Arrived!

We left Surprise on Thursday at about 12:15 PM. Our trip to Happy Jack Lodge took us 3 hours and we averaged 6.8 MPG on the truck. Of course the trip up here was mostly uphill and there were many long, steady climbs to get here.


We checked in, met our co workers in the lodge, and set up our rig on the Camp Host Site 1 - there are three Camp Host sites located in the campground and we were the last of the camp hosts to arrive. Following are pictures of our site:

It was while setting up that our early frustration set in and the reason we have not posted anything until now. First, we discovered that we had no signal for our cell phones. Next, we discovered that we had no signal for the Verizon Data card - no internet. Bob did take the laptop to the lodge and did log on to their wi-fi, but that is not a solution for our internet use over the next 4-6 months. Our co-workers (Jose and Jaime) were very helpful in providing numbers for Verizon Wireless and describing the situation with the local cell tower. It turns out that the tower, located only about 1/2 mile away, is being leased by the lodge owners from Alltel. As you know, Verizon now owns Alltel so we should have a connection with no further expense. Not true. After discussions with Verizon on the lodge phone, it was agreed that Bob should visit the Verizon store in Flagstaff on Friday AM to resolve the problem.

Since the tower is a leased tower, and not owned by Verizon, and since there are still acquisition and merger "holes" in the network, we can only get service using Alltel phones and Data Cards. Sheesh! We arrived in Flagstaff at 8 AM on Friday, the Verizon/Alltel store didn't open until 10 AM. To make a long story short, we spent three hours at the store, walked out with a new prepaid Alltel phone, and an Alltel Data Card. We will return our Verizon phones and data card to the Verizon store in Surprise on our next day off - we have to go there to clean out the shed at the old place - and cancel the Verizon contract which is still in the cancellation timeframe. We upgraded to the Verizon phones and data card on May 1 and we have 30 days to return those. Sound confusing? There's more, but we will fill you in on the rest as it happens.

Anyway, we are going to enjoy our jobs and the people we work with. We spent 5 hours of training at the front desk with Jaime, Jose (also called Chi Chi), and Gracie. Jaime and Chi Chi are here for the summer from El Mirage, AZ where they have a home and a son that is a police officer in Phoenix and sitting their home. Gracie is here from Wisconsin via Texas and is a divorcee traveling with her two cats. Our schedule calls for 5 more hours of training today and tomorrow and beginning with 7-8 hour solo shifts on Monday.

We had a wonderful dinner last night at the Long Valley Cafe in Clints Well in Happy Jack about 4 miles away. They have a fish fry every Friday night with all you can eat shrimp or fish with fries and cole slaw for $7.95. Great deal and great food.

The lodge campground is almost full for the weekend and is totally booked for the holiday weekend next week.

This is already a long post so we'll save some for tomorrow.

Til then....