Two Jobs and Out of Africa

Our interview at Distant Drums RV Resort went very well yesterday. The manager, Steve, reviewed the entire operation of the campground and described all the responsibilities. They use the same software, Campground Manager, that we use at Happy Jack so we would require very little training and we would, essentially, be productive from the first day. The bomb that he dropped was that our positions would be as volunteers, with only our site and all hookups provided in exchange for two 6 hour days each week, for each of us. He suggested some of the sites for us to look at that would be for Workampers. None of the sites we looked at would accommodate both our vehicles plus the fifth wheel. The sites were very nice but on the small side. We tentatively agreed to start working there on November 2. He gave us a lot to think about.

We then went to Denny's for brunch to talk about this offer and to decide what our next move should be. Since we didn't hear anything from Out of Africa the whole week, we decided to drop by and see if Josie could talk to someone.

Josie was almost attacked by the manager when we arrived. She had been leaving messages all week to try to get her to come in to speak with the owner. As you know, the problems we've had with the stupid Alltel prepaid phone included not receiving messages for about a week after they are left. Anyway, the people there were very excited to see her and said that the owner wanted to speak with her but couldn't until about 4 PM. This was at about 1 PM. So, they gave both of us tickets for the park and Safari and asked us to return to the Gift Shop at around 4 PM for her interview.

The trip around the park was outstanding. It is everything we imagined it to be. We started out with a tram ride to the Tiger Splash event. Below is a picture of that event:

There were three tigers performing and they acted just like you would expect to see a household cat act with toys. The only difference being that these cats liked the water. We then began walking from this event to several others that were being conducted throughout the park. We took way too many pictures to show in this entry but almost every area had great views of the surrounding area, such as this one of the lions relaxing on top of their shelter:

After walking through the park for about an hour we arrived at the boarding area for the Safari. This is a bus that has open sides and travels through an area where there are animals roaming without cages. The driver gave everybody a piece of food - it looked like and smelled like a dog biscuit - to feed the animals. Our first stop was to feed this giraffe:

The bus continued through the wildlife park and we saw many different animals including ostriches, zebras, antelope, camels, and other African animals. It was about 3:50 PM when we arrived back at the gift shop.

Josie then had her interview with the owner - it went well - and they agreed to have her start on November 2nd at a fairly good pay rate. She will be working at least 4 days a week and we are both excited about this opportunity. Her immediate manager, Sydney, indicated that there probably would also be an opening for me at some point - maybe driving one of the trams.

The offer for Josie at Out of Africa has changed our thinking about the Distant Drums opportunity. Our main reason for taking that job was to eliminate the moving back and forth from the two membership parks while we searched for "real" jobs. Now, we are prepared to move every three weeks between the two parks. Remember, the Out of Africa location is only one mile away from one of the campgrounds, and four miles from the other.

Today we go back to Cottonwood to have Josie's eye checked and to drop off her new hire package at Out of Africa. Things are looking up...