Nice Visit and Scrubbed Launch

Our morning was filled with some local errands by me - getting new rear brakes on the Jeep and going to the store - and Josie organizing the fifth wheel for the visit with her sister and brother-in-law. The day started cloudy and wet, but at around 11AM the sun broke through and it became a clear and warm day.

They arrived at 11:30 and we had a great visit with them:

Pauline is into beading and Josie has a collection of beads that she travels with in hopes of someday finding time to make some jewelry. They spent a lot of time going through Josie's collection, and she gave some of her collection to Pauline. We had lunch and then went for a walk around the campground. The pool is a very nice area that we didn't get a chance to utilize while we were here, but I took these shots anyway:

Carlos wanted to get back home before the scheduled Space Launch so he could watch it from his backyard, which is only about 20 miles from the Kennedy Space Center - so they left at around 1:30. It appeared that the launch would be cancelled in the AM with the lousy weather until it cleared. Our decision on where to see the launch was made for us though, when we discovered that the launch had been scrubbed anyway as a result of an engineering problem (?) and wouldn't take place for at least 48 hours. We feel sorry for the people that spent a lot of money and time to go the launch site that may not not be in the area when the launch does finally occur. That would have been us had we decided to purchase tickets and travel the 80 miles to go to the Space Center. We will be in Georgia when the new launch is now scheduled.

Today we travel to Savannah GA, where we will spend 2 days in the Skidaway Island State Park. We purchased a Friends of Georgia State Parks pass last year while traveling through Georgia on our way to Florida. That allows for a discount on stays in the parks which always helps. There are some nice things to see in Savannah, but with only 2 days we will only be able to see a couple of them. It should still be an interesting and fun visit. The trip is around 240 miles and is on I-95 almost the whole way until we get to Savannah, and then the campground is about 15 miles off the freeway. We're ready to go...

Crazy Day

The day started innocently enough yesterday. We did some errands in town and came back to wait for a couple FedEx deliveries. Our paychecks were being sent overnight to us from Big Pine Key, and I was suppose to get a new 4G Mobile Internet device from Verizon that is a replacement for my "new" MIFI, which has been giving us problems. Verizon, on the one hand, deserves credit for offering a free upgrade to this new device, but on the other hand, they have completely botched the delivery. The last word I had on Tuesday was that it was being sent to our location here in Ormond Beach, and was suppose to arrive yesterday. Instead, I received an email from them stating that the device couldn't ship until I accept the terms and conditions, via phone. Sheesh! They want to ship it now, but it will not arrive here until Monday - while we are in Savannah GA. Needless to say, that won't work. We're still trying to resolve the delivery issue. The other disappointment is that Josie's check was sent, but mine, for some reason, was sent later to the office and is a day behind hers to be forwarded to this location. You have to wonder how that can happen, but knowing how messed up the company is, we're not surprised.

We went to Josie's sister's house in the afternoon and had a great time visiting with them and having dinner. They are planning to come visit us today for lunch, and then they leave for Puerto Rico on Tuesday next week. Unfortunately, I forgot to take the camera yesterday so there are no shots of our nice visit with them. Our minds were somewhere else following the Verizon fiasco and we never thought about the camera when we left. We'll get some photos today during their visit.

The weather has also changed from the consistent weather we had in the Keys. Today it is raining and the temperature range yesterday was a high of 94 and a low of 72. That's a much larger variance than we've had during the last month. Just so we don't get any tornado warnings. They have been plentiful this Spring, and we are concerned about traveling through some of the high tornado risk areas.

Our plan for visiting the Kennedy Space Center changed - not only as a result of the distance, but with this weather, the launch may be postponed. We'll definitely plan to visit there on the next trip to this area. We are told that we can still see the launch from here if it happens on schedule.

It already has been a long morning for us. Josie got up at 4 AM to watch the Royal Wedding, and I followed at about 5:30. It was an interesting event to watch, and we hope that this marriage is better than the one between Charles and Diana. Our bet is that it will be much better.

Today is our final full day here, so we'll try to make the most of it...

Ormond Beach

It was a good trip north yesterday. We traveled all the way on I-95 and we averaged 9.3 MPG with the truck and fifth wheel. Of course, there is no place more flat than Florida, so that helped. We left early and arrived around 2 PM after traveling almost 250 miles.

Although the campground is physically located in Ormond Beach, it is actually just north of Daytona Beach. Our site is excellent here for the 3 days we will stay:

It is an end space and has plenty of room for both our vehicles and is close to the clubhouse and swimming pool. It's too bad we aren't staying longer.

After getting set up and going to the office to pick up local information, we headed out to discover some of the area. We're only a few miles from the beach at Daytona, so we stopped at several different locations to see the water and check out some potential spots we may want to visit while here. There were sections of the beach that had vehicle traffic where you could park right on the beach, as shown below:

It was convenient to park close to where you set up your beach chairs and blankets. Not all of the beach areas were like this, but we thought it was a neat idea. We ended the evening by going to a buffet dinner at a Chinese restaurant that was recommended to us by the office staff. It did not disappoint.

Our plan today is to do more exploring and pay a visit to Josie's sister's house later today. They are getting ready to take a 2 week trip to Puerto Rico to visit their brother. If there is time while we are here, they will come out to visit us at our campsite.

Our original plan was to go to the Kennedy Space Center to watch the launch on Friday, but we found out it is 80 miles to the Center from here. We may have to alter that plan since we don't want to use the gas to backtrack that far. There are suppose to be some areas near here where the launches can be viewed, but obviously not up close. We'll decide after we do more research. Of course, the "big wedding" is also on TV Friday, so that may also influence our schedule. At any rate, we are looking forward to a few days of enjoyment here...

Ft Lauderdale

As a result of our early preparations for departure from Big Pine Key, we were able to get on the road by 9:30 AM. We stopped and said goodbyes to our fellow workers - Maritsa, Brenda and Norma - and left for Ft Lauderdale. It was a nice drive until we left the keys in Homestead, FL, where US Rt 1 went through the downtown area and then South Miami before finally reaching I-95. There was about 20 miles of stop and go during that time but we still made it to Ft Lauderdale at 2:00 pm.

It was a real challenge getting to the campground - the Sunshine Holiday RV Park. The sign on the road was probably 2 feet by 2 feet, and tucked in behind an office building just before you reach it. Needless to say, we missed the turn-in and had to go down the road to find a place wide enough for me to make a u-turn with the truck and fifth wheel. We eventually made it to the park, and the entrance was another challenge. It is not big rig friendly and we managed to squeeze through the entry and to the office. They put us in a pull through space that is intended for 2 RV's. They allowed us to park our Jeep next to the fifth wheel since they were not expecting any more guests to arrive. Below is a shot of our space - actually 2 spaces:

If we had to share this space with another RV, our slide-out on the door side would probably be right up against the RV next to us. It's a very disappointing campground.

The highlight of our day was a trip to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood, FL, about 7 miles away. It is the sister Resort to the one we went to in Tampa earlier this year. In fact, we could use the same Player's Club card we acquired in Tampa. That enabled us to accumulate more points for future perks. Anyway, it was a so-so night on the slots. Josie had no luck at all, and I won one jackpot for over $100 which gave us enough to play longer and also buy some dinner. We ended up leaving there around 7 PM and we went to TGI Friday's, down the road, and had dinner before returning to the rig for the night.

It's off to Ormond Beach, FL, near Daytona and Edgewater, FL, to stay for the next three days. We hope to spend time with Josie's sister and also go to some local attractions. One of the places we want to visit is the Kennedy Space Center where there is a launch scheduled for Friday. Tickets to view the launch from inside the Center have been sold out since March, so we will have to view the launch from one of the suggested areas in this viewing article - hopefully, the causeway which is about 2 miles from the launch site. That would be fun. It is also the last planned launch for the Shuttle Endeaver.

We'll try to be on the road by 9 AM today so that we can arrive in the Daytona area at a decent time to be able to set up and relax before dinner. The trip should be around 250 miles, and is all freeway on I-95. We are hoping that the campground is a better one than here in Ft Lauderdale...

Final Day at Sunshine Key Resort

Everything is just about ready to go for our start on our next chapter. The vehicles are gassed up and everything is done outside except for disconnecting the hookups and hitching up.

We took a last walk around the park last night and captured some shots of the campground as it has been transformed into a "housing development" as a result of the Summer Program people. Following are several of those that are revealing:

It certainly shows how these families can open their homes to anybody and everybody for wild parties. They all have outside sinks, refrigerators and anything else required to carry on wild activities. These shots are also only a small sample of the sites that have been transformed.

On the other hand, we feel sorry to leave the tranquil sites that are a trademark of this Resort, and are off limits to the Summer Program people:

They only need to enforce the rules that are in place for this Resort to become a pleasant place in the summer.

We also walked past the site of Maritsa and her husband. We have worked with her in the office the month that we were here and became good friends.

She is also Cuban, and the main link we had to communicate with the fast talking Cubans. She is one that also hates to see the abuse and talks down to those that are guilty of the infractions. She has been coming to this park for 30 years, although only on the front desk staff for 4 months. Her husband is a commercial fisherman here and they have several grown children, two of which are lawyers. We will miss her.

It's time to get moving this morning so I will cut this short for now. We will be in Ft Lauderdale tonight at the Sunshine Holiday RV Resort. Until tomorrow...

Wrapping Up The Final Day

It was a day of more complaints and more confusion. It was also a day of the mass exodus for the Easter weekend crowd and the Summer Program crowd that had to leave on Sundays. Our day was a short one - 8 AM until 2 PM - although we worked a couple hours longer than we had planned. There was lots to do, so it wasn't that we tried to stretch it into more hours. Also, the "temp" manager had pizzas brought in for the whole staff which was a nice gesture. They didn't arrive until around 1:30, so it was good timing.

The biggest complaint we had to deal with yesterday was regarding the closure of the swimming pool in the morning. There were so many people using the pool on Saturday that the water was cloudy and desperately needed a chemical treatment - and they sent someone to Home Depot  (10 miles away) to get chemicals, treat the pool and reopen it by noon. Once again, there is no excuse to have that happen. First of all, they knew they had an excessive number of people in the pool on Saturday and it would need treatment immediately, and secondly, they should have had chemicals on hand to handle the task.

We left the door open for coming back here to work in the winter months which is suppose to be a much better time to be here. Also, a new permanent manager will be in place and the Resort should be on the right track to being a pleasant place to work. We are leaving on good terms which is important for us to do everywhere we work.

Today will be a day for making final arrangements for our travel plans and getting everything ready to go for tomorrow AM. We gassed up the truck and washed both vehicles after work yesterday. We still have to gas up the Jeep and we will do that when go to the grocery store to pick up travel goodies. The grocery store that we use - Winn Dixie - has a discount fuel program (called Fuelperks!) that gives a discount on gas purchases for certain items purchased in the store, and for total amounts of money spent on your grocery bill. The "perks" are redeemed at the local Shell station and I was able to purchase 20 gallons of diesel fuel at a $.45 discount off the regular price of $4.29/gal. It amounted to a $9 savings on those 20 gallons which helps. It's just too bad that the limit is 20 gallons. It still amounts to enough to get us to Edgewater with the fuel I had left over from our trip here. We will try to stay somewhere near Ft Lauderdale tomorrow night and drive to Edgewater (probably Daytona Beach) on Wednesday. We'll fill you in on the details as we finalize the plan. That's about it for now...

Probably A Good Time To Leave

There are two types of people in the Resort - the Summer Program people (99% Cubans) and the Easter weekend families just here for the one holiday weekend. The start to yesterday was filled with some of the unsuspecting weekend family members coming into the office, complaining about the noise and the carrying on of the partying groups that are here for the summer weekends. One individual, who was here with his wife and young daughter said that this was not a campground, but a housing development. He said he was leaving because it wasn't safe for his daughter to be here. He had checked in on Friday and paid for a whole week to stay. They couldn't sleep for much of the night as a result of the loud music and speeding golf carts and scooters, many of which were being driven by kids under 10 years old. He wanted to get suggestions from us on other campgrounds that might be in the area. As mentioned in a previous post, the police had been called in on several occasions last year to provide crowd control for these parties. Another example of why we are leaving.

We kind of feel a little sorry for the staff we are leaving behind. They are being handed extra work - like there is time for extra work - by the temp manager to improve chances of collecting monies from people that are now leaving the campground without clearing their balance. Now, we can't collect any balance they have because their credit card information isn't saved. She has set up a procedure to create a folder for each site that is checking in the next day with all kinds of forms and information to be completed by the office staff and handed out by the gate attendant when people come in after hours. The problem is that this system works in the campground she came from - which has less than half the spaces to rent - and those people don't have to handle the possibility of 15-20 people checking in after hours.

Some day, this may be a great place to work, but they have a long way to go. We would like to return if they ever get things right. That also includes hiring an experienced Security person who will be firm and enforce the rules they have which are broken all the time. What a shame. We have enough experience at the parks we've worked to know what it is like to work in a stable and fun environment.

Today is a short day for us. We expect to work until around noon and then there is a pizza lunch that the manager is having for the staff. We will turn in our uniforms (shirts) and keys and say goodbye to everybody. There are, of course, some friendships that we have established that will survive our stay here. Those are the people we keep in touch with via emails. That is the good part of working anywhere we go. So--- we'll hope for a happy ending...

HAPPY EASTER!!!

More Madness

We had another one of those hectic days where people were coming in a steady stream to check in and the phones rang off the hook all day. The difference yesterday was that there were 2 more workers to help out. One thing we noticed about the "temp" manager, Barb, is that she doesn't answer the phones, nor does she help with the computer work like the departed manager, Marlene, did. That puts more of a strain on the workers when she doesn't pitch in during peak times. The one positive thing that was accomplished though, was that she made sure we had a pot of fresh coffee in the lobby for our guests.

The result of our second "madness" day in a row is that we decided to work only half the day on Sunday, our last day. We are getting burned out with this stress and the pace in this Resort. The disorganization only adds to the stress. It would be nice to have a little relaxation time before packing up and leaving on Tuesday. The weather has been the pleasant surprise while here, and we will certainly miss that. There have been no bugs at all and so far, little rain, and the humidity has been bearable with the constant light breeze that is always present. The weather in Virginia promises to be very different. We can see why people have been coming here for 20 years or more.

We're hoping for a more controlled pace today in the office. Most of the Easter weekend check-ins occurred yesterday and we were surprised at the large number of walk-ins that just took a chance that there would be a site for them and just showed up. The park is almost filled - all 400 plus spaces. Along with the huge crowd comes parties that linger into the wee hours of the morning. It's easy for me since I take out my hearing aids at night when I go to bed, but Josie has to listen to the noise. That part will not be missed.

Our last full day is today which makes it a lot easier to go into the office. We will start finalizing the plans for our trip, probably tonight or tomorrow afternoon. There is plenty of time to travel to our next destination, and that thought is a pleasant one...

Slammed at Work

As noted before, Wednesday and Thursday are our days to solo in the office. Yesterday was one example of the reason we are moving on to another job. There was absolutely too much business, between the phones, reservation check-ins and walk-ins for 2 people to handle. There were occasions when we had all 5 phone lines going and people standing at the counter waiting to be helped. The "temp" manager left early, and it was just Josie and I to handle things. Very stressful. It makes it worse when the Summer Program customers are coming in and they don't have all their paperwork completed and we need to spend wasted time helping them complete the necessary forms and disclosures. The other situation that has us shaking our heads is that, with the out-of-sight charges for campsites here, there isn't even a place the guests can go to get a cup of coffee. The cafe closed yesterday and there is no other option. You would think that somebody would have asked the cafe staff to stay on - at least through the busy Easter weekend - like they asked us to stay. Several people came into the office yesterday AM asking about coffee, and we had to say the closest place is 10 miles down the road, either in Marathon or on Big Pine Key. If you were paying $100 for a site for one night, wouldn't you expect a place to at least be able to purchase a cup of coffee? The new manager will have her (or his) hands full making things right here.

Many of the staff members that were here for the winter season are leaving, as mentioned above with the cafe staff. The Activities Director is also leaving today. I had to go around yesterday to post signs in all the bathhouses and in the laundry that the "Easter Egg Hunt is Cancelled for Sunday". It was cancelled because the Activities Director decided to leave today, instead of staying on for the Easter weekend. We are beginning to regret our commitment to stay through this weekend. There are, and will be, many complaints from people about the poor management of this Resort, and there is nothing we can say to help them feel better.

I am looking into staying our first night - Tuesday night - somewhere near Ft Lauderdale where there is a - you guessed it - Casino. There are many of them in the Miami area, but we will try to stay away from the big city. It will be a nice treat for us spend a few hours in one and relieve the casino withdrawal symptoms. Josie has been buying a couple scratch tickets each time we go to the grocery store. She even won $100 a week ago on one. We're still waiting to hit the big one.

Three more days to go and we will be done here. It may be the longest three days of our adventure so far. We will manage to get through it though, because there are better days ahead. Until tomorrow...

Introductory Meeting With Temp Manager

Our meeting with the new "temp" manager started right on time at 7:30 Yesterday morning. The Regional manager (Dawn) was there to introduce her (Barb) and they discussed changes that they would like to see made here at the Resort. Of course, Barb wants to meet individually with everybody so that she can get a feel for what needs to be fixed. Everything! It was a typical day for us at the front desk and we signed out at 5:15 PM and Barb said she would like to talk to us for a while. We spent 45 minutes telling her why we were leaving and she appreciated the frankness and the disclosure about many problems here that she hadn't yet heard about. Her suggestion to us after the meeting was for us not to turn sour yet on the company, but give it another chance, perhaps in a different location. She is currently the park manager at Pine Island in the Ft Meyers, FL area, and she said that they are always looking for people in the winter in one of the five FT Meyers area parks. We may take her up on her offer. In the meantime, she will be here for about a month while they search for a permanent manager.

The countdown is in the final week for us. There are 4 more days to work and we get ready on Monday to leave on Tuesday. This will be another hectic weekend at the Resort with lots of families coming in for the Easter holiday. It may be even more busy this Friday and Saturday than it was for the kickoff of the Summer Program last weekend. They appreciate our staying on to help with these 2 busy weekends.

We'll make this entry short and sweet and save more discussion for tomorrow...

Reorganization of the Fifth Wheel

We accomplished most of what we intended to do in the fifth wheel yesterday. By the time the files were purged and all the papers were sorted, we had 2 bags of trash to take to the dumpster. The only part that didn't get done was the basement, which we had pretty much cleaned and reorganized not too long ago. Josie did some laundry and I installed a new modem device - a Verizon MIFI - to replace the dog of a "Five Spot" I've been using for the last 6 months and have had all kinds of problems using. Verizon has a new 4G device that is only effective in certain (large) cities at this point, so I passed on that device. That about killed the day for us.

One of the office workers stopped by yesterday to inform us of a meeting that is taking place at 7:30 AM today with the Regional Manager, and a "Temp" Manager for this park. It will be very interesting to hear about the plans for straightening out this park. They have been interviewing new management candidates and we will probably find out where that search is leading. Today starts our final (short) week. We work today through Sunday, and then it's pack up time. The plan is still to leave on Tuesday the 27th, spend 3 days near Josie's sister and travel to Virginia to arrive on May 2nd or 3rd. That will give us about a week to acclimate to the new area and find out where everything is located.

We also heard from the supervisor at the City Hall in Key West regarding our parking ticket. He claimed that there were sufficient signs - one at the end of the block, one in the middle and one at the other end, to advise people to pay at the (well hidden) pay station in the middle of the block. Oh, well. The city will become $25 richer in a few days after they receive our payment.

I have been trying to find a way to copy the weather reports to the blog that are generated by my weather station. There is a way, but I need to read the manual about setting the internet options, which I haven't had a chance to do yet. I want to show how the temperature has only varied a few degrees, from the daily highs (85 - 88) and the daily lows (74-78) every day that we've been here. It must certainly coincide with the Hawaii variances. We have had only .04" of rain the whole month, and that was all on one day. The summer will be a different story, I'm sure.

Tomorrow we will report on today's meeting...

Visit to Key West

We got a fairly early start yesterday to spend the day in Key West. There were areas we didn't see on the first visit, and we felt this was a good time to go again before we leave next week. It was a great day and we saw the more popular areas of the town this time.

There is a very high-end campground on the way to Key West that is comprised of 81 privately owned spaces that are on a canal and the ocean. The name of the Resort is Bluewater Key. The sites were beautiful. We took a couple shots of the sites. This first one is of a site that backs on the canal and has a private dock behind it:

The second shot is a site that backs on the ocean:

The sites rent for over $100 per night so you know the sites are spectacular. It's nice to know that you can stay in such style in your RV, just 10 miles from Key West.

We arrived in Key West around 10 AM and parked along the Harbor Walk on Greene St. It reminded us of the market place in Hawaii as the little shops were quaint and full of palm trees and people traffic:

I bought a hat in one of the shops and paid $14.99 for it which I thought was a great deal since most hats are around $20 or more. It wasn't more than 5 minutes later when I saw the same hat in one of these shops for $9.99. My receipt said no returns, all sales final. Sheesh!

We continued walking along the harbor, going in and out of shops, and we came to the Key West Harbor where there was a Carnival cruise ship in port:

Not only was there this large ship, but right behind it was another large Carnival cruise ship. The two ships were the Carnival Triumph  and the slightly larger Carnival Freedom:

We spent a lot of time walking down Duval St, which is the main shopping street in Key West. We eventually came to the nice little street that led to the Little White House:

You can see from the sign that it was used by more than just President Truman. That's good, since I am not a fan of Harry Truman since he fired my boyhood hero, General Douglas MacArthur. Anyway, the house was smaller than we thought it would be, although very nice:

There was a $14 per person charge to take the tour, so we passed on that.

The other landmark we wanted to see was the Hemingway Home which was further away than we wanted to walk, so we headed back to the car to drive a little closer. That was the beginning of a not so joyful experience. There was a parking ticket on our car ($25) which was a total shock. There were no "no parking" signs, nor were there any meters or any indication that we parked in a "pay" zone. Josie flagged down a local cop and she asked him why we were ticketed. He replied that there was a "pay station" in the middle of the block where we were suppose to pay for time we wanted to park, and place the receipt on the dashboard so that the officers could see we were legal. Again, there were no visible signs to that effect. He suggested we go to the City Hall, which we did, to dispute the ticket. After going to the City Hall - at the other end of town - we were told they would send somebody to that location to check for signs, and they would call us before the end of the day to tell us if we had to pay the fine or they would void the ticket. We never heard back from them yesterday.

We then went to the Hemingway Home:

Of course, there was a charge to tour the house. With the $25 ticket still up in the air, and our minds still reeling from that experience, we decided to just take a shot of the home from the outside:

It was a very nice home that we would have gone through under different circumstances. We will definitely come to see it some time down the road.

Overall, our day was great fun and we are happy that we visited the town once again before we leave. Today will be a day to try to organize things for our trip north and,  maybe spend a couple hours at the pool. That's about it for now...

One More Week

Our week ended yesterday with a fairly calm day. There were still some folks that had to get "stickers" for vehicles, but most everybody that is coming in for the summer program are in and settled. That is, until they had to leave last night. The Resort is mostly deserted now and very quiet. We have just one more week to work before leaving for Virginia. People are asking us to return in the winter, and that may be possible sometime in the future. We're sure that things will improve once there is a new manager in place and new policies are implemented. This next winter though, we plan to head West following Campbellsville.

The realization has set in that we only have a few more free days, so we need to try to make the most of them. There are some places we want to go, and also, there are things we need to do before traveling again - reorganization within the fifth wheel, for example. I will try to eliminate everything we don't need so that we can travel as light as possible to increase our fuel efficiency. There are lots of magazines we can unload, and probably some books that we can give away. Anything we can eliminate will help. We have already decided to get rid of our heavy china and replace it with lighter, plastic dishes. When you look around, you can see lots of ways to lighten the load. I also plan to get a portable scanner sometime soon so that we can eliminate files and lots of paper.

Today will most likely include a last trip to Key West where there are lots of places we didn't see. The Harry Truman Little White House Museum and the Hemingway Home are just a couple of places we would like to go. We also haven't been to the North Shore, where most of the shops and boating activities take place. So, we'll see what kind of trouble we can get into today, and we'll report tomorrow...

Busiest Day So Far

A lot of the people that had signed up for the summer program arrived a day or two early, and some arrived Friday, but did not come into the office to register until yesterday. They all came in yesterday. Friday was a fairly sane day, but yesterday we had people standing in line and the line went to the door. I had gone around in the morning to all the sites that were physically here, but had not registered yet, and either asked the people to come into the office to register, or I placed a notice on their door to come in and register if they were not at their site. They not only had to register, but we had to place "stickers" on their vehicles and golf carts so that they could come in and out of the Resort through the security gate. The combination of all those tasks resulted in our working over 1 1/2 hours overtime. Without a manager present, we did pretty well handling the few problems that we had during the day. The "temp" manager isn't due until Monday - of course, after everybody has arrived and there are no problems left to solve. Josie and I are off on Monday and Tuesday, so maybe the manager will have everything under control by the time we come in again next Wednesday.

The contract from Grey's Point Camp arrived yesterday and it looks like everything is in order. We will execute that agreement and send it back today. They have us starting on May 9th, and have indicated that we could arrive as early as April 30th, and stay at no charge until we begin work. The season will end on September 18th which is a good time frame for us. The tentative plan now is to work in VA during the summer, go to Campbellsville (instead of Fernley, NV) to work at Amazon.com again until Christmas, and travel back to the West Coast from there. Of course, at that time of the year, we would take a beeline straight south from KY to hit some warm weather and travel along the southern route. We hope to stop in New Orleans sometime during that trip back to the West. Last year, we had a chance to stop at Patty's in IL before going on to KY, but this year it won't be possible which is a "downer" for us.

Today is our "Friday" and we are hoping that it is a quiet day. We would like to go somewhere special on our days off, so we'll see what happens...

A City Within A City

The day was not as mad as we expected it to be yesterday. There were times when it seemed mad, but for the most part, the arrivals were spread out enough to give us some time to try to organize things. It looks like a city popping up within the Resort. People are bringing things that you would expect to see in permanent housing: fences, upright refrigerators, outdoor sinks, hard cover canopies, sheds and just about any outdoor item they could find from home. Some are pulling into their spaces so that their doors are across from their neighbor - especially where families are involved. In fact, we have a rig next to us that has a grandfather and grandmother next to their son's (or daughter's) family with their rigs set up to create a huge common area between them. They have all kinds of patio equipment, bikes and golf carts there plus a boat. The summer program here is taken seriously by the guests. We would guess that probably 99% of the people that arrived yesterday are Cuban - consistent with what we were told. It felt like we were in Havana during the check-ins, and they speak a different dialect of Spanish, and speak so fast, that it makes it almost impossible for Josie to understand them. In fact, we have a staff member - Maritsa - who is Cuban and is really the only person that can talk to most of them.

We didn't hear any partying last night, but then we have our fifth wheel closed up while the A/C is on. It is also early in the season, so it will heat up pretty fast. It's good that we won't be here for that part. Supposedly, the "temp" manager will be in Monday to help with things until a new permanent manager is found. The new permanent manager, whoever it ends up being, will certainly have to know how to communicate with the Cubans that come here. That's probably why it is so hard to find one. The flavor of America is truly changing - in Arizona and California we had the Mexicans, and here the Cubans. You have to give them credit for one thing - they come with cash in hand to pay these high prices for the Summer Program. Very few credit cards are used by them. We don't know if they save all year for this, or just own very good businesses in Miami.

Our contract for the job in Virginia should arrive today, so we will sign that and send it back to them. We also had a final call from Horizon RV Resorts yesterday with an improved package for us at the park in San Marcos, TX. Of course, they knew we have already committed to VA, so they knew it was a long shot to offer us the new package. We have left the door open with them and expect to hear more from them late in the summer when winter jobs are being filled.

It would be nice if we could see some more of the local attractions before we leave, so we will try to accomplish that on our days off. Our "Thursday" is today, so we are counting down to more free time...

Typical Confusion in the Office

Yesterday was one day away from the official start of the Summer Program at the Resort. With 85 people slated to arrive today, there were a few that arrived early to beat the crowd. The problem was that some of those that arrived early found somebody in their assigned sites and couldn't get set up as they expected. The people arriving early didn't get confirmation that their sites would be clear a day early, so they ended up pulling into a temporary space until today.

We are not looking forward to this day. Every individual that has a space for the summer has to bring in a contract that was mailed to them, completely filled out, and bring the final payment of their outstanding balance, if they have one. With the anticipated crowd, it will be a very busy day. All of this with no official managers in the office should make for a wild day. The only good part is that there will be 4 of us behind the desk, and as usual, I will be odd man out as a result of only having 3 workstations. My job will be primarily to see that the sites are ready for the incoming people and to make sure the departing people are gone. While looking at the check-in sheet for today, there is approximately $65,000 in revenue that we are expected to take in today. Not a bad day for the Resort.

Our first real paychecks arrived yesterday and, of course, mine was screwed up. They still have me working in CA and took out CA State Tax from my pay. How much worse can it be? It was over a year ago that I worked there and they still can't figure out how to transfer my records to the new location. I guess I should just feel fortunate that I got paid. Josie's is OK and there hasn't been any problem with hers.

There's not much else to say for now, so until tomorrow when we will review the big day expected today...

Plans Taking Shape

We found out that our manager, Marlene, would not be into work until later in the morning which changed our plans to give notice to her - slightly. Brenda, the most senior person remaining on the staff, was there, so we told her we were leaving. She was very emotional when she heard the news and said she really enjoys working with us and we can't leave. It also turned out that yesterday was Marlene's last day, so Brenda is acting manager. Marlene finally came in around 10 AM and Brenda thought we should tell her directly so Josie went into her during a lull in the morning and gave her the news. Apparently, Marlene is leaving earlier than she planned as a result of health issues. The stress of this job has worn her down to the point that her Doctor told her she would die if she didn't leave now. The pressure is off for us and we agreed to stay on through Easter weekend, which gives us another couple weeks. The company (Equity LifeStyle Properties) will have another of their managers from a different Florida park come in to help out for the next 2 weekends which will be busy with Summer Program arrivals.

Our conversations have ended with Horizon RV Resorts and we left it with them that they would contact us later in the summer for opportunities they have opening up in both Las Vegas and Santa Barbara for the winter. They are both good destinations for us and by then, we hope to be on our way back to the West. Our final decision is to follow through on the VA job offer, and we are planning to leave here around the 26th of April. After spending a few days near Josie's sister's house in Edgewater (Daytona Beach area), we will take a leisurely trip north to Topping, VA, and arrive around the 5th of May.

During the day yesterday there were clouds off the coast and a "Water Spout" developed. We didn't have our camera so we didn't get a shot of it, but it looked just like a tornado over the water. They are very common here and supposedly, get several hundred of these each year in this part of the Keys. They rarely touch shore though. I stopped at our rig while out on another park errand and grabbed our camera in case we saw another water spout. We didn't, but I got a couple shots of the office. This one is of the front desk area:

Brenda was in on her day off to get last minute instructions from Marlene before she left. The second one is of the entrance area looking into our mail room:

We will try to get better shots of the office before we leave.

We also had this picture of another Iguana that was walking past our site the other day:

Today will be our second solo day of the week and it shouldn't be too bad as the summer season only produces "mad" days during the weekends when all the Cubans come in from Miami. We'll be taking it a little easier now that we know there is a light at the end of this tunnel...

Judgement Day

While still going back and forth yesterday with the Horizons RV Resort people, our decision is still to go to VA. Today we will give notice to the remaining, short time manager. Josie and I work solo today and tomorrow, so we hope we get a chance to talk with her. Basically, we will tell her it is not working for us and we need to move on to other opportunities. The fact we committed to each other that we would leave the stress behind when we hit the road 3 years ago has to be enforced. This job has not been fun for us and a change needs to be made. There are many examples we will give to her, but we feel that the change needs to made before May 1st, when most of the good Workamper jobs will be filled. That also allows them time to find replacements for us.

The people at Horizon RV Resorts are trying to persuade us to come to a park they have in San Marcos, TX, called Leisure Resort RV Park. It seems like a nice small park in a nice area just east of San Antonio, but they couldn't match the package we are going to in VA. After it became obvious we couldn't consider the management positions in Manvel, TX at the other park because of timing issues, they presented this one to us. We still want to keep in touch with them though, as they have some nice parks in other parts of the country that they manage, and we may want to work at one of those some day.

Yesterday was also payday and I have discovered that both Josie and I will get a check. The problem is that the checks were sent to our mail forwarding address in Pensacola, and I had to call them to have them send them to us here. That's another example of this place dropping the ball and not informing us of the pay procedures. We never heard of a park sending paychecks to a home address, when the employees are obviously at the park where they are working. We signed up for direct deposit which, we also discovered, takes about 3 weeks to implement. The end is near.

We went to the pool to hang out yesterday and to work on our tans which are getting pretty dark about now. That is something we have enjoyed and is a part of this park that was renovated and is very nice. We will miss the weather here as it has hardly varied more than a few degrees the whole time and there is very little rain. We're sure it will get a little uncomfortable though as the humidity builds in the summer.

That's about it as we prepare to head off to an exciting day at the office...

Close to a Decision

We spent the majority of the day yesterday on a merry go round with different options. The main choices boiled down to Grey's Point Park in VA, toughing it out here, or one of the parks that I was in contact with during the day which came out of the woodwork from the "feelers" I sent out last week. One was very interesting - a park in the Horizon RV Resorts System - that needed a management couple immediately. This park is located in a small town south of Houston, TX (Manvel) and is called Almost Heaven RV Resort. It sounded like a great opportunity for us - full hookup site, salary and other perks, but they would need us by this coming weekend to fill the spot of a departing management team. They seem like a very solid organization and we left it with Horizon that we would be interested in future opportunities in one of their parks across the country. That dialogue occurred while figuring monetary comparisons for the other options.

It is 1100 miles to the Grey's Point Park in VA and will cost approximately $800 in fuel - as opposed to over $2000 in fuel costs, and 2800 miles to go to Cody. That was using the current price for fuel which keeps rising and who knows how high it will go. Based on the numbers, we decided (tentatively) to go to Virginia. They want us to start between May 5 -10 which would be a good time frame. The money is actually better there than it is here when we consider the season ending bonus of $.50 for every hour worked while there. I would also get some valuable experience in Security, which I haven't done before. It's the same software system - Campground Manager - that we have used here and have the most experience with from other locations. So, if nothing else happens to change our minds, we will give notice tomorrow and hope they let us stay until at least the middle of next week which is the end of this pay period. We are in the 3rd pay period since we arrived, and I haven't received a paycheck yet since they are not able, for some reason, to put my information into the system. Josie has received one paycheck for the first 3 days we worked in the 1st pay period. Other than that, we have been working, so far, with no paychecks. Tomorrow is the payday for our 2nd pay period, so we'll see if we both get paid. My check is suppose to be issued manually.

It will be difficult to send the email to Cody informing them that we will not be able to work there this summer. We will try to keep the door open for next year, as we do plan to ultimately head back west for next summer. They are great people and we're sure they will understand. We will miss the area tremendously.

Since Josie did the laundry yesterday while I was working the job issues, we will probably go the pool today and just hang out. The next important step is to figure out how to tell them tomorrow that we are leaving. We aren't sure how they will react to that, since the park manager is leaving soon. Maybe she will be upset, and then again, maybe she won't care...

More Information On Virginia

It was a typical, unspectacular, dull and uneventful day at work. In between breaks, I exchanged emails with the folks at the Grey's Point Park in Virginia about their Workamping opportunity. Right now, if we were to join them, we would be doing the following: Josie would be a front desk clerk and clerk in the store, and I would do security for 2 nights a week (5 PM till 2 AM), and Camp Host the other 3 days I would work. That involves escorting guests to their site, pumping propane (which I do anyway), and other guest activities as needed. The shift times will vary for both of us during our daytime hours and the security part would be every Friday and Saturday night. We'll have to run the numbers today and tomorrow to see if it would pay us to go there, since the total number of hours is between 32-40 per week. We also need to have the same days off which they haven't gotten back to us about just yet. We would have to pay for our electric use, but the site is otherwise free for the time we would be there which is May - mid September. It is definitely an area we would like to visit, and it would keep us on the East coast which is something we had initially wanted to do for a year. However, our goal is to eventually work our way back to the West as we feel that is where we enjoy being more than anywhere else.

The trip to Topping, VA, would be less than half the miles to Cody (1100 vs 2800). It would certainly save a lot of money in fuel costs. Another (dreaded) option is to stay here and force ourselves to work in this environment. That would not be our first choice - by a long shot. The uncertainty surrounding a new manager coming here has added to our concerns. It is rumored that the district manager wants to raise the fee the workers pay for their site to twice the current fee. Should that happen, we would be gone in a flash. But, maybe there would be no good opportunities to go to if we stay and that happens later. It is a difficult situation, to be sure.

It's nice to relax today and not have the stress from the office. Aside from laundry, there are no plans for any other activity. We have been so consumed by the task of deciding what to do that we need to get that resolved before really enjoying any other activity. Once our direction is established, it will be easy to sit back and enjoy the planning of our fun time. More to come...

Complaints At Work

Very early in the morning yesterday a woman came into our office with a long list of complaints about the travel trailer she was renting. We had been in a couple of them over the last 2 weeks and know they are old and very used. This woman was describing problems in hers that would make it a give-away in most campgrounds. She mentioned a hole in the floor, right next to the dinette in the kitchen, water faucet problems, shower problems and just about every item in the unit. There are probably 8 or 10 travel trailers in the campground that are used as rentals and I'm sure they are all the same. They have signs on several of them that they are for sale - starting at $10,000. Wow! There isn't one of them that is worth more than a couple thousand, if that. It is consistent with the rip-off prices that are charged for everything here. They charge $155 per night to rent one of these trailers. I don't think the corporate offices realize what they are doing in this place. Just about everybody that comes in to get a price sheet comments about the high prices for the sites. The cheapest site - now, in the off season - is $65 per night, plus 12% sales tax, plus $3 per night Resort Fee for people staying less than a month. If you stay a month or longer, your electric use is metered and you pay that when you leave. The "Elite" sites, along the water, are $88 per night plus all the extra charges. The real kicker is that any and all of these sites are rented to people camping  in tents on these sites- and are charged the same rates as those with a 45 foot motor home. The tenter's won't even use the hookups - except for water - but they pay the same, including the Resort Fee.

The summer program people have started to arrive - the Cubans from Miami - and they are already partying and playing their music loud. One person came into the office yesterday complaining about a bunch of teenage boys that were in the bathhouse behind her site carrying on and making all kinds of loud noise - at around midnight Friday night. This is just the beginning. We don't want any part of what is about to happen in this place - especially after the final manager leaves. Even when they get a replacement manager, that person will not know how to handle the problems that are unique to this campground.

There appears to be an opportunity at the sister park of the Bethpage Campground we came very close to working for in Virginia. The sister park is called Grey's Point, and is very similar to Bethpage. We will know more about that opportunity early in the week. That would probably be a very good alternative if we determine the costs to go to Cody are prohibitive. They are only 15 minutes down the road from each other and are operated by the same company. We are keeping a close eye on gas prices.

Our last day of the week is today - hallelujah! We hope to relax and enjoy this time off for the next 2 days. We will figure out a plan to let them know at work about our decision to leave. That's about it for now...

Summer Program Crowd Arriving

We have a special program - among many others - that allows for people to place their RV's on a site for the summer. The program begins now and runs through July. Essentially, the rig stays on the same site for the whole time, but the owners can only come to use it on weekends. The cost is $3000. They can extend for another 3 months - for another $3000 - and stay until after Labor Day. It's amazing to us that people would spend that kind of money to use their RV for just about 8 days a month. The majority of the people that sign up for the program are Cubans from Miami that only come out here to party all weekend. It has caused a problem in the past, as you can imagine. People wanting to sleep and enjoy some quiet time are constantly complaining - from what we are told. Aside from feeling like we are living in "Havana North", it would be nearly impossible to enforce any rules during that time. Thank goodness we'll be gone.

The Business Manager - and the one that hired us in the first place - had her last day yesterday. She left with no fanfare and not even a goodbye or good luck between us. That's an example of the tension and stress that she has created. She and her husband (who works here in maintenance, and is a genuine nice guy) have purchased a home in Sebring, FL and will retire there. That leaves only the park manager who is also leaving soon. We expect to give our notice when we receive our paychecks next week. We will offer to stay on and help until they obtain replacements, but we will move on sooner if they want us to. It is with mixed feelings that we leave. The area is terrific, but the job has been far less than expected.

Conversations continue with alternative job locations. We are still focusing on returning to Cody, but we heard that oil prices jumped $2 per barrel again yesterday which translates to higher gas prices at the pump. At $8 per gallon for our 2 vehicles, Cody may be too expensive an option at this time. We have been talking to campgrounds in NY, PA, SC, TX and AZ. With higher gas prices, it probably is in our best interest to go somewhere closer. Arizona is also probably too far at this time. Maybe we'll win the lottery and then we can buy a house in Hawaii and not worry about anything...

Sticking It Out

As difficult as it is to stay focused in that office, we are giving it 100%. The management admitted to some kind of "unknown" problem that is preventing me from getting into the automated time reporting system. Josie uses the clock, I still record my time manually. The fact that we work solo on Wednesdays and Thursdays, and the fact that we both have to be there from 8 till 5 in order to properly cover the day, and the fact that they won't pay for more than 8 hours worked in any day, it was suggested we change our weekend hours to cut each of those days by a half hour in order to balance the week. So, 81/2 hours on 2 days, 7 hours on 2 days, and the normal hours on the 5th day. The two managers that are leaving soon really don't give a rip about what happens. It is scary to think about all the problems that are going to occur when the park manager leaves, and all her friends call in their "chits" that she committed to them, but for which there is no printed evidence. She is already giving wild deals to so many people that almost every check-in is unique. I hope we're gone before the s__t hits the fan.

We are getting calls from places we sent "feelers" to that were advertised in our Workamper News. One is a campground in the Catskills in NY, and one is in AZ, in Mesa, to manage a 55+ mobile home park. The one in NY would be a little more than 1/2 the distance to Cody, but the one in AZ would be almost 3/4 of the trip to Cody, and probably is still too far if we decide to leave soon. That one includes a salary and living quarters, but we also know all about the summers there. We are still trying to decide when the best time would be to give notice here, so we are playing it by ear. The longer we stay, the more money we would have to travel. Josie has gotten her first paycheck, but they still haven't issued any to me yet, and it now looks like my first pay won't be until next Thursday, the 14th. That's 20 work days after I started. And they have the gall to ask us for our site payment in advance!

Today will be the first of three days where there will be 4 of us on duty at the front desk. That means I'll be odd man out again and struggle to find things to do to keep busy. Oh well, at least I know it is only short term...

Stressful Days

The day was spent as most of them have been - stressful. It is beyond us how this office is ever able to keep employees. The one manager - the one leaving after tomorrow - just snaps at you every time you ask a question. The other manager - leaving in about a week or two - is hardly ever there, and when you ask her a question, the answer is so quick, or the typing so fast on the computer, that you could never understand what she said or did. Coupled with the fact that we have not ever received any feedback from them, makes for an even more stressful environment.

We finally received our pass-codes to be able to access the system with our own codes. We will use them today for the first time. This is our 2nd solo day of the week in the office. In some ways, it's better that we are working alone since we are able to talk to each other about situations that normally we would ask somebody else about. I still am not in the clock system, so I have to submit my hours manually. As yesterday was the end of the pay period, the manager handed me a form - already filled out - with my hours for the last two pay periods. First of all, they showed straight 8 hour days each day, when I actually worked over for 15-20 minutes each day, which adds up to extra pay time. The manager said they will only pay for 8 hours each day - then why am I keeping track of my hours manually? The other thing that really got under our skin yesterday was the discovery that we are expected to pay our site fee up front each month. To discover that our site fee was due on our first day of work is counter to any procedure under which we've ever worked. Usually, you have to work so many hours a month for your site, and it is taken out of your pay. To be past due on your site fee before you get a paycheck is not ethical to us.

Although we have decided to move on from here, we are still nervous about the timing. If we are asked to leave right away after we give notice, we will not be able to justify the huge expense to travel to Cody. We are counting on our paychecks from here to help out for that trip. We have sent out a few "feelers" for backup jobs just in case. Those would not involve so much travel. We really want to go to Cody, so that's still the focus. There are so many places to go and jobs in between, that we are thankful we have the options. Time will tell...

Back to Marathon

The day was scheduled for some chores yesterday - haircut for Josie, laundry and work on things at home. We started out with the haircut in Marathon for Josie and then stopped at the Sombrero Beach again. There was a storm front expected through yesterday, so we didn't know if we should stay at the beach and risk getting caught in it, or head home to do our other chores. We took another shot of this nice beach:

and decided to head home so we could get the other things done. We are anxious to return here and spend a few hours.

While heading back out of town, we stopped at a place that has been generating curiosity in us - the Turtle Hospital:

This is a fascinating place where they take in injured or sick sea turtles and nurse them back to health for release again into the sea. We spent quite a bit of time walking through their entry area where all types of sea turtles are described, descriptions (with photos) of a sample of turtles that they've restored to health and maps of places where each species of sea turtle - there are 7 - are found in the world. Almost all of the species are found in the Florida Keys, so this hospital has treated a wide variety of turtles. These turtles go back to the dinosaur age - 200 million years. This is also the nesting period for sea turtles, and there were descriptions of how and where they nest, and all about the predators. There is a tour of the Hospital that is conducted each hour - $15.95 per person - but since we wanted to get home, decided to save that money. It would be a wonderful tour to take someday.

The storm started to move in when we returned home and the laundry was postponed until another day. It wasn't nearly as bad as the storms that hit north of us, and we only got .04" of rain, with very little wind. We are thankful for that.

Another week starts today - can't wait to see the new confusion that has set in. We are still not clear on when we should go into the office. One person says we should both be in at 8 AM, another says staggered (as scheduled), and another says 8:30 so that we both can close at 5 PM. Sheesh! We will stick to the "official" printed schedule for now. Josie will go in at 8, and I will go in at 8:30. Stay tuned for news of another exciting day at work...

Haircut, and Another Beach

After lounging around most of the morning, we went for a drive to Marathon. Josie needed a haircut and there was a beach we were told about and wanted to check out. The first place we stopped for Josie's haircut had moved to a new location. The problem is that our GPS didn't have the new location. This is the 2nd hair salon that we have tried to find that has moved or gone out of business in this town. We had the name of another place that wasn't even in the GPS, so Josie called the woman at work that gave her the name to find out where it was located. On the way there, we passed a Beall's Outlet store that we went into. That was the end of any time to spend on the beach. While Josie walked around there, I went next door to an Office Depot and spent a lot of time going through that store. We escaped with just a bathing suit for Josie. We also stopped to eat lunch in town.

We continued on and found the salon - closed on Monday. That will have to be a return trip, probably today. Anyway, we found the nice beach that we were told about - Sombrero Beach - in Marathon. It was, we thought, much nicer than the beach we were on in Bahia Honda State Park - and this beach is free. It had a beautiful park area just behind the beach:

where there are picnic areas, bathhouses, brick walkways, etc.

The sandy beach wasn't bad either:

Although we didn't have a lot of time left in the day to sit and enjoy the sun and sand, Josie at least got her feet wet in the Atlantic:

This will definitely be the beach we visit next time as it is very nice and, again, it's free.

It has been pretty windy here the last couple days. There have been some serious storms north of us, but we have been lucky so far. The forecast calls for some possible storms today and tomorrow, so we'll wait and see. We still need to go back to Marathon for Josie's haircut, but there are chores to do here, like laundry, that preclude our going to the beach today.

It's the last day before work again which is not very exciting. New calculations with the current price of fuel have added a couple hundred dollars to our planned journey back to WY, so we are nervous about that. We're hoping for some stability in the prices. I'm also looking into towing the Jeep behind the fifth wheel, which is legal in most states. We'll have to see what the costs are for that. If it costs less to provide all the hookups and equipment required for that vs buying gas to drive it, we may consider it. That's about it for now...

Closing Out The Week

It sure was nice to see the end of the day yesterday. It was another day similar to Saturday of just looking for odds and ends to do as a result of not having any access to the front desk computers. Josie is getting more comfortable on her terminal, although she still uses someone else's password and is still frustrated by all the different rates. Of course, even if there was another terminal available, I wouldn't be using it without any passwords. In the beginning, I was using someone else's passwords until they expired.

We went into town in Big Pine Key after work and had dinner at the Mexican restaurant there. It was OK, but it was closer to the food in an Asian restaurant. It seems that this restaurant is owned by the same people that have the Chinese restaurant in town - which we have recently tried - and the food definitely had the influence of the Chinese owners. The rice was like the Chinese rice and the enchiladas had a sauce that was not Mexican, and they had no cheese on the top. Like I said, it was OK, but not outstanding. It was also expensive for Mexican food.

There are some things that we will do in Marathon today. Josie still needs a haircut and there are a couple of beaches we heard about that we will check out. There also is a campground - located about 15 miles the other way toward Key West - that we want to check out on our days off. Supposedly, it has a much nicer campground area than ours and has only 81 spaces - almost all of which are on the water. It will be interesting to see. We'll probably fill in with some other relaxing trips that will help us forget the stress at work that has been felt the last 2 weeks.

We are finding out that other people have left here after a short time for the same reasons we are going to leave. It seems that most problems are created by the corporation - Equity Lifestyle Properties - and not the local management decisions (or lack of decisions). It is a clear warning to us for future opportunities in the parks operated by this company. We seem to have much better experiences at privately owned parks. We will file that little tidbit in our "future" file. We'll see how it goes today...

Accessing the Payroll System

The main accomplishment yesterday was gaining access to the ADP payroll system online to make changes to the deductions - for Josie. I still have no access to the data for my information, except to be able to register for the system. Once I get past the log-in screen, it doesn't allow me access to my information. We have everything set up for Josie now, which is half the battle.

It was another day as expected at work. Since I was not able to use one of the terminals at the front desk, I did more standing around, making copies of welcome packets, driving guests to sites so they could choose one and generally, feeling useless. Another day like that looms today.

Following work, we went into town at Big Pine Pine Key to gas up the Jeep and we saw a deer crossing the road in front of us. I haven't mentioned yet that there is a deer sanctuary on Big Pine Island that is home for what is called Key Deer. Actually, it is a National Refuge for the deer that are unique to the Florida Keys, and is an endangered species. We haven't seen any of these deer while driving past the Refuge until the last 2 days. Friday, there was one walking through the parking lot at the shopping center and 2 more that we spotted on the way home from the store. Of course, we didn't have the camera then. We took a picture of the one yesterday, but it wasn't clear so we won't post it. I'm sure we will get a chance to take more shots of them before we leave. They are much smaller than the deer we are used to seeing on the mainland.

Thankfully, our week ends today. Part of what we will do on our days off involves developing a plan for our departure from here. Timing is very important, since we aren't sure if they would want us to stay here for the 2 weeks notice we will give. We really aren't prepared to leave right away, since we aren't due in Cody until mid May, and we can use the extra money for our gas to travel there. On the other hand, it is not ethical to wait until a day or two before we actually leave to tell them. The only certainty is that now, we are leaving.

The first cut at a travel plan indicates that it will be approximately 2800 miles from here to Cody. With extended stopovers in Edgewater to visit Josie's sister, and in New Orleans, it will take at least 12 days. That assumes an average travel day of around 300-350 miles, which is a little longer than we like, but do-able. We'll let you know when the plan is finalized...

Enough is Enough

First of all, I hope nobody believed the "April Fools" joke in yesterday's blog about going to Alabama. The irony though is that now we are certainly going to go somewhere, based on what happened yesterday at work. For starters, there were 4 of us assigned to work the front desk, with only 3 terminals. Further, Josie and I still don't have the passwords to access the system, so one of the terminals had to be used with the Managers' passwords. That made me odd-man-out on the terminals, and also a seat. So, I spent the day standing around, checking on the departures of guests, and basically, doing nothing else. It was the worse, most boring and longest day so far for me. Unfortunately, the same group is also scheduled today and tomorrow. I have no idea what I will be doing today as the mass exodus has already occurred. We are now into our 3rd week here, and we are barely past the first day as far as paperwork and business tools are concerned. There is no feedback to us from the managers - both of whom are leaving shortly - and except for nice comments from some of the guests, we don't how we are doing, or even if they are glad we are here. Some days, we don't think they even know we're here.

The absolute worse episode occurred when I approached the business manager - the one who hired us - and asked her when she thought we may be able to get into the online payroll system to set up our deductions, direct deposit, etc. She snapped back that Josie already could register with the limited passwords she was given, and we just had to read the package she gave us on the day we arrived. Well, the package we received contained many items about the company, rules, benefits, etc. and the only reference to the online payroll system indicated that no access could be gained without a "registration" password. We were not given any these. After spending about 1/2 hour trying to register with the one "code" we were given with no success, we decided to approach the park manager today for help. In the meantime, our checks will be prepared with the maximum federal deductions taken - as single employees - until we can go online to change the data. That's about the last straw for us.

We will wait until the proper moment to inform them that this is just not going to work for us, and we will give them notice that we are departing. Probably, next Wednesday, when this next pay period ends. We are planing to offer them a 2 week period to obtain replacements for us, but we will move on right away if they don't want us to stay. Such a shame. We really like the area and the people that we've met so far - with the exception of these 2 managers. Actually, the business manager is disliked by everybody and there wasn't even a going-away party scheduled for her like there was for the park manager. Also, the company is so disorganized that even with new management here, the situation would be stressful.

With that kind of bad news - or good news, depending on how you look at it - we will endure the next week or so as best we can. Until tomorrow...

Start of New Season

With all of the various rates for the different seasons and sites, today begins the off season here at the campground. For the next 9 months, the rates will be lower. Even more important, the number of people staying here will diminish, with mostly the "summer program" people, comprised primarily of the Cubans from Miami that were mentioned previously in an earlier post. The big impact today will be a mass exodus of the winter, seasonal people. There are 132 spaces scheduled to depart today. It will be interesting to watch the caravan leaving the park, and also the traffic going north to the mainland. Some of the (smart) people left early yesterday, but most will be on the road today.

The rain came last night - .17" - with an increase in the wind to about 20 mph. The weather we had though was nothing like the bad storms that went through southern Fl the last 2 days. We were having clear, sunny weather while the state, from Orlando south to Miami, was getting heavy thunderstorms with a few tornadoes spotted.

Work was still the same, frustrating environment. I am concerned that if we don't get our codes and paperwork completed today, we will not have them by payday next Wednesday. The corporate offices will be closed Sat-Sun, and we are off on Mon-Tue. I can't imagine how they can cut checks to us without the withholding information. We will find out.

The real news though is that we are leaving next Thursday to go to a job outside of Birmingham, AL. It is a great place to work and we both will be working in the maintenance group, handling outside chores such as grass cutting, site cleaning and cleaning the rest rooms. We start on Monday, the 11th, and are committed until Labor Day.

APRIL FOOLS!!!