Coffee Cart and Dinner

We hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving.

Our first day on the coffee cart was about as we expected. Josie and I arrived at 6:15 AM yesterday to get things set up to open by 7 AM. Below is a picture of the cart at opening time:

The cart is actually pretty nice inside and roomy, as you can see below:

The business for the first day was kind of a joke. We did a total of 3 latte sales and we gave away 5 latte's to employees (Ha). Of course, there weren't many people in the park yet as most of them were scheduled to check in during the day. That, plus the word didn't get around to everybody that was already in the park. We got rave reviews though on all of the drinks we (Josie) made. I took orders and was on the register. We'll try it again today.

Our scheduled shift at the cafe between 10:30 AM and 2 PM was cancelled because the crowd at the cafe was small. The kitchen was closed for Thanksgiving, so they didn't need extra people. The store in the cafe was open until 2 PM, but the regular staff could handle that small crowd.

The dinner at the cafe was a success. There were 24 people and we had lots of food. Each family brought a dish or two, and we had all the normal turkey day fare, plus a few exotic dishes we never had before. The only dish that was missing was candied sweet potatoes - how did that happen(?). The picture below shows the seating for dinner in the cafe. The food was placed on the counter which is not visible in the picture, but it took up the whole length of the counter.


Following dinner, we went to the office to work our scheduled time there until 9 PM. It was a fairly long day and we get to do pretty much the same schedule today, but without the dinner. That time will be filled with more time in the office.

We also got a feel for what was going to happen in December, as far as cart operation and guests scheduled for the park. It seems that the week between Christmas and New Years will be a very busy one, but in the meantime, the cart will be closed and there won't be a lot of people in the park. This is not good news for us, as we need this place to start filling up so we can work for pay. Josie and I are seriously thinking of having a sit-down talk with the owner to discuss other options - right after the Thanksgiving Weekend. We'll keep you posted...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Our schedule yesterday was actually light for the start of the Thanksgiving weekend. We went to the cafe at about 1 PM where Josie was trained on the cash register and I was placed outside for crowd control and handling the ice machines. If yesterday was any indication, it will be like a zoo today. We could not believe that there were so many people staying out in the desert. It was non stop for the entire time we spent at the cafe. Eventually, after over an hour training at the cafe, we ended up at the office for our scheduled work time handling check-ins. We had 11 reservations scheduled to check in yesterday - the biggest day of the weekend. Only 9 made it in by the time we left the office at 6 PM. The other two were late check-ins. The empty black tank requirement for all rigs checking in really slows down the check-in time. It's a good thing everybody didn't show up at the same time or there would have been a lot of complaints. The whole check-in process is ten times slower than at Happy Jack. We can't imagine how this park is going to handle huge crowds, assuming they ultimately get huge crowds.

Our experience with the new coffee cart begins today. Josie and I will be opening the cart for business at 7 AM this morning. We're disappointed that there wasn't more preparation done by the owner since we only have a small amount of product left to sell after our training day last week, and there are no banners or signs on the cart. We'll do the best we can. After closing the cart at 10 AM, we will move over to the cafe and help out there from 10:30 to 2 PM. We get a breather after that until 6 PM when we return to the office for our scheduled time there until 9 PM. Of course, we have our Thanksgiving dinner scheduled at 4 PM in the cafe, where about 25 people are expected for the pot luck dinner.

The time that we spend in the coffee cart and at the cafe are supposed to be paid hours, so we are happy about that. It promises to be an interesting day and I'll try to get some pictures for tomorrow's entry. Until then, Happy Thanksgiving to all...