Arrived in Jackson, GA

By the time we got everything settled at Camping World in Chattanooga, TN, and got on the road, it was just after 1:30 PM. We paid our bill and Joel (Service Manager) had some printouts of information for places for us to possibly stay near the Camping World facility in Kissemmee, FL, for the final work on our jacks. He also sent on all the paperwork to that facility so they should be able to pick up the ball and run with it next week. We have a scheduled appointment there for Thursday, January 6th. That puts us very close to Orlando where my interview is scheduled for Tuesday the 4th.

The temporary fix we had on the jacks worked once again during our drive to this location - a total of 159 miles. The only delays we had were just after leaving the Atlanta area where there appeared to be a mass exodus for the holiday weekend. It took us about 45 minutes to go 5 miles before the traffic opened up again.

We left the truck hitched up to the rig all night so that we wouldn't have to use the front jacks and also, to give us a head start today. The State Park where are staying is very nice - it's the High Falls State Park - and below is a shot of our great location:

It's the kind of place we could spend more than 1 night if we had the time to spare. The spaces are huge and private and there is lots to see and do in this area.

Our destination for today is another State Park in Adel, GA, which gets us close to the Florida border. Already the weather is better. It is 46 outside as I write this at 9 AM this morning. We see that even the desirable west coast areas - Phoenix and the Southern California area - are receiving cold and nasty weather. Snow in Phoenix (?). Maybe we are better off where we are, at least for now. No area has been spared so far this winter. We are looking forward to sitting out in the warm sun and enjoying some warm weather in Florida.

We will be leaving here at around 11 AM and expect to arrive at our destination by mid afternoon. Until tomorrow ----

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

From Hope to Despair

Yesterday was a roller coaster ride for our jack repair. Joel - service manager here at Camping World - called us to inform us that some parts did show up from Lippert Components and he wanted to get our rig back into the service bay to begin work. No problem. We were anxious to get the jacks fixed and to get on our way down to Florida.

It turned out to be false hope. The parts that were delivered yesterday were not the parts that were ordered and they could not be used to complete the repair. So, I was charged the $55 for overnight delivery of parts that took 2 days to get here, and were the wrong parts. You can believe that charge is being disputed. The situation now is that we can wait until Monday, January 3rd, order parts again and pay another overnight fee, or wait the 5-7 business days for UPS Ground delivery of the parts. No way, no how! We are having Joel coordinate a transfer of the paperwork to the Kissimmee Camping World near Orlando and we are heading out today. Our plan to spend some time with Josie's sister has been put on hold since we feel we need to get this problem fixed before it gets worse. Also, I will be able to keep my appointment for the Disney World interview on Tuesday the 4th.

One benefit from yesterday's fiasco with the wrong parts was our discovery of a Costco store, just over the state line in Georgia and about 1 mile from our campground here. We never took the right turn to Georgia (state line is .3 mi from here) when leaving this place as we always went toward downtown Chattanooga for all our activities. The Costco store is brand new - opened in October - and is the only Costco between here and Nashville. It's hard to believe that this store is only 1 mile from us and we never knew it was there because it is too new to be in our GPS and/or phone directory. It was fun walking around the store to kill time while our rig was in service.

Our plan is to stay in Jackson, GA., tonight and we have to call to make sure there is room for us for 1 night. We then will travel to southern GA. and stay in a State Park in Adel, near the Florida border. It isn't our desire to be traveling during the New Year weekend but we have no choice at this point. We just hope that it will be a safe and uneventful trip. More tomorrow...

Guess Again

We watched the UPS truck pull up to the Camping World facility around 11 AM yesterday. We thought that things would begin to happen now that our parts were here for the hydraulics repair. Wrong! Joel - service manager - called and said that the truck didn't have the parts on it so he was going to contact Lippert Components to find out what happened. It turns out that: 1- the parts were not shipped, 2-they are not even built and/or ready to ship, 3- my credit card was charged $55 for overnight shipping for these parts, 4- there is no indication when these parts will ship. You probably can guess that there is a hole in our roof where I went through. This changes everything.

The early prognosis is that the parts will not be ready to ship until January 3rd, at the earliest, since that's when these folks at Lippert return from their New Year's break. Of course, I need to be in Orlando on January 4th for an interview at Disney World, so that won't work. We also cannot travel with the jacks in their present state unless I use the temporary "fix" with the bungee cords again. Joel is going to find out this morning if there is another Camping World near Orlando that can handle the repairs and he would then just transfer all the paperwork to that store. Hopefully, they will also have a campground where we can stay while the repairs are performed. In the meantime, he will take our fifth wheel into the shop and finish up the other minor repairs today so that we can get on the road by tomorrow.

It is difficult to understand how something like this can happen. This company has known about the problem with the jacks since early December, when I tried to get a mobile tech service to come out and fix the problem before we left Campbellsville. At that time, they got the VIN for the fifth wheel and all the details of the model we have. There is no way that they could not know the hydraulics configuration before diagnosing the problem. To have someone commit an overnight delivery of parts to us, collect my money, and not even have the parts in stock in inexcusable. I am at a loss right now to figure some way to let the world know about the poor customer service from Lippert Components. Right now though, we need to finalize a plan to get the work done in Florida.

We should know the final arrangements today and we are ready - believe me, we are ready - to get out of this freezing weather. It went down to 26 overnight and is 33 degrees right now. The end is in sight...

Parts Ordered

The parts were ordered from Lippert Components yesterday and they were shipped overnight, so we should get them today. They really upset me though, as they claimed that they only approve UPS Ground as a shipment method for warranty work. If we allowed the parts to ship UPS Ground, we probably wouldn't receive them until sometime next week. It's hard to believe that this company doesn't make exceptions when the customer has already been inconvenienced as a result of their holiday shutdown. Not only that, the problem is a result of their product failing - why should we have to incur any expense at all? They closed their offices on Thursday, December 23rd, and reopened yesterday for 2 days and they will close again for the New Year tomorrow. It cost us $55 to have the parts overnighted - ridiculous!

Camping World is all ready to get the work done when the parts arrive. We have made tentative plans to stay in 2 Georgia State Parks - Jackson, GA., just south of Atlanta, and Adel, GA., almost to the Florida border. The weather isn't much different in the south from what we hear. It is 23 degrees outside right now - the low was 20 - and it is below freezing in many parts of Florida. Who's idea was this anyway to go to Florida this winter?

We're sure that the weather will improve everywhere in the Southeast. It is not normal for it to stay so cold for so long. We can remember that almost every year there is a cold spell - or two - that spreads all the way to Florida. This one could have waited until February or March. A lot depends on whether we get jobs while there. If we cannot get jobs, we will leave and head west. We're keeping our fingers crossed.

The service people will be ready to take our fifth wheel into the service bays at around 10 AM and we are about ready for them to arrive. Our plan is to take our computers and find a good place to spend some time today and try to enjoy some of the area. More tomorrow...

Getting on With Business

Our day after Christmas was another quiet day except for a trip to Sam's Club. It's the first time in almost 2 months that we were able to go to one of these warehouse stores. There is no Costco here, but Sam's Club is just as good. We loaded up on batteries, toiletries and some other things that are good deals at these stores.

I also didn't mention yesterday that Josie fixed a great Christmas dinner for us - turkey, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, gravy, vegetables, cranberry sauce, etc. We have leftovers to enjoy for a few days.

Joel, the Camping World service manager has already been by this morning to get things rolling on the repairs. He has contacted Lippert Components and they asked for some pictures of the hydraulics manifold that needs to be replaced. He also has the other fixes lined up to be done today, so with any kind of luck, the parts for the hydraulics will arrive tomorrow and we can get that work done tomorrow, and be out of here by Wednesday. We are craving some warm weather. It's only 30 degrees outside now and we have had our fill of freezing weather for a long time.

It's hard to say what will happen today until we hear back from Joel, but Josie will be doing some laundry while I stay and handle the communications with Camping World. We located a laundromat just down the street while we were out yesterday. Other than that, it appears to be just another "cold" day in Chattanooga...

Nice, Quiet Christmas

Our Christmas was very nice and very quiet. The snow actually made for a special Christmas that was very different from recent years. There are only a few people staying in this park and it looks like most of them only parked their rigs here to visit family in the area. We had the park pretty much to ourselves while enjoying the snow. The total accumulation was probably only an inch or so, but it was enough. Today it is very cold - 28 degrees - and the wet snow from yesterday is now ice.

We expect to get our parts ordered tomorrow for the fix on our jacks and, hopefully, they will arrive on Tuesday and get installed right away. We can then leave for warmer weather (we hope) further south on Wednesday. At this point, we don't have a stop lined up for Wednesday because we aren't 100 % sure we can leave by then. It all depends on the repairs.

There are a few places we wanted to go while here, but with the icy roads it may force us to stay inside. Josie also has come down with a cold and isn't feeling much like going out anywhere. It is probably a good time to relax and just enjoy the time off. It's nice to have the option right now and we are enjoying all the free time before moving on. Later...

White Christmas in Chattanooga, TN

Here it is, for only the second time in the last 100 years - white Christmas in Chattanooga, TN:

It is still snowing - probably a total of 1-2" by now, but it is 34 degrees, so I would expect it to change to rain or stop pretty soon. We are 2 miles from the Georgia border and it still snows. Sheesh!

We went to the church service last night and we arrived early thinking it would be crowded. With only ten minutes to go before the start of the service at 7 PM, the church looked like this:

The service did start at 7 PM and there were probably 30 people there. It was a nice service though and we felt better that we attended.

It was back to our rig to watch some TV and wait for Santa to arrive. Our living room was decorated with our tree, nativity scene and a few other
small Christmas items, and the only thing missing were our "stockings hung from the chimney with care":

Maybe next year for the stockings.

We hope everybody has a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Lingering Problems

The morning started yesterday with a review of the work order for the jack repair and a couple minor other issues we wanted taken care of while in the service center here. Joel, the service manager, is a young and very nice individual that seems to know how to get things done. He gave us directions to the local Ford dealership so we could take the truck and have the mud flap re-attached while they worked on our rig.

The Ford dealer had what they call a "Quick Line" which was an area in their service center that handled minor situations such as oil changes, tire and wheel issues and anything that doesn't require an appointment for service. They performed the fix on the mud flap and I also got the oil changed on the truck which was also due. It was nice to get those things out of the way.

When we pulled in late on Wednesday night, we just grabbed a site (#46) that had a 50 amp connection. It turned out that the site we chose had trees that would block any satellite reception so we asked Joel if he could place the rig on a different, 50 amp site, that had a clear view of the southern sky for our satellite when the work was completed. He placed our fifth wheel on a different site (#28) with a 50 amp hookup and a clear view to the south. When we arrived back from the truck service, we connected up to the electric and smelled something burning, like an electrical short somewhere. There was a technician here at the time changing out our front door lock which we had added as a "to do" item on our service list. He also could smell the electric problem. About this time, the light over the kitchen counter dimmed, and then went out completely, followed by all the power to the rig.

The technician checked out the circuit at the box outside and discovered that the box was faulty and only was putting out about 60 volts of current. No problem. We once again moved to a different site (#10) and set up again. This time, we had current at the box outside but our GFI switch inside the rig will not reset so we are now without power on one side of the kitchen which includes the microwave and all the outlets in the kitchen area. They will send another technician down to our fifth wheel this morning to try and find the problem. I hope that we didn't get a surge from the box at the old site that "fried" our microwave circuit - hence the smell.

The site we are currently in does have a clear view for our satellite and it looks like this:

The campground, as mentioned previously, is attached to the Camping World facility here and this shot shows how close we are to the retail center:

It's actually a pretty good setup. We are just hoping to get the electric fixed as we need the use of the microwave for the Christmas dinner that Josie has planned for tomorrow.

We are ready to see some local attractions in Chattanooga and the service manager at the Ford dealership provided us with several coupons to some of these neat sounding places. We will spend some time checking out the area and hope to have some fun things to report very soon. Until then...

Not According to Plan

Everything started out fine yesterday. Our plan was to get everything packed, get the temporary fix done on the forward jacks and get on the road by 1 PM. The fix was performed after we got all packed up, hitched to the truck and all the slideouts pulled in. Josie took this shot of the work being performed on the jacks:

The fix involved attaching a couple marine tie-down brackets to the underside of the rig and using bungee cords to prevent the jacks from drifting down while traveling. The final result looks like this:

It was a little after 1 PM when we finally left the campground and Josie caught this scene of the campground as we were leaving:

As you can see, there were only a handfull of people left in the park when we left - would the last person to leave please turn out the lights.

Everything went according to plan until we arrived at our destination in Sparta, TN, at the Burgess Falls State Park. We arrived at 4:30 PM and had a hard time maneuvering into the tight entrance to the park. There were no visible camping spots and a Ranger immediately drove up to help us. It turns out that this particular State Park is for day-use only and there are no camping spots anywhere. I never saw any mention of that on the website. Of course, there is no mention of the campsites either. Anyway, the nice Ranger gave us a map and told us that there was another State Park, 45 minutes down the road that does have camping. The Fall Creek Falls State Park was on the way to Chattanooga, so why not try it.

By the time we arrived there it was around 6 PM and it was pitch black outside. I'm not a fan of trying to locate a site in the dark anyplace we ever go. That's why we always plan to arrive early enough to avoid the darkness. Well, we drove around the loop "B" of campsites (Reference the site map on the above link) and it was so dark and thickly wooded that we could hardly even see where the sites were, let alone back into one in this thick forest. To make a long story short, we aborted the attempt to find a space in this park and decided to ask somebody if there was another "local" campground nearby. We stopped at a convenience store right outside the State Park and the person at the counter told us about a campground just down the street called Sunrise Campground. We found the sign, drove in - on a very narrow dirt road - and stopped about 200 yards in on this road. Josie drove the Jeep further into this remote road and discovered that it was a church campground, and closed for the season. Now the frustration level hit it's peak. I had to back our rig out of this place, in the pitch black, with ditches on both sides of the dirt road. It was a nail-biter all the way back out to the main road. On the way out, the truck grazed a small embankment and ripped one of my mud flaps loose from the truck frame. This was the crowning blow. The way we went back to the freeway from this remote location was a winding, twisting, hair-pin curved road that we could only travel at about 20 MPH.

It was then that we decided to go the rest of the way to Chattanooga and try to get into the campground there, where we were to stay while the warranty work was to be done on our jacks. So, here we are in the campground at Camping World in Chattanooga, TN - a day early. We arrived at 10:30 PM and found a spot and went out to have some dinner before turning in for the night.

Stay tuned for our first day adventure in Chattanooga, TN...

Time To Leave Campbellsville, KY

We had our final meal out in Campbellsville last night to say our goodbyes to Hank and Brenda:

Hank doesn't drink but he didn't mind watching the three of us down a pitcher of margaritas. We went to the Fiesta Mexico Restaurant that, we all agreed, had the best Mexican food in town. Hank and Brenda are heading to West Virginia to visit some family over Christmas and then they also head to Florida. We may meet up again with them at the Tampa RV Show that is being held in the middle of January. If not, we expect to see them again in Cody this summer if we return.

This morning is all about packing up and getting the vehicles ready to go. They both  need to be gassed up, and the Jeep needs an oil change. The truck will then be hitched to the fifth wheel so I can do the temporary fix on the front jacks. I hope it works.

Our expected departure is around 12 or 1 PM, and we will travel 114 miles to Sparta, TN, and stay at the Burgess Falls State Park Campground for the night. That will allow us to arrive in the morning at the Camping World facility in Chattanooga tomorrow. I just hope that the wi-fi is working at the campground since I still haven't gotten the Verizon problem fixed with our new "Fivespot" that needs to be activated in a major Verizon network area. That is high on the list of things to do once we reach the "big" town for a few days.

Other than that, it's on-the-road-again...

It's Over!

It was a nice feeling this morning while leaving Amazon.com for the last time this season. Don't get me wrong, we are really glad we worked here and will seriously consider a return next year, but our bodies are ready for some "normal" activity. I lost 13 lbs while here and Josie lost 5 lbs. I guess I had more to lose.

We missed saying goodbye to a lot of people who were asked to use the other entrance on the last day. The management wanted to collect all the badges from everybody in one location as they left and we didn't get the message as we were working in a different area the night before. Anyway, we did get our badges turned in and we did say goodbye during the day. Rodger and Sue are still in the campground here and we will see them again before we head out. Hank has his last day today and we (Kank, Brenda and us)  plan to go out to dinner tonight to celebrate the end of the work assignment.

It's raining right now and 42 degrees. There is another snow storm expected later this week so we hope to get out of here tomorrow afternoon before it arrives. We have lots of things to do to get ready, like - laundry, car service and gas ups, packing, and I still have to rig a temporary setup so that the front jacks don't drift downward while traveling to Chattanooga. I will do that after the fifth wheel is hitched up to the truck tomorrow morning. I don't want to take a chance on the jacks failing while I'm underneath working on them.

Once again, it's nice to know that we can get back to a normal routine. There are only a few days left until Christmas, so maybe now we can get in the full swing of the holiday season and fire up our Christmas spirit. Until tomorrow...

Ready to Say Goodbye's

The mood at work was one of relief as the grueling schedule winds down. Some folks have already left since their shift schedules ended over the weekend but most of us are here for one last day today. While in the break room getting ready to go to work, we took some group pictures to kind of remind us all who participated in our "class" of 2010. The best of the shots is below:

The neat thing about our group is the varied backgrounds of all the people. There are career military, consultants, ministers, business owners, masons, secretary's and just about everything else you can imagine. We all have the time at Amazon.com in common this year. Some are planning to return next year, others are saying "no way" to the very physical assignments. We will  probably return but are trying to switch to one of their other facilities - either in Fernley, NV or Phoenix, AZ. The center in Phoenix is staffed mostly with local workers and is very difficult to get as an assignment but the weather there during this time of the year is a lot more predictable and desireable.

Hank next door has to work one more day than we do but he is planning to leave early Wednesday AM. We are thinking that we will leave in the early afternoon on Wednesday and drive about half way to Chattanooga in order to shorten that trip.

The final day is today which is a happy occasion, but a little sad too. We have made some very good friendships while here and plan to stay in touch via email with many of them. That is one of the benefits we have discovered while on this journey. The friendships will endure no matter where we are or what we do.

It's off to another chapter after our final day today...

Beginning of the End

People have started leaving work as their schedules provided last day obligations earlier than some others. One of the early departures was our "coach" and team supporter - Josh. He did a forced retirement at age 35 when the stock broker offices he managed for Smith Barney went under with the economy and the stock crash. He lost everything, including his house, and he and his wife are traveling the workamper circuit while home educating their kids. Below is a picture of Josh (in the center) along with a couple other of our new friends we made while working at Amazon:

We are allowed to take pictures in our break room, or lunch room, but not allowed to take any on the warehouse floor. This is another shot in our lunch room of 2 people we have become close friends with - Sue and Rodger:

They are from Arkansas and are planning to buy some property in Tennessee near Nashville to be close to family. They have been workamping for a couple years like us and they spent the summer working in North Dakota, of all places.
We will stay in touch with them and they are planning to return again next year. The lunch room is fairly large and, as you can see, has many lockers (one of which is assigned to us) and lots of vending machines. Amazon is very big on providing free water to its employees and there are coolers everywhere with bottled water on ice for the employees to help themselves.

One of the couples we met at work is setting up a dinner at the Creek Side Restaurant that is popular here for today, before work. We decided to stay home and use the time to further mend our weary bodies. Basically, on work days we just get up around 1 PM and rest until getting ready for work again. We are looking forward to having more free time - in 2 more days...

Exit Interview at Work

We were informed that all workers would be having a meeting yesterday to discuss procedures for ending our work assignments. Our group met at 5:45 PM and they went over some details about the final day process - turning in badges, closing out the lockers, etc. - and they thanked everybody for their contributions to a record performance by Amazon.com this year. The Workamper program has become, and will remain, an important program for them. They indicated that this year there were 400 workampers on staff, and next year they are targeting 1000 workampers to work the peak season. We received a $100 referral bonus for each couple we recommended and were hired and the program will be repeated again next year. They handed out a small gift to each worker along with a letter that thanked us for our contributions and also provided a registration form for signing up again for next year. One thing is for sure - if we should return next year (and the jury is still out) we will not work the night shift again.

There are only 3 more days left and we are anxious for it to end. We still are unsure about how long it will take to do the repairs in Chattanooga but we are looking forward to going to the next stop on our journey. If the weather holds out we should have smooth sailing the rest of the way.

Our neighbors on the one side - Karen and George - are finished their work and are planning to head out tomorrow. Our understanding is that they are headed for a volunteer position in Alabama for the remainder of the winter. We will meet up again with them in Cody if we decide to return there next summer. Brenda and Hank - our neighbor on the other side - are on pretty much the same schedule we are. They will leave either Wednesday or Thursday next week. They are heading toward Washington DC to visit some family before heading to Florida eventually. We will also meet up with them again in Cody if we return. That's about it for now...

Start of the Final Push

The last three days were such a relief to us. My cold is under control after a day yesterday of fever and congestion, and Josie is feeling ready to go again for the final push. It would have been difficult if we had worked any of the 3 days we were off.

The weather is providing some hours of thawing during the day while it reaches into the mid to high 30's but is still dropping into the high 20's during the night. It would be OK if it continues that way since we just need a few hours of above freezing temperatures during the day in order to keep our fresh water supply on full. The "honey wagon" is scheduled today to make a final attempt at getting everybody's tanks emptied for the last time. Our reservation at the park here expires on the 24th and I believe the park will close down totally after that date.

I called our mail forwarding service yesterday to have them "hold" our mail until I give them a new address. So far, that service has worked flawlessly since we started. We aren't sure how long we will be in Chattanooga yet since there may be a problem in timing with Lippert Components - the company that has our hydraulic system under warranty. It seems that they will close down their operation over the Christmas Holiday, beginning on the 23rd, and remain closed - except for December 27-28, and then close again until after the New Year. That leaves a small window for us to get the problem diagnosed and parts sent to Chattanooga on the 27th so we can get repairs done and move on. It's another one of those things like you only get sick on Friday nights because the Doctor's are gone until Monday.

We will drive to a town - Greensburg - that is about 10 miles from here to pick up a gel called "Biofreeze" that has worked better than anything else we have tried on sore muscles. It is available in that town at a Chiropractor office so we will go and stock up. It is also available online but we don't have the time to wait for mail to arrive. We have tried most of the usual medications and like this one the best. We have been using samplers up till now and are just about out of it. Give it a try if you have sore muscles or arthritis pain.

That's it for today, as we prepare to go back to work for our final 4 days...

Long, Slow Thaw

Below is a picture I took yesterday while leaving the State Park where we are staying to go into town:

The sun was breaking through and although it was only about 25 degrees at the time, it was the start of the thawing period. It reached 33 degrees for a high which was the first day in almost a week that the high went above freezing. This morning it is raining and the temperature is a "warm" 35 degrees. We hope the worst is over.

While out shopping yesterday, I ran into a couple at Lowe's that said Amazon was asking people if they could stay over and work up to January 23rd. They worked the day (Tuesday) that we were scheduled to work but changed to rest our bodies. They indicated that there were some other benefits which we will find out about when we return tomorrow night. Anyway, I have an appointment to get the fifth wheel jacks fixed in Chattanooga, TN, starting on the 23rd so we'll have to see. I could probably reschedule that but I also have an interview scheduled at Disneyworld on January 4th that can't be moved.

We are glad we took the 3 days off. I developed a cold that is making me feel drowsey all the time with medication and Josie is recovering from her leg problem. We are just about done with Christmas shopping and plan to get everything in the mail today. Have a good day everybody...

Cramming In Christmas Shopping

With all the hours we've been working, there has been little time to do any Christmas shopping. That was a major goal for yesterday and we got most of it done. The fact that we have to work again beginning on Friday for 4 more days, it meant that it was now or never. We still have a little more to do and maybe we can get that done today. The temperatures are still Arctic class, and we are going through propane like crazy. The bottle (9 gallons) that We filled up on Sunday AM is already gone. We filled the second bottle yesterday and it will probably last only a couple days also. It is still pretty reasonable for heating costs as we remember - when we lived in stick built homes - electric bills and gas bills in the winter months that ran around $300 per month. Of course, we're heating a much smaller space too. This whole experience with the weather has soured us on the East - at least for the winter months. Even Florida hasn't been spared.

The "honey wagon" guy came this morning and there is frozen liquid in our drain pipes once again. The main valves must not be closing entirely which would cause this problem. Of course, when the low temps are between 7 and 12 degrees and the highs in the low 20's, there is little chance for anything to remain thawed out for long. Our neighbors on the one side are at work and their valves are frozen shut so they will not be emptied today. I have a space heater positioned on the end of the drain pipe and hope that it gets thawed before he leaves our campground.

The rest that we got yesterday was very helpful for the healing process. Josie is feeling much better and our aches and pains are slowly recovering. We talked briefly about maybe working Thursday for an overtime day but it was a "brief" conversation. The rest for the next couple days is more important.

As a result of the nasty weather, the mobile tech guy wasn't able to come out to fix our hydraulic jacks problem. We will be doing a temporary fix to hold up the jacks and limp to Chattanooga TN to the Camping World facility there. They have the technicians that can work on the problem and we will stay right there at their campground - free. It appears that, depending on the parts situation, that Christmas will be spent in Chattanooga. There are probably a lot worse places and we will make the best of it. That's about it for today...

Colder Yet

Just when you think that the temperature has reached its coldest point and will start warming up, it goes even lower. This morning, while coming home from work it hit 7 degrees! The last time we were in temperatures like this we were visiting Patty in Chicago in February a few years ago. The highs haven't been above freezing for the last 3 days. Tomorrow is the first day with a forecasted high above freezing - 33. This weather was totally unexpected.

We decided to take today off and give up the overtime day. Josie had a problem with one of her legs swelling up last night so we thought it would be best to rest it for at least a couple days. It's possible we will go in on Thursday - a day earlier than our scheduled day - in order to make up the overtime. It depends on how things go. The money is never worth taking a health risk.

We stopped at the local propane outlet to get our second tank filled on the way to work yesterday so we have both tanks filled. The propane tanks have been lasting about a week each with the heavy use during this cold spell. It would be easier on us if we had a 50 amp campsite to be able to run all our electric space heaters so we will remember that the next time we stay in a cold area - hopefully never. It's too early to decide if we will return here again next year. We will need some time to get over this cold weather experience. If we had to decide today, we would not return.

Today is a recovery day for Josie - and for me also since I have some aches and pains. To go from not working many hours to 55 hours a week is a shock to our systems. There are only 4 scheduled work days left - Yeah! At least the sun is shining today so we look forward to resting on a bright day. Until tomorrow...

What a BLAST

First of all, this will be a combined entry for yesterday and today. I couldn't get the post done yesterday for a couple reasons. The main reason was there was little or response time with our Internet connection and I couldn't even sign on. The nasty weather arrived in force with heavy snow and very cold temperatures - 19! To make matters worse, we ran out of propane on Saturday night which we didn't discover until we arrived home from work at 5 AM on Sunday morning. We actually tried to fill one of our propane tanks on Saturday afternoon in preparation for this storm, but all the local propane stores close at 1 PM on Saturday. Of course, we don't get up from our sleep until almost that time. Anyway, we scrambled to set up the electric space heaters as a temporary heat source for the whole trailer but the 30 amp electric service here doesn't allow for extra appliances and I had to go outside a couple times to reset our circuit breaker - brrr.

This morning (actually Sunday early PM) I tried to locate a propane source and spent almost the entire free time we had before working again. I got lucky and found a gentleman running the store of the other campground up the road that took my tank down to the Marina (while I watched the store - trusting soul), opened it up to fill my tank, and he brought it back to the store for me. There are some nice people! All of this while the snow is coming down to beat the band.

The storm worsened while we were at work and the wind has picked up to 30-35 MPH which is causing the snow to drift over the roads. We are happy that we have the 4 wheel drive Jeep. Lots of people either didn't come to work or left early this morning.

One thing I'm proud to report is that I received a gold coin (worth $1 in our vending machines - wow) for having one of the top 3 stowing performances from the day before. There are many stowers - probably 25-30 or more - so it is an honor to win one. Both Josie and I have very good performance numbers which is something everybody strives for.

It's nearly 6 AM and almost time to go to bed. We still can't get used to this upside down schedule and will definitely not work these hours again - ever.
Even if we get up at noon it only leaves a few hours before we need to get ready for work again. We only have 6 more work days to go. I think we'll make it...

More Amazon Treats

Amazon provided dinner for everybody last night for their dinner (or lunch) break. They had baked potato and chili with shredded cheese and your choice of pie for dessert. Another nice gesture by them to thank their employees. We also found out the schedule for end dates for all shifts for the holiday season. We will work our last day on Monday, December 20, which is a Monday night. It just means we lose our final overtime day which would have been Tuesday, the 21st. That's ok with us though. We are only working the overtime for the extra money and not because we need a physical "fix". Our bodies are eager for this marathon to end. We will most likely sleep in on Tuesday after our shift Monday night, rest up and pack things on the 21st for a departure on Wednesday the 22nd. We will travel to southern Tennessee or northern Georgia and probably spend Christmas in Georgia near Atlanta or south of Atlanta someplace.

We are in a short window of warm weather now. It will give us a little time to prepare for the next arctic blast which is due in by tomorrow night. We will make sure both of our propane tanks are full and that our fresh water tank is full of water before the next freeze. It's ironic that we came to Campbellsville to work at Amazon rather than Coffeyville, KS, because we were told the weather would be better here. Well, Coffeyville is basking in 60-70 degree weather while we freeze to death. The weather pattern has been upside down this year, and we are constantly reminded that this is not normal for this time of year. Yeah, right. It is 50 degrees right now and will go down from here to an expected low on Sunday night around 10 degrees.

The other thing we are trying to arrange before we leave is for the hydraulic problem to be fixed. There is a problem in finding a mobile RV repair service that will come to this area but I think we found one. He just needs to get here in the next week and do the work. In talking to him on the phone, he feels that our water pump problem may not even be the water pump, but a problem somewhere in the water line where a check valve isn't working properly. Anyway, we are getting closer to getting them fixed. That's about it for now...

Pumped Out

The honey wagon guy came back yesterday to get everybody's tanks pumped out that had freezing problems on Monday. There were no freezing issues yesterday, but we had another issue to deal with. The grey water tank discharge valve stuck and we were not able to open it right away to be emptied. The honey wagon did everyone else's tanks and returned to do ours after I struggled to get the valve open. The grey water valve has a "bend" in the stem valve as a result of the tank placement under the rig. Somehow, it got snagged where the bend is located and I had to work it loose which I finally accomplished in time for them to drain the tanks. We should be ready now for the return of the Artic cold that is forecasted for next week, starting on Monday. This time, it is supposed to get even colder than it was this week. Hard to believe!

We also tried to schedule a visit from the nearest mobile RV technician to come out and fix our warranty related problems - the front jacks and the water pump. I still haven't gotten the details worked out for that but hope to get that done today. I was able to get a reference number from Lippert Components (the hydraulics company) which indicates they are prepared to cover the costs for the repair of the front jacks. As you may recall, when we were arriving here in early November, the front jacks were "drifting" down as we were traveling. It's a very dangerous situation if not fixed promptly. As we are getting closer to our departure from here, it is important to get those details finalized.

The group of us - Karen, George, Hank and Brenda included - went to dinner last night at the Creek Side Restaurant where we had our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a very good buffet dinner and was only $7.99 per person. It was a real bargain for us since we used one of our two $5 discount certificates that we won at work in their daily drawings for prizes. We still have another to use for a final visit to that nice restaurant before we leave.

It's back to work today for another marathon work week of 5 eleven hour days. With only 9 more scheduled work days left, we will muster the energy somehow to complete the commitment. Our paycheck was deposited last night for the last 2 weeks and it makes it easier to go to work when we see how much the work translates to in real dollars. We're ready to go...

A Night Out

First of all, we placed our 2 space heaters outside under the fifth wheel facing the frozen pipes. After a couple hours with that direct heat, the pipes thawed enough for us to release a little bit of our grey water so that we could do normal things inside. It is still unbelievably cold outside - low of 18 and high of 28 yesterday. We are supposed to warm up a little before the same pattern returns next week.

We did some fun things on our first day off last night. Starting with dinner at Garcia's (Mexican), and ending with bowling. The dinner at Garcia's was disappointing compared to the meal we had at the other Mexican restaurant (Fiesta Mexico) last week. That surprised us because we have eaten at Garcia's in other towns and have enjoyed it, but it was nice to get out for a change. We then met Hank and Brenda back at the rig to go bowling. There is a special at the alley every Wednesday night where every game is $1 per person. Also, Karen and George met us at the alley after they went to their bible study class at the church they have been going to. It was a fun night and showed that none of us had been bowling for about 25 years. Hank (Zoda) was a professional bowler on the PBA Tour 40 years ago. He used to carry an average of 225 when he bowled with the likes of Don Carter and Earl Anthony, and still has his same ball. He struggled last night just like the rest of us, but it was a fun night out. I took the following picture of our group - that's Hank picking up a spare - and it shows the "glitz" that accompanied the discount bowling night with the psychedelic lights:

It was dark in the alley as a result of the lights which probably helped contribute to our scores. The electronics now take away all bowler interaction with the scoring. It is all automatic now and we couldn't believe how the technology has improved in this sport. There was even a monitor above the alley to show how to pick up a spare after your first ball - assuming of course, it wasn't a strike.

We are waiting now for the air to warm up so we can wrap the pipes under the trailer just in case liquid gets into the drain again next week. The honey wagon comes on Monday mornings while we are still sleeping after work. That's how the problem occurred with the frozen drain pipes - I wasn't outside to make sure they closed the valves in the proper sequence.

There are several chores that we need to do today - starting with Josie doing laundry while I tackle the pipes outside. It is nice to have this day to ourselves after the marathon work week. Until tomorrow...

Arctic Living

With our grey water tank still out of commission as a result of the lingering sub-freezing weather, we had to take showers at the bathhouse. There are 2 side by side bathhouses and each has a women's and men's rest room/showers combination. I always used the one on the left for my showers because it had a larger shower stall. Josie started using the one on the right because her first experience in the other one was not good as a result of the hot water not flowing fast enough to the shower. Anyway, I got into my shower after preparing everything in the stall - spreading my stand-on towel, stripping down, placing my shampoo and conditioner and soap in the shower and getting everything lined up for when I get out - and, you guessed it, the hot water was shut off in this bathhouse. I had to get out of the stall, dry off my cold body, dress and pack everything into my bag and move over to the other bathhouse to take my shower.

It's not easy living in these arctic conditions without the use of the grey water tank. It is still only 31 degrees outside after a low this morning of 16. It needs to get above freezing before we can get everything thawed out and fixed before the next cold spell that is scheduled to arrive early next week. Our free time over the next couple days will be spent performing preventive measures on the underside plumbing of the rig. It really, still upsets me when I think about the honey-wagon guy not closing the valves in the proper order that would have prevented all this hassle.

There are only 9 more scheduled work days, so we need to figure out where to go from here. Actually, Florida is getting cold weather also, so we may decide to detour back out to Arizona after our visit with Josie's sister in Edgewater. It also depends on how things go after we get there as far as workamping opportunities. Florida is a tough place to find good workamping jobs in the winter. There is a huge RV show in Tampa around the middle of January that, if we are still in Florida then, would like to attend. There are supposed to be many employers there looking for workamping help. We'll see how it goes...

Cold Spell Continues

Our freezing weather continued last night with a low of 19 degrees. It is at 27 right now (1 PM) and we still need to do something about emptying our grey water tank. The black (sewage) tank is empty thanks to the effect of the heat tape on the drain pipe yesterday. There is a shorter, smaller pipe that runs from the grey water tank to the larger main drain that wasn't covered with the heat tape. That needs to be done today before we leave for our scheduled overtime work day. The honey wagon driver said he would be back on Wednesday or Thursday to take care of all the people that had frozen pipe situations yesterday.

Every day before starting work on our shift we have a short meeting to hear about all the statistics from the day before. The indication was that there were 224,000 transactions processed the day before by all shifts. That means that each of those items went through the entire process of receiving, stowing, picking, packaging and mailing. That just emphasizes the enormity of Amazon.com. The figure I gave a few days ago of 1 billion transactions to be processed this season is actually 2 billion. Incredible.

We are sooo looking forward to our days off this week. Today is our last day this week and on the one hand we are regretting the decision to work an extra 11 hour day, but on the other hand, at time-and-a-half, it represents an amount that we can't ignore. There are only 10 more "scheduled" work days left. We will need the days off to catch up on rest and do "cold weather" fortifications. It's not quite the way we envisioned the time here but as I said yesterday, we will manage, and we look forward to moving on to Florida. It seems that Florida hasn't escaped the wrath of this cold spell either. There are temperatures in the 30's in a lot of places there. That's about it for today...

Frozen Solid

This is what we woke up to today:

It wasn't even the snow that is a problem, but the temperature is 24 - right now at 2:30 - and it is forecasted to go down into the high teens tonight. Word has it that it will not get above freezing for the highs until at least Wednesday.

Monday (today) is the day that the "honey wagon" comes by to empty our holding tanks. What a surprise - the drain pipe from the holding tanks is frozen solid with sewage in the pipe. The only way this could happen is if they didn't close the main valve before sealing off the drain end. Our tanks are full with no way to empty them until they thaw. we can't wait to Wednesday - or whenever the air warms up to above freezing. I went to Lowe's and bought what they call "heat tape" to put on the drain pipe. I rigged it temporarily to at least thaw it out so the honey wagon can come back later and try again. This is what the outside hookup looks like after doing "frost prevention":

I already had the hose wrapped with the Styrofoam insulation. This long freezing spell is something we weren't prepared for. It definitely casts a bad light on our chances to return here next year. We had vowed never to travel and stay in areas where the weather is this bad. Of course, the locals are saying that this doesn't usually happen this early in the winter. Right.

So far today I have done nothing but react to the problem that the cold weather has created - and the honey wagon guy for his negligence in closing the drain properly last week. With about 1 hour left before we leave for work again, I can tell you that this is not fun. We play the cards we're dealt, so we will manage.

Both of our neighbors are at work now - they work days - so we are alone to enjoy the rest of our time before starting day #4 this week...

Pizza Party Success

The first of our 2 pizza parties was held yesterday at our lunch break. From discussions with some of the management people, it is estimated that Amazon ordered around 300 pizzas from Dominos for the day. They get to do it again today. I'm sure that the local Dominos is joyous over the increase in business. The local impact of Amazon is felt just about everywhere in this town of about 25,000 people. Especially during this time of year. We also heard that the total number of items handled by Amazon will be well over 1 billion this year.

The conversations among our coworkers about returning next year cover the whole spectrum. Most say they would come back, if asked, and others say no way, they can't wait to end their time here. We're kind of on the fence because it is a great place to work for some good money for a short time, but the weather now is turning too much like winter for us which we are trying to avoid. The jury is still out as we have 13 more "scheduled" days to work, including our planned overtime days.

I'm sitting here watching snow flurries on a cloudy, 34 degree day. The forecast is for more of the same, but colder. It's a good thing that for most of each day we are totally unaware of what's happening outside. There are no windows and the warehouse is almost always too warm. The shock hits us when we leave work at 4:30 AM. We have to sit in the car to let it warm up every day before heading home. It reminds us of all the years we spent in places like Michigan and Ohio. It's nice that we have the option to leave these places behind when our work commitment is ended.

With another pizza party scheduled today at our lunch break our pizza craving should be satisfied for awhile. Until tomorrow...

Storm on the Way?

The talk at work was about the weather change that is forthcoming. Supposedly, we are getting about 2" of snow sometime today or tonight and the temperatures are going down into the low 20's or high teens. Right now it is overcast with occasional rain and the temperature is 40 degrees. Doesn't look like snow to me.

Our water problem persists as the water in the fresh water tank overflowed once again. I'm told by someone at work that the water pump has a check valve that isn't working properly that is causing that problem. This valve is designed to block the flow to the fresh water tank. Oh well, it looks like pump #4 is in order as soon as I can get a chance to contact Shur-flo and get the replacement process started. Of course, it is covered by warranty. We can't seem to get more than a couple months out of these pumps. I'm going to request a different model this time since this one obviously doesn't perform the way it should.

The 11 hour work days don't give us much time. We got home at almost 5 AM and went to bed by 6. After getting 7 hours sleep it is almost time to get ready for work again. Only 3 weeks of this and we can really relax. Christmas will have a special meaning this year if we can just make it till the 25th. By the way, I lost my pedometer sometime during the night while working. It has fallen off before with all the twisting and reaching we do at work but until now I was able to catch it when it fell off my belt. That was a real bummer.

There is a pizza party scheduled for both today and tomorrow at work and Amazon is bringing in pizzas for all the employees to enjoy on their lunch breaks. They continue to show appreciation to the employees for their hard work. We were told that 75,000 items were processed yesterday alone. What a change for a company that started with selling books out of a garage in Seattle in 1997. It just shows what can be accomplished if you have a vision and stay the course. That's it for now...

Coping With The Water Situation

The psychological definition for coping is managing taxing circumstances. It is for sure that our water situation is taxing. We returned home from a trip to Walmart for groceries and there was water leaking from the underside of our connection panel. When I opened the panel door, there was water running out of the overflow for the fresh water tank. The hose was not even connected to the fresh water tank, so how in the world is water flowing into that tank to cause it to overflow? It was 33 degrees outside, with a forecast to go below freezing again last night, and not a good time to handle water leaks that could cause an icy nightmare. I was not able to find out why the water was going into the tank, but it has to be related to the water pump problem. I ended up shutting off the water and turning on our temperamental pump to try and use up the water in the tank so it wouldn't overflow. It seems to be working right now but I'll have to find a fix for it when it gets a little warmer and I have more time. It will involve emptying the storage compartment in order to get into where the connections are in the basement.

Today will be a day to set up our Christmas lights outside and put them on the timer. We have 3 sets of rope lights that we will place around the patio which will give us a look that it is the Christmas season. It's another job that needs to get done no matter how cold it is outside. We then get ready for the start of our marathon work week - 5 straight days of 11 hours each.

We need to decide when we will leave here at the end of our commitment. The 23rd of December is on a Thursday which is not normally a work day for us. The people at Amazon have indicated though that anybody who is not scheduled on those final days can stay over and work if they want. The only reason we wouldn't stay would be because of the weather. We'll have to decide soon since we need to figure out where we will be for Christmas. That's the fun part - deciding where we should go next. Wherever it is, it will be on the way to Florida...

Walking Stats at Work

I've had a pedometer for several years that I bought to use for workouts at the clubhouse when we lived in Surprise. We talked about wearing it to see how far we actually walked during work but kept forgetting to take it. I wore it yesterday for our entire 11 hour shift and was surprised to see that the total distance walked was 4.5 miles. Even with that distance, we didn't walk as much as normal since the available empty storage bins are closer together as a result of the increased business. When it was a bit slower - before Thanksgiving - we had to walk further between available storage space to stow the new items. Josie will wear it next time to see how far she walks during the shift.

It was a banner work day for both of us yesterday. At the end of our shift, we went to the team leader to find out our productivity statistics for the day. These are numbers that are available to the management team in real time, which means they were available instantly after we ended our shift. Josie did a high of 167% of plan and I did 237% of plan. We all target 100% for each day and they give out prizes to the top performers of each day. Generally, the top 3 or 4 performers (out of probably 50 stowers) get something. Yesterday, I was given a $5 discount coupon for the Amazon store. We're happy that it looks like we finally have the procedures down pat.

We will probably work five 11 hour days per week from here on out. The opportunity is there to make more money so we will go with a 55 hour work week. We also decided that it will be better for us to work 5 days in a row since this week it disrupted our sleeping schedule too much by working the middle day of our days off. That probably means that traveling to many of the attractions in the area will be difficult, but we'll see.

We have some snow flurries today and temperatures in the mid 30's. I wrapped the outside water hose with weather wrap yesterday and it looks like it worked - so far. It went down ino the high 20's last night and everything is fine with the water. There isn't much scheduled today for our day off except to do some local chores. Until tomorrow...

ABC News Coverage

We were contacted by an ABC reporter on Monday, asking us if we could be available for an interview around noon on Tuesday (yesterday). He indicated that the Herald-Leader article that appeared in the Lexington newspaper recently had generated some interest to do a featured segment on ABC news. Of course, we agreed to the interview, but at the time we had no idea that it would be televised last night. Evidently, the heavy rain we had yesterday forced him to higher ground and he performed the interview with a couple that is staying in another campground on higher ground. Anyway, we hope everybody saw the segment on ABC's World News last night from Campbellsville about Amazon.com and the workampers.

The rain has stopped this morning but has been replaced by snow flurries. It is getting cold again and is expected to stay this way for a couple days. We only worry about the water line freezing at night. If we disconnect the water at the outside connection it means we need to use the water pump and the fresh water holding tank for our source. Of course, the water pump has been temperamental these days.

As a change of pace last night, we went to dinner at a local Mexican restaurant, called Fiesta Mexico in Campbellsville. It was an excellent meal and very reasonable. There is also a Garcia's in town, but we heard from Hank that the Fiesta Mexico had great food and we concur.

We are scheduled to work an overtime shift of 11 hours tonight beginning at 5 PM. We'll see how that goes as it is in the middle of our 3 days off period. We want to work as much as possible for the money, but we also would like more resting time. As mentioned before, the night shift provides a little extra pay, but the way it messes up our sleeping arrangements and daily routine makes it not worth the extra pay. Should we ever come back to work here again, it would be day shift or nothing - especially since we found out that those working the day shift on weekends get the same shift differential that we get working at night. Since half of our work days are on the weekend, there is no advantage, financially, to work at night. That's about it for now...