Update…

I started this post last night, but fell asleep typing it 🙂 so you get it today…
(Friday)…
Sorry that I haven’t kept you up to date on our camp hosting today.
Today was our first Busy Day!!! Yeah!!!

For the past 6 weeks, ever since we got back ‘home’, the weather has been rainy or overcast and chilly. If we did have an occasional nice day, it was during the week while most folks were at work.

Today wasn’t quite ‘shorts’ weather, but it was a ‘go outside and play’ day – except for at our house – where we still have a few recuperating from the flu. But, all that sunshine, and all that lack of wind, have brought us some campers. We had well over 3 dozen rvs pull in today.

I LOVE it when it is busy! There are so many sweet people that come camp here! And I enjoy meeting some of them each time I ‘do rounds’. When I ‘do rounds’, I drive to each of the 2 metal pay tubes where campers deposit their completed Bureau of Reclamation envelopes with their camp site fees inside. I pick up the completed envelopes, which tells me who has paid, and which site they are in (along with a bunch of other info. that I don’t really use). We have 77 sites, and 13 of them are doubles (and often those rvs each pay separate); it can get confusing to try to keep track of everyone’s payment status. Last year, for my own sanity, I drew up a map of each loop, laminated them, and I now write the date that each site is paid through with a write-on wipe-off marker – I can tell at a glance who has to renew or which sites should come open on a particular day. After I have collected envelopes, I take a moment to write the paid-thru dates on my handy-dandy little maps, and then drive through the loops waving at campers, stopping to answer questions, giving fishing reports, and playing gestapo for roaming dogs, speeding quads, and non-payment (unless they just got there)… I always meet such fun folks ‘doing rounds’.

I went through the camping loops 4 times today – it takes anywhere from 15 minutes to 2+ hours depending on how many times we stop/are stopped to talk with a camper.

Tonight, when Eli drove me around the loops, we had several stops to make to collect fees and a few unplanned stops to answer questions. Including talking with a group where one couple had paid for their site, left their pay stub as only evidence of occupancy while they took their moho to launch their boat. When they came back, hours later, they found someone else in ‘their’ spot, all set up. I was driving by just as the first couple came back, and once they understood that the spot hijacking was unintentional, and that just a receipt is not “occupying a site”, they were OK with changing spots, which made my job a lot easier (so I came back later with coupons for free ice cream cones at the grill for them :). Vaughn was my chauffeur to take the coupons to them, and a menu from the grill to the site stealers 🙂 since they had been asking about it; when we got back to the sites, the couple was working on their boat – between Vaughn and his access to the KOA shop, they got it fixed so the campers could enjoy their fish finder when they went fishing on Sat.

Saturday:
Today is a busy day for the campgound – at least for loop 3! There is a Jr. Walleye Fishing Tournament happening today, with 250 kids signed up. I have been making rounds more often, but no-one seems bothered that there are oodles of cars parked all over the loop, so that is great!

Hannah, Eli, and Beth are all at work up at the KOA – they are hosting a Horseshoe Tourney today, and Hannah is working early to help with the anticipated crowd tho she usually closes on Sat. Eli normally works 4 – 10s; Mon. thru Thurs., but he has worked every day this week; his normal days plus Friday to get ready for the KOA police (inspection), and today to help set up for and organize the horseshoe tournament. Beth works lunch 6 days a week at the grill, but I don’t think that it will last the summer – new ‘management’, and it’s not going so great for her and the other girl that works down there – much different atmosphere this summer… I rather hope that she quits.

Greg is busy with his security guard job. A little too busy since they are short handed. Last week he worked 56 hours; I worry about him falling asleep on the way home, but he is a smart kid (yep, still a kid to mom), and sometimes he will sleep in his truck for a few hours before he drives home.

When the kids have time off, they help with camp hosting duties. Eli sometimes does rounds for me if it’s quiet, and Hannah likes to help with the paperwork. The 3 little boys have put out garbage bins to collect aluminum cans for recycling. The little girls just like to ride along when doing rounds; Molly is a really good waver 😉 I guess you could say that it is a family commitment to ‘volunteer’ camp host.
We are enjoying the change of pace from moving around all the time, but are really glad that our commitment here is only for 4 months! While we love the people that we get to meet, and enjoy our site, we also miss the ‘open road’! And even tho we are pretty much stationary for the summer, we still enjoy living in our 5th wheel – the simplicity is refreshing 🙂