Tough Weekend

We are really happy to see this weekend end. Between the non-stop rain all weekend - over 1.5" total, and still accumulating - the soccer tournament, several unique and tough check-in situations and the Asian Tour bus problems, it was good to get home last night. The next-to-last weekend wasn't expected to be so tough.

Our housekeeping crew had a very difficult time getting all the rooms cleaned and turned around for last night. The normal check-in time for guests is 4 PM, but last night, there were rooms still not released for check-in at 6 PM. Evidently, the combination of all the kids and all the rain created unique problems for them. We had an unusually large number of Asians checking in and most of them could barely speak English. There were problems with their reservations and communicating was more than a challenge. One of the two buses that we had check-in last night was Joy Holiday Tours - all Asians. They filled our lobby between 10 - 11PM with their noodle concoctions that use all the hot water in our containers that are used to make tea, hot chocolate and hot apple cider. We made several trips back to the kitchen area in the lodge to refill the containers. The normal refill schedule is (maybe) once per shift. All of these situations contributed to a tougher than normal weekend.

Thank goodness we are looking at only 6 more working days before calling it quits for the year. This is the time of year when we look forward to moving on to our next chapter in AZ and to visiting family in Chicago. If we are lucky, it will clear up and get warm enough to begin our preparation for departure. Josie is doing our laundry this morning - probably for the last time. I will at least begin the preparations by calling our mail forwarding service in FL to have our mail sent to AZ beginning this week. That also involves calling the Resort at Lake Pleasant to have them hold our mail, beginning now, for our return on October 11. The light at the end of the tunnel is growing larger...