive days without precipitation since February 13th. Maybe Spring is really on the way. We expect to see major changes in the park's appearance since there are so many trees here and they are all starting to get their leaves.

As a result of the groups coming in today, there are 2 dinners planned in the barn. Tonight is a hot dog roast dinner and there is another pot luck dinner scheduled for Sunday. That is one thing we like about the way this park is run. The guests really are treated like "family" and the park goes the extra mile to make sure everybody is happy. It's time to get ready for work - early start today - so we'll see ya tomorrow...

Winter Arrives

It really does seem like the season is going backwards. We again awoke to a dusting of snow yesterday with a low temperature around freezing, and the low this morning was 33 degrees. The good news is that the sky is clear - so far. We have had more cold days this last week than we have had since we arrived in January. Who knows.

The office was, as usual, slow and very dull yesterday. Today we are scheduled to have one small group arrive and another (larger one) is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. Things will pick up for sure. There are dinners scheduled for Friday night, Saturday Night and Monday and Tuesday for these groups. I'm sure I'll be out and about taking pictures for the groups as I did several weeks ago. They appreciate the collages I put together for them to take home. We also have another web group meeting today. I am just about ready to begin work on a new website, but I'm waiting to get some specifications from the group. I don't look forward to this project since I'm still not 100 percent confident I can work with their software. I'll try anything once.

We are still entertaining new job possibilities and have zeroed in on a few. There should be some news coming soon on those prospects. Whatever we decide, we are both looking forward to some warmer weather. What a strange and unusual winter this year. Everybody here says it's been unusually wet and cool. I guess it's the El Nino effect (?).

This is our stretch of early days at the office. We alternate early/late start with the other office people so that everybody gets an equal number of sleep-in days. Actually, it's only an hour difference in start time - 8 vs 9 AM. The problem for us this week is that Daylight Savings starts on Sunday morning so we lose an extra hour of sleep Saturday night. We will be impacted by the change this year since we came over from Arizona where they don't participate in Daylight Savings - at least in the Phoenix area. Anyway, have a great day everybody...

Railtown Visit

Although it was cool yesterday morning (low 50's), it was sunny, so we decided to take a trip to Jamestown and see the Railtown 1897 State Park. Railtown is a historical location for steam powered locomotives that dates back to 1897 and represents one of two locations in the country (the other is in PA) where there is still an operating roundhouse. We took the over 1 hour guided tour and it was a very informative and fascinating. Between 1919 and the present, the Sierra Railroad (Railtown's real name) would "star" in more than 200 motion pictures, television programs and commercials. You would probably recognize some of these - High Noon, Back to the Future III, Rawhide, Death Valley Days, Little House on the Prairie, Petticoat Junction, Unforgiven and many, many more. We took lots of pictures and some of them are below, beginning with the entry board at the waiting station:

Then there was this sign about some of the movie history of the railroad:

As the history points out, the engine # 3 is the most used of any of the engines in the shows and the following picture shows that engine in the roundhouse, being outfitted for another event that will take place on July 4th:

It is difficult to see the detail in the state that it is in above. It was also difficult to get to where a good picture could be taken because of the caution tape. The engine below is # 18 which is another of the big stars in motion pictures and TV:

The next two shots are of the roundhouse, taken from outside and the turntable itself:




The tour then went into the shop area where they had displayed many different pieces of special decor that were used in all the shows. The following are lists of movies and TV shows that the engines have appeared in. The list shows the name, the year it was filmed, the engine used in the film and the actors that appeared in the show:

There were so many names of shows on each of the lists that it was difficult getting a picture that clearly shows the names. Sorry about that.

The last shot is taken at the train station itself and we could imagine all of the scenes that were shot here for the movies and TV shows:

It was a fun trip and represented more of the interesting history that is everywhere in this area.

We woke up to another dusting of snow this morning. It seems like the weather is going backwards. Instead of getting nicer it's getting closer to winter. It should be gone by noon though as the temperatures are already near 40 degrees.

Today begins our 5 day stretch of work days, so the play days will be on hold for another week...

Nasty Day Weather Wise

Yesterday started out cloudy like it was going to rain and, sure enough, it rained and got colder the rest of the day. We stayed home except for a brief trip to Walmart to pick up a couple prescriptions for Josie. Yesterday also gave us an opportunity to catch up on movies we have recorded. We watched a very touching movie called "The Long Gray Line" that I recorded on May 5th of last year - before we even started on our adventure - that was 2 1/2 hours long. It was a movie about an Irish immigrant named Marty Maher, and the 50 years service he gave to the Military Academy at West Point. There's nothing like watching a tear jerker on a wet and dreary day. It is always easier to take the rain when it is warm outside but yesterday it was bordering on snow weather. Actually, it went down to 29 last night so if it hadn't stopped raining, it would have been snow.

Today is our last play day for the next 6 days. The sun is shining so we hope to go somewhere different. One place we have been looking at is "Railtown 1897 Historic State Park", where there is a train roundhouse and a museum of the old railroad that was used in many movies. It is located in Jamestown which is only about 10 miles south of us. We hope to get some good pictures that we can share tomorrow. Until then...

Double Feature

We got an earlier start yesterday since it was sunny and rapidly warming up. One of the places we wanted to return to was the Big Trees State Park. The last time we went there, there was just too much snow to walk the trail. This time, there was still snow, but we were able to walk the whole trail through the North Grove. This was a one mile trail, marked with 26 observation points that described the history and significance of these mammoth trees. We were able to get some more shots of these unbelievable trees. The first is one of Josie standing in front of one of the largest, named the Empire State:

Followed by a shot looking up from the base of this same tree:

There were several trees that had openings at their base that were caused by various events such as fires or fungus:

Then there is the "Father of the Forest" which is a tree that fell, according to the history, before the grove was discovered. It was completely hollow from decomposition and you can see how big this tree was by looking at the length of the trail that passes it:

Then there was one of the most famous trees in the Grove, that of The "Pioneer Cabin Tree" that has a cut that was made to compete with the "Wawona Tunnel Tree" that was carved out in Yosemite park. This tree was chosen because of its wide base:

It was a fascinating walk through one of our country's historical settings. Just to think that these trees, the larger ones at least, are as much as 2,000 - 3,000 years old - it is mind boggling.

After leaving the Big Trees, we thought we might stop at the Columbia State Historical Park on the way home. This is a State Park that is right down the street from us and we pass it nearly everyday. We're glad we finally stopped to see this historical area of California. The whole preserved downtown area is blocked off to vehicle traffic which is one reason we just drove by it everyday. This is where the gold rush started in 1850, and you can really imagine what it was like at that time. We took several pictures, some of which are below. The first one is of main street:

There was a nice park at the end of the street where there were families standing along gold panning troughs, actually panning for gold:

The final shot is of the Wells Fargo Stage Depot that is the same one used in 1850. The inside of this depot was still exactly the same as it was in 1850. Of course, they had a stagecoach that would take people on a ride through the whole Columbia downtown area and into the old residential areas:

We made good use of the beautiful day we had yesterday. Both places we went were exciting and left us with a better appreciation of how things were in the "old days".

Today is cloudy - so far. we'll have to get a weather report to see if this will be a stay inside day, or another outside adventure day...

Where To Retire Discussion

One of the things we hope to accomplish while we are on this adventure is to find a place where we would like to finally retire and spend the rest of our lives. We got into a discussion in the office about that subject yesterday - remember, there are lots of discussions during the day in the office. The people that make up our staff are from all over the country so we get different perspectives from each of them. The couple that is from Massachusetts/Minnesota are going to look hard at Oregon. The couple from California is looking hard at staying in California. Of course, they own a home that is in a small town called Trona, which is in the desert near Death Valley. We are still looking and, so far, just think that it would be nice to have a split retirement. As of now, we would favor summers in the Northwest somewhere, and the winters in the Phoenix area. We may not have the option though of splitting our retirement, depending on our health. California is rapidly going down the proverbial toilet as it continues to struggle with providing services as a result of this economy, so we feel that is out for us. Hopefully, we still have a lot of discovering to do before we need to make that decision.

Along those lines, we have been looking at future job opportunities both for summer and winter locations. There are so many opportunities available for summers that it is difficult to decide where to go. Originally, we had planned to stay here through the summer, but we are rethinking that as we continue to see just about everything there is to see in this area. The problem again is for the winter season as most of the campgrounds close in the cooler climates and it makes for more people looking in a smaller, warmer area for the jobs. We'll keep everybody posted on those developments.

Today begins our 3 day play period - yeah! The sun is out - again - and we will try to go somewhere that we can enjoy the sunshine. Later...

Just Another Day

It has been a typical, dead week here at the park. It is really a good thing that the owners don't need to fill the park in order to pay the staff. Once again, there are only about 3 short term customers here that have checked in over the last two days and will stay for only a couple days. We had four staffers in the office most of the day yesterday, doing very little outside of having conversation among themselves. I will say though, that it is suppose to get very busy once the season begins in April/May and will last through the summer. There are more staff members scheduled to arrive in April, so we don't know how or where they will fit in.

We have seen the deer family each of the last two days. They come and go and really like the area around our rig. I'm waiting to see some horns though, as they all appear to be "does" at this point. Deer will generally spend their entire lives in about a 4 square mile area so these deer should always be safe from hunting pressure which explains why they aren't so skittish around humans. They very rarely run off when people are around although we have seen them run when one of the golf carts gets close. Of course, the golf carts are all gas powered and make a very loud noise. The nearest "legal" hunting area is many miles from here.

Today is our final work day for this stretch in the schedule and then we have 3 days off. Hopefully, we can go to some interesting places. Until tomorrow...

Drying Out

It's nice to see the sun again. The rain stopped yesterday morning and we have actually had sunshine. We did get a dusting of snow but it was gone by mid morning yesterday. The other thing that is very different about the weather here is that we don't get much wind at all. Compared to the Coachella Valley in the Palm Springs area, we hardly get any. The most wind we've had since we've been here was one gust on February 4th that was 19 MPH. Since then, the highest gusts have been in single digits except for a couple of days where we reached 10 or 11. It's nice to be able to keep the awnings out.

It was a quiet day at work yesterday. The owners, Bill and Pat, are gone for the week. They went to the L.A. area to visit their daughter and that makes for an even more quiet time at the office. We have 2 more work days and then we can play again for another 3 days. Because it is so quiet in the office, it allows us more time to talk to the other staffers about neat places to go and things to do on our days off. We are getting closer to the time when we can go to Yosemite. If it would just stop raining (snowing in the higher elevations) we could plan a nice trip there. The same goes with Tahoe. Those places aren't so far away that we couldn't do them in a day's trip when the weather cooperates.

That's about it for today...

And Now Some Snow

It rained off and on most of the day yesterday (.76" total) but at about 4 PM we looked out and saw this:

They were the largest snowflakes we've ever seen. They were all at least 2" and were coming down like we were going to get totally covered in a very short time. Fortunately, the already wet ground was absorbing most of them when they hit the ground. Our temperature was at 34 degrees at that time and it only went down to 33 all night. That's still cold, but we only got a dusting of snow on the ground and with the sun out today (so far), it will probably all be gone by the end of the day. Already for March we have recorded precipitation in 3 out 4 of the days. Enough, already!

We are not excited about going back to work today. We start at 9 AM so that means we close tonight at 6 PM. At least we only have 3 days before we get more time off. Yesterday was one of the few days that we spent at home for the entire day. Josie reorganized her jewelry box and I spent most of the day watching westerns on the Westerns Channel. It was a nice, relaxing day. We are also about caught up on the shows we missed and copied as a result of the Olympics. We are now beginning to get immersed in the new Idol season, and so far, we're not impressed with too many of the contestants. We're sure a favorite will rise to the occasion though. Later...

Angels Camp

The day was wet again. There was a total of .53" of rain yesterday and made for a very dreary day. Josie needed some hair stuff so we went into town and stopped at Walmart and we decided to take a trip to Angels Camp, which is a nice town we went through on the way to the Sutter Gold Mine a week or so ago. This is one of the typical California Gold Rush towns that are scattered throughout this area and is another great place to visit. We stopped back at the fifth wheel to pick up the camera, just in case. We couldn't find Josie's small camera after looking everywhere in the fifth wheel, so we concluded that it still must be somewhere in the Jeep. It turns out that it was in the pocket of a jacket she left in the car and it was there the whole time we were at the bottom of the hill yesterday at Italian Bar, when we thought we didn't have one. Sheesh!

We arrived at Angels Camp at about 1 PM and walked around the whole downtown. There are several nice antique stores, restaurants and specialty shops. We stopped at a small cafe, Angels Cafe, and had some lunch - French Dip sandwiches - that was excellent and fairly cheap ($20 total). Of course, it was raining the whole time as you can see from this shot:

There was a movie theater in town (below) and it was showing Avatar, which is a movie we were wanting to see, so what better time than a rainy afternoon to go to a movie.

It was one of the very few theaters near us that was showing this film in its 3D format, so we went. What a great film. Even though it was almost 3 hours long, it didn't seem like it.

All in all, it was a fun day, even with the rain. The clouds are still here this morning, so we aren't sure what plans to make for today. Whatever we do, it will be more fun than going to work...

Some Follow Up

It was a beautiful day yesterday and even though we wanted to stay home and get some things done, we found a way to get out in the sunshine. Josie did some baking in the AM (brownies), and we decided to go to Safeway in town to get some things and drop off one of Josie's prescriptions at Walmart. On the way home, Josie suggested driving down Italian Bar Rd to where the folks would have gone with their motor home on Saturday. You recall the circus that showed up on Saturday and dropped off a utility trailer and proceeded to go down this long dirt road to camp in order to pan for gold.

Italian Bar Rd is the road our campground is on and it continues for about 5 miles before the pavement ends. It then turns into a dirt road that is another 5 miles long and goes through many switchbacks, down the side of a hill that drops a total of about 1000 feet in that 5 miles. There were potholes all the way down and many tight turns with jagged rocks sticking out and, in some spots, barely enough room to drive while you stare straight down over the cliff. We finally reached the bottom and were totally amazed. There is a campground there, with no hookups of course, and it sits right on this raging river that was probably 30' wide. There were old buildings that were actually standing here during the gold rush days in 1850. We connected with a guy named Gary who is the caretaker and lives there year round. He told us, and a sign verifies it, that there were 3,000 workers here in 1850 and they pulled out a total of $10 million in gold from this river and the surrounding area. Gold was selling for $21 per ounce back then so you can imagine how much gold that represents. Gary indicated that there is still gold taken from here almost every day.

The property is owned by the Lost Dutchman Mining Association (LDMA), and there were small trailers there that were in storage waiting for members to come for the summer season. There were also some tenters there and, you guessed it, the 40' motor home that was in our campground - amazing! Of course, we were totally unprepared for this as we left the camera at home thinking we were only going to the store.

We will definitely return with our camera on another nice day. That is, if I can convince Josie that she will not end up going over the cliff on the way. It was a white knuckle trip for sure. We can't imagine how that motor home made it down and it will be a small miracle if it makes it back up. It will make for some amazing photos.

The day has started out with some light showers today so I guess our nice weather is once again on hold. Until tomorrow...

Busy Ending to Week

Sundays are usually very slow days, even when there are lots of campers around because everybody leaves to go home. Not so yesterday. We had the permanent people coming in to pay their rent for March and then there was the "gold digging" family. It started with two fellas coming in to ask about long term rates. At first they said they just had a motor home and a trailer. They left and came back later. When they showed up again, they had a motor home, utility trailer that was 30' long, a pickup truck with camper, wives, about ten kids and three dogs. As soon as they arrived in the park the kids all got out of their vehicles, along with the dogs, and they were all running around the campground while the men tried to decide what to do. Thankfully, they decided to just leave the utility trailer in our storage and go to the spot where they are going to pan for gold and set up camp there. Whew! The worst part of the whole scene is that there is no way the motor home will be able to get back to where they plan to go. You need a 4-wheel drive vehicle to get to that spot. Oh, Well. They never came back yesterday.

The sun is out this morning for the second consecutive day. There are some things we need to get down around the fifth wheel this morning so any plan to go somewhere will be delayed a little bit. It just feels good to sit around and relax for awhile. Josie also has some baking she wants to do so we may just spend the first day off at home. We'll see. The schedule is set up so we are off 3 days, work 3 days and have another 3 days off until we get to the next 5 day stretch of work. It works out to 8 days working every 2 week pay period.

TV will be a little different now with the Olympics being over. We have copied all the regular shows we normally watch so we will catch up on watching those. Enjoy your day everybody...